‘An immortal smile of victory’

Albert Power’s bust of Terence MacSwiney (1879–1920). By Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch On 26 October 1920 the Freeman’s Journal devoted its front page to the Sinn Féin lord mayor of Cork, Terence […]

The Radical Club: a 1920s forum for ‘progressive cultural activity’

A moment in modernism’s development in Ireland. By Brian Trench In April 1926 writers Liam O’Flaherty (front cover) and Francis MacManus debated the role of religion in Irish culture. O’Flaherty […]

The ‘trackless desert’

Irish neutrality in the Second World War. By John Gibney and Michael Kennedy In September 1939 the Second World War began, and in Ireland the ‘Emergency’ commenced. The common use […]

The role of flags and emblems in Irish commemorations

In this ‘decade of commemorations’, it is worth reflecting on Ireland’s long, contentious yet colourful history of commemorations and the role that flags and emblems have played throughout it. By […]

Home Rule in Hollywood

John Stahl’s Parnell (1937). By Tony Tracy Prior to Michael Collins (1996), one has to go back over half a century to find a Hollywood-funded drama dealing with an Irish […]