In his opening remarks to this conference held in January 1998 at NUI, Cork, organiser Dermot Keogh stressed the relative neglect of art as a historical source. At a time when academy art in the new state was traditional and antagonistic to the modern, many painters—in particular many women painters like Evie Hone and Mainie … Read more
In the course of a review of Douglas Hyde’s The Story of Early Gaelic Literature (1895), Frederick York Powell drew attention to the dearth of published texts in the Irish language: Is it too much to hope for the establishment of an Irish Text Society? It should publish in handy, clear-printed form the unpublished texts … Read more
Among the large number of departmental records made available to researchers in early January this year was one bulky file from 1968 containing correspondence relating to the repatriation of the remains of the Connaught Rangers mutineers who had died in India in 1920. The release of these documents renders timely an examination of their mutiny … Read more
HM: What inspired you to do history? NC: My father, a primary school teacher, was interested in history and was an avid listener to Thomas Davis lectures on the radio. As an undergraduate at University College Galway I was inspired by Gerard Hayes-McCoy. He wasn’t a particularly good performer in the classroom—in fact he dictated … Read more
A remarkable period in Ireland’s military history ended when the British army’s five southern Irish regiments were disbanded in 1922.The Royal Irish Regiment and the Connaught Rangers had been raised in Ireland from about 1683 and 1793 respectively, while the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers had originated as Canadian … Read more