As soon as the Great War broke out in August 1914, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), operating as a secret caucus within the Irish Volunteers, began to plan a rebellion against British rule in Ireland. Operating on the old IRB maxim that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’, they planned for a countrywide rebellion. … Read more
From the founding of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) to Easter Week 1916 can be described as the organisation’s heroic period. It would survive the Rising by a further twenty years: until the Civil War in form and occasional actions and campaigns, then in suspended animation until 1934, and reviving for one more year before … Read more
High-frequency history This issue marks the start of the second year of History Ireland as a bi-monthly publication. Judging by the response to last issue’s readers’ survey (and thank you to all those who took the time to respond—we are still poring over the entrails), this new departure has gone down very well with our … Read more
Sir, —The editors of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of IrishBiography hope that readers of History Ireland have enjoyed the seriesof articles entitled ‘From the files of the DIB’. We would like toacknowledge that the main source used for the article on Pádraig ÓDuinnín in the Nov./Dec. 2005 issue was Proinsias Ó Conluain agusDonncha Ó … Read more
Sir, —Your contributor, Bernard Share (HI 13.5, Sept./Oct. 2005), statesthat ‘It is more likely that, Tom Crean excepted, Robert Falcon Scottdid not have too much time for Irishmen’. Apart from Crean, there werethree other Irishmen in the crew of the Terra Nova, including aprominent member of the land expedition, Petty Officer Patrick Keohanefrom County Cork, … Read more