The Dublin Festival of History, which debuted last year and enjoyed packed audiences, returns on 26 September–8 October. There seems to be a voracious interest in history matters among the general public. Chalke Valley History Festival kicked it all off in the UK in 2011 and has now grown to a week-long series of lectures … Read more
More historical artefacts may be lost to Ireland with the sale of seventeen rare books and a collection of art by All Hallows College, Drumcondra, a former Catholic seminary. One book, for example, a fifteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours, is valued at ?60,000. The paintings are mainly portraits of clerical dignitaries from the nineteenth and … Read more
Founded in 1540 by St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) and his companions, the Society of Jesus worked in schools, churches and other ministries in many parts of the world until July 1773, when, already expelled from most Catholic countries, they were suppressed by Pope Clement XIV (they survived in White Russia under Catherine II). On … Read more
In 1917 the British Ministry of Information commissioned several well-known British artists to produce a series of images on different aspects of the First World War. The aim was to encourage a war-weary public and to raise support for the war effort. The images illustrate some of the changing attitudes at the time, such as … Read more
The recent release of Leaving Cert results reminded me of my own exam experience—a two-week marathon of fact-regurgitation and writing. That was nearly 40 years ago but, if current Leaving Cert student Oliver Eagleton is to be believed (Platform, pp 10–11), very little has changed. One of the positive educational developments over that period has … Read more