Category: [History]

Itchy Feet There is no doubting that Ireland was overrun by two gangs of ‘gurriers’; the Vikings, starting in 795, and the Normans in 1169. While one gang faded into the fabric of Irish society rather than conquering us, the other gang ignited…

How often have we praised someone’s handiwork?  It could be a fine painting, a patchwork quilt, the way they play Chopin’s etudes or the way they pitch a tent.  Aristotle praised the hand as “the instrument for instruments”  – the hand that…

A tandem of post-modernism on the R827 – the young James Joyce and Flann O’Brien gadding about Blackrock If you were a municipal historian you might take a passing interest in what de Selby has to say on the subject of roads,…

We’ve all been spending a whole lot more time at home in recent months. In many ways, our homes may have become our own small country. When we look at the big world picture, we are probably grateful if we have a…

It’s a dull early summer evening in suburban Dublin.  I’m in my favourite room – the back garden; having just emerged from my second favourite room – the greenhouse. The flowers on the apple, pear and plum trees have been replaced with…

Did you know that Charles Darwin had a go at eating owl? While at Cambridge University he was a member of the “Gourmet Club,” which met once a week to eat animals not often found on menus. He found the old brown owl ‘indescribable’.…

Next time you visit that fine institution that never succumbed to the vagaries of fashion: the Natural History Museum on Dublin’s Merrion Square – and please do so very soon – take a look at the display cabinets that contain the marine…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason We can’t separate literature and music from history; they go hand in hand. History is memoir, history records the mistakes. History is in our back yards, our photo albums, and our personal memories. Some say that the victors…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason We can’t separate literature and music from history; they go hand in hand. History is memoir, history records the mistakes. History is in our back yards, our photo albums, and our personal memories. Some say that the victors…