An Irishman's Diary | The Irish Times

“While our physical horizons may have narrowed of late, our virtual ones have expanded dramatically. At least mine have. The lockdown has forced a crash course in remote technologies.” Photograph: Getty Images

Ring a Ring – Frank McNally on the shrinking (and expanding) circles of lockdown

Frank McNally
April 3, 2020

A 15th-century copy of Boccaccio’s The Decameron, which is set in 1348. Photograph: Getty Images

Sex, Lies, and Idiot Tales – Frank McNally on catching up with Boccaccio

Frank McNally
April 3, 2020

“I’ve always hated shopping, long before it was an official health risk.” Photograph: Getty Images

Distance learning – Frank McNally on the revelations of lockdown

Frank McNally
April 2, 2020

“Just as the display of holy pictures in a house does not guarantee the inmates are leading lives of piety, so the display of literary iconography in bars does not imply a devotion to actual reading.” Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Through a Glass, Darkly – Frank McNally on the mythology of Dublin pubs

Frank McNally
April 2, 2020

Siobhán McKenna in 1967, the year she appeared in Brian Friel’s play The Loves of Cass Maguire. Photograph: Dermot Barry

‘Filth’ at the Abbey – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Siobhán McKenna and Archbishop McQuaid

Emer O’Kelly
March 30, 2020

Burying plague victims. Miniature by Pierart dou Tielt (Tournai, circa 1353).

Witness to catastrophe – An Irishman’s Diary on the Black Death in Ireland and Franciscan friar John Clyn

Ronan McGreevy
March 29, 2020

St Fridolin (detail) by Albrecht Dürer (1514). Courtesy of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

A light in the darkness – An Irishman’s Diary on St Fridolin

Oliver O’Hanlon
March 27, 2020

Rinville Park, Oranmore, Co Galway. File photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy

Out on a limb – An Irishwoman’s Diary on National Tree Week

Mae Leonard
March 26, 2020

F Scott Fitzgerald: his debut novel was published one hundred years ago today. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

This Side of Paradise – An Irishman’s Diary on the Irish connections to F Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel

Laurence Fenton
March 26, 2020

A memorial erected in 1965 in Blum, Texas, to the memory of Philip Nolan (1771–1801), a Belfast-born horse trader, freebooter and one of the earliest filibusters

A freebooting son of Ulster – An Irishman’s Diary on Philip Nolan, Texas, and the filibusters

Tim Fanning
March 24, 2020

The urge to snack has led to many a mishap. Photograph: Getty Images

There’s many the slip – An Irishwoman’s Diary on mishaps

Alison Healy
March 23, 2020

The English village of Eyam quarantined itself to save others in 1665. Photograph: Getty Images

Isolation – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Eyam, the plague village that quarantined itself

Margaret Hickey
March 23, 2020

Photograph: Getty Images

Words to Live By (two metres apart) on World Poetry Day 2020

Frank McNally
March 21, 2020

The corner is in one of the most historic parts of Dublin

Corner Cuttings – Frank McNally on a sobering week from Kilmainham to California

Frank McNally
March 19, 2020

Daniel Defoe: It’s probably just as well he didn’t live to see WhatsApp. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Tippling Point – Frank McNally on similarities between the coronavirus crisis and the Great Plague of 1665

Frank McNally
March 18, 2020

Northwest Passage, a painting by W Thomas Smith. Photograph: Ullstein Bild via Getty Images

Arctic exploration – An Irishman’s Diary on the Northwest Passage

Norman Freeman
March 17, 2020

Heroic feats in exploring the frozen wastes

The Senedd, home to the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, is lit up for St Patrick’s Day. Photograph: Alistair Heap/PA

When the saints go marching in – An Irishman’s Diary on Patrick, Declan and Elvis

Paddy Murray
March 16, 2020

‘St Ailbe has a solid claim to be our national saint’

Edna O’Brien, Fr Michael J Kelly SJ, and Mary Elmes. Photograph: Courtesy of An Post

Sharing a stamp – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Fr Michael J Kelly and Edna O’Brien

Margaret Ward
March 16, 2020

The 2020 Cheltenham Festival. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Horse Sense – Frank McNally on ides and idiots of March

