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What’s so special about the seventies?

The 1970s was an undeniably dramatic decade, with economic, industrial and political unrest at home and abroad; social change, with a new level of consumer affluence; and sharpened debates about […]

‘Reds under the bed’: official attitudes to communism in Northern Ireland

The early decades of the twentieth century were ones of social, political and geographical upheaval. This created a restless society, with many political organisations forming across the political spectrum. During […]

Ministry of Home Affairs archive (HA/32/1)

As the political ideology of communism and socialism spread after the formation of the USSR in 1922, many Western countries began to consider it a potential threat to national security […]

The pike in 1916:the failed assault on Dublin Castle

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, a small group of Irish Citizen Army soldiers under Captain Seán Connolly (no relation to James Connolly) attacked the centre of British administration in […]

Reconstructing the seventeenth-century landscape of the Pale

When the lords of the Pale (as they continued to be styled in subsequent depositions) gathered at various hilltops in east Meath in October 1641, their dilemma was palpable. Should […]

September 20

1920 Two RIC officers were shot dead in a public house in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, after which the RIC and Black and Tans rampaged through the town, burning business premises and houses. Two suspected republicans were bayoneted to death.
1920 Three British soldiers from the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, including Pte Harold Washington (15), were shot dead by the IRA as they collected bread from Monk’s bakery in North King Street, Dublin. Kevin Barry (18) of H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, was arrested at the scene.
1970 Leo Rowsome, celebrated piper, died suddenly in Riverstown parochial hall, Co. Sligo, while adjudicating in the ‘Fiddler of Dooney’ fiddle-playing championship.
1914 In a speech at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, the Irish Parliamentary Party leader, John Redmond, called on the Irish Volunteers to join the British army and fight wherever the war took them.
1803 Robert Emmet, United Irishman, was hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin.
1922 Four Irregulars, including Brian MacNeill, son of Eoin MacNeill, were trapped by Free State forces on Ben Bulben, Co. Sligo, and summarily executed.

What’s so special about the seventies?

‘Reds under the bed’: official attitudes to communism in Northern Ireland

Ministry of Home Affairs archive (HA/32/1)

The pike in 1916:the failed assault on Dublin Castle

Reconstructing the seventeenth-century landscape of the Pale

Personal Histories

On this Day

September 20