The intellectual leader behind the Easter Rising of 1916, Pearse, born 10 November 1879, had qualified as a lawyer but his interests ranged widely beyond that. He was a proponent of both the revived Irish language and educational reform; combining…
Author: Bruce Gaston
The Loyal Dublin Volunteers: a forgotten organisation
History always brings up surprises. I’d never heard of this before. At its peak the LDV boasted a membership of some 2000 men. Many were of Ulster birth, some 768 men and women signed the Ulster Covenant and Declaration within…
Irish History Compressed on Pinterest
We’re on Pinterest now, under the url http://pinterest.com/irishhistory (“irishhistorycompressed” being – according to the website – too long for a name. This is the same problem as Twitter has, which partly explains the lack of an Irish History Compressed Twitter…
Just published: the Irish History Compressed ebook
Irish History Compressed, a short narrative overview of Ireland’s history from its beginnings to the modern day, is now available for download from Amazon’s Kindle Store. Further ebook formats will follow shortly. Click here to purchase Irish History Compressed on…
Reposted: Michael Collins: a short biography
Michael Collins was born in County Cork on 16 October 1890, and worked as a young man for several years in London, where he joined the secret society, the Irish Republican Brotherhood. After returning to Ireland in 1915 he fought…
Reposted: Éamon de Valera: a short biography
Éamon De Valera was born 14 October 1882 in New York to a Cuban father and an Irish mother, but returned to live with relatives in Bruree, County Limerick, as a small child. He studied mathematics and worked as a…
The Bombardment of the Four Courts and the beginning of the Irish Civil War, 28 June 1922
On this day ninety years ago, the newly formed army of the Irish Free State opened cannon fire upon the Four Courts, a large neoclassical building dominating the quayside in central Dublin. Their aim? To dislodge former colleagues from the…
Reposted: The Bombardment of the Four Courts, 28 June 1922
I decided to repost some content I wrote for other sites. Here’s the first, about the starting point of the Irish Civil War. (First posted here.)
Welcome to Irish History Compressed!
29th September 2012, the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant: a significant date for launching a new blog and publishing venture on Irish and Northern Irish history (can one ever really separate the two?). Strictly speaking, today…