Irish History

Dublin in the Wars

Before 1914 recruitment to the British army from Belfast was often less than half that of Dublin, although the Northern city had a larger population.…

Irish History

Selfless Radical

Whether as journalist, actress, propagandist or orator, Helena Molony played a very significant part in socialist, national and women’s struggles in the first half of…

Irish History

Havens for the Riff-raff

In the early years of the state, the poor, widowed, orphaned and illegitimate were seen as problem groups that were a drain on scarce resources,…

Irish History

After The Glory

Irishmen who served with the British army in the First World War are now almost routinely portrayed as forgotten victims, a marginalised group living in…

Irish History

The Big Show

A new book on 1914-18 is lavishly illustrated and, without doubt, a rollicking good read. This is military history as entertainment on a scale that…

Irish History

No poppy, please

If it is true, as many people in Ireland now seem to believe, that First World War combatants were unjustly forgotten, Ireland may not have…

Irish History

Commemorating what? And why?

Our acts of remembrance in this decade of commemoration should perhaps include some consideration of the failures of the past as well as its successes,…

Breaking The Union

A collection of essays about the 1913 Dublin Lockout impresses across a wide range of fields.

Irish Politics

Labour Waits

Irish socialism was divided and weak in the early decades of the twentieth century, while the axis of trade union solidarity ran through Dublin and…

Irish Politics

A Revolutionary Janus

In a sense, most of the old guard never fully understood, and certainly never accepted the consequences of, the process they had initiated. If they…