Irish History

A review of the RTÉ documentary, A Lost Son. Former politician and Attorney General, Michael McDowell, unravels the story of his grandfather Eoin MacNeill and the alleged murder of MacNeill's son Brian and five others by pro-treaty forces in September 1922.

Cheryl Lawther’s article on ‘Unionists, loyalists and truth recovery’ has laid
bare some uncomfortable truisms in the debate about ‘dealing with the past’, including loyalist paramilitaries’ insatiable opposition to any form of ‘truth recovery’ process and the tendency to lay the blame for their violent actions at the door of ‘middle-class’ unionist politicians. However, by raising the spectre of collective responsibility, the article understates the progress made by some loyalists in advancing the wider debate on peace-building. Indeed, there is much more that could be said about loyalist scepticism of a so-called ‘truth process’ than her analysis allows. The response presented here, intended to add not to subtract from the five major points made in the article, identifies and critiques the fault-lines of a cacophony of ‘peace process’ narratives that require greater scrutiny before a serious discussion can be embarked on of the history and legacy of the Northern Ireland ‘troubles’.

During the reign of James II/VII Stuart (1685-1688), the political, diplomatic and cultural relations between the British court and the Italian states flourished as never before. This was due above all to the Roman-Catholic faith of the king and the lively personality of his consort Maria Beatrice d’Este («Mary of Modena»), while the growing English economic power was acquiring commercial dominance in the Mediterranean area. With the help of thousands of unpublished papers, the book by Alessandro Cont reconstructs the British diplomatic network in Italy during this period, the personalities and orientations of the ministers of Italian princes accredited to the court of Whitehall, the queen’s dynastic policy and the peculiar characteristics of her Italian entourage of chaplains, servants, artists and musicians.

In 1980, three Republican women prisoners held in Armagh prison in Northern Ireland joined the hunger strike being conducted by male Republican prisoners in Maze Prison. Overshadowed by the fatal 1981 strike, the 1980 strike involved these women in Armagh, who challenged the traditional nationalist notion of the strong male warrior, while generating sympathy and solidarity across the globe, including with the far left and the women’s liberation movement in Britain. This article will look at how the left and the women’s liberation movement in both Britain and Ireland looked to portray these women within their competing narratives.

This MSc thesis contributes new information to and original analysis of the topics of Viking-Age silver hoards and Irish monastic settlements, as well as their respective usefulness for understanding the early medieval Irish economy. Historiography regarding the early medieval Irish economy has been affected by colonial and nationalist myths, creating an image of a rural and subsistence-level society that was poorly integrated into the larger Viking-Age silver economy and primitive in nature. Furthering Revisionist arguments, this thesis challenges these assumptions by demonstrating Irish ownership of silver hoards and the economic roles of monastic settlements (which may have served as proto-urban sites). 
The research entailed a mixed methodological approach. Primarily, data regarding silver hoards and settlements in Ireland (both Irish and Hiberno-Norse) was plotted within a GIS system to allow for distributional analysis. Measurements were taken from the created maps to provide quantitative data, while discovered trends and relationships were qualitatively analyzed within a comprehensive historical context. These methods were complemented with a historical critique of a coin database, allowing for more detailed study of the content of hoard finds.
The results of the analyses revealed a strong relationship between silver hoards and monastic settlements (with mostly coins found at these sites), substantiating the economic significance of the latter. Additionally, many hoards were found inland and deep within independent Irish kingdoms. Few hoards were found to be randomly deposited. Rather, most were associated with either Irish or Hiberno-Norse settlements, as well as borders between kingdoms. Such promising results illustrate the need for more extensive research on both silver hoards and the Early Medieval Irish economy, both of which possess complexities that require further elucidation.

