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One world: the communities of the southern Dublin marches

One world: the communities of the southern Dublin marches



The colonial stereotype of the ‘wylde Irishe’ resisting the ‘civilising’ mission of English conquest has proved an enduring model for medieval Irish history. Even nationalist historians have found reassurance in the image of independent Irish lordships offering fierce resistance to the invader. But was it really like that? Emmett O’Byrne surveys the history of Dublin’s southern marches from the ninth to the seventeenth century and discovers a more complex reality.
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Featured Articles
Shelley and Catherine Nugent: spirits of the age
Shelley and Catherine Nugent: spirits of the age

Paul O’Brien rediscovers one of the many women written out of Irish history, Catherine Nugent, a major influence on the political thinking of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

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Ireland’s greatest football team?
Ireland’s greatest football team?

Northern Ireland in 1958 or 1982? ‘Jack’s Army’ in Italia ’90? Yet none of these teams won their respective tournaments. Colm Kerrigan charts the achievements of an Ireland team that did—in 1914.

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‘Oh here’s to Adolph Hitler’?...The IRA and the Nazis
‘Oh here’s to Adolph Hitler’?...The IRA and the Nazis

The decapitation of IRA leader Seán Russell’s statue in Dublin’s Fairview Park earlier this year has reopened an embarrassing chapter in that organisation’s history. Was Russell a Nazi collaborator or simply an exponent of the old Fenian adage that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’? Brian Hanley assesses the evidence.

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The Catholic Church and the writing of the 1937 constitution
The Catholic Church and the writing of the 1937 constitution

Perhaps Eamon de Valera’s most enduring legacy is his constitution of 1937. Dermot Keogh and Andrew McCarthy detail how the drafting process was influenced by the Catholic Church.

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Surfing an ocean of data:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Surfing an ocean of data:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

It cost £22 million to produce, £7,500 to buy, runs to 60 volumes and 60,000 pages, contains 62 million words, 50,000 articles and 55,117 biographies, and has 12,630 contributors. The entries run from Piltdown Man to more tragic recent entries—James Bulger, Stephen Lawrence and Jill Dando. Irish entries range from Oisín and Cormac Mac Airt to Gordon Wilson and Seán MacStiofáin. Kevin Whelan browses through the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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John Bull’s Paddy
John Bull’s Paddy

While the complete and final implementation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement remains as elusive as ever, there is a growing consensus that the Peace Process is in its ‘end game’ and that the Northern troubles may finally be passing from the realm of politics into history. Mark Coalter spoke recently to one of its leading ‘middle game’ players, Lord Mayhew of Twysden, who, as Sir Patrick Mayhew, was secretary of state for Northern Ireland 1992–7.

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