By Colum Kenny There is an ironic twist to the circumstances of the birth of Éamon de Valera, then named ‘George de Valero’, in a Protestant charitable institution. Given that he is the politician who dominated the evolution of the Irish nation state in the twentieth century—with its paraphernalia of Magdalene laundries, mother-and-baby homes and … Read more
By Martin Green In Finnegans Wake, the main ingredient in Shaun’s ‘stockpot dinner’ is a ‘round steak, very rare, Blong’s best from Portarlington’s Butchery’. The reference is to a butchery operated by a Blong family at the Huguenot settlement in Portarlington in the early 1700s; the Blongs were among the Huguenots (French Protestants) admitted to … Read more
By Ian S. Wood On 5 February 1992 five Catholics, one of them a boy aged fifteen, were murdered in Sean Graham’s betting shop on Belfast’s Lower Ormeau Road. The killers were gunmen from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Twenty years on from its formation it was still legal, though not for much longer, and … Read more
By David Prendergast The 10th of April 1923 brought a smattering of IRA leaders and foot-soldiers into the foothills of the Knockmealdowns. After the Executive was surprised and hunted by National Army troops of Gen. John T. Prout’s ‘big sweep’, a mortal blow was delivered to the anti-Treaty IRA—the fatal shooting of Liam Lynch. Following … Read more
The curious case of Richard Burke, executed for murder, and the unsolved mystery of the great fire at Queen’s College, Cork, in 1862. By Pat Poland The fire at Queen’s College, Cork (QCC, later UCC), in May 1862, while not the largest, was certainly the most controversial blaze experienced in Cork in years, the repercussions … Read more