In one of his rare appearances in contemporary Irish culture, Edmund Burke surfaces as a footnote to one of the more poignant refrains in Brian Friel’s classic play, Philadelphia, Here I Come. As the loss of his dead mother comes to haunt the protagonist of the play, Gar, on the eve of his departure for … Read more
In May 1488 Henry VII pardoned thirty-three Irish magnates for having allegedly provided support for the ill-fated Lambert Simnel conspiracy which had threatened the throne in favour of the Yorkists in the previous year. Drawn from the church, peerage, administration and urban communities, this group of magnates not only indicates the degree of influence the … Read more
DS: How do you come to have such an interesting name as de Courcy Ireland? JDCI: I don’t actually know the full story. The de Courcys were, of course, a historic crowd who came here in 1172 from a place in Normandy called Courcy. The name Courcy is very common in Normandy, and now in … Read more