One hundred years ago this week, on 22 June 1921, the official opening of a new parliament within the the United Kingdom took place. After elections on 24 May across the newly created entity of “Northern Ireland” (made up of…
Author: Bruce Gaston
Two Northern Irish book reviews:
Paramilitary Loyalism: Identity and Change/A Difficult Birth: The Early Years of Northern Ireland, 1920–5
Richard Reed, Paramilitary Loyalism: Identity and Change (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015) Alan F. Parkinson, A Difficult Birth: The Early Years of Northern Ireland, 1920–5 (Dublin: Eastwood, 2020) As preparation for a guest lecture I gave at the University of…
A Short Biography of John Bulmer Hobson:
“The most dangerous man in Ireland”
John Bulmer Hobson was born on 14 January 1883 in Belfast and died on 8 August 1969 in Castleconnell, County Limerick. Unusually for an Irish revolutionary he actually came from a Protestant family. His family were Quakers, which is a…
Propaganda posters and postcards on Pinterest
![](<iframe loading="lazy" style="margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 22px;" src="https://assets.pinterest.com/ext/embed.html?id=207939707774124671" width="345" height="546" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><span style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span><span style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span></iframe>)
That’s a very alliterative title! I’ve been neglecting the Irish History Compressed Pinterest pages for quite a while now but just recently I’ve added some new pictures, all related to publicity campaigns/propaganda from the period of the Irish revolution. It’s meant to show many contrasting threads of opinion, so there are posters issued by Irish nationalists and Ulster Unionists, with a few others such as the ICA (who I hesitate to lump in with “Irish nationalists”, as their initial aims were quite different1). The one pictured here is interesting. I’ve never seen something like it before. I assume the rather odd promise not to conscript anyone into the Cumann na mBan sports days is simply a device to get a poster that prominently declares “NO CONSCRIPTION!” past the censor.
- As it happens, I’m reading The Irish Citizen Army by Ann Matthews (Mercier Press, 2014) at the minute. ↩
Malgorithms
This is kind of funny: Amazon is recommending my own book to me! If you’d like a copy, then follow this link.
Forthcoming: Σύντομη Ιστορία της Ιρλανδίας
The Greek translation of the Irish History Compressed e-book will be available within the next week or two from all the usual outlets. Όντας μία σύντομη εξιστόρηση των σημαντικότερων γεγονότων στην Ιστορία της Ιρλανδίας από την αρχαιότητα μέχρι τον 21ο…
De geschiedenis van Ierland in een notendop
Dit e-book, een korte geschiedenis van Ierland van de prehistorie tot de eenentwintigste eeuw, is bedoeld voor iedereen die snel inzicht wil krijgen in het onderwerp of die zijn kennis erover wil opfrissen. Dit beknopte maar bondige boek is in…
Forthcoming: De geschiedenis van Ierland in een notendop
The Irish History Compressed e-book has been translated into Dutch and will be published in the New Year. This translation joins the French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian versions, and will itself soon be joined by German and Greek translations. A…
Review of The Border by Diarmaid Ferriter
The Border: The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics Diarmaid Ferriter Profile Books London A combination of the Decade of Commemoration in Ireland and the shenanigans around a Brexit deal have led to a renewed focus on the…
Ulster v Eire: The Unification Question (1938)
An ex-colleague sent me this link. It’s apparently a contemporary newsreel, and the general tone is all very much of its time. It’s quite odd, though, and a bit inaccurate too. At 1 min. 28 they show what must be…