By Jennifer Harrison. ‘The poor Inhabitants of Clare is actily starving, living on one meal in the day and that same a bad meal, we are in hopes ye will doe something for us out of hand, we will actily Die with hunger if ye don’t luck to us out of hand as them that has a little family must Rob before They die with hunger before their face, As they are half dead before.’ This powerfully pathetic plea reported … Continue reading
One hundred years ago, on 30 June 1922, the Four Courts building in Dublin was bombed and thousands of government records were destroyed in the blast. Ever since, historians have rued the extensive devastation of valuable source material which the current Irish project Beyond 2020 seeks to remedy. Ernie O’Malley in his book, The Singing Flame, described the carnage: ‘Flame sang and conducted its own orchestra simultaneously’. Staunch Republican O’Malley who reported directly to Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy during … Continue reading
In 1986 Tavistock Publications in London and New York published the valuable PhD research of Dr Helen Woolcock, a Queensland occupational therapist, under the title of Rights of Passage: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century. The broad imprecise title probably was selected to attract a wide international audience because while the volume does cover emigration and the nineteenth century, it specifically concentrates on how the colony of Queensland set about obtaining a healthy population. The book is a thorough … Continue reading
Recently many Australians have reeled from drought to flood, bushfires to mice plagues and of course, all this mayhem occurred during a global pandemic. Is the world coming to an end? Is it possible to maintain a comfortable existence with the natural world? Obviously, these events are not unique to any particular country or time period and the same questions have been posed before – just ask the stunned Irish in 1839. Following the successful passing of the Catholic Emancipation … Continue reading
By Jennifer Harrison. Following the wonderfully successful Irish seminar GSQ conducted in October 2020, it occurred to me that members might benefit from knowledge of a series of books currently in production in Dublin which provide wonderful contextual material for those researching individual counties. Since 1985 Geography Publications have produced substantial volumes under the collective title of History and Society. Each book ranging between 500 and 1000 pages examines an individual county. By the end of 2020 with the issue … Continue reading
