Jettisoning faith, culture and identity to serve the Crown: Elizabethan grant of land and title to Florence Fitzpatrick, 3rd baron of Upper Ossory, 1581

Painstakingly hand-painted on almost three square metres of vellum, the Fitzpatrick manuscript is written in Latin and decorated with ornate depictions of English fruits, flowers, insects and woodland creatures, redolent […]

Creating facts on the ground:the destruction of Clandeboye

One of Ireland’s most important parliaments was held in Dublin in 1541. This declared Henry VIII to be ‘king of Ireland’ and made all Irishmen, whatever their origin, Gaelic or […]

Theatre Eye: Playing the earl: Brian Friel’s Making History

Making History is set in Ulster before and after the Battle of Kinsale and in Rome. The plot is centred on O’Neill’s relationships with those around him—with Peter Lombard, the […]

From the files of the DIB…: Women in Flight

O’DONNELL, Nuala (c. 1575–c. 1630), refugee, was born in Tír Conaill, the daughter of Hugh O’Donnell, lord of Tyrconnell, and his second wife, Fionnuala (Iníon Dubh) MacDonnell of the Isles. […]

The Flight of the Earls: escape or strategic regrouping?

Four centuries ago on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14 September 1607, an unnamed 80-ton French warship weighed anchor at Rathmullan, Co. Donegal, and sailed out […]