The GAA and the development of nationalism

In the 1880s many, including Dr Thomas W. Croke, archbishop of Cashel, maintained that ‘ball-playing, hurling, football-kicking according to Irish rules . . . may now be said to be […]

An argument defending the right of the kingdom of Ireland (1645)

John Minahane has provided a clear and comprehensive translation of Disputatio Apologetica de jure Regni Hiberniae, which made the first full statement for Irish separatism. It was made after the […]

News from a new republic Ireland in the 1950s

This latest in the series by Tom Garvin on twentieth-century Ireland focuses on the 1950s, that pivotal decade during which Ireland belatedly caught up with the modern world. But it […]

Home or away: the Great War and the Irish Revolution A great sacrifice: Cork servicemen who died in the Great War

As the centenary anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War approaches, the body of literature on the Irish experience of ‘the war to end all wars’ grows apace. As […]

The European culture wars in Ireland: the Callan schools affair, 1868–81

With typical Irish flare for understatement, the series of events outlined in Colin Barr’s book came generally to be known as the ‘Callan case’, which conjures up images of an […]