Frank McNally
March 13, 2020

Photograph: Getty Images

Quare de Lune – Frank McNally on half-boiled potatoes, full moons, and Myles na gCopaleen

Frank McNally
March 12, 2020

‘And there it was – the white circle in a slice of a half-boiled potato’

Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Megaphone Call – Frank McNally on a curse of public spaces

Frank McNally
March 11, 2020

‘Like most journalists, and humans in general, I enjoy a good eavesdrop on occasion’

The Percy French memorial artwork in Newcastle, Co Down, designed by Andrew Todd. Photograph: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/PA

French Connections – Frank McNally on philosophy, the Mountains of Mourne, and women’s art

Frank McNally
March 10, 2020

Milltown cemetery in Belfast. Photograph: iStock

West Belfast reflections – An Irishman’s Diary on thresholds

Colm Keena
March 9, 2020

‘The republican plot affected me in a way I hadn’t seen coming’

James Bartholomew Blackwell: died 200 years ago on March 14th

A soldier and revolutionary who fought for France and Ireland – An Irishman’s Diary on James Bartholomew Blackwell

Brian Maye
March 9, 2020

“A Grand Concert for Ireland’s Cause” in March 1886 in aid of the Parnell Parliamentary Fund

Green, White, and Black – Frank McNally on the cross-ethnic coalition that helped turn Boston Irish

Frank McNally
March 6, 2020

Nasrin Sotoudeh is likely to spend the next 10 years in prison. She angered the Iranian government by defending women who tore off their headscarves in the 2018 protests.

Inspiring women – An Irishwoman’s Diary on International Women’s Day

Lara Marlowe
March 5, 2020

It is vital for girls and young women to have role models

Five unarmed civilians died and several more were injured in an incident that a future US president called the ‘foundation of independence’

No Tea Party – Frank McNally on Irish involvement in the Boston Massacre, a forerunner to US independence

Frank McNally
March 5, 2020

Jeremy Williams, at Portmagee, Co Kerry, in 1977. Photograph: Jochem Jourdan, from the cover of Jeremy Williams: One of a Kind (Lilliput Press)

Just Williams – Frank McNally on a tribute to the late Jeremy Williams: artist, architect, and renaissance man

Frank McNally
March 3, 2020

“The cartoonist has come in from the cold.”

Cartoon Irishman: Martyn Turner on belatedly becoming a new citizen

Martyn Turner
March 2, 2020

An Irishman’s Diary on a 51-year journey into Irishness

Emma Gifford: first met Thomas Hardy 150 years ago on March 7th

An old flame that burned bright – An Irishman’s Diary on Thomas Hardy and Emma Gifford

Tim Atkinson
March 2, 2020

The “cure” involved a rubber ball, filled with carbolic acid, the fumes of which users inhaled to flush any badness out of their systems. Photograph: iStock

Out of puff – Frank McNally on a ‘cure’ for flu that made legal history

Frank McNally
February 28, 2020

Patrick Dignam: a real-life Dubliner, he was killed in the crossfire of Easter Week

How Joyce paid the ferryman

Frank McNally
February 28, 2020

Frank McNally on the man who never visited Dublin but landed a key role in Ulysses

The Felons of Our Land – Frank McNally on the various lives of a republican ballad

Frank McNally
February 26, 2020

The US boxer John Carmel Heenan fighting England’s Tom Sayers in 1860

Fury Brothers – Frank McNally on the history of boxing, James Joyce, and the curse of cold Guinness

Frank McNally
February 25, 2020

John Mitchel: his opposition to the ethnic Catholicism preached by Archbishop of New York John Hughes among Irish Catholics in America stemmed from his belief that it prevented the immigrant Irish from fully integrating into what was an already challenging nativist-dominated environment

Unholy row – An Irishman’s Diary on John Mitchel and Archbishop John Hughes

David Collopy
February 24, 2020

Controversy erupted over place of the Irish in America

Stephen Joyce: nowhere, outside the Godfather movies, was the word ‘family’ intoned with such gravitas and deliberation

The words many a journalist dreaded hearing: ‘This is Stephen Joyce’

Terence Killeen
February 23, 2020

James Joyce’s grandson was intelligent but did not possess any strong literary appreciation

