Ledwidge’s patron penned a moving tribute to him in ‘The Irish Times’ after his death
His death 100 years ago was a loss to Irish literature and to post-independence Ireland
Slane-born poet and soldier was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele
Dominance of sectarian ethos ‘had negative effects on realisation of ideas of Proclamation’
The children of the Easter Rising leader paid dearly for the price of Irish freedom
British soldier died on July 31st, 1917, the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele
Sale a ‘disgusting’ example of historical documents in private hands, says Ferriter
Unlike what followed, Messines was a rare military success
Efforts of Paddy Harte and Glen Barr to be remembered with commemorative plaque
Through the mists of time, the bloody Battle of Messines renders an unlikely friendship
War and illness tore the family apart in the late 19th and early 20th century
Separate event in Co Leitrim to remember an American soldier who died in WWI
Fighting for the British Empire: the story of the Irish who lost their lives needs to be told
Decade of Centenaries lets us tell the stories of Irish who fought in the first World War, writers Heather Humphreys
High enemy casualties made Allied leaders confident of success. But by the end of 1917 their own armies were close to collapse, writes David Murphy
A successful assault was the fruit of meticulous planning and the largest mine explosions ever, writes Tom Burke
The battle of the Somme was a new kind of battle, in a new kind of war, and overall it would claim some 1,000,000 casualties
The Tyneside Irish Brigade of the 34th Division suffered some of the worst casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme
The 16th Irish Division paid a terrible price for its heroics in the capture of the Frenchvillages of Guillemont and Ginchy in 1916
The deadly battles of Verdun, the Somme, and Salonika were fought in solidarity by the Allies to take pressure off each other
Irish Republican Brotherhood militants were a diehard lot motivated by heroic failure and blood sacrifice
The man who played a key role in organising the Rising was eclipsed for many years
A poet, playwright, journalist and teacher, Pearse had gained a degree of public prominence years before entering the GPO
Connolly’s tragedy was that his vision of a workers’ republic largely died with him in 1916, as the new independent Ireland became shaped by nationalist and conservative forces
‘The dragons of the past have not died and were only sleeping. Recent events have stirred them’ – George (AE) Russell
The first World War provided both the opportunity for Irish republicans to plan their revolt and evidence that their ambitions were not shared by the majority, writes Diarmaid Ferriter
Cinema had made household names of Charlie Chaplin and Jack Johnson but did did little to boost recruitment for the Great War
By autumn 1915, the first World War had raised tensions in the women’s movement
The Great War transformed our understanding of war, forcing writers to describe the world in new ways, and in a new language
There is no convenient canon of Irish war literature, like that which appeared in Britain, even though Ireland had three towering literary figures in Shaw, Yeats and Joyce at the time, working at the pinnacles of poetry, prose and drama
The evolution of modernist literature was intimately bound up with the shock and devastation of the war
Guillaume Apollinaire, France’s most acclaimed war poet, who was born in Rome to a Polish noblewoman, survived the trenches of the first World War only to be killed by Spanish flu at the age of 38
Redmond’s gamble that Irish nationalism’s support for empire in first World War would cement home rule proved terribly wrong, but Great War was still ‘our war’
There is little consensus on the actual number of Irishmen who were killed in the Great War. It is unlikely we will ever get a definitive reckoning
Almost 100 years on it is hard to imagine the carnage that ensued in this peaceful, Turkish seaside resort. Only the graves bear testament
In Dublin, a combative, ragtag coalition of feminists, socialists, trade unionists and just plain messers all did their bit for the anti-war effort
“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”– Otto von Bismarck (1888)
In the immediate aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sofia in Sarajevo, how Austria would react to the killing of the heir to the throne of the its empire was uppermost in European minds
In 1914, sports club members volunteered for ‘Pals’ battalions, and fought in one of the first World War’s bloodiest battles. A new immersive theatrical show remembers their catastrophic story
The response in the south at the outset of the first World War was one of support for the British war effort
Locked Out seeks to recall in all its complexity the 1913 events that marked the coming of age in Dublin of the Irish labour movement
President Michael D Higgins: ‘Knowledge of history is intrinsic to citizenship’
The 1907 strike in Belfast united Protestant and Catholic workers but by 1913 the sectarian divide was a barrier too strong to breach, writes Peter Collins
Labour activity and strikes in Galway and Sligo proved that the movement was not solely a Dublin phenomenon, writes John Cunningham
‘Stories’ is about the richness and complexity of history’s weave, and the part our relatives all played in it, for good or ill
Helen Molony was held as ‘an extremist of some importance’, a badge of honour for the Abbey actress turned trade union leader
Philip Walshe was shot dead in the Easter Rising, unaware that a ceasefire had been called
Opinion: Capital projects offer a chance to redress cultural neglect
Their struggle is our struggle: Women’s empowerment will progress only through their involvement in political processes and in shaping constitutions that guarantee the equal rights of all citizens.
