Mrs. Margaret Leeson 1727-1797 was Georgian Dublin’s version of Christine Keeler or Heidi Fleiss. Her long career contained elements of both Keeler and Fleiss but, judging by her memoirs, she was more colourful and interesting than either of them. Mrs. Leeson was born into a reasonably comfortable family in County Westmeath but, following her mother’s … Read more
In view of the centrality of parliament to the history and historiography of the Ireland of the ‘Protestant ascendancy’, it is surprising that there is no modern study to compare with P.D.G. Thomas’s forensically detailed reconstruction of the operation of the British House of Commons in the eighteenth century for either house of the Irish … Read more
To be asked to review three new publications on Irish women’s history is in itself a heart-warming and encouraging experience, and a clear indication of the progress currently being made by researchers and writers in this field. At a time when we are particularly concerned to recognise and celebrate the multi-faceted nature of female experience—to … Read more
Last November, at Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Minister of State, Avril Doyle TD officially launched ‘Friends of Comóradh ’98’ and their flagship project, the reconvention of the Wexford Senate in 1998. She argued that the 1790s was the pivotal decade in the evolution of modern Ireland. It witnessed the emergence of popular Republicanism and Loyalism, of … Read more
The Irish art of controversy Lucy McDiarmid (Lilliput Press, E20) ISBN 1843510693 On 4 June 1957 the British ambassador in Dublin, Sir Alexander Clutterbuck, writing to Sir Charles Dixon at the Commonwealth Relations Office, commented: ‘Apart from partition itself, the two main “official” grievances in this country against us are the Lane pictures and Casement, … Read more