In 1810, the radical journalist Watty Cox accompanied a lead article in his Irish Magazine on Lord Edward Fitzgerald with a crude yet dramatic woodcut of the famous arrest of the United Irishman on 18 May 1798. The woodcut conflates the events of Fitzgerald’s capture as they occurred at 135 Thomas Street, Dublin, the home … Read more
The Protestant Reformation is one of the great events of European history, and assessing its causes, nature, meaning and consequences is a habitual challenge. Yet in Ireland, as in other parts of Europe such as Italy and Spain, where the Protestant Reformation ‘failed’, it is a subject of some awkwardness. What Reformation? How does one … Read more
Just over a decade later, in 1917, the first issue of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce Year Book listed a total of 337 classes of goods manufactured in the city, ranging from account books to zinc goods and including artesian well-boring appliances, buoys, deformity apparatuses, feathers, gunpowder, hat racks, ladies’ corsets, magnesia, prayer books, river … Read more
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) emigrated with his parents from Scotland to America in 1848. He became exceptionally successful in the steel business eventually gaining a near monopoly of steel production in the USA. In 1901 he sold the Carnegie Company and all its holdings to John Pierpont Morgan’s Federal Steel Company for $480,000,000. The new company … Read more
Sir,—I am currently researching John Sweetman (1752-1826), UnitedIrishman, brewer and art collector. I am particularly interested in hisactivities as an art collector and would be most grateful to receiveany information regarding works of art from his now dispersedcollection or documents relating to him. Any help received would beduly acknowledged.—Yours, etc., REBECCA MINCH 1 Annsley Lodge … Read more