Seamus Deane’s review of James Donnelly’s Captain Rock

Sir,—I was dismayed by Seamus Deane’s intemperate review of James Donnelly’s Captain Rock (HI 18.6, Nov./Dec. 2010), having long been an admirer of Deane’s writing. He did your readers no […]

The history of cricket in County Kilkenny—the forgotten game

The history of cricket in County Kilkenny—the forgotten game Michael O’Dwyer (O’Dwyer Books, ‘Garvaghey’, College Gardens, Kilkenny, e35 + e7 p&p) Michael O’Dwyer’s book is correctly subtitled ‘the forgotten game’. […]

Captain Boycott: man and myth

By 1871 ‘Captain’ Charles Cunningham Boycott had been on Achill Island for seventeen years and had proven himself to be a good and successful farmer in a hostile and challenging […]

Friar’s Bush cemetery

The Friar’s Bush cemetery on Stranmillis Road, Belfast, may only be two acres in size, but its history is far grislier than you might expect—plague, body-snatching, famine and murder are […]

‘Educated Whiteboyism’: the Cork tithe war, 1798–9

In the wake of the 1798 rebellion a wave of agrarian agitation swept Munster. Superficially the disaffection—centred on the counties of Limerick, Cork and Tipperary, although there were incidents throughout […]