“Haitches” are a particular source of anxiety in England. Even in these phonetically egalitarian days, the dropping of H-bombs on BBC can still trigger would-be champions of the Queen’s English. Photograph: Thoth Adan/IStock

Haitch-Block Breakout – Frank McNally on the relentless rise of the Irish ‘H’

Frank McNally
February 21, 2020

The Cimitero Acattolico in Rome. Photograph: iStock

Hungry Ghosts – Frank McNally on the Roman festival of Feralia

Frank McNally
February 20, 2020

An English republican flag made its first public appearance at the Spa Field Riots of 1816. Photograph: Oleksii Liskonih/iStock

Reflections on the Revolution in England – Frank McNally on a 200-year-old plot to establish a republic in London

Frank McNally
February 20, 2020

As for the sentence-ending prepositions John Dryden didn’t like, he was only expressing an opinion. It took another century for this to harden into a rule.

Over and out – Frank McNally on why Fine Gael is not the party of syntax defaulters

Frank McNally
February 18, 2020

Timothy Quinlisk in his German Irish Brigade uniform. He was executed on the night of February 18th, 1920, the first civilian to be executed by the IRA in Cork for spying during the War of Independence.

Executed for spying – An Irishman’s Diary on Timothy Quinlisk

Ronan McGreevy
February 18, 2020

Quinlisk was first civilian to be executed by IRA in Cork for spying during War of Independence

Josephine McNeill: the first woman to head an Irish diplomatic mission. Photograph: Courtesy of UCD Archives

An Irishman’s Diary on Josephine McNeill, an Irish diplomatic trailblazer

Oliver O’Hanlon
February 17, 2020

An illustration by Hungarian artist Willy Pogany to Padraic Colum’s The Adventures of Odysseus

Classical echoes – An Irishman’s Diary on Padraic Colum and Homer

Colum Kenny
February 15, 2020

Handwritten petitions to St Valentine in Whitefriar Street church in Dublin

Irishman's Diary: Dublin tradition of leaving prayers at St Valentine's shrine

Frank McNally
February 13, 2020

Frank McNally on messages to patron saint of lovers about more than just romance

It took an English comedian, Steve Coogan, via the BBC, to relaunch Come Out Ye Black and Tans to an Irish audience. Photograph: BBC

Come Out Ye Drunken Dads – Frank McNally on the curious reinvention of a spoof rebel song

Frank McNally
February 12, 2020

“One of the more poignant exhibits at Avondale, an old beech tree, fell over in 1972 aged 238. On a cross-section of the trunk now a sign dates the various rings to events in Irish history. Parnell’s 45-year-old life accounts for a mere three inches of the diameter.”

‘I support Monaghan Gaelic football team. It involves a lot of suffering’

Frank McNally
February 11, 2020

Bittersweet Avondale – Frank McNally on Parnell, cross-country running, and kicking up a storm in Croke Park

“Cats played along, watching and waiting until they managed to turn the tables and domesticate us.” Photograph: iStock

All fur one – An Irishwoman’s Diary on cats

Fionnuala Ward
February 10, 2020

Theodore Roosevelt: His 50-page speech was in his inside pocket, along with his glasses. These items, and his thick coat, slowed the passage of the bullet and most likely saved his life.

Now you’re talking – An Irishwoman’s Diary on speeches and close calls

Alison Healy
February 10, 2020

Mimolette is noted in France for the role of cheese mites in creating its distinctive rind and flavour. Photograph: iStock

How the Mity have Risen – Frank McNally on the (short) literary history of cheese mites

Frank McNally
February 7, 2020

Modern blue cheeses have a fungus added to produce the veining. But historically, insect larvae were part of some cheese-making processes.

Cry of the banned cheese – Frank McNally on Stilton’s lost cause

Frank McNally
February 7, 2020

Near the altar of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa is a secular portrait depicting a session of the League of Nations in 1936. The focus of the picture is an address by Emperor Haile Selassie. But in the background, looking on, is de Valera.

