BY AODHÁN CREALEY MAY 07/1915 The luxury liner SS Lusitania, en route from New York to Liverpool with 1,962 passengers and crew on board, was struck by a U-boat torpedo some 18km off the Old Head of Kinsale. Minutes later, her secret cargo of 173 tons of rifle ammunition and shells exploded, sinking her in … Read more
By Damien McLellan In the summer of 2024, I walked about three miles along the very busy and very dangerous A4212 north-west from the market town of Bala in Gwyned, Wales. I wanted to slowly experience the moving sight of the Irish tricolour flying in the village of Frongoch. I expected little more. I had … Read more
National Gallery of Ireland, 18 July–6 December 2026 By Marie Bourke The National Gallery of Ireland has mounted a spectacular exhibition of 50 of its finest works on paper to celebrate Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. Consequently, the exhibition looks at European artists from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Belgium, … Read more
According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (https://department.va.gov/americas-wars/), the United States of America has been involved in significant wars for over 90% of its existence since 1776. The country has seen only twenty years of total peace in 250 years. While some of these wars could be classed as ‘defensive’ or broadly ‘for democratic … Read more
By Maurice Hartigan In States of Ireland (1972), Conor Cruise O’Brien, the Labour Party’s spokesman on Northern Ireland, wrote ‘let us have a truce on commemoration until we can find something which Irishmen of both the main political and religious groupings can commemorate in peace’. Within a year he was minister for posts and telegraphs … Read more