Old, inadequate catalogues

Many of the National Library’s most valuable collections pertaining to the Irish struggle for independence were catalogued in the 1930s and ’40s, when the institution’s expertise and resources were at […]

Tait uniforms

Sir Peter Tait was born in Scotland in 1828 but moved to Limerick at a young age. At the age of sixteen he became a shop assistant in the Cumine […]

‘Geographical loyalty’? Counties, palatinates, boroughs and ridings

The existence of the canonical ‘32 counties of Ireland’ (26 in the Republic and six in the North) is taken for granted by most of us and would appear to […]

The liberties of Dublin

In Dublin there were six liberties, all of which were originally under ecclesiastical control (and the first three of which give their name to the modern district in the city’s […]

Tuam rebuilt

Along with his Catholic counterpart Francis Kirwan, Archbishop Daniel is believed to have overseen the rebuilding of Tuam and its cathedral following the destruction of the Nine Years War. According […]