Christine Kinealy Let us explain to you Irish farmer, Irish landlord, Irish labourer, Irish tradesman, what became of your harvest, which is your only wealth. Early in the winter it was conveyed, by the thousand shiploads, to England, paying freight; it was stored in English stores, paying storage; it was passed from hand to … Read more
As a writer of history textbooks, Elma Collins has had a profound, if unsung, influence on the generation of students who have passed through the Southern school system over the past thirty years. She currently teaches at the Institute of Education, Dublin and tutors at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. She is an active member of … Read more
Christine Kinealy 1995 marks the 150th anniversary of the first appearance of a new and deadly strain of potato blight in Ireland; a blight that reappeared in varying degrees over the next six years. As a consequence of the resultant food shortage and the more general disruption to economic … Read more
Colm Lennon The early afternoon of Friday, 11 March 1597, was windy but dry in Dublin. The dryness of that springtime was a welcome relief from the succession of cold and wet seasons which had preceded it. At the Liffeyside along Wood Quay and Merchant’s Quay those who laboured at unloading the … Read more
Peter Gray How far can the British government be held responsible for the Famine mortality of over one million in five years? What were the ideological motivations and constraints on ministers, and the effects of these on the formation of policy, particularly in the worst years of the Famine from mid-1846 to mid-1849? … Read more