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 […]

The Arandora Star

The 535ft-long, 15,000-ton Blue Star Line luxury liner was built in 1927 by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. She was one of the best-known cruise liners of the 1930s, taking 354 […]

The Coastwatching Service

Established in 1939 by the Defence Forces to provide landward defence for a country with no naval service, the Coastwatching Service was an unarmed military force numbering approximately 700 and […]

‘Men that came in with the sea’: the Coastwatching Service and the sinking of the Arandora Star

On 6 August 1940 Garda William Cullen of Belmullet station received a phone call from coastwatchers at the nearby Annagh Head lookout post (LOP). He learned that the Atlantic currents […]