Victorian post boxes

Modern postal services date back to 1840, when the first ‘penny post’ was introduced in Ireland and Britain by (Sir) Rowland Hill, the British tax and social reformer; until then, […]

‘That bitch of a war’: Lyndon B. Johnson and Vietnam

Vietnam seemed an unlikely arena for what would become ‘Johnson’s War’, but the US had been engaged in south-east Asia since World War II. In 1940 France lost control of […]

Last man standing: Dan Keating

Dan Keating’s political leanings stemmed from his background, some of his uncles having been militant in land agitation in the years following the Famine. In two interviews for a BBC […]

Piety, patrons and prints: Franciscan altar plate, 1600–1650

At a meeting held in Dublin on 15 February 1698, the superiors of the Franciscan Order agreed to adhere to the act of banishment issued a few months earlier, ordering […]

Adopting the ‘American way’: Ireland and the Marshall Plan, 1947–57

In June 1947 the Irish economy continued to display the effects of wartime dislocation: rationing, rising inflation, falling living standards and frequent strikes. Ireland also shared many of the prevailing […]