By Lar Joye Irish soldiers began to serve in foreign European armies in large numbers after the Nine Years’ War and the defeat at Kinsale in 1603. While many served in specific Irish regiments of the French and Spanish armies, many more served as individuals and officers in Austria and even as far away as … Read more
By Tony Lyons Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton, was an English politician. In 1782 he was appointed to the privy council of Ireland and served as chief secretary from 1784 to 1787, providing him with an opportunity to express his commitment to raising the living standards of ordinary people. His work in the educational arena … Read more
By Diarmaid Ferriter Although over two and a half thousand Catholic churches were built in Ireland between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, Dublin remained without a Catholic cathedral, as it does to this day. This situation may now be rectified, if long-mooted plans as part of what the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin calls … Read more
Sir,—With regard to your editorial ‘The Decade of Centenaries bites back’ (HI 32.1, Jan./Feb. 2024), there is another link between the Decade of Centenaries and what was happening in Palestine at the time. During the Treaty negotiations in 1921, as well as the ‘big’ issues, Michael Collins was also involved in the detail that taking … Read more
Sir,—Stephen Collins’s article on Longford elections (HI 32.2, March/April 2024, pp 22–5) captures the dynamics at play in local electoral politics during the 1830s. Learning of his own ancestors in the locality, and seeing their original family home in such good condition, was especially insightful. One might question how accurate it is to qualify ‘the … Read more