Dev among the angels – Frank McNally on an unusual memorial in an Ethiopian church

Frank McNally
February 5, 2020

“If the Basque flag is not widely adopted by Mayo supporters, despite the coincidence of colour schemes, that may be due to a structural problem.” Photograph: Oleksii Liskonih/iStock

Basque County – Frank McNally on an era when Meath was a cultural melting pot

Frank McNally
February 4, 2020

William Drennan: died 200 years ago on February 5th

Star of the ‘Emerald Isle’ – An Irishman’s Diary on William Drennan

Brian Maye
February 3, 2020

A guard tower at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images

Indifference dehumanises us – An Irishman’s Diary on how Auschwitz shames us all

Derek Scally
February 3, 2020

Zandra Mitchell: Ireland’s first female saxophone star

Phibsboro Philharmonic – Frank McNally on a famous Dublin musical family

Frank McNally
January 31, 2020

Arthur Conan Doyle: was known to recite in company an epic ballad of dubious quality inspired by the Battle of Cremona (1702)

An Bord Cremona – Frank McNally on the heroic but forgotten Irish defence of an Italian city

Frank McNally
January 30, 2020

The Vaporfly running shoes of Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge. Photograph: Alex Halada/AFP via Getty Images

Feet of Flames – Frank McNally on how running’s ‘super-shoe’ has conquered the globe (and Raheny)

Frank McNally
January 29, 2020

A friend recently was offered two bottles of non-alcoholic beer in a pint glass. “€9, please,” said the barman.

Hold my non-alcoholic beer – An Irishman’s Diary on a baffling conundrum

Martyn Turner
January 28, 2020

WB Yeats: in failing health, he left Ireland for the last time on October 25th, 1938

An Irishman’s Diary on the final days of William Butler Yeats

Kevin Connolly
January 27, 2020

He passed away with his wife by his bedside in the south of France in 1939

Memorial to John Keegan Casey in Ballymahon, Co Longford. Photograph: Courtesy of Longford County Council/County Longford Heritage Office

The Rising of the Moon – An Irishman’s Diary on poet John Keegan Casey

Denis Fahey
January 27, 2020

John Lennon: preferred “get” to “git”. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

Not Well Got – Frank McNally on the evolution of a Hiberno-Scottish insult

Frank McNally
January 24, 2020

William Congreve in 1709. Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Irishman's Diary: The Irish-educated theatrical genius of William Congreve

Frank McNally
January 23, 2020

Frank McNally on English-born writer who found his way into literary circles of London

“The mission involved sending a party of Limerick pork butchers and bricklayers to Russia in 1891 to build and staff curing houses at Gryazi, 250 miles southeast of Moscow.”

Pork medallions – Frank McNally on an eccentric episode (or two) in the history of Hiberno-Russian relations

Frank McNally
January 22, 2020

Noël Browne: had the chance to commemorate his own family’s RIC background late in life but chose not to

A policeman’s lot – Frank McNally recalls a short-lived Dáil party composed entirely of the sons of RIC men

Frank McNally
January 21, 2020

“The Natural History Museum is one of Dublin’s odder treasures and resolutely of its time – rambling, gothic and vaguely unnerving.” Photograph: Frank Miller

The Dead Zoo – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the elephant in the room

Fionnuala Ward
January 20, 2020

M for Moran. The Morans and the McAllisters are the two biggest names in the New York tugboat business. Photograph: iStock

Tugboats – An Irishman’s Diary on New York’s ‘Irish navy’

Norman Freeman
January 20, 2020

Percy French: his talents as a concert performer were not confined to music

Revising French – Frank McNally on one of Ireland’s greatest songwriters, who died 100 years ago next week

Frank McNally
January 17, 2020

An 1834 sketch of Anne Brontë by her sister Charlotte. In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Anne Brontë has the heroine locking a drunken husband out of the bedroom: a door-slamming said by one critic to have reverberated across Victorian Britain.

