Music to our ears – Paul Clements on 150 years of the Belfast Philharmonic Society
The Phil has survived two world wars, the Spanish flu pandemic, the partition of Ireland, three decades of the Troubles, and Covid-19
An Irish Diary
An Irish Diary
Shades of Gray — Brian Maye on pioneering idealist Sir John Gray
He was knighted for his contribution to the Vartry water scheme in 1863
No expenses spared – Alison Healy on a journalistic tradition
Expense claims were always ripe for a little embellishment
Early bird special — Alison Healy on a reign of aerial attacks
The car resembled one of Jackson Pollock’s finest abstract works
Escape artist — Harry Houdini in Ireland
Houdini confided to his wife Bess that his Belfast performance of 1909 was the toughest of his career to date
A Game of Two Calves (and several cows): Frank McNally on Patrick Kavanagh’s imagination, mysterious street names, and a bovine legend
On the stem of memory . . .
Detour de Force – Frank McNally on William Bulfin’s unwitting side-trip into literary history
We now know that Bulfin was in the Martello Tower at Sandycove, and that his hosts would later be immortalised in Joyce’s Ulysses
Barroom Bard – Frank McNally on the fictional Mr Dooley, whose thoughts were once required reading in the White House
Finley Peter Dunne first adopted the Hiberno-English patois in his newspaper columns as a defensive ruse, to confuse lawyers
The definite article – Brian Maye on Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, The O’Rahilly
Tragically, he was shot while leading a charge up Moore Street to protect the evacuation of the GPO
Into the light — Paul Clements on photographer Alexander Hogg
Hogg’s work stretched from the days of Victorian horse-drawn ambulances to the arrival of motor cars and aircraft
Friends in high places – John Mulqueen on Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington’s American tour
In addition to Eleanor Roosevelt, Sheehy-Skeffington met a number of prominent women during her coast to coast US tour, including three Congresswomen
Art Attack – Frank McNally on the dangers of passive exposure to art and culture
“Europe’s largest digital art screen” now occupies the front lawn of the Irish Museum of Modern Art
No-Ivy Day at the Committee Room - Frank McNally on an Oval Office mystery
Something is conspicuously missing
Old Mister Brenon - Frank McNally on a remarkable Dublin-born Hollywood director and his even more remarkable father
One judge was sufficiently impressed by Brenon snr to issue a backhanded compliment
Gnomes of Donegal - Frank McNally on William Allingham’s peculiar brand of Irishness
His verse revealed the temperament and spirit of Ireland
‘A feeling of confidence that I might one day be president’ – An Irish Diary on George Francis Train
Businessman was an inveterate traveller and thought to be the inspiration for Phileas Fogg
An Irish Diary on the St Patrick’s Day riots in 19th-century Toronto
Remembering the days when one-third of Toronto’s population was born in Ireland
An Irish Diary on the ‘different dimension of historic awareness’ unique to Wexford
Here you can understand why the Normans became attached to a new and bewildering culture
An Irish Diary on memorable gigs from John Denver in the RDS to Bruce Springsteen in Slane
'I lived in Navan, seven miles up the road from Slane, which officially made us the rock ‘n’ roll centre of the universe on June 1st, 1985.'
An Irish Diary on Edward Despard: the Irish officer who served in the British army but was executed as a revolutionary
A campaign by Despard’s wife, Catherine, ensured his imprisonment became the subject of a three-week debate in the House of Commons
Remembering Davoren Hanna: the work of the young disabled poet gave a sense of his wonderment with the world
Gifted Dublin writer had enormous charm and a `rascally sense of humour'
‘The worst mob scene I ever witnessed’ - Alison Healy on the chaotic opening of the Shamrock Hotel in Houston
A Time magazine reporter said the party “combined the most exciting features of a subway rush, Halloween in a madhouse and a circus fire”
An Irish Diary: How James Bond maligned Shannon Airport duty free
Ian Fleming wrote that Bond took a glance at the ‘junk’ in the airport shops including the ‘Brass Leprechauns’
`Alas! I am very sorry to say/That ninety lives have been taken away' Frank McNally on the `famously bad' poet William McGonagall
A poet so bad, as the Book of Heroic Failures puts it, “he backed unwittingly into genius”.
Moore the Merrier - Frank McNally on the commemoration of a famous Irish garden party from 1902
Three hundred invited guests attended a party that seemed to capture the zeitgeist of a new Ireland
Ché sara, Sara – Frank McNally on a mysterious Irish beauty who turned Casanova’s head
It was a humble barmaid who made the deepest impression on the Italian adventurer
What’s with the name? – Frank McNally on O’Doul, O’Day, and other nominal oddities of Irish America
Some Irish American surnames can seem almost plausible while also making your ears hurt
Far away, so close – Fionnuala Ward on measuring distance
It seems that distance, like time, is entirely measurable and yet also oddly subjective
The Derry man who influenced George Washington and Alexander Hamilton - Brian Maye on Hercules Mulligan
Tailor’s catering for officers and men in the British army gave him an access he would use to help the cause of American independence
The BBC’s national question: Frank McNally on Edna O’Brien and ‘the North of Ireland’
Author’s 1979 TV appearance included an implicit history and geography lesson for British viewers
Dictionary on the Double – Frank McNally on the enduring literary life of Patrick Dinneen
Lexicographer was described by profiler as “in some ways, as mad as a March hare”
‘This wonderful horse seems to have been as remarkable in death as in life’ – Frank McNally on an unbeatable stallion
Eclipse was sufficiently revered that his death created a market for relics not unlike that of saints in medieval times
‘Ireland, more than other countries, ought to be a country of trees’
As chatelaine of Coole Park for decades, Lady Gregory nursed and nourished the demesne’s extensive woodlands
‘The whole position in Europe is one of uncertainty and of menace’ – John Mulqueen on Éamon de Valera’s foreign policy
The Government’s prioritisation of peaceful co-existence echoes the position adopted by de Valera in 1932 when he became acting president of the Council of the League of Nations
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