ON THE HILL OF TARA, CO. MEATH, NEXT TO THE LIA FÁIL, IS A MONUMENT COMMEMORATING THE REBELLION OF 1798. SOME 3,000 MILES AWAY, IN A CEMETERY IN POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, IS ANOTHER MONUMENT, MARKING THE GRAVE OF A MAN WHO DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO THE VISION OF A FREE AND UNIFIED IRELAND. By Joshua … Read more
WOMEN WHO BROKE AWAY FROM THE RESTRAINTS OF CONVENTIONAL LIFESTYLE, THEIR SEX AND THEIR CLASS By Eugene Coyle In the early summer of 1778 two Anglo-Irish women, accompanied by their maidservant, fled from Kilkenny and arrived in north Wales. They were dressed as clergymen and their maidservant as a boy. Who were they, and why … Read more
A SUBJECT OF MUCH DEBATE AMONG HISTORIANS OF IRISH SPORT The inaugural meeting of the GAA, on Saturday 1 November 1884, at Lizzie J. Hayes’s Commercial Hotel on Main Street, Thurles, has been the subject of much debate among historians of Irish sport. Apart from the date and venue, they have agreed on little else. … Read more
AMONG THE TEN PROFESSIONAL AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES ASCRIBED TO WILLIAM WILDE ON HIS MEMORIAL PLAQUE AT 1 MERRION SQUARE, DUBLIN, IS ‘HISTORIAN’. William Wilde’s Celticism, his archaeological, antiquarian and topographic interests, and his knowledge of folklore and language informed his work as a historian. Wilde appears to have distanced himself from Ireland’s contentious political history, … Read more
TWO VERY DIFFERENT IRISHMEN WHO GOVERNED MAURITIUS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Ireland has an extraordinary connection with the small multi-ethnic island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There are Mauritians here, some permanent residents, many others studying law and medicine. The outgoing prime minister, Dr Navin Ramgoolam, and his minister for foreign affairs, Dr Arvin … Read more