The Full Brontë – Frank McNally on Anne Brontë, having the craic, and the pub with no beer-ban

Frank McNally
January 17, 2020

The story of how Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the “final solution”, was brought to justice features in the film The People vs Fritz Bauer. Photograph: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Ready for reckoning – a film about how Germany (eventually) faced its Nazi past

Frank McNally
January 16, 2020

Irishman's Diary: The People vs Fritz Bauer tells story of thwarted trials post-Nuremberg

Kate O’Brien: now the subject of the first temporary exhibition in the handsome new Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), which has in turn risen from what used to be the exam hall of UCD’s Newman House. Photograph: Sasha/Getty Images

Making a show of herself – Frank McNally on a new exhibition in Dublin about the Limerick-born writer Kate O’Brien

Frank McNally
January 14, 2020

“The introduction of proportional representation would be a boon to smaller parties in a way that the system of first past the post in Britain could never be.” Photograph: Cyril Byrne

PR and making every vote count – An Irishman’s Diary on an election in 1920 that set the template

Ronan McGreevy
January 13, 2020

Andrew Johnson: the 17th president of the US was impeached for dismissing a cabinet officer. Photograph: Library of Congress

Crimes and misdemeanours – An Irishman’s Diary on US presidents and impeachment

Felix M Larkin
January 13, 2020

An event known as “Plough Monday”, the first Monday after the traditional 12 days of Christmas, falls this year on the 13th. Photograph: Rich Higgins/iStock

Tillage People – Frank McNally on trying to break new ground in January

Frank McNally
January 10, 2020

The origins of an event known as 'Plough Monday' remain obscure

Anthony Powell: mixed critical reaction to his novels. Photograph: Camera Press

A Dunce to the Music of Time – Frank McNally on failing to understand the appeal of a supposed literary classic

Frank McNally
January 9, 2020

Surveying the damage after a raid on the RIC barracks in Ballytrain, Co Monaghan, on February 15th, 1920. Eoin O’Duffy praised the RIC men’s courage. Before withdrawing, the raiders left bandages for the injured, having failed to find a doctor.

Ballytrain departure – Frank McNally on the polite capture of a Monaghan RIC barracks

Frank McNally
January 8, 2020

The late Brendan Ó Cathaoir: devoted the best part of 10 years to editing for publication the diary of Elizabeth Mathew Dillon. Photograph: Frank Miller

A meeting of minds – An Irishman’s Diary on Brendan Ó Cathaoir and the diary of Elizabeth Mathew Dillon

Stephen Collins
January 7, 2020

David Bowie in November 1969. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Space Oddity – An Irishwoman’s Diary on the trail of Major Tom

Sorcha Hamilton
January 6, 2020

Proposals, some more realistic than others, for a tunnel between Britain and Ireland have a long history and were debated at Westminster. Photograph: iStock

Tunnel vision – An Irishman’s Diary on the long and colourful history of plans for a tunnel to link Ireland and Britain

Denis Fahey
January 6, 2020

Gaetano de Gennaro’s portrait of Margaret Burke Sheridan at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

The big picture – An Irishman’s Diary on artist Gaetano de Gennaro

Oliver O’Hanlon
January 4, 2020

Back in 1989, I flew to New York to conduct interviews with the “undocumented”. Photograph: Getty Images/Hemera

Here and there – An Irishman’s Diary on New York

Deaglán de Bréadún
January 3, 2020

Louie Bennett. She kept the union she founded independent of Liberty Hall and male unions on the basis that women’s concerns would always take second place in male-dominated unions.

Pioneering spirit – An Irishman’s Diary on feminist and trade unionist Louie Bennett

Brian Maye
January 1, 2020

Go ahead - celebrate the new decade a year early. Just count me out

Paddy Murray
December 31, 2019

Robert Parsons Persse had been certified to be “of sound health of body and mind” when he handwrote his last will and testament and lodged it with his solicitor in March 1820. Photograph: iStock

Where there’s a will – An Irishman’s Diary on the Robert Parsons Persse testament

Ray Burke
December 30, 2019

Suffer Little Childer – Frank McNally on one of the year’s most inauspicious dates

Frank McNally
December 28, 2019

Americans now spend some $2 billion a year on chewing gum. Photograph: Eva Katalin/iStock

Chew on that – An Irishman’s Diary on chewing gum

Brian Maye
December 27, 2019

American GIs during the second World War helped make gum globally popular

For the first time in living memory, there would be hardly any plum puddings

Emergency rations – An Irishman’s Diary on Christmas 1944

Denis Fahey
December 24, 2019

My German great-grandfather A J Holzapfel of Holzapfel fame gave it to my great grandmother on their wedding day – or did he?

