MH: At what stage did you become interested in history? ML: I’ve always been interested in history. I had a very good secondary school teacher, Mary Varley. I liked the story of history and when I went to teacher training college, I studied it. I worked as a primary school teacher for about ten years … Read more
HM: Is it true that you are descended from Revd. George Walker of Siege of Derry fame? BW: I am a co-lateral descendant—descended from a brother of his. My family had only vague ideas about the link but recently an uncle traced the connection. HM: What about more recent family history? BW: My father came … Read more
VC: Did your background contribute to your interest in history? MPM: Yes. My father had a deep interest in the history of Ireland and my family had been involved in one way or another in the country’s history since the seventeenth century. We had a very good library and there were historic books all over … Read more
For many years I have had an interest in my father’s large collection of papers. After his retirement from politics in 1961, Prof. Kevin B. Nowlan and I assisted him in putting his large collection of War of Independence, truce, civil war and later personal and political papers in order, and having them transferred to … Read more
Julius Pokorny was a German Celtic scholar who supported Irish nationalism and the Gaelic League. He corresponded with Douglas Hyde, met Éamon de Valera and is mentioned by name in Ulysses. And he was a German nationalist who lost his chair in Berlin because of Jewish ancestry, after which an Irish visa saved his life. … Read more