By Isadore Ryan Margaret Flanagan, known as Agnes, was born in Birr army barracks on 16 May 1909. Her father, Augustine Flanagan, a private in the Leinster Fusiliers, died from tuberculosis six years later, aged 42. Her mother Kate (or Catherine, née Parsons), considerably younger than Augustine, was still living on Military Road in Birr … Read more
By Michael Kennedy In December 1922 the Irish Free State came into being. Within months it had applied to join the League of Nations, the multilateral organisation created by the post-war Paris peace conference in April 1919 to oversee international security and disarmament. The idea of the League of Nations arose from US and British … Read more
By Lar Joye When Fianna Fáil came to power in March 1932 the Irish Defence Forces consisted of 5,793 officers and soldiers. Three months later, this small army played a large role in the 31st International Eucharistic Congress, which was held in Dublin from 22 to 26 June and had been planned under the previous … Read more
CULLENSTOWN, CO. WEXFORD By Damian Murphy Vernacular houses are a familiar but increasingly endangered hallmark of the Irish landscape. They are informal in character, designed and built by their original owners without professional input, instead using planning formulae and traditional techniques often with distinct regional characteristics passed down through generations. They make extensive use of … Read more
By Colum Kenny There is an ironic twist to the circumstances of the birth of Éamon de Valera, then named ‘George de Valero’, in a Protestant charitable institution. Given that he is the politician who dominated the evolution of the Irish nation state in the twentieth century—with its paraphernalia of Magdalene laundries, mother-and-baby homes and … Read more