On this day, after over a month of arduous and sometimes ill-tempered negotiation, delegates representing Dáil Éireann, the break-away Irish parliament, signed an agreement with the British government that brought to an end the political violence that had wracked Ireland…
Tag: Anglo-Irish Treaty
Book Review: Bitter Freedom: Ireland in a Revolutionary World 1918-1923
Bitter Freedom: Ireland in a Revolutionary World 1918-1923 Maurice Walsh Faber & Faber So much has been published about the Irish revolutionary period (1910-1923) over the course of the last few years that one has to be selective about…
Book Review: Fatal Path by Ronan Fanning
This book was published last year to much acclaim. There were lots of complimentary reviews, and I’m not going to dissent here from the majority view. Ronan Fanning is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at University College Dublin and this…
Significant Commas in Irish History
As well as teaching about Irish history, I teach English language and grammar, especially the written variety, which a lot of the time seems to mean teaching commas: where to put one, where not to put one, and why it…
Irish History Compressed’s Pinterest board on the Decade of Commemorations/Centenaries
There are so many images available online from the period 1912-1923 (the source of the ‘Decade of Commemorations/Centenaries’ I’ve written about before) that I decided to make a dedicated Pinterest board to store any that I find. Have a look, and if you like share and comment.
Treaty Port handover ‘just like yesterday’
Several of the Irish newspapers have been reporting another anniversary (though not a centenary, for once!): 75 years since the handing over to Irish control of what were referred to as “the Treaty Ports”. These were three deep-water navy bases…
Ireland’s Decade of Commemoration: A List of Anniversaries
For my own reference as much as anyone else’s I’ve drawn up a list of dates within the much-discussed ‘Decade of Commemorations’, aka ‘Decade of Centenaries’ (which seems to last more than ten years, but never mind): 1912 Introduction of…
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…