The war between William and James, though of relatively short duration, was fought on a scale unsurpassed in Irish history: there were 60,000 men at the Boyne, more than 40,000 at Aughrim. In recent years, the war has received much attention from historians whose works we can now add to Demetrius Boulger’s time-honoured Battle of … Read more
Those of us who desire to know about the past are served by many people and groups: researchers, teachers, writers, and not least by publishers—without whom the thoughts of historians would be limited to their classrooms. And it is as a reflection on this group, and how they serve us, that I have chosen to … Read more
A prize of £2,000 will be offered in 1999, and in alternate yearsthereafter, for the best work of Irish historical research, the matterof which must have been published for the first time by any student orgraduate of the National University of Ireland during the three yearsimmediately preceding 1 April of the year in which the … Read more
Bodin, Hobbes, Hegel, Weber, Troeltsch and Von Gierke were the political philosophers whom the late Professor James Hogan used lecture us on as his students in University College Cork in the late 1950s. These days it would be unusual for a professor of history to put political theory at the centre of his teaching. But … Read more
It all began in the classroom in Wilson’s Hospital school. Why, my Leaving Certificate history pupils wanted to know, did so many Irishmen enlist for the Great War. I endeavoured to explain. The class remained unconvinced. The formal reasons lacked a vital ingredient, human interest. We walked across to the chapel and studied the Roll … Read more