The kings of East Anglia and Northumbria both died at the hands of the Great Heathen Army in the late 860s; one became a renowned martyr saint and one a villain. The latter, the Northumbrian Ælla, also became the antagonist in legends concerning the ancestors of the Uí Ímair, principal successors of the northern Great Army and leaders of the tenth-century Insular Norse.  According to a previously neglected text, 'De Northumbria post Britannos', another of northern England’s great dynasties claimed descent from Ælla. The Eadwulfings of Bamburgh were based in northern Northumbria, and appear to have gained leadership of their political community in the late ninth or early tenth century. With the rival position held by the Uí Ímair in the south, it is possible that Ælla’s later reputation and associated legends arose as a bi-product of tenth-century political conflict.

Roger Casement made two journeys to Argentina: the first was in 1907 and the second was in 1910. Little is known about either trip beyond a few fragmentary references in letters and some encrypted entries in the contested Black Diaries. Nonetheless, these traces would suggest that Casement was connected into a vibrant Irish-Argentinian network that played a vital role in the independence struggle before and after 1916. Through reconstructing evidence of these visits and locating his friendships within Ireland's broader transnational struggle, this essay excavates a dimension of informal diplomacy that prepared the ground for the emergence of Irish foreign policy after 1919.

http://revistas.fflch.usp.br/abei/index

Mütevazi bir ürün olarak bilinen patates bitkisinin anavatanı Peru ve Bolivya And dağlarıdır. 1800 yıl öncesine kadar da İnka medeniyeti tarafından yetiştirilmekteydi. İnkalar yüzyıllarca patatesle iç içe bir yaşam tarzına bürünmüş olsalar da 16. yüzyılda patates bitkisi istilacı İspanyol medeniyeti tarafından Avrupa kıtasına getirilmiştir. 17. yüzyılın sonlarına doğru gelindiğindeyse patates bitkisi tüm Avrupa kıtasına yayılmış ve özellikle fakir insanlar tarafından yetiştirilmeye başlanmıştır. İrlanda adasında da aynı durum söz konusudur. Patateslerin tohumlardan ziyade yumru köklerinden yaygın bir şekilde yayıldığı göz önüne alındığında, ülke genetik olarak aynı patates bitkileri ile doludur. 1840'lı yılların başlarında, İrlanda nüfusunun neredeyse yarısının sadece diyet için patates ile ilintili yiyeceklere karşı bağımlı hale geldiği tahmin edilmektedir. Patates bitkisinin özelliklerine bakıldığında toprak altında kalırken geç kuruması ve ıslak zeminde durması doğal ömrünü uzatmaktadır. Amerika kıtasından getirilen patojenler daha önce İrlanda'ya getirilmiş olan orijinal patateslere nazaran daha çok farklılık göstermeye başlamıştır. İrlanda'daki patates tarlaları şiddetli kuraklık altında kalmaya başlamış ve her yıl rekoltenin yarısı ancak karşılanmaya başlanmıştır. 1846-1849 yılları arasında patates kıtlığı bir hayli baş göstermeye başlamış ve İrlanda halkı büyük bir kıtlık felaketi ile karşı karşıya kalmıştır. Söz konusu bu büyük kıtlığın sonuçları gittikçe korkunç bir hal almaya başlamıştı. Patates yemekleri bulmak artık gittikçe zor hale gelmeye başlamıştır. Bu arada baş göstermeye başlayan açlık ve kıtlık özellikle köylüleri etkilemeye başlamış topraklarını kiralamış oldukları zenginlere kira bedellerini ödeyememe durumuna gelmişlerdir. Bundan dolayı birçok tarım işçisi yer değiştirmeye başlamış olup daha sonra birçoğu Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'ne göç etmeye başlamıştır. Ayrıca yaşanan kıtlık felaketi neticesinde yaklaşık 1 milyon İrlandalı yaşamını kaybetmiş 1 milyonu aşkın insan ise daha önce de belirtildiği üzere çeşitli ülkelere ve kıtalara göç etmeye mecbur kalmıştır. Bu olaylar yaşanırken Britanya hükümeti yaşanan bu kıtlık felaketine karşı kayıtsız kalması İrlandalıları öfkelendirmiş ve 1922 yılında İrlanda hükümeti kurularak bağımsızlık elde edilmiştir. 1922 senesinde Bağımsızlık kazanan İrlanda nüfusu ise 1840 yılındaki nüfusunun ancak yarısı kadar idi. Bu yıldan itibaren İrlanda Devleti tarafından 1846-1849 yılları arasında yaşanmış olan kıtlık felaketini her yıl çeşitli etkinlikler düzenleyerek anılmaktada olup olayın izlerini taşıyan şehirlerde ise açık hava müzeleri açılmıştır.

