Throughout history, literary and graphic images of Ireland have taken various female forms. Among many examples are the demure, pure and desirable maiden, complete with harp, who adorned seventeenth-century coins. There’s the eighteenth-century version, a plain looking but smiling Hibernia breast feeding pygmy-sized politicians; other times depicted as part freedom fighter part vestal virgin. There … Read more
Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, has a new addition to its already impressive array of cultural and academic resources. The Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Memorial Library and Archive was officially opened in May 1999, and a full-time librarian has been in position since February this year. Since the death of the late Cardinal Tomás … Read more
On 7 September 1921 fifteen women and two men met in Myra House, Francis Street, Dublin and established the Association of Our Lady of Mercy. In November 1924 a Central Council for the Association was founded and finally in 1925 the organisation changed its name to the Legion of Mary. In 1927 the Legion had … Read more
The Skerries Patrician Millennium Project hosted a conference of major international significance last May at the local Community School. Skerries and its islands were an important centre of the ancient Gaelic kingdom of Brega, which from the late Iron Age to the Norman intervention of 1169, approximately covered the same area of modern Fingal bounded … Read more
The issues raised by a 1943 student debate on broadcasting in University College Cork were published the following year as a pamphlet, A Listener’s Opinion. Complaining about the small number of religious programmes broadcast by Radio Éireann, the author, Deasún Ó Raghalliagh asked: Surely if the Catholic religion is a part of our lives we … Read more