The assassination of Sir Henry Wilson and the Irish Civil War

On 22 June 1922 Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson, former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Unionist MP for North Down, was assassinated outside his London home in Eaton […]

The ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, May-June 1922

As part of the so-called ‘Northern Offensive’, on 27 May 1922, a combined force of pro-Treaty National Army and anti-Treaty IRA occupied the ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, an enclave of Fermanagh/Northern Ireland […]

Sister against sister—women, the Treaty split and the Civil War

Given their activism in the revolutionary period, now widely acknowledged by historians, why were Irish women and their organizations on the margins of deliberations on the Treaty? Why were Irish […]

‘Ulysses’ in history—history in ‘Ulysses’

In this centenary year of its publication, the History Ireland Hedge School considers James Joyce’s Ulysses, set in Dublin on a single day, 16 June 1904. What was the history of the book? What is […]

Burning the Big House—the story of the Irish country house in a time of war and revolution 

Over the course of the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, nearly 300 ‘Big Houses’ (those belonging to aristocrats with in excess of 2,000 acres), 20% of a total […]