There are two memorials to Jim Connell, one in County Meath where he was born in 1852 and the other a plaque on a house he once occupied in London. But the greatest memorial to Jim Connell is, of course, The Red Flag which has been sung by socialists all over the world for more … Read more
Two recent TV documentaries on Irish revolutionaries, both in RTÉ’s True Lives series, offer a strikingly contrasting view of the lives of two men caught up in the politics of the twentieth century. Patrick Pearse and Pat Breslin—the former firmly established in the pantheon of Irish nationalism, the latter virtually forgotten except by his children … Read more
The recent revelation that Peter Berry, secretary to the Department of Justice, highlighted key sections of a document that were subsequently deleted, a document central to the 1970 Arms Trial, is not the first time that his name has been linked to sensitive documents relating to matters of state security. The Sean MacEntee Papers, held … Read more
Following the publication, in October 1997, of two versions of diary material relating to Roger Casement’s activities in the Amazon in 1910, there resurfaced one of the longest running controversies in Anglo-Irish relations: the dispute over the authenticity of the Alleged Casement Diaries or so-called Black Diaries as they are more popularly known. Since Casement’s … Read more
AB: What early influences contributed to your interest in history? JAM: Growing up in a strongly nationalist household in the 1930s, my first introduction to history was history as nationalism. Quite separately, however, there was a particularly inspiring teacher at primary school named Paddy Desmond who made the history of the locality come alive, for … Read more