A chara,—Thanks to Peter Murray for a well-written and entertaining piece on the Dublin Corporation employee Stephen J. Hand (HI 33.1, Jan./Feb. 2025). However, there is an error with the identifications in the Ernest Kavanagh cartoon. While that is indeed Lorcan Sherlock on the right, the figure with bowler hat and relying on two walking-sticks … Read more
Sir,—While perhaps not as strident and personalised as Kelvin Angle (Letters, ‘If it quacks like a duck …’, HI 32.5, Sept./Oct. 2024), I would sympathise with his general summary. I believe the term ‘historical presentism’ describes it best. ‘Modern/liberal’ Ireland is held up as a paragon of societal perfection. However, we can only properly critique … Read more
Sir,—In an otherwise informative and apparently well-informed piece on public access to the Durrow high cross, Michael Byrne (HI 32.6, Nov./Dec. 2024) states that ‘Mrs [Alice Stopford] Green visited the monastic site at Durrow, the only one in Ireland founded by St Columcille …’. Surely no one doubts that the foundation at Derry was Columcille’s, … Read more
Sir,—Following Sylvie Kleinman’s review in the last issue (HI 33.1, Jan./Feb. 2025) of Nicholas K. Robinson’s Caricature and the Irish, I would like to offer up this crowded exposition of Catholic Emancipation (which I have hanging on a wall at home). In 1829 Thomas McLean (1788–1875), a publisher and dealer in London’s Haymarket, published ‘FUNERAL … Read more
Sir,—David Mould’s fascinating article on Corkman James Hastie’s involvement in Madagascar (HI 33.1, Jan./Feb. 2025) brought to mind a story of the capture of Mauritius by the British in 1810. The French recruited Irish POWs from captured British forces to bolster their defences: what happened to them after the French defeat is still debated. One … Read more