Soviet invasion?

On 4 December 1980 a secret message was conveyed to the CIA by Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, a high-level informant within the Polish general staff, to the effect that fifteen divisions […]

Solidarnośćść

The massive industrial unrest in Poland in August 1980, centred on the famous strike in the Gdańsk shipyard, had led to the creation of Solidarność, the first independent trade union […]

Capturing ‘Earl Jellyfish’: the IRA plot to kidnap Earl Jellicoe, 1930

Among the most serious public order issues facing the Irish government in the 1930s were the disturbances that annually occurred on and around Armistice Day in November. The IRA and […]

Item of ‘peculiar construction’ discovered

Jellicoe’s visit on 12 October went ahead on its new schedule, with a heavy Garda presence and no real problems. The next day, however, the story took a strange turn. […]

The Irish Volunteer uniform

Over 3,000 volunteers enrolled at the Rotunda Rink on 25 November 1913, and by June 1914 the Irish Volunteers had 180,000 members. In the space of seven months a massive […]