Heritage News | The Irish Times

‘I was trying to explain the Holly Bough to people who are not from Cork . . . it is like being asked to go on the Late Late Show.” Photograph: Holly Bough/Facebook

‘Christmas doesn’t start in Cork until the Holly Bough arrives’

Olivia Kelleher
December 24, 2019

Magazine has been a constant on Cork’s streets at Christmas since the 19th century

Minister for foreign affairs Brian Lenihan with An Ngoc Dung (2) and Van Quoc Thanh (3) at a party for Vietnamese refugees at Blanchardstown hospital, Co Dublin, in 1979. Photograph: Pat Langan/The Irish Times

When Brian Lenihan played Santa Claus for Ireland’s refugees

Una Mullally
December 24, 2019

From the Archive: A 1979 Christmas party for Vietnamese refugees saw coconut cake and Molly Malone

Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day-Lewis in Jim Sheridan’s 1989 film My Left Foot, based on the book by Christy Brown.

Thirty years ago, My Left Foot reinvented Irish film

Una Mullally
December 22, 2019

From the archive: Looking back at one of the greatest nights ever in Irish cinema

An application with Dublin City Council proposes to demolish the Kildare Street Hotel and replace it with a five-storey block over a two-storey basement

Georgian society seeks rejection of Kildare Street Hotel demolition

Olivia Kelly
December 17, 2019

Larry Goodman plan to demolish Georgian buildings would ‘erode’ Dublin heritage

Tara Street Baths, where about 50 children had been brought to be washed and newly clothed before being sent to England, on October 23rd, 1913. Photograph: Tom Lawlor

The day priests intervened to stop strikers’ children being sent to England

Una Mullally
December 15, 2019

From the archive: 50 boys and girls were brought to Tara Street Baths to be washed and sent away

Archaeological assistants uncover the fosse of the medieval Carrickmines Castle at Carrickmines, Co Dublin, in 2002. Photograph: Joe St Leger

Why have thousands of archaeological sites ‘disappeared’?

Mark Clinton
December 9, 2019

While the archaeologists have been busy finding new monuments of interest, the State has been busy facilitating their systematic removal

Late night Christmas shopping in Dunnes Stores in 1997. Photograph: Frank Miller

December 8th: The day when people ‘from the country’ came to Dublin to shop

Una Mullally
December 8, 2019

From the archive: December 8th used to mark the start of the Irish Christmas season

A view of Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.

Strong women, wealth and a boat disaster: The remarkable history of one Dublin building

Deirdre Falvey
December 7, 2019

Number 25 Fitzwilliam Place on the Georgian Mile offers a lesson on Ireland’s past

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Heritage Josepha Madigan and Zoe Reid of the National Archives attend a launch for the Beyond 2022: Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury research project. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times

Recreation of Irish archive lost in 1922 fire to get €2.5m boost

Conor Pope
December 5, 2019

Tributes paid at launch event to project’s co-lead who died on Mount Everest

Two days into the Civil War, an explosion destroyed the Public Records Office attached to the Four Courts in Dublin.

Retrieval of Irish archive lost in 1922 fire ‘astounding’, historian says

Ronan McGreevy
December 5, 2019

Four Courts fire at start of Civil War destroyed centuries of historic documents

The project at 15 Ushers Island in Dublin “will undermine, diminish and devalue a site of cultural heritage importance”, according to the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Joyce house hostel plan ‘cannot be contemplated’, says Minister

Jack Horgan-Jones
December 2, 2019

Plan for house featured in The Dead needs to be ‘reconsidered fully’

Danny La Rue as the Merry Widow Twanky in Aladdin at the London Palladium. File Photograph: PA Wire

When drag queens were first mentioned in The Irish Times

Una Mullally
December 1, 2019

From the archive: In 1971, Danny La Rue had just returned to his hometown of Cork for the first time in 18 years

The international breakout success of Rejjie Snow, a rapper from Drumcondra, Dublin, preceded another international breakthrough, the Cabra artist Kojaque. Photograph: Getty Images

Much more than ‘Paddy rap’: How the pioneers of Irish hip-hop made their mark

Una Mullally
November 24, 2019

From the archive: Scary Eire first appeared in The Irish Times on December 19th, 1992

Heinkel Kabine bubble cars line up at Dublin Port waiting for export. Photograph: Dublin Port Archive

Photographs emerge of futuristic bubble car once made in Dundalk

Ronan McGreevy
November 22, 2019

Images of the Heinkel Kabine vehicle are part of the new Dublin Port Archive

A portrait of Oscar Wilde hangs inside a cell as part of an exhibition at Reading Gaol in 2016. File photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The Ballad of Reading Gaol: Wilde enthusiasts lead campaign to save site

Patrick Kelleher
November 18, 2019

The prison where writer was incarcerated is of ‘symbolic importance’ to LGBTQ community

A garda requests a list of goods from a lorry driver at a checkpoint on the Dublin-Belfast Road at the Border in February 2001. Photograph: Ferran Paredes/Reuters

When foot and mouth disease ground Ireland to a halt

Una Mullally
November 17, 2019

From the archive: ‘A catastrophe looms,’ read The Irish Times editorial in March 2001

House of The Dead: the barrister Brendan Kilty saved 15 Usher’s Island from structural collapse

House of The Dead: What to do with Joyce’s literary landmark?

Hugh Linehan
November 16, 2019

If the core and front of the house are safe, does it matter what else gets built around it?

James Joyce’s House of the Dead at 15 Usher’s Island. File Photograph: Aidan Crawley/The Irish Times.

Hostel plan for Joyce’s House of the Dead ‘only viable option’

Shauna Bowers
November 11, 2019

Developer says development would include cultural facility dedicated to James Joyce

Apart from the therapy sessions which the Screamers engaged in they spent time working as a community, weaving, and driving home cattle. Photograph: Pat Langan

The Screamers: The story of a hippy commune in northwest Donegal in the 1970s

Una Mullally
November 10, 2019

From the Archive: The group who lived in Burtonport ‘found society pathetically wanting’

15 Usher’s Island: ‘not just another house connected with Joyce’

Minister rejects artists’ call for protection of Joyce’s ‘House of the Dead’

Shauna Bowers
November 8, 2019

Letter urges Government to ‘save’ 15 Usher’s Island after plans lodged to turn Dublin house into 56-bed hostel

The Irish Times Summer Nights festival: Join Anne Enright, Marian Keyes, Fintan O’Toole and more Series of online talks on July 13th-16th features Irish Times journalists and special guests

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Thomas Merton: the hermit who never was, his young lover and mysterious death

Katherine Ryan’s new Netflix series The Duchess is a none-too-distant cousin of Catastrophe or Motherland, both co-written by Sharon Horgan. Photograph: Oliver Upton/Netflix

Katherine Ryan: ‘I definitely felt shame as a single mother, the way people word things’

Fergus O’Farrell and the makeshift blue plaque, a spray-painted imitation of the ones erected by English Heritage to commemorate famous people, adorns the west wall of Brixton Prison. Photograph: ©Alan Slingsby/Brixton Media

Brixton remembers one of Ireland's most famous hunger strikers

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