How I got my mojo back from a greedy tarpon’s grasp

Elgy Gillespie
December 22, 2019

My heirloom mojo is a rose-gold heart from the 19th century

According to one well-researched family history, Errol Flynn’s paternal great-grandfather, John Flynn, was a blacksmith from Mohill, who took “an assisted passage to Sydney in 1854”. Photograph: Archive Photos/Moviepix/Getty Images

In (and Down Under) like Flynn – Frank McNally on a stereotypical Irishman

December 20, 2019

The ingredients of ‘The Errol’ cocktail revealed

Composer Adolphe Adam, who added the music and who called the finished work La Marseillaise Religieuse. Photograph: Getty Images

Not wholly holy – Frank McNally on the secular origins of O Holy Night

Frank McNally
December 19, 2019

Lyrics of the English version, by John Sullivan Dwight, are somewhat less strident than the original

Dostoevsky had grown up in the shadow of an event known as the Decembrist revolt. Photograph: Getty Images

How the Christmas tree captured Dostoevsky’s imagination

Frank McNally
December 18, 2019

The wife of one of the Decembrists sent him a copy of the Bible – that led to his conversion

When writing to the Irish author and playwright, Mary Manning Howe Adams, Samuel Beckett says, “No question of your ever losing my friendship. I think of you often and with all my heart wish for you better days”. Photograph: Ullstein Bild/Getty

Samuel Beckett letters offer insight into his inner thoughts and personal life

Oliver O'Hanlon
December 18, 2019

He had said he was opposed to the publication of private letters – but he relented

Martin Savage, who was raised on a small farm at Streamstown, Ballisodare, Co Sligo, was to play an unlikely role in the War of Independence.

How a young Sligoman came to play an unlikely role in the War of Independence

Angela Savage
December 17, 2019

The only fatality in an ambush on the lord lieutenant in 1919 was Martin Savage

The internet, by and large, does not allow you to graze around the word-meadow to the same degree as books do. Photograph: iStock

The art of reduplication: a willy-nilly helter-skelter through dictionaries

Paul Clements
December 15, 2019

If the Japanese declutterer Marie Kondo has her way, you would have only 30 books

Before long they were sitting down with the man behind the stadium plan, Billy Morton, a former marathon runner then on the way to becoming Ireland’s first (and to date last) great athletics impresario.

Don’t forget your shovel: a monument to Irish-American affection for the Old Sod

Frank McNally
December 13, 2019

Several Irish-Americans conspired to fly a shovel across the Atlantic in 1957

It seems to have been Mark Twain who first introduced ’slum gullion’ to print in what might be broadly called a catering context. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

How an Irish term for sewage may have entered American cuisine

Frank McNally
December 12, 2019

‘Slumgullion’ has nothing to do with Slieve Gullion or any other mountain

In early summer, knowing I would be at the Rugby World Cup in September, I took up Japanese too. By now, the suspicion arose that I might be developing a Duolingo problem. Photograph: Jayne Russell/Inpho

Long year’s journey into Irish – facing the perils of Duolingo addiction

Frank McNally
December 11, 2019

There is more gender fluidity in Irish lessons these days – John may have a boyfriend

Heinrich Böll’s Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal), a eulogy to Ireland in the 1950s that, in the decades since, may have sent 10,000 German tourists here for each of its 100 pages. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

‘Britishness with a bit of music’ – How a cynical travel writer saw Ireland in 1913

Frank McNally
December 10, 2019

The obscurity of Richard Bermann’s book is the result of catastrophically bad timing

Robert O’Hara Burke (left) and William John Willis, who were first to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. They died on their way back as they struggled to reach a rescue party. Images: Getty

How an inexperienced Irishman led expedition from north to south Australia

Norman Freeman
December 9, 2019

Monument in Melbourne recalls Robert O’Hara Burke

Ian Gibson: ‘I feel profoundly identified with Lorca and his work and his message and his attitude to Granada.’ Photograph: Guy Hedgecoe

‘I’ve always maintained that the Irish are basically Spanish’ – Ian Gibson

Guy Hedgecoe
December 8, 2019

Dublin-born Lorca biographer honoured with Granada and Irish awards

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