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Features

Cover Story

Tartessian, Europe’s newest and oldest Celtic language

John Koch suggests that Tartessian is ‘more than a little bit Celtic’ and adds a new twist to the assertion, long since dismissed as invention, that the Gaels (Milesians) originated in the Iberian Peninsula.
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Featured Articles

Arrested development: Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1917–2008
Arrested development: Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1917–2008 Niall Meehan teases out some of the contradictions of a man who wrote, made and was the product of history. Read More >>

The historical Dracula: monster or Machiavellian prince?
The historical Dracula: monster or Machiavellian prince? John Akeroyd reassesses the reputation of the man who inspired Bram Stoker’s best-seller. Read More >>

Laetitia Pilkington (c. 1709–50): scandalous woman and memoirist
Laetitia Pilkington (c. 1709–50): scandalous woman and memoirist Norma Clarke gives a flavour of the woman variously described as ‘the celebrated Mrs Pilkington’ or ‘the most profligate whore in either kingdom’ (Jonathan Swift). Read More >>

The Church Street disaster, September 1913
The Church Street disaster, September 1913 Chris Corlett tells the story behind ‘Darkest Dublin’, a collection of c. 100 lantern-slides held by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI). Read More >>

‘Well dressed and from a respectable street’
‘Well dressed and from a respectable street’ Who was the rebel dispatch rider shot dead outside Trinity College, Dublin, in the early hours of Easter Tuesday 1916? Raymond M. Keogh shares a piece of family history. Read More >>

Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740–1808): a life in pictures
Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740–1808): a life in pictures Eamon O’Flaherty reviews the life and work of one of eighteenth-century Ireland’s most notable painters, recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Read More >>

Smoking gun? British government policy and RIC reprisals, summer 1920

Smoking gun? British government policy and RIC reprisals, summer 1920

From December 1920 the British government sanctioned a policy of reprisals against civilians during the War of Independence. But did the Castle merely ‘turn a blind eye’ to earlier reprisals or were they too part of a deliberate policy? Gabriel Doherty and John Borgonovo examine a document recently discovered in the National Archives that sheds new light on this controversial issue.

Greatest killer of the twentieth century: the Great Flu of 1918–19
Greatest killer of the twentieth century: the Great Flu of 1918–19 The twentieth century was the century of mass death and yet, contrary to popular misconception, the greatest killer of all time was neither Hitler nor Stalin but, as Guy Beiner, Patricia Marsh and Ida Milne explain, an illness often mistakenly associated with the common cold—epidemic influenza. Read More >>

The strike that ‘never should have taken place’? The Inchicore rail dispute of 1924
The strike that ‘never should have taken place’? The Inchicore rail dispute of 1924 Charlie McGuire gets to the bottom of a bitter demarcation dispute that exemplified the reformism, opportunism, egoism and prosecution of personal vendettas that bedevilled the Irish trade union movement. Read More >>

Thomastown railway viaduct, Co. Kilkenny
Thomastown railway viaduct, Co. Kilkenny Joe Norton recounts the interesting building history of what was the longest single-span railway bridge in Britain and Ireland at the time of its completion. Read More >>