While the War of Independence raged in Ireland, a parallel international diplomatic campaign for recognition and funding for the underground Irish Republic was being waged. Central to this was the tour of Eamon de Valera, ‘President of the Irish Republic’, to the United States from June 1919 to December 1920. To assess its success or … Read more
The great voyages of discovery (Columbus, de Gama, etc.) shifted the centre of gravity of European maritime trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Over the same period the conquest of Ireland was completed. By the eighteenth century, Ireland, for centuries on the periphery of Europe, found itself at the centre of this newly formed … Read more
This podcast is part of the History Ireland Hedge School programme supported by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht under the Decade of Centenaries 2012–2023 initiative. Terence MacSwiney—martyrdom, civil resistance & the Irish Revolution On 25 October 1920, after 74 days on hunger strike, Terence MacSwiney, lord mayor of Cork, died in Brixton Prison. His death … Read more
Why was it that Cork (county and city), which accounted for c. 10% of the country’s population, produced nearly 25% of those killed in the War of Independence? What role did its substantial (c. 10%) non-Catholic (mainly loyalist) population play? Did individual IRA commanders like Tom Barry make a difference and what was the significance of the engagements … Read more
Historians have long contrasted the more nakedly sectarian conflict in Belfast (c. 500 deaths in 1920–2) with the conduct of the War of Independence elsewhere. With disturbances costing twenty lives in June 1920, Derry seemed to be heading the same way but never reached the same level of intensity. Why not? What was the relationship between … Read more