By Lar Joye The tradition of Irish service with the French army dates from 1615 but the era of the ‘Wild Geese’ regiments is from 1688 to 1791. The Williamite Wars (1688–91) caused the first 5,000 Irish recruits to arrive in France and these formed the basis of the famous Irish Brigade, consisting of five … Read more
RTÉ1 3 February–9 March 2020 (six episodes) By Deirdre Foley Herstory, the social enterprise founded to bring women’s stories ‘out of the shadows and into the light’, partnered with RTÉ, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum and Underground Films to create this six-part series, which highlights ‘Ireland’s greatest female trailblazers’. The … Read more
On 11 May 1745—275 years ago—Thomas Lally de Tollendal roused the Irish Brigade with ‘Cuimnidh ar Luimneach agus ar feall na Sasanach!’ (‘Remember Limerick and Saxon perfidy!’) prior to their epic charge at Fontenoy. By Stephen McGarry The Battle of Fontenoy was a defining battle of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought in modern-day … Read more
374 Falls Road, Belfast Irish Republican History Museum Conway Mill, Belfast By Michael Quigley One recent addition to the renovation of West Belfast is Áras Uí Chonghaile—officially opened in April 2019 by President Michael D. Higgins—an exhibition centre dedicated entirely to the life and work of James Connolly. The location is a lavishly converted former … Read more
By Joe Culley @TheRealCulls ‘The murder of Ellen O’Sullivan in 1931 was a ghastly affair.’ That is, remarkably, the opening line of Capital punishment in independent Ireland: a social, legal and political history, the unusually accessible and—dare I say it—entertaining academic study by David M. Doyle and Liam O’Callaghan, published by Liverpool University Press. These … Read more