In this issue Aodhán Crealey (On This Day, p. 7) reminds us of one of the darkest episodes in the history of the Irish diaspora, when, in the course of the draft riots of 1863, a mostly Irish mob rampaged across Manhattan targeting African-Americans and torching an orphanage for black children. Miraculously, no one died in the latter incident, although c. 100 lost their lives in the riots (see HI 11.2 (Summer 2003), ‘The New York draft riots of 1863’, pp 22–7).
We witnessed a similar miracle last Hallowe’en in Drogheda with the arson attack on an IPAS centre (four men are before the courts). The general relief at the lack of casualties was tempered by the anxiety that ‘it was only a matter of time’ before someone was killed. But that Rubicon has already been crossed. Shortly after, two men were given life sentences for the brutal murder of Croatian Josip Strok in an overtly racist attack in April 2024. Meanwhile, attacks and intimidation of foreign nationals, whether they be food couriers, health workers or IT specialists, often by children and teenagers, have become commonplace. Neighbourhoods are festooned with tricolours in an intimidatory ‘territory-marking’ exercise.
Clearly there is a problem here that demands clear-sighted leadership, particularly in addressing the severe infrastructural deficit—at a time of apparent fiscal plenty—that fuels such discontent. We’ve done it before. A century ago, one of the greatest infrastructural projects in Irish history—Ardnacrusha—was turned around in only four years; in the decades that followed, some of the worst slums in Europe were cleared and people were housed.
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A warm welcome to Brian Casey, Archives Manager of the Dublin Cemeteries Trust, who joins us in this issue for a new regular feature, ‘Tales from the Grave’ (p. 25). In 1832 Prospect Cemetery opened on the north side of Dublin. Today known as Glasnevin Cemetery, over one million people are buried there. The records of the Dublin Cemeteries Trust are an important part of the social history of Dublin and Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Daniel O’Connell to the revolutionary dead of the twentieth century and the many others lost to posterity, every plot is a piece of the jigsaw of Ireland’s past.
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