"‘This book illuminates the fascinating life of Eva Gore-Booth. Often lost in the shadow of her more famous sister, Constance, Eva finally emerges as a key figure. Historian Sonja Tiernan has written an exciting and vibrant life of this extraordinary woman, at once an intrepid feminist, pacifist and advocate for social justice.’
Professor Maria Luddy, University of Warwick

This is the first dedicated biography of the radical Irish writer and political activist, Eva Gore-Booth. A vast body of material from private collections and state archives has been used to uncover this remarkable life history.

Born into West of Ireland Anglo-Irish landed gentry, Gore-Booth dramatically rejected her aristocratic heritage, choosing to live and work amongst the poorest classes in industrial Manchester. Her pioneering work on behalf of barmaids, circus performers, flower sellers and pit-brow lasses is traced here with clarity and enthusiasm. The story of Gore-Booth's life is captivating and provides new insights into key political issues of early twentieth century Ireland and Britain. A prolific author who enjoyed a place within W.B. Yeats' literary circle, Gore-Booth also fostered a well-deserved reputation as a determined and successful political activist, at one stage defeating no less an adversary than Winston Churchill. This ground-breaking book reveals Gore-Booth’s experiences of militant pacifism during the Great War, her campaign to reprieve Roger Casement's death sentence, her instrumental role in the fight for sexual equality in the English workplace and her unwavering struggle for Irish independence. Her close bond with her sister, Countess Markievicz, an iconic and sometimes divisive Irish nationalist, offers the reader a new dimension into Markievicz's personal life.

Comprehensive and engaging, this book establishes Eva Gore-Booth as a significant player in Irish and British politics and as a major figure in literary, women’s and trade union history."

The central contention of this article is that early nineteenth-century Irish landlords were constrained in their ability to control their estates by the prospect of peasant resistance. The apex of that resistance took the form of what are generically known as whiteboy movements, and this article examines the impact of one particular such movement, the Whitefeet, active in the East Midlands and SouthEast in the early 1830s. The article argues that two forms of landlord versus tenant conflicts can be identified: an absolute form, in which landlords (or subletting rentiers called middlemen) behaved as if they had absolute rights over their properties and were the victims of retaliatory violence; and a negotiated form, in which landlords (or their agents) proceeded in a more restrained, and piecemeal fashion, and compromised in the face of opposition. The fact that the magistracy, at least in some instances, condemned the practitioners of absolute conflict would suggest that more measured approaches were the socially accepted norm, precisely because of the potential for retaliatory violence. The article will conclude with a discussion framing the foregoing in terms of moral economy. It will be argued that the balance between landlord power and tenant resistance created a grudging acceptance of respective rights.

This paper aims to manifest the ways in which Colm Tóibín deals with Irish nationalism and culture through the memories of his protagonist in 'The Heather Blazing'. Drawing on his own and his father’s childhood memories as well as his first-hand experiences of working as a journalist at the Irish Supreme Court, Tóibín creates a fictional realm which is sharply divided by the conflicting perspectives of the past and present Irish societies. This realm is embodied in the protagonist, Eamon Redmon, a high court judge. As a figure who was raised at the core of nationalist ideology and Catholic conservatism, Redmon is unable to establish an identity which fits the modernized and liberalized Irish community of the late Twentieth century. His mind is replete with the vestiges of Irish nationalist spirit and conservative culture as revealed through the narratives of his memories. Even though he seems to have abandoned his religious and nationalist views, his memory functions as a secure store which he recurrently visits. In his memory, concepts of moral / cultural conservatism and patriotism are personified in his father and Éamon De Valera, the prominent Irish politician after whom Redmon is named. From a broader perspective, Redmon’s personal memory represents the collective memory of the whole Irish nation which has been transformed into an internationalized / liberalized secular country while arguably bound to its traditional identity.

