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Head Shaving during Ireland’s War of Independence
By Conor Heffernan Troops storm into the house and forcibly evicting those inside. Screams of terror emanate from the house, growing louder and louder with each moment. Soon the house will be set on fire. In the melee that ensues, troops single out a woman known for collaborating with the enemy. Held down at gunpoint,…
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‘Paying it forward’: Bonds of giving between Ireland and the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Navajo Nations from the Irish Famine to COVID-19.
By Aoife O’Leary McNeice (@aolmcn) In the mid 1840s and early 1850s, Ireland was ravaged by a Famine which, through a combination of death and emigration, saw the population fall by a third. The horrors of the Famine were reported globally, and the crisis, unfolding in almost real time in the newspapers of readers worldwide prompted…
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Replicating past mistakes? The Irish government, survivors, and the mother and baby homes report
Aoife O’Leary McNeice (@aolmcn) On January 13 2021 the Irish Taoiseach Michéal Martin made a public apology to the survivors of mother and baby homes. ‘It is the duty of a republic’ he said, ‘to accept parts of our history which are deeply uncomfortable’. Martin’s predecessors made similar apologies. In May 1999, then Taoiseach Bertie…
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19. A ‘Festive’ Anti-Divorce Pamphlet from 1980s Ireland
By Kate Collins The 1980s saw divorce, long prohibited in Ireland, become a topic of national debate. Article 41.3.2 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, the country’s 1937 Constitution, explicitly stated that ‘No law shall be enacted providing for the grant of a dissolution of marriage’, meaning that a national referendum was needed to provide for legalisation.[1]…
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Bored Bluestockings and Frivolous Flirts: The Necessary Adaptations of Early Female University Students in Ireland
By Aoife O’Leary McNeice (@aolmcn) Female students were admitted to Queen’s College Cork (QCC) – now University College Cork – Ireland in 1886. One might imagine that these women were innovative and progressive, as they challenged the boundaries placed upon their gender by entering the predominantly male space of the University. But despite their pursuit of higher…
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