The weaponry of the IRB in the 1880s. BY ROBERT DELANEY In December 1881 a police raid on a property in Brabazon Street in Dublin uncovered a substantial cache of weapons and ammunition that were part of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s (IRB) secret arsenal. Six months later, the police in London made an even larger … Read more
A strong undercurrent of feeling against the medical establishment led to a steady refusal to go to hospital. BY GILLIAN ALLMOND In October 1830, alarming reports began to reach Belfast of an outbreak of ‘cholera morbus’ in Moscow. The Asiatic cholera, as it was also known, killed with dramatic suddenness, its cause was unknown and … Read more
BY DECLAN BARRON Ireland in the 1820s was divided on the question of religious liberty. In 1825 the Protestant establishment in Dublin formed the Royal York Club to conserve the status quo and prevent Catholic Emancipation. The following year Daniel O’Connell formed the Order of Liberators to honour supporters for standing up for Catholic rights, … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr The violence of the War of Independence was at first deeply unpopular with the broader Irish public, but attitudes changed gradually in the face of the British government’s campaign of widespread brutality, destruction of property, random arrests, reprisals and unprovoked shootings. The small groups of Volunteers on the run were … Read more
The English saint has a surprisingly long history in Ireland. BY FRANCIS YOUNG Ireland’s patron saint, St Patrick, is today internationally synonymous with the country he represents—to a greater extent, perhaps, than any other nation’s patron saint. Yet in the fourteenth century the English in Ireland made an audacious (and ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to make … Read more