In pre¬-famine Ireland two million or approximately or 25% of the people lived in decrepit housing, suffered from abject poverty while surviving on a diet consisting almost entirely of potatoes. Very little work was available and was very poorly paid. The situation in pre-famine Galway was reported as being particularly weak. The evidence suggests that there was little, if any, planning and that social unrest and fears of spread of disease were necessary to secure the provision of relief or welfare. The Grand Jury failed to provide any funding towards the County Infirmary which was closed to the townspeople. The Mendicity Institute, the Magdalen Asylum and the Galway workhouse were based on combinations of religious, moral or economic philosophies which did not have the welfare of the people at the centre of their ethos or vision. In these conditions it is reasonable to conclude that the available welfare failed to meet the needs of the poverty stricken which was to have disastrous consequences into the future.

Sunday Times 13 July 2014

In Justine McCarthy's article about Joyce McSharry, who was separated from her mother in the Bethany Home in 1951, the solicitor David Phelan of Hayes & Sons disclaimed knowledge of an irregular 'Adoption Agreement' written by the firm (Quest for lost mother ends at graveside, News, last week).
    In the 'Agreement' Ralph Walker of Hayes & Sons, nephew of Bethany Home residential secretary Hettie Walker, was named as the 'attorney' of Joyce's mother, Emily Sheppey.
    This was so as to arrange a future legal adoption without consulting Emily.
    Derek Leinster and I wrote to Hayes & Sons between 2010-11.
    The firm also wrote the 'Adoption Agreement' which saw Derek handed to a dysfunctional family in 1945.
    In 2011 a representative volunteered without explanation that he approached a retired partner to see if he could shed light on the mystery. The person concerned is a son of the Bethany Matron. She witnessed the 1951 'Agreement' and remained as matron until the home closed in 1972.
    He too was “not aware of the existence of any records relating to Bethany Home”.
    I wrote again on July 3 with regard to the Emily Sheppey 'Agreement', indicating that this indicated ongoing engagement between the home and the firm.
    I am informed that such documentation should not be destroyed and also that, if destroyed, a record would normally be kept.
    Mr Phelan wrote to me at 8.39pm on Friday July 4th that unsuccessful "searches have been carried out", and that therefore "there is nothing more we can do".
    I suggested to Mr Phelan that "If the documents have been removed from your firm you are unlikely to find them in it".
    I also asked Mr Phelan to consider calling in the authorities if he concludes that important documentation was removed in a possibly unauthorized manner.
    Whatever he decides, Children separated from their parents in the Bethany Home would appreciate if Mr Phelan could provide them with more information.

Niall Meehan, Faculty Head, Journalism & Media, Griffith College Dublin.

The book is a synthesis of archaeological work in the Belfast area, tracing human activity from the Mesolithic to the present day.

The most important sites in the city and surrounding area are described, and following an examination of the plentiful evidence for prehistoric activity four main phases of nucleated settlement identified, beginning with the Anglo-Norman settlement in the 13th century.

One site is chosen from each chronological period for more detailed analysis.  These are: The Giant's Ring, Shankill Church and Graveyard, the three castles that once stood in Belfast city centre, the late 17th century 'Potthouse' (pottery) and the Ballymacarrett Glassworks.
There are full references in the text to each site discussed .  An appendix listing excavations carried out in and around Belfast and a detailed archaeological bibliography of Belfast are provided at the end of the book.

Published by Tandem in 2011.

