Last April Rathfarnham established its very own historical society withthe aim of promoting the history and cultural heritage of the area.Membership is open to all who pay the annual sub (£10; students £5;families £15; non-members £2 per lecture) . The society has already hadlectures on a variety of topics—nineteenth century life in Kilmashogue,Irish Folklore Department … Read more
The first Limerick Conference in Irish-German Studies gets underway atthe start of September in the University. It is exactly forty yearssince Nobel Literature Prize-winner Heinrich Böll’s Irisches Tagebuchwas first published. Böll, who died in 1985, would have been eightythis year and to mark both occasions the conference puts Böll centrestage. The programme is interdisciplinary in … Read more
The National University of Ireland is undergoing a transformation at the moment, as its constituent Colleges become Universities in their own right. But the NUI will continue to play an important part in educational life, not least in fostering and encouraging research. A good example of this role is the NUI Irish Historical Research Prize. … Read more
Memories of the Great Famine one hundred years previously was one reason why Irish humanitarian aid for Germany immediately after World War II was given in astonishing amounts and with great speed. At the same time, these contributions were the cause of considerable controversy, since the suspicion arose that in some cases Irish animosity for … Read more
Being up for the Germans in the war had stirring consolations and triumphalisms until the debacle at Stalingrad. Being up for the British at the same time meant a steady diet of humiliation from Dunkirk to Singapore, via Tobruck. The school yards were divided. Taunts of uncovered German atrocities, experiments, concentration camps, persecution and cruelties … Read more