In The Current Issue
REGULARS
HISTORY IN THE NEWS:
The Dalys of New Caledonia
Helen Litton
GAA honours First World War veterans
William Murphy
ON THIS DAY
Aodhán Crealey
BITE-SIZED HISTORY
Tony Canavan
Letters
Review of the Cambridge History of Ireland, Vol. III
Abergele train disaster
Another factor in German mass surrenders in 1918
Motor car v. pony and trap
Platform
Was the War of Independence necessary?
Padraig Yeates
GEMS OF ARCHITECTURE:
City Assembly House
Irish Georgian Society
KINDRED LINES:
Bedding ceremonies
Fiona Fitzsimons
ARTEFACTS:
First World War trophies
Lar Joye
100 YEARS AGO:
The First Dáil is seated
Joseph E.A. Connell Jr.
Reviews
WHAT’S ON FILM:
Peterloo
Eoin Dillon
MUSEUM EYE:
From Ballots to Bullets, Ireland 1918–1919
Tony Canavan
RADIO EAR:
P.S. Gilmore: Ireland’s first superstar
Donal Fallon
Bookworm
Joe Culley
The Big Book
Bartlett (ed.), Cambridge History of Ireland, Vol. IV: 1880 to the present
By Brian Hanley
Book Reviews
Holton, Valentine Lawless, Lord Cloncurry, 1773–1853: from United Irishman to Liberal politician
By Sylvie Kleinman
Murphy, The great cover-up: the truth about the death of Michael Collins
By Nigel Jones
Hanley, The impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland, 1968–79: boiling volcano?
By Martin Mansergh
Features
BICENTENARY:
The Colleen Bawn and tourism in Killarney
Robert Whelan
EXPLORATION:
Edward Bransfield—the Corkman who discovered Antarctica
Michael Smith
IMPERIALISM:
John Nicholson—the Irishman who became a god
Stuart Flinders
SPORT:
John McAlery and the origins of association football
Martin Moore
SONG:
A hundred years in The Foggy Dew
Eugene Dunphy
WHAT’S NEW IN MSS:
Michael MacWhite’s memoirs of the Sinn Féin delegation in France, 1919–21
John Gibney
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Snapshots of a Free State
David Toms
CONSTITUTION:
Article 44 reconsidered
Niall Meehan
REPUTATIONS:
Brian O’Higgins and the Wolfe Tone Annual, 1932–62
Patrick Maume
Personal Histories
Editor’s Choice
On this Day
February 19
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Above: Joseph Gillis Biggar, Home Rule MP for Cavan since 1874.
1890 Joseph Gillis Biggar, Home Rule MP for Cavan since 1874, died. The Presbyterian pork butcher from Henry Street, Belfast, who taught C.S. Parnell the technique of parliamentary obstruction, is popularly remembered for his appearance (he was a diminutive hunchback) and for his ability to talk interminably on any subject in a rasping Belfast accent. Demonised by the British press as a cold-hearted rebel, his reputation, for some at least, was considerably enhanced late in his life by the celebrated Hyland v. Biggar breach-of-promise action of 1883. In late autumn 1881, with a warrant out for his arrest, Biggar escaped to Paris. An out-and-out philistine with no interest in the arts or culture, the City of Light did little for his spirits until one afternoon he attended a party at the home of Irishwoman Madame Rouyer. Amongst the other guests was Fanny Hyland, daughter of a former mayor of Kilkenny, and ‘wee Joe’ was bowled over. Within minutes he was in deep conversation with her, and a week later was offering her his hand and a share of his personal fortune of £20,000. Soon afterwards, however, realising that the government did not intend to execute the warrant against him, he returned to Ireland to rejoin the political fray. The next time he saw Fanny was in a London court. Despite little third-party corroboration for her story, and everything poised for an acquittal, Biggar insisted on going into the witness box himself and thereby lost the case. Though damages of £400 were awarded against him, the judge afterwards declared that he had never met a more frank and truthful witness.
- 1890 Joseph Biggar, Belfast-born pork merchant and Home Rule MP for Cavan since 1874, died. A year after his election Biggar initiated the policy of obstruction in the House of Commons, which was taken up and pursued successfully by Charles Stewart Parnell.
- 1717 David Garrick, influential English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer, born.