In response to a paper I delivered at the "Institutions and Ireland: Medicine, Health, and Welfare" conference at Trinity College, Dublin in January 2016, I was generously invited to contribute to the "Perceptions of Pregnancy" blog. In this post I offer an account of the political and aesthetic ends to which references to Ireland’s Lock hospitals and the discourses of sexual hygiene with which they were enmeshed are deployed in the writings of James Joyce and Oliver St John Gogarty.

"Perceptions of Pregnancy" is an interdisciplinary and international network for researchers working on fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, which grew out of the "Perceptions of Pregnancy: From the Medieval to the Modern" conference, held at the University of Hertfordshire from 16-18 July 2014. The network and associated blog are run by Dr Jennifer Evans and Dr Ciara Meehan of the School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire.

The "Perceptions of Pregnancy" site is an extremely valuable and ever-evolving resource for scholars and general readers alike and is well worth a visit.

On 18 April 2019, by-stander Lyra McKee was killed while a group of teenagers and young men rioted against the PSNI in the Northern Irish city of Derry. During these riots, two masked gunmen of the “New IRA” fired up to ten shots at three PSNI Land Rovers. The recruitment of teenagers into the ranks of dissident Irish republicans has raised concern that a new generation of young adults born after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement is prepared to continue acts of political violence in Ireland. This article will examine the motivations and ideology of teenagers and young adults in dissident Irish republican organisations. It is based on a series of in-depth interviews with members of the dissident republican youth organisation Na Fianna Éireann in the Dublin region. The interview data show four broad motivational factors for teenagers and young adults to join the republican youth organisation, Na Fianna Éireann, in the Republic of Ireland. These four are: First, working-class background, with its related deprivation and social problems (such as criminality and drug addiction); second, the importance of family links and social networks; third, social media as an introduction to republicanism; and, fourth, fascination with Irish history.

This book chapter examines Herbert Remmel’s childhood experience which juxtaposed Hitler’s Germany and de Valera’s neutral Ireland. Born in 1936 in Cologne he experienced the war from the perspective of a child. As a fortunate nine year old, he escaped the bombed out Rhineland by taking advantage of a humanitarian operation involving the Irish Red Cross and the Save the German Children Society (SGCS). He landed off the mail-boat from Liverpool at Dun Laoghaire in Dublin on 27 July 1946 as a member of the first group of approximately 80 German children arriving under the scheme. Herbert’s experiences with his two Irish foster families instilled in the young German boy a deep and intimate appreciation of Ireland, its society, the Irish sense of place, the people’s traditions, the Irish rural way of life and Irish nationalism. Though only in Ireland for just under three years, the interlude was indelibly imprinted on his being and identity. His experience granted him rare insights into both his native fatherland, Germany, and his fostering motherland, Ireland.

This book looks at the impact of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, the greatest flu the world has ever known, on Irish society and politics, at a time when that society was going through the trauma of the war and the rapid move towards independence. The book also looks at contemporary medical understanding of the disease, and how it punctured the new-found confidence of the medical profession in bacteriology, as how they failed  to find an effective treatment.  Most poignantly, it looks at the patient experience of disease, through a series of oral history interviews,  seeing how families sometimes lost several members, and economic circumstances were often changed by the loss of one or both parents. It tells the story of small children who survived against the odds, and lived well into their nineties or hundreds to tell the tale.  The story of the pandemic in Ireland interweaves with the other contemporary significant events in Irish society, and its impact on these events has curiously been largely ignored. Throughout, the work sets the Irish experience of the pandemic in an international context. Review of Stacking the Coffins here: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526122698/

