Compensating for the Rising: the papers of the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee, 1916

Several hundred uncatalogued claims made by householders and business-owners between May and August 1916 have recently been discovered in the National Archives. Typically, each claim is organised into a pro-forma […]

‘The North began’ . . . but when The formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force

On 25 November 1913, at the Rotunda Rink in Dublin, the Irish Volunteers were formed, with 3,000 men enrolling that evening. For the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) there is no […]

Enniskillen Horse

What can now be identified as the first formed UVF regiment owed its inspiration to neither the Orange Order nor the Unionist Clubs. The Enniskillen Horse came into existence as […]

Unseemly demarcation disputes

Throughout most of 1913 it was rather difficult for the police and Ulster unionists themselves to define the difference between UVF units proper and Unionist Clubs that were drilling with […]

Death and taxes: tobacco-growing in Ireland

If Benjamin Franklin’s axiom assures us of the certainty of two things only—death and taxes—the Irish can add further to that list, and indeed link the two. For what was […]