Tag: Irish Volunteers

Propaganda posters and postcards on Pinterest

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.


  1. As it happens, I’m reading The Irish Citizen Army by Ann Matthews (Mercier Press, 2014) at the minute. 

Book Review: Fatal Path by Ronan Fanning

Fatal Path book cover

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…

A Beginner’s Guide to the Irish Volunteers

“Aye, sor! Me, sor! Oi’ll do it, so I will!” What was that? Irish volunteering That’s not funny. Sorry. I’m paying attention now. Ask the standard questions then. What? A paramilitary organisation formed by Irish nationalists. When? November 1913. Where?…

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…

Roger Casement: traitor and hero

I just spotted a new article on the BBC’s website about Roger Casement, so I thought I’d link to it. The main ‘thesis’ is as follows: Author Angus Mitchell, who has written several books on Casement, believes he was not…

Book Review: The Outrages

The Outrages 1920-1922: IRA & Ulster Special Constabulary Pearse Lawlor MERCIER PRESS Cork According to the publishers: The Outrages gives an account of the major incidents, now slipping from local memory, as the War of Independence escalated from attacks on…