By Mark Holan American author Leon Uris released his eighth novel, Trinity, shortly before St Patrick’s Day 1976. The title referred to its three groups of conflicting characters: poor Irish Catholics, Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry and fiery Presbyterian Scots, according to Uris biographer Ira B. Nadel. The 751-page doorstop spanned successive generations of these groups in … Read more
By Garry Ahern In 1949 the Benedictine priory at Glenstal, Co. Limerick, was drawn, albeit discreetly, into the politics of post-war Europe. This arose from the movement to Ireland of archives held by the Polish government in exile (PGIE) in London. Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the government went into exile in … Read more
By Dermot McGuinne It is important to remind ourselves that for a period during the 1930s there was an exponent of the craft of fine printing operating in Dublin, producing work to a standard that compared favourably with the highest international practice of the time. BACKGROUND The son of John O’Loughlin of Kilkenny and … Read more
Discoveries surrounding the history of St Joseph’s Industrial School, Ballinasloe, and hopes for a new oral history project. By Abbie McGowan Ballinasloe Library occupies the former Sisters of Mercy Convent and St Joseph’s Reformatory and Industrial School. The library is a modern space, but hints of the building’s past are glimpsed in the conspicuous fireplace … Read more
By Daniel Mulhall If you visit Thomas Jefferson’s magnificent home at Monticello near Charlottesville in Virginia and view his grave, its inscription may puzzle: Here was buriedThomas JeffersonAuthor of theDeclarationOfAmerican Independenceof theStatute of VirginiaForReligious Freedomand father of theUniversity of Virginia It makes no mention of the fact that he was the third president of the … Read more