Irish History

Synge’s topographical essays appear here in their original newspaper and periodical publication form, taken from the Manchester Guardian, The Gael and The Shanachie, complete with illustrations, mostly by Jack B. Yeats. A substant…

In January 1972, a peaceful civil rights march in Northern Ireland ended in bloodshed. Troops from Britain's 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire on marchers, leaving 13 dead and 15 wounded. Seven of those killed were teen…

Ireland's top crime journalist traces the flood of cocaine into Ireland and those behind its unprecedented growth. From the first smugglers and their adventures on the high seas to the modern-day Instagram-loving gangsters, COCAIN…

Amidst the moments of seismic change in LGBTQ history in Ireland lie the stories of ordinary people, who did extraordinary things to change queer Ireland and Irish culture. Marking fifty years of the founding of an LGBTQ rights mo…

November 1983. Early morning in suburban south Dublin. Businessman Don Tidey is snatched from his car and the IRA has its latest kidnap victim.Weeks later he is tracked down to an isolated Leitrim wood, but in saving Tidey’s life …

Northern Ireland is one hundred years old. Northern Ireland does not exist. Both of these statements are true.It just depends on who you ask. How do you write about a place like this? THE STRANGERS' HOUSE asks this question of the…

In July 1927, at just thirty-five years old, Kevin O’Higgins was assassinated on his way to Mass in Booterstown, Co. Dublin. A reviled figure for anti-Treaty republicans, O’Higgins became the target of particular venom for his voc…

In 1983 twenty-four-year-old Catholic taxi driver Kevin Barry Artt was convicted and sentenced to life for Miles’ murder, falsely named by an IRA member-turned-jailhouse-informant. On his way to the Maze in handcuffs, Artt resolut…

Branded as ‘Bandit Country’ by the British government, South Armagh was the heartland of the Provisional IRA. It was the rebel Irish stronghold where Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy reigned supreme, bomb attacks on England were planned and t…

This selection of documentary photography by Billy Mundow matches monochrome images of Ireland from the 1960s to the words of Irish poets, recalling lost generations. Themes of a vanished world spool through the pages, capturing t…

During the War of Independence, faced with an armed insurrection it couldn’t stop, the British government introduced increasingly harsh penalties for suspected republicans, including internment without trial. This led to the incar…

The Royal Irish Constabulary are often portrayed as the villains of the War of Independence in Ireland, Irishmen who betrayed their country by serving the British regime. No memorial has been raised in Ireland to those who died du…

Tadhg Barry was the last high-profile victim of the crown forces during the Irish War of Independence. A veteran republican, trade unionist, journalist, poet, GAA official and alderman on Cork Corporation, he was shot dead in Ball…

There are violent events and murders in the history of every country and Ireland is no exception. Through the years, it has had its share of violent murders including the murder of its most famous victim, Ellie Hanley or the 'Coll…

In the summer of 1982, Irish aristocrat Malcolm Macarthur embarked on a brutal killing spree in a doomed plan to remedy his financial woes. Two weeks later, in a sensational turn of events, he was arrested in the home of Attorney …

Explore the lives of over forty men and women – great and otherwise – whose pioneering journeys beyond the Irish shore played a profound role in world history. The Irish have always been a travelling people. Since 1800 an estimat…

Born in Cloughjordan in Co. Tipperary, MacDonagh was a poet and playwright, an educator and political activist. Appointed to the IRB Military Council he became a member of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic and was a…

In the twenty-first century there are two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, and two very different heads of state represent the populations of Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively: the elected presidency of the republic…

Executed in Kilmainham Gaol on 8 May 1916, Michael Mallin had commanded a garrison of rebels in St Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons during Easter Week. He was Chief-of-Staff and second-in-command to James Connolly in th…

In this gripping memoir, Eamonn Mallie takes us on an extraordinary journey through his life as a journalist in Northern Ireland. From the frontlines of the Troubles to the corridors of power, Mallie’s fearless reporting and unrel…

One night in December 1972, Jean McConville, a mother of ten, was abducted from her home in Belfast and never seen alive again. Her disappearance would haunt her orphaned children, the perpetrators of the brutal crime and a whole …

First written down in the eighth century AD, these early Irish stories depict a far older world - part myth, part legend and part history. Rich with magic and achingly beautiful, they speak of a land of heroic battles, intense lov…

If you are looking for happy, positive or uplifting stories then this might not be the book for you. If, on the other hand, tales of human tragedy, executions, wars, grave-robbing, rioting, man-eating Kerry eagles, rat-eating Belf…

In 1993, aged twenty, Carmel Mc Mahon left Ireland for New York, carrying two suitcases and a ton of unseen baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction, to unpick the intricate traumas of her past and pres…

Shortlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction A brilliant work of historical true crime charting a pivotal event in the l9th century, the Phoenix Park murders in Dublin, that gripped the world and forever altered the c…

100s of personal testimonials, 1000s of teachers, 100s of 1000s of pupils… all connected through one organisation, Cumann na mBunscol. Caoga Bliain ag Fás is a story of ‘ordinary’ men and women who did extraordinary things, and th…

Níl aon dabht ach gur mhinic cogaíocht, ár agus sléacht le fáil i stair na hÉireann, agus is iomaí scéal ar a léithéid. Ach bhíodar ann i gcónaí a mhol slí eile don tír, slí na síochána. Má bhí uaireanta ann nár tugadh cluas dóibh…

Seán French was first elected to Cork Corporation in January 1920 with a paltry 73 first preference votes. In the turbulent period that followed he was arrested in September 1922 and served 13 months in Newbridge Internment Camp a…

Ireland is known worldwide as a country that produce emigrants. The existence of the Irish diaspora' is the subject of this fifth instalment of the 'Irish perspectives' collaboration between Pen and Sword and History Ireland. From…

For the Love of Ireland's Buildings takes us on a tour of our built heritage, from ancient monuments to Modern architecture. For over fifty years the iconic Roadstone Calendar celebrated Ireland's architectural treasures and trium…