EM: Tell us about your background. DBQ: My mother was from Cork and my father from Tyrone. I was born in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin in 1909, but until I was fourteen we lived in Clara, County Offaly, where I attended the local Protestant primary school. My father was a head gardener and, when he … Read more
In October 1996 the foundations of what is thought to have been the thirteenth-century Augustinian priory of St Mary were located during building work for a new shopping-centre at Mullingar, County Westmeath. During the archaeological rescue excavation under the direction of Michael Gibbons, more than thirty burials were discovered, two of which contained scallop shells, … Read more
Sir—I enjoyed Luke Gibbons’ article on Edmund Burke (HI Winter 1997),but may I add another point on the well-known Burke quotation in BrianFriel’s Philadelphia here I come. The quotation, from Reflections onthe Revolution in France (‘It is now sixteen or seventeen years since Isaw the Queen of France…’), was from a passage that generations ofIrish … Read more
Sir,—I have been researching the history of the Martin/Martyn family ofGalway, Ireland for over two years now, detailing as much as ispossible of our nine-hundred year history. The real surprise of my workwas that after some very detailed and painstaking research—neveragain!—I have been able to draw up/revise/up-date over a dozen familypedigrees, most of whom can … Read more
Sir,—I found it curious that Patrick O’Sullivan’s article ‘Ireland and the Olympic Games’ in HI Spring 1998 should fail to mention John Mary Pius Boland (1870-1958). Boland, a Dubliner, won two Olympic gold medals for tennis in the 1896 games in Athens, becoming the first Irishman to win an Olympic honour.—Yours etc., KEVIN O’SULLIVAN Letterkenny … Read more