ARCHAEOLOGY & EUGENICS: Harvard, Celtic skulls and eugenics in de Valera’s Ireland

The Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland, 1932–6.   By Mairéad Carew The driving force behind the Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland was eugenics, now considered a pseudo-science and a variant […]

Parker v. Parker

A case of money and influence against the honour of an Irish lady? By Joan Capstick In 1878 a sensational divorce petition came before the Dublin probate and matrimonial court. […]

CENTENARY: The women who died for Ireland

Cumann na mBan fatalities in the War of Independence and Civil War. By Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc This year marks several important milestones in the history of women’s struggle in […]

KINDRED LINES: Newspaper death notices

By Fiona Fitzsimons We all generate documents as we go through life, a ‘paper trail’ that is a record of key events. Ironically, the greatest amount of evidence is often […]

The capture and death of Major Geoffrey Lee Compton-Smith, 1921

By Saoirse Ní Shíocháin Geoffrey Lee Compton-Smith was born in 1889 in South Kensington, London. After finishing school, he decided not to follow the family tradition of studying law. He […]