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A typical clergyman? Richard Plunkett and the Reformation in Tudor Meath

A typical clergyman? Richard Plunkett and the Reformation in Tudor Meath



Richard Plunkett, a clergyman from Meath, was accused of adultery, assault, pluralism, absenteeism, recusancy and simony in 1581. How typical was such behaviour for a sixteenth-century clergyman? Brendan Scott investigates.

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‘tales from the big House’ the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum in the late nineteenth century
‘tales from the big House’ the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum in the late nineteenth century

The ‘big house’ has long dominated Irish cultural and political life, standing as a metaphor for an often troubled Anglo-Irish relationship. Oonagh Walsh investigates another big house that had a far greater effect upon the lives of many more individuals: the district lunatic asylum.

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‘The only good Indian is a dead Indian’: Sheridan, Irish-America and the Indians
‘The only good Indian is a dead Indian’: Sheridan, Irish-America and the Indians

Toby Joyce reassesses the reputation of Irish-American general Philip Henry Sheridan, who is forever associated with racism and genocide

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Violence, citizenship and virility: The making of an irish fascist
Violence, citizenship and virility: The making of an irish fascist

Fearghal MacGarry considers the forces responsible for the rapid marginalisation of one of the most powerful and respectable figures in the Irish Free State—General Eoin O’Duffy—and sheds light on the ideological agenda of Ireland’s most notorious fascist.

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The 1885 and 1886 general elections in Ireland
The 1885 and 1886 general elections in Ireland

Two opposing blocs—Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist—emerged in the general elections of 1885 and 1886, setting a pattern that was to endure in the south until independence and in the north to the present day. Brian Walker analyses how it came to pass.

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Focus on the Fenians: the Irish People trials, November 1865–January 1866
Focus on the Fenians: the Irish People trials, November 1865–January 1866

The Irish Republican (or Revolutionary) Brotherhood (IRB) was one of Ireland’s most enduring revolutionary nationalist organisations. Frank Rynne takes us through the source material available from the 1860s, including the then cutting-edge technology of photography.

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History, biography and all that jazz
History, biography and all that jazz

After over 40 years at Queen’s University, Belfast, Professor of British History Peter Jupp explains to Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh his views on the role of British history in relation to Ireland, biography, jazz and retirement.

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