BY DONAL FALLON VIRTUAL TREASURY OF IRELAND EXPANDS Ernie O’Malley’s description of the explosion that shook the Public Records Office at the outset of the Civil War is well known, describing how ‘the yard was littered with chunks of masonry and smouldering records; pieces of white paper were gyrating in the upper air like seagulls’. … Read more
BY DONAL FALLON 1916 ACTION MAP Marking the 110th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the Military Archives have released a new interactive map that shows where 2,611 recognised participants were active during Easter Week across the island (https://www.militaryarchives.ie/en/online-collections/military-service-pensions-collection/irish-revolution-1916-1923/easter-rising-1916). The map will be useful for those trying to get a picture of the action beyond the … Read more
BY DONAL FALLON MICHAEL DAVITT EXHIBITION Running until June 2026, Character is Better than Wealth: The Enduring Legacy of Michael Davitt is a new temporary exhibition in the Old Library of Trinity College, Dublin, drawing on the university’s rich archival holdings. Davitt is best recalled for his agitation on the question of land reform, but … Read more
BY DONAL FALLON WEXFORD ORAL HISTORIES GO ONLINE The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) continues to provide an important online home for Irish primary source materials, and great credit is due to Wexford Library and Archives for uploading four collections of oral history recordings, which are now freely available to researchers internationally. The collections include … Read more
BY DONAL FALLON FOCUS THEATRE REMEMBERED In one of his final acts as president, Michael D. Higgins (together with his wife Sabina) unveiled a plaque to honour the Focus Theatre in Pembroke Place, Dublin. The theatre was the true inheritor of the spirit of the earlier Pike Theatre (and only slightly larger) and would bring … Read more