‘Altman the Saltman’, Leopold Bloom and James Joyce

After almost a century, readers of Ulysses are still learning about how and why James Joyce created one of the most complex and provocative Jewish characters in literature. By Vincent […]

‘Guardian of the shore’: Seán D. Dublin Bay Loftus and community politics

AFTER THE FORMATION LAST YEAR OF A GOVERNMENT INCORPORATING INDEPENDENT MINISTERS AND RELIANT ON INDEPENDENT TDS TO AN UNPRECEDENTED EXTENT, IT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO LOOK BACK ON A […]

Envisaging the unthinkable: planning for Armageddon in 1950s Ireland

DOCUMENTS OUTLINING OFFICIAL PLANNING FOR THE STATE’S TRANSITION TO WORLD WAR III By Michael Kennedy The impact of a ten-megaton hydrogen bomb on Dublin would be cataclysmic. A 1958 Department […]

Ireland and the Corfu Crisis, 1923

THE LITTLE-KNOWN CORFU CRISIS OF 1923 PROVIDED INEXPERIENCED IRISH DIPLOMATS WITH A BLUNT INTRODUCTION TO POWER POLITICS By Mark Phelan In August 1923, brigands murdered an Italian general and several […]

Sectarianism spills over? The St Johnston riot of 1972

WHAT WAS THE CONTEXT OF THE 12 JULY RIOT IN ST JOHNSTON, CO. DONEGAL, DURING WHICH 70 PEOPLE WERE INJURED AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES, BUSINESSES AND HOMES ATTACKED? By Brian Hanley […]