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Tom Barry and the Kilmichael Ambush

Tom Barry and the Kilmichael Ambush



Meda Ryan (above) defends the reputation of Tom Barry (and her own as a researcher) against the criticisms levelled by Peter Hart in the last issue.
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Featured Articles
The Battle of Clontarf in Irish history and legend
The Battle of Clontarf in Irish history and legend

The Battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday (23 April) 1014, is one of the most famous events in Irish history, popularly portrayed as a struggle between the forces of good and evil. The victor, Brian Boru, has been regarded as a national hero, a ruler who rose from relative obscurity to unite Ireland briefly under his rule. How accurate is this view and how significant was the battle itself? Clare Downham assesses how perceptions of it have developed over the centuries.

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Napoleon’s Irish legacy: the bogs commissioners, 1809–14
Napoleon’s Irish legacy: the bogs commissioners, 1809–14

The government-appointed bogs commissioners left a legacy of maps and reports that tell much about Ireland a generation before the Great Famine. Arnold Horner describes their work.

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The Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the Great War
The Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the Great War

When Britain and Ireland entered the Great War and the killing began in August 1914, German and British bullets made no distinction between men of different rank, age, nationality, religion or social background. Death was random. Using the combined data presented in The Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914–1919 (SDGW) and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission listings (CWGC), Tom Burke addresses the question: where did the men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who fought in that war come from?

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How the Great Story could be better told...
How the Great Story could be better told...

Desmond Fennell takes a critical look at the dominant narrative of the ‘History of Europe’ . . . and finds it wanting.

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Gaelic lordship and Tudor conquest: Tír Eoghain, 1541–1603
Gaelic lordship and Tudor conquest: Tír Eoghain, 1541–1603

The lordship of Tír Eoghain has been designated as a documents-based case-study for those Leaving Cert students and teachers who have opted for the early modern field of study. Hiram Morgan outlines the background.

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‘Too old at thirty-three’: the log of William Henry O’Brien, 1908–10
‘Too old at thirty-three’: the log of William Henry O’Brien, 1908–10

Bernard Share takes us through the logbook of a Royal Navy officer from Ireland, William Henry O’Brien, which chronicles in detail the everyday life and duties of the lower deck. Personal and practical rather than political or polemical, it provides an informative counterbalance to the more formal naval records of the day.

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Wood Quay Man
Wood Quay Man

The second-longest-serving Director of the National Museum of Ireland, Pat Wallace, is also a noted archaeologist and historian who has helped to popularise our past and make it more understandable through television and radio programmes. Yet he will always be remembered for his part in the controversial excavation of the Viking site at Wood Quay. Here he talks to Tony Canavan about his career, interests and the ongoing collision between heritage and development.

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