History Ireland

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Mayo in the revolutionary decade

Despite a notable revolutionary pedigree—scene of a French invasion in support of the 1798 Rebellion and cradle of the Land League in 1879—Mayo was a ‘slow starter’ in the War of […]

The First Irish Cities: an eighteenth-century transformation

Author David Dickson in conversation with Tommy Graham (editor, History Ireland) The untold story of a group of Irish cities and their remarkable development before the age of industrialization. A backward […]

The burning of the Custom House, 25 May 1921

On 25 May 1921, Dublin’s Custom House, headquarters of the Local Government Board of Ireland, was occupied and then burnt in an operation involving over 100 IRA volunteers. It has […]

Conceived in controversy—230 years of the Custom House

Today James Gandon’s neoclassical masterpiece is one of the most recognizable and well-regarded buildings in Dublin. Its completion in 1791 marked yet another instalment in the movement of the axis […]

Wexford in the revolutionary decade

While not in the vanguard of armed activity during the War of Independence, Wexford has the distinction of being one of the few counties outside Dublin that saw action during […]

That field of glory. The story of Clontarf, from battleground to garden suburb
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Darkest Dublin: The story of the Church Street disaster and a pictorial account of the slums of Dublin in 1913
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On this Day

June 16

1920 In what became known as the ‘Listowel mutiny’, Constable Jeremiah Mee and a number of fellow officers refused orders to hand over Listowel RIC barracks to military control and accept more dangerous assignments in outlying barracks.
1969 Harold Alexander, Co. Tyrone-born field marshal who commanded Allied forces in Italy (1943–4) and in the Mediterranean until the end of the war, died.
1912 Enoch Powell, soldier, classical scholar, poet, writer and politician who held the South Down seat for the Official Unionist Party in Westminster (1974–87), born in Stechford, Birmingham.
1917 The remaining 120 Irish political prisoners, including Éamon de Valera, Eoin MacNeill and Countess Markievicz, who were jailed after the Easter Rising were released.