Women often wielded authority at home 100 years ago, but as public figures in professions such as teaching and nursing they were becoming much more common.
In Dublin city in 1911, 26,000 families lived in tenements, 20,000 of them in single rooms
The big picture: The Irish women’s movement was created by unionists and nationalists, Home Rulers and republicans, liberals and socialists, Protestants, Catholics and women of no religion. They deserve a place in the history books.
The drama of the Home Rule Bill was to be an extraordinary curtain raiser to a decade that changed the face of modern Ireland
For a newspaper which largely represented the views of Protestants in southern Ireland, the move to introduce Home Rule was 'a conspiracy to interrupt and destroy the peace and prosperity of Ireland'
Social and economic conditions were improving for large sections of Irish society during the early years of the 20th century and the increasing prosperity fuelled a growing desire for political independence.
The introduction by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith of a third effort to grant Home Rule led to a increasingly bitter debate in the House of Commons, with the Unionist politicians hell bent on scuppering the proposal.
Browser review
Diarmaid Ferriter reviews ‘Havoc: The Auxiliaries in Ireland’s War of Independence’
A history of the little-known people who defied the political consensus in their churches
An analysis of the ‘crisis of liberalism’ warns that stability is not the European norm
Frank Shouldice draws movingly on private and official sources of an Irish Volunteer
A major study completes the picture of a man whose life story, in terms of achievement, obstacles overcome and unyielding integrity, was more extraordinary than Parnell’s
Alexandra Slaby’s beautifully written book forces one to reappraise recent Irish history and to see the extent to which this island has changed in the past 100 years
Paul A Townend looks at how analogies were made with Ireland’s centuries of suffering
Review: Poverty and land lie at heart of K Theodore Hoppen’s Governing Hibernia as he traces how Britain ruled Ireland
Catherine Merridale’s retelling of Lenin’s momentous journey is history come alive
Ireland’s best-known historical writer brushes aside scholarship in an uncritical narrative of the War of Independence and Civil War
Seán Enright looks at the well-meaning but inadequate judicial system put in place after 1916
Robert Gerwarth’s fascinating and finely crafted book is full of insightful observations
Ronan McGreevy beautifully demonstrates the process of how Ireland’s memory of war is changing
This is an important work about the first World War largely because of the material from which it draws
Over-indulgence in alcohol and noisy use of the chamberpot characterised social life among the not-so-genteel Georgian upper class in ‘the long 18th century’
Barely a novella in length, 1914 displays the authority of an historian and the humanity of a storyteller
A history of the red, white, blue and green challenges assumptions about Irish America
This great, mammoth collection shows how Irish revolutionary writers sang from one hymn sheet, writes Diarmaid Feritter
An eloquent study argues that Ireland should grasp this moment to revisit ‘Connolly’s way’
A visceral collection of pieces by modern Irish writers depicts another side of 1916
Insightful studies of the men who signed the Proclamation are undermined by lack of rigour
Scotland’s connections – and disconnections – to 1916 are explored in this provocative though sometimes simplistic collection of essays
The Sligo revolutionary and the Polish count were Dublin’s king and queen of Bohemia
A work of superb scholarship illuminates the ideas of a much misunderstood Rising leader
Manchán Magan, great-grand nephew of The O’Rahilly, on a son’s biography of the man who tried to stop the Rising but became the only rebel leader to be killed in action
The Canadian chief secretary emerges as an ambitious but well-intentioned, tragic figure, caught between Irish nationalism and Britain’s postwar political instability
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