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
By Angus Mitchell On 24 November 1922, Erskine Childers—the renowned author and anti-Treaty republican—was executed by a military firing squad of the Irish Free State in Beggar’s Bush barracks. During the century since his tragic dénouement, various efforts have been made to explain Childers and ‘the metamorphosis of a stiff-upper-lip Boy’s Own novelist into a … Read more
By Séan Ó Duibhir On 6 May 1970, Irish citizens were shocked to learn that Taoiseach Jack Lynch had dismissed two of his most energetic and powerful cabinet colleagues, Minister for Finance Charles Haughey and Minister for Agriculture Neil Blaney, because they failed ‘to subscribe fully to government policy’ on Northern Ireland. Moreover, it was … Read more