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Stalin’s victory? The Soviet Union and World War II

When World War II ended in 1945 few doubted that the victor’s laurels belonged mainly to Joseph Stalin. Under his leadership the Soviet Union had just won the war of […]

The Catholic Church’s Irishmen in Rome: the correspondence of Paul Cullen and Tobias Kirby

The Irish College in Rome was founded in 1628 by the committed and resourceful team of Franciscan Luke Wadding and the cardinal protector of Ireland, the Jesuit Ludovico Ludovisi. It […]

Von Ranke in Dublin

Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) was the most influential historian of the nineteenth century. He made important contributions to the emergence of modern history as a discipline and he has been […]

Having the right kit: galloglass fighting in Ireland

The term galloglass (gallóglach) is usually translated as ‘foreign warrior’ but is in fact a short-hand for ‘warrior from Innse Gall (the Hebrides)’. They first entered military service in Ireland […]

‘Scotsmen, stand by Ireland’: John Maclean and the Irish Revolution

The most dangerous man in Britain’ or a paranoid crank? ‘The greatest fighter of the Scottish working class’ or a middle-class intellectual out of touch with working-class opinion? A Marxist […]

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.

Stalin’s victory? The Soviet Union and World War II

The Catholic Church’s Irishmen in Rome: the correspondence of Paul Cullen and Tobias Kirby

Von Ranke in Dublin

Having the right kit: galloglass fighting in Ireland

‘Scotsmen, stand by Ireland’: John Maclean and the Irish Revolution

Personal Histories

On this Day

September 12