TG: Tell us about your family background? KW: I come from the parish of Clonegal which straddles the counties of Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford; by a lucky accident, I was born on the Wexford side of the parish. My family has been there as far back as records go. A local townland Baile uí Fhaoiláin … 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
In 1824, the British government decided to initiate a comprehensive series of six-inch maps of Ireland, the first of its kind. The project was entrusted to the British Board of Ordnance, a military body responsible for mapping, which authorised Col. Thomas Colby to supervise. Since the maps were to be based on townland divisions, Colby … Read more
At 9.40 am on Tuesday 26 August 1913 Dublin tram car men (drivers) and conductors pinned the Red Hand badge of the Irish Transport and General Workers‚ Union to their lapels and abandoned their vehicles. Within forty minutes most of the trams were moving again. The Dublin United Tramway Company chairman William Martin Murphy … Read more