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Politics
Easter 1916 | How Dublin’s Citizens Coped with Hunger During the Rising
Glasnevin Cemetery has, controversially, unveiled a wall of remembrance which lists the names of all those known to have died during the 1916 Rising. Critics claimed it was wrong to include the dead from both sides of the conflict.
But…
Easter 1916 | Looting and mayhem
As the sun rose on over Dublin city on Easter Monday 1916, few could have guessed it was the dawn of a day that would transform Irish life forever. After the rebellion that burst into flames that day, things would never be quite the same…
The Rising comes to life | Dublin exhibition gives telling glimpses
“Revolution 1916” is a vibrant new exhibition about the Rising, at the Ambassador Theatre in Parnell Square, Dublin.
Visitors are brought through each day of the Rising, and the main players involved. The information is broken down in a…
When Elvis Met Nixon
The movie Elvis & Nixon will be released next month. Directed by Liza Johnson, it tells the story behind the most requested photo from the US National Archives, of the meeting between Elvis Presley and President Richard Nixon on…
Sinn Fein’s history unrolls towards mainstream
As Ireland hunkers down for the 2016 general election, the prospects of Sinn Fein appear rosy. Journalist Deaglan de Breadun recently published a history of the party, concentrating on the rise in its fortunes in recent years.
The saying…
Grigori Rasputin, Russian Mystic
Grigori Rasputin, the man who would be labelled by history as the dark genius at the heart of the Russian court, was born a simple peasant in the West Siberian plain in 1869. In another country his family would have been considered…
Forty years on, Spain’s Franco still divides the country
The great celebration took place 40 years ago, in the winter of 1975. And across Spain the occasion was the death, after a lingering illness, of the diminutive dictator who had changed the face of the country: Francisco Franco Bahamonde.…
Noel Pemberton Billing and the Cult of the Clitoris
One of the more fun games historians play is constructing an alternate history - a view into the possible ways things could have happened differently. Usually a pivotal event in history is taken, a flimsy justification is found for making…
Gerda Munsinger and her Canadian Affair
It’s hard to pick out the truth, in the wake of a large public scandal. So much has been speculated on that it hides the actual facts. But it doesn’t help when one of the principals in the case is a mysterious figure, and one with no…
John Osborne, doctor and politician
John Eugene Osborne, future governor of Wyoming, was born in the state of New York in 1858. His parents were both immigrants - his father came from England, while his mother was Canadian. The family lived in the town of Westport which…