One hundred years after the influenza pandemic of 1918, scholars continue to assess the medical history, public health response, and social impact of the disease. Milne (Maynooth Univ., Belfast), however, is the first to publish a full-length treatise of the 1918 influenza in Ireland, examining the ways the illness politically affected Ireland's move toward independence; influenced public health decisions and delivery; and radically altered the lives of individual Irish people, still reeling under the trauma of the First World War. Based on Milne's 2009 doctoral dissertation, this text demonstrates an admirable and comprehensive understanding of previous work on the epidemic, including Alfred Crosby's benchmark study America's Forgotten Pandemic (2nd. ed., 2003); Niall Johnson's Britain and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic (2006); and Jeffery Taubenberger's genetic research of the virus (included in the anthology The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19, edited by Howard Phillips and David Killingray, 2003). Milne also adeptly handles novel primary research, including a close study of contemporary Irish newspapers and oral history interviews with survivors and family members of victims.'
D. A. Henningfeld, emerita, Adrian College, Choice
Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers

'Milne brilliantly reports on interviews she has done with survivors or with the families of people who died in the pandemic. Her material, collected in 2006 is unique, and gives an understanding of the contemporary suffering and long-lasting pain associated with bereavement that cold statistics cannot give.'
Professor Svenn-Erik Mamelund, Oslo Metropolitan University

'Stacking the coffins is a superb new book on how this influenza affected Ireland. [.] I cannot recommend it enough.'
Dr Maurice Gueret, Editor of the Irish Medical Directory

'The Irish part of the disease's global history has long been overlooked, as have the experiences of the families and communities it afflicted. By telling their stories, Milne's thorough book makes an important contribution to our social and medical history.'
Christopher Kissane, The Irish Times

'Stacking the Coffins is an excellent and very accessible study of a crisis that can be over­shadowed in hindsight by the drama of war and political upheaval, but which had a profound impact on those who lived through it. By taking a genuinely holistic approach, it illuminates much besides its subject matter. It is a study of a society in the grip of a crisis and, as such, offers a significant and distinctive contribution co an understanding of Irish life in a period usually defined by its revolution.'
John Gibney, Books Ireland, November 2018
'Long in the making, this is the definitive study of a major but largely neglected disaster that ravaged Ireland a century ago. Milne tells the story with empathy, objectivity, and flair. She is thorough and convincing on the Great Flu's peculiar demography and on its chronology and geography, and excellent also on how officialdom tried to cope with the crisis and on how the politics of the day influenced the discourse around it. A real highlight is the chapter on the oral history of the Flu, which includes interviews with a few centenarians! A very fine book on an important topic.'
Cormac Ó Gráda, author of Ireland: A New Economic History and Famine: A Short History

'"Take regular meals to keep the body in peak condition, and if you get home wet or late take a hot glass of lemonade immediately. Inhale eucalyptus from a piece of cotton wool several times a day. Go to bed immediately if you get the flu." Such was the medical advice in the midst of the 1918 influenza epidemic, Ida Milne reports, which would have provided little solace in the face of the worst holocaust of disease in modern times. Milne has produced a fascinating account, based on meticulous and wide-ranging research, including oral histories, of responses to this epidemic in Ireland. The chapter dealing with oral histories is particularly poignant and priceless. In this book, Milne explores the ways in which the epidemic penetrated and impacted on all aspects of Irish society, at a time when the country was going through rapid and sometimes traumatic societal and political changes. The book makes an important contribution to the modern social history of health and medicine and to the history of Ireland in the twentieth century. Throughout she ponders: "why was a disease that dominated the columns of newspapers, was so immersed in the popular psyche, connected to the growing nationalism, a disease which was part of a big international story, left out of Irish historiography for almost 100 years?" Milne admirably remedies that omission.'
Professor Linda Bryder, University of Auckland

'Stacking the Coffins is an important new addition to the social history of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Milne carefully uncovers the ways in which influenza heated a bubbling stew of war, politics, and a failing medical system in Ireland. Stories of suffering told by survivors bring human voices and experiences to the cold count of 20,000 Irish dead. The survivors' vivid memories, and Milne's meticulous mining of archival sources, reveal a forgotten crisis that ruptured families and played a role in reconfiguring twentieth-century Irish society.'
Ann Herring, Professor Emerita, McMaster University

'The first-hand memories of over 25 people who lived through Ireland's "Black Flu" alone make this book moving, dramatic and engrossing reading.'
Howard Phillips, University of Cape Town, author of 'Black October': The Impact of the Spanish Flu Epidemic on South Africa

Chapter 3 of 'The Irish Women's Movement: From Revolution to Devolution'.

