Throughout its history the Irish communist movement had extensive links and relations with Soviet Russia. In the 1920s and 1930s the main point of contact was the Communist International (Comintern) based in Moscow. During the interwar period Irish communists like Roddy Connolly, Jim Larkin snr, Jack Carney and Sean Murray attended many international conferences in … Read more
The journalist Frankfort Moore, writing in 1914 about events he witnessed in the late nineteenth century, described the Belfast riots of 1886 as being ‘closely akin to actual warfare’. Notwithstanding his touch of hyperbole, the riots were costly in human and financial terms: thirty-two people died, hundreds of people were injured and some £90,000 worth … Read more
In the 1770s, twenty years before the United Irishmen, there occurred an armed rising by the poor people of Ulster, mainly Presbyterians, against injustice and oppression. The rising was to last almost four years. It witnessed assemblies of armed men, the storming of towns and even battles. Writing a hundred years later, W.E.H. Lecky described … Read more
From the moment I turned the first page of this book I was riveted. This is a splendid study of the subject, one which will undoubtedly be regarded as a landmark publication by the specialist and as a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating overview of the cultural and artistic climate of Dublin and Edinburgh at the … Read more
The Catholic priesthood can be seen as exemplifying ‘traditional’ leadership where authority derives from a social role irrespective of the individual involved; but there have always been priests who developed a more individualistic approach, even if this precipitated conflict with church or state authorities. These essays describe nine Irish Catholic priests, each marked out by … Read more