By Van Gosse As an American historian, I am investigating Irish understandings of the United States’ system of white supremacy and race in general. My perspective is different from that of Irish scholars. ‘Racism’ in Ireland encompasses what Americans call ‘nativism’, as in fear of immigrants. In the US it developed via a black/white binary … Read more
By Brian Harvey What became known as ‘the Troubles’ broke out in Northern Ireland in August 1969. Refugees from the violence soon arrived in Irish advice centres and hostels receiving immigrants in Britain. The first wave went to Birmingham, where 78 families arrived immediately, followed by hundreds more over 1971–2, now going to London as … Read more
By Michael Quinn In 1961 Desmond Greaves (1913–88), the London-based leading light in the Connolly Association (CA) and editor of its monthly newspaper, the Irish Democrat, published his seminal biography The life and times of James Connolly. The book was greeted in Ireland and Britain as a landmark publication in the canon of labour movement … Read more
By Saskia Vermeulen A successful advert doesn’t solely sell a product. It can, decades later, transport us back in time and reveal cultural and historical nuances about the past. The Guinness Archive has partnered with the IFI Irish Film Archive to release the largest publicly available collection of brand advertising in Ireland and the UK. … Read more
By Angus Mitchell ‘Where does Irish history begin?’ was the title of an essay published by Eoin MacNeill in 1904. This was an easy question to ask but harder to answer, and one that he spent much of his academic career elucidating. One acknowledged beginning might be traced through the temporal and spatial dreamtime of … Read more