Second Wave Feminism and Equal Rights:
Collective action through established means






Introduction

A second wave of feminism consolidated in Ireland in the 1970s and has lasted for over three decades.  This part of the book provides an empirical analysis of the contemporary women's movement, over the following stages of transformation: 1. a period of rapid Advancement, at the level of national women's organisations and networks, through the example of the CSW (developed here in chapter three);  2. a parallel expansion of grass-roots radical activism, notable in the emergence of the vociferous Irish Women's Liberation Movement (chapter four) and, later, Irish Women United (chapter five), in the 1970s;  3. the Re-appraisal of the established women's movement from within which occurred during the 1980s (chapter six);  and 4. New Directions evident in the mobilisation of women in the community sector and the consolidation of women's studies, from the 1980s and into the 1990s (chapter seven). 

Consideration of activism in the abeyance cycle demonstrates the importance of pre-existing links and organisational ties among individuals to collective action.  The feminist network of the women's movement from the middle of the century especially affected the resurging, second wave movement in a number of ways.  In particular, it was the direct catalyst for the setting up of the ad hoc committee on women's rights in 1968, which resulted in the establishment of the First Commission on the Status of Women in 1970 and led to the formation of the Council for the Status of Women (CSW), in 1972.  Many participants in the women's movement from the 1940s continued to be active in the resurgent contemporary movement - particularly in the ad hoc group and then the CSW and its affiliate organisations.  Apart from large cultural and social organisations (like the ICA), the women's movement was consistently maintained since independence by atypical groups of women and small organisations which were significantly constrained by wider social and political conditions, integral to the State building agenda.  Countless campaigns in this period were driven by organisations who were capable of articulating and framing organised opposition to the State's prevarication on women's rights.  The long-term actions of these organisations was the main catalyst in the widespread mobilisation of what was termed a women's rights sector, a major strand of  second wave of feminism in Ireland, the emergence of which is traced in this chapter.
Organisations that produce a collective social movement can take the form of social networks among grass-roots activists as well as more formal organisational structures (Killian, 1984).  The formation of an ad hoc committee on women's rights in 1968 strengthened an existing women's rights network, already in evidence for some decades.  A more widely shared political orientation and collective identity, constrained in the middle years of the century, was animated by the late 1960s.  Long-standing activists remained active in both organisations that had been established for some decades and in a plethora of new organisations with a conscious reformist agenda, that emerged throughout the 1970s.  The skills of women in long-standing organisations were an important catalyst in the formation of contemporary groups and the expansion of a broader base of the women's movement in this period.
These trends are especially evident in the gradual consolidation of the Council for the Status of Women/now the National Women's Council (CSW) which became the chief interest group representing women's organisations in Ireland.  The commitment and active participation of activists constitutes the main resource of any social movement.  This is particularly true in the case of the women's movement which until the 1960s remained devoid of adequate material and financial resources.  Apart from the CSW, two other urban-based organisations became particularly prominent in the public arena of Irish feminist politics in the 1970s:  the IWLM (Irish Women's Liberation Movement), formed in 1970 primarily by a small group of journalists, left wing and professional women, which had proliferated by 1972;  and the more radical IWU (Irishwomen United) which emerged in 1975 for a period of about eighteen months (and was the main catalyst for the formation of the CAP (Contraceptive Action Campaign) in 1976, the first Rape Crisis Centre in 1977 and the first Women's Right to Choose group in 1979).  A number of organisations, frequently in the form of small consciousness raising groups, single issue campaigns or with the function of providing services for women, emerged from these core radical organisations in the 1970s.  This chapter deals specifically with the expansion and affiliates of the CSW in the 1970s, and subsequent chapters deal with the IWLM (chapter four) and IWU (chapter five).

