Sometimes it can be advisable to ignore the orders of one’s superiors if one wishes to avoid a pointless massacre.

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’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.

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 new One City One Book choice, in succession to 2013’s Strumpet City, is to be launched early next month.

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.

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.

In 1843 an elderly member of Dublin Corporation reminded his colleagues of the mercantile wealth that the city enjoyed in the decades before the Act of Union.

Tom Kelly, a Dublin alderman, in 1909 lamented the huge change that had come over Dublin’s Liberties since the passing of the Act of Union.

Gallant visitor also commends ‘serenely beautiful’ scenery and grace and generosity of natives

There are many theories about the gradual decline of the Protestant community in Ireland. Some of them draw on clear evidence.