History Ireland

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The eradication of rabies

Rabies is an infection associated with a wide range of wild and domestic animals. After dogs, cattle were the most commonly affected animals in Ireland in the late 1890s, mostly […]

300 years of Irish gazetteering

The official organ of the government of the Republic of Ireland is Iris Oifigiúil, which is in effect a state newspaper for the publication of important public notices. Those notices […]

Albrecht Dürer: first superstar of northern European art

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was the first superstar of northern European art. Vasari’s Lives of the artists (1568) describes Dürer as a ‘truly great painter and creator of the most beautiful […]

James Barry (1741–1806): ‘The Great Historical Painter’

James Barry remains the most ambitious, controversial and important painter that Ireland has produced. He was also a neo-classical painter of major international significance, although not often given his due […]

A case of thoughtless vandalism

The apparently imminent closure of the Mountjoy prison complex on Dublin’s North Circular Road has raised a number of well-publicised issues. Do we need another prison? Is the site at […]

September 12

1980 The Republic of Ireland and the People’s Republic of China exchanged ambassadors for the first time, with John Campbell taking up his post in Peking and Madame Gong Pusheng taking up residence in Dublin.
1969 The Cameron Commission report placed the blame for clashes between loyalists and supporters of NICRA and People’s Democracy over the previous year on the discriminatory policies of the Stormont regime and the RUC.
1912 Father Matthew Russell (78), founder-editor of Catholic Ireland (later Irish Monthly) from 1873, died.
1867 The Irish Constabulary was granted the prefix ‘Royal’—Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)—in recognition of its role in suppressing the Fenian Rising in March of that year.
1814 Major-General Robert Ross, from Rostrevor, Co. Down, who famously helped himself to President Madison’s dinner before torching the White House some weeks earlier, was killed in a skirmish with American militia at North Point.
1997 President Mary Robinson, approaching the end of her one term in office, resigned to take up the role of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The eradication of rabies

300 years of Irish gazetteering

Albrecht Dürer: first superstar of northern European art

James Barry (1741–1806): ‘The Great Historical Painter’

A case of thoughtless vandalism

Personal Histories

On this Day

September 12