High-frequency history
This issue marks the start of the second year of History Ireland as a bi-monthly publication. Judging by the response to last issue’s readers’ survey (and thank you to all those who took the time to respond—we are still poring over the entrails), this new departure has gone down very well with our readers, as has our revamped design, new sections, etc., introduced over the previous year. This issue sees the introduction of theatre and film review sections, which will appear from time to time to supplement our regular TV and museum reviews. Owing to a last-minute rescheduling it was not possible to include a dedicated ‘curriculum’ section in this issue, but both students and teachers should rest assured that this is only a temporary blip. A regular curriculum section will resume next time out.
Over the years History Ireland has produced the occasional special issue, dedicated to a particular topic. This year will see two ‘specials’: a 1916 issue to mark the 90th anniversary of the Rising (March/April 2006), and an issue dedicated to Ireland and Africa (July/August 2006). Watch this space.
Watch this space too for a new on-line version of History Ireland on our soon-to-be-revamped web site, which will come on stream later in the year. While much of the detail has yet to be sorted out, it will definitely feature a searchable archive of all our back issues, including many that have been out of print for years.
A particular feature of the new format has been the inclusion of opinion pieces—a short editorial and a ‘platform’ section open to contributors with a particular history-related gripe or campaign. Opinion pieces, by their very nature, tend to be opinionated and to provoke or, occasionally, even annoy. This is as it should be, and judging by our letters pages we are succeeding in our brief of stimulating debate and discussion.