By Conor Robison For an O’Neill, Charlemont fort was a symbol of defeat that bore the name of their conqueror. Purpose-built by Lord Mountjoy in the heart of Ulster on the banks of the Blackwater near the foundations of an earlier English fort previously vanquished by the arms of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, it … Read more
By Stephen Griffin Irish émigrés are recorded in the Iberian peninsula from the sixteenth century onward, as noblemen and clergymen sought support from Habsburg Spain against the Tudor monarchy. Irishmen also served in the Spanish Low Countries during this time. Increased numbers of military exiles arrived in Spanish dominions following the Irish defeat in the … Read more
By Pat Dargan During the Second World War the Irish government adopted a policy of neutrality, legislated for through the Emergency Powers Act 1939, which gave rise to the term ‘the Emergency’ to describe the period of the war as it affected Ireland. The Irish Army at the time was grossly under strength, and a … Read more
By Paul Dixon On 12 April 1975, the general officer commanding (GOC) Northern Ireland (1973–5), General Sir Frank King, launched a remarkable public attack on the Labour government’s Northern Ireland policy. The government’s ceasefire with the IRA (1974–5) and determination to end internment had, effectively, stabbed the Army in the back. The ceasefire could hardly … Read more