Latest Blogs
Cruel, cruel Margaret Stackpoole
James Clarence Mangan, a lad from the Liberties, went courting a posh girl up in Ranelagh. At first things seemed to be going well …
Ireland’s Huguenots
Ireland’s Huguenot community – originally Calvinist refugees from persecution in France, produced many notable Irishmen, including Tom Lefroy, the man Jane Austen had hoped to marry, and the Gothic novelist Charles Maturin, author of Melmoth the Wanderer.
Pater Improvidus
The life courses of two great Dublin writers of the nineteenth century, both born into the city’s grocery trade, show the vastly differing outcomes that the quality of parental care may lay out for children.
A Perfect Idyll
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, whose bicentenary occurs this year, spent much of his childhood in the idyllic setting of the Phoenix Park, where his father was rector of the military school.
A massacre averted
Sometimes it can be advisable to ignore the orders of one’s superiors if one wishes to avoid a pointless massacre.
She wore short shorts
Ireland was backward way back then, or so the story goes, but a capital city is always a capital city and who knows what you might get away with?
Dublin Gossip
Dublin’s Stoneybatter was a happening place well before the hipsters started moving in five years ago. The alleged doings of Doyle the publican and the delectable Miss Devine were trending back in the 1830s.
Homes for the Blind and Deaf
There was perfect cleanliness and order in all parts of the establishment, and a large allowance of fresh air. We took leave of the kind and courteous Brother and left the Home for Deaf-mutes, heartily wishing that the blind boys could enjoy the privilege of being under the care of the excellent and intelligent Christian Brothers.
The City in Song and Verse
The new One City One Book choice, in succession to 2013’s Strumpet City, is to be launched early next month.
The Trouble With Concessions
When nineteenth century Ireland received the benefits of British political reform the effect was the opposite of what it had been in England. Far from it being a case of being bought off, bringing the Catholic middle classes into the tent in Ireland actually resulted in greater pressure.
A Sabbath Stroll
A stroll down Thomas Street on a Sunday morning after divine service afforded the pious the pleasure of seeing the Dublin poor in thrall to ardent spirits and women, in their hoarse, degraded voices, singing to the praise of whiskey.
Parnell, Redmond, Joyce and Griffith
James Joyce, an admirer of Arthur Griffith, thought the Irish Parliamentary Party was bankrupt. The Irish had destroyed Parnell, and now their main political party were mere tools of John Bull.