As Maynooth College celebrates its 225th anniversary, this beautifully-presented volume captures an institution that has held a singular place in modern Irish church history. Delve into the stories, the reminiscences, the history of this alma mater to thousands, as it evolved and re-imagined itself across the four centuries spanning its existence. With contributions by current and former faculty and alumni, including Enda McDonagh, Eamon Martin, Mary O'Rourke, Susan McKenna-Lawlor, Frank McGuinness, Evelyn Conlon, Liam Lawton, Gerard Gillen, and many more.

Centuries of Childhood was a multidisciplinary conference exploring the history of children and childhood in Ireland and beyond from the late sixteenth century onward. Hosted by the DCU School of History and Geography, it took place on 15-16 June 2018 on the DCU St Patrick's Campus in Dublin, Ireland. The conference featured speakers from universities in Ireland, Britain, Germany and India.

This book, co-edited with Mark O'Brien, presents an overview of political communication in the Republic of Ireland from a multiplicity of perspectives and sources. It brings together academics and practitioners to examine the development and current shape of political communication in modern Ireland. It also examines what the future holds for political communication in an increasingly gatekeeper-free media landscape.

The field of political communication, where journalists, public relations professionals and politicians intersect and interact, has always been a highly contested one fuelled by suspicion, mutual dependence and fraught relationships.

While politicians need the media they remain highly suspicious of journalists. While journalists remain wary of politicians, they need access to them for information. For most of the time, what emerges is a relatively stable relationship of mutual dependence with the boundaries policed by public relation professions.

However, every so often, in times of political crisis or upheaval, this relationship gives way to a near free-for-all. Politicians, spokespersons and sometimes even journalists, become fair game in the battle for public accountability and support. The determination of public relations professions to avoid this and keep the relationship based on mutual dependence has become a central component of modern statecraft and systems of governance. The need to keep politicians and the media ‘on message’ and use the media to inform, shape and manage public discourse has become central to the workings of government, opposition and interest groups.

On the other hand, the packaging of politics has potentially troublesome implications for the democratic process. In the era of the instant news cycle, new technologies and constant opinion polling, just where does information end and misinformation begin? With millions being spent annually on advisors and ‘spin-doctors’, just where does media access end and media manipulation begin?

Despite  modern  writers  noticing  the  importance  of  Premodern  historiographical  phenomena  for  a  deeper  comprehension of both Theory of History and History of Historiography,  the  Irish  contribution  to  the  subject  is  often  left  aside.  Topics  such  as  the  Seanchas  Tradition  and  Medieval  Irish  Classicism  are  not  well  integrated  into  such  historiographical  narrative.  The  Seanchaidh, the  Irish  Artifex  of  the  Past,  for  example,  is  broadly  mentioned as not a historian, but a chronicler, antiquary, genealogist, hagiographer or pedigree systematizer. This article addresses these issues and, more specifically, we focus  on  two  Irish  narratives  produced  in  7th  century  by  Muirchú  and  Tírechán.  Since  they  belong  to  the  world  of  orality  and  bilingual  literacy  of  Early  Christian  Ireland,  perhaps  their  works  could  be  understood  as  bounded  by  the  Seanchas  Tradition  and  Medieval  Irish  Classicism,  hence,  both  could  be  considered  as  great  examples  of  the  producers  of  History  and  Historiography at the time.

The War of Independence (1919-21) and Civil War (1922-23) form a defining period
in Irish history.  During these turbulent years the foundations of the Irish Republic
were laid by a guerrilla warfare which at first united the majority of the Irish people
against British forces but later split them apart in a bitter civil war.  This chapter
forms part of an on-going project in which I am attempting to understand various
aspects of women’s participation and experiences in the campaign for Irish self
determination.