Telling tales: the story of the burial alive and drowning of a Clare RM in 1920

On the morning of 22 September 1920, four volunteers from the IRA’s West Clare brigade gathered at a level crossing at Caherfeenick, near Doonbeg. Presently, they heard an approaching Ford […]

Imperial Germany and Irish-American contacts, 1900–17

In 1892 France signed a military convention with Russia: in the event of war, the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary, would have to fight on two fronts. As for the […]

Joyce’s looking-glass: the dark side of Irish childhood in creative fiction

The institutional brutality, neglect and sexual abuse of children catalogued in the Murphy report, and its predessessors, Ryan and Ferns, concentrated on the later twentieth century. But did the Irish […]

‘Reign of terror at Craughwell’: Tom Kenny and the McGoldrick murder of 1909

During the last years of the nineteenth century Craughwell was one of the most violent corners of Ireland, and several murders were committed by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood […]

What the witchcraft bishop did in Ireland: the controversial career of Francis Hutchinson, 1660–1739

  Francis Hutchinson was no ordinary clergyman. Posterity chiefly remembers him for his condemnation of witchcraft trials in his famous book An historical essay concerning witchcraft . . . (1718). He […]