January 20th, 1916 The Irish Times: "A neutral who has just returned to Paris after a long stay in Germany publishes in Le Temps a remarkable article on the effects of militarism in that country. He states that General Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff (pictured) has obtained such an ascendancy over the Kaiser that he is to-day the most powerful man in Germany. 'A German said to me: our Sovereign is hypnotised by this General and is the victim of the physical ascendancy which the latter is able to exercise over him . . .' William II to-day is a prisoner of his military camarillo . . . kept in ignorance of the actual military situation.'"
Montenegro rejects all Austrian terms of peace. Fighting resumes on all fronts.
Nearly 500 convalescent soldiers from Dublin hospitals attend a special pantomime, The Forty Thieves, at the Queen's Theatre.
Among weekly book reviews (The Irish Times): " The Ivory Child (6/-) by Sir H. Rider Haggard gives us another story of his famous old hero, Allan Quatermain. It goes without saying that the large circle of readers who rejoice in wild and strange adventure will revel in the career of the indomitable hunter as he fights on from victory to victory in the mysterious land of the black and the white Kendah people which is located in Central Africa. These races, always at feud with each other, have a regular pitched battle, in which Allan and a few white friends perform great deeds, and finally destroy the terrible deity of the black Kendah, an elephant of prehistoric size named Jana. The book abounds in stirring adventure and is quite of the first order as a romance of the wild."
January 21st, 2016 UCD lecture: Prof Jay Winter (Yale University) at RIA, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin, at 4:30pm: "1916 and the Great War" – highlights the way the Kodak pocket camera transformed visual history of the conflict, by making the censorship of soldiers' photography a hopeless task. Free admission, booking essential.
Presbyterian Church of Ireland conference: "The Future of our Past: remembering and reassessing 1916." Contribution to the public debate around Easter Rising and the Somme, assimilated into the mythology of Irish history creating conflicting accounts of the past. Belfast: 10am-3.30pm at Assembly Buildings, 2-4 Fisherwick Place.Tickets from £12 (student) to £20 including lunch. Speakers: Fearghal McGarry and Keith Jeffery (QUB), Ruth Dudley Edwards, Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys and Eamonn Mallie