Be safe, listen to the experts and behave responsibly As I write this article, I am conscious of how the current Covid -19 pandemic, is even affecting this very article. The editor of the West Cork People, Mary O’Brien, communicated to us that this month’s edition, was to be only […]
History & Politics
Photo : Desertserges man, Dick Barrett One of the sound bites to emerge after the 2020 election is that the ‘old civil war politics is dead’. This reflected the emergence of Sinn Féin (SF) as a party equal in strength to the traditional big two, Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine […]
There probably isn’t a week goes by, where some history lecture is to be found in the towns of villages of Cork. It’s something that could be taken for granted but based on the crowded attendances of two recent lectures, history is becoming more popular than ever. Last month there […]
In Brian Friel’s masterpiece drama, ‘Translations’, a young English soldier and a local Irish peasant girl fall madly in love. This happens, in spite of their inability to communicate through language and the fact that they come from cultural, polar opposites – the conqueror and conquered. The local learned school […]
One of our greatest weaknesses when reading and studying history about Ireland is often our failure to contextualise Irish history in comparison to what was happening elsewhere in the world. I have written a lot about the revolutionary period in Ireland, which covers our War of Independence and Civil War […]
I have a flavour of the Dublin Festival of History coming up on www.westcorkfm.ie next month. The annual event, which runs from October 1 for three weeks serves up feast of historical events; from talks to walks, panel discussions to screenings and all for free, thanks to Dublin City council and […]