Category: History
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The international story of empathy you’ve probably never heard
There is something hauntingly beautiful about “Kindred Spirits” by Alex Pentek. The sculpture consists of nine 20-foot (6.1 m) stainless steel eagle feathers arranged in the shape of a bowl, with no two feathers being identical. It was built in 2015 in the Irish town of Midleton, Co Cork. The sculpture is to commemorate the…
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Munich wanderings
I never got round to posting some photos from my very brief visit to Munich during the Oktoberfest. I had better share some. Eamonn was a true gent and did me the courtesy of showing me around and buying me beer. How bad, as we say in Cork. I do rather like this platz, Odeonsplatz,…
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Cork in 1799
Sean O’ Faolain wrote of the city that, “as you soon find the city is not merely built on marsh but on islands in the marsh, and that the streets are, often, covered canals or rivers. Patrick Street is winding merely because the river under it winds- one winter the river burst through the wood…
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Congo war history
The Economist have a rather cool 5 minute long videographic detailing the 15-year war in the Congo.
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November 11
On this day I remember my great grand uncle, Owen Clerkin. At aged 26, slightly younger than myself, he was killed in action on September 15, 1916, at Delville Wood, France, in the middle of the Somme campaign. He served in the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards. He is buried here, a place I…
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Secret Titanic mission
Bob Ballard has revealed that he went in search of the Titanic only after being required to find the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines. Coincidentally, I was browing wikis only yesterday about the very same subject. On spotting a Dutch submarine (Walrus) in Cork, I looked it up, which led me to other…
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Dissertation
The subject of my history dissertation is British newspaper coverage of the US war of independence. My primary reference will be The American revolution and the British press 1775-1783 by Solomon Lutnick. If anyone has any other sources please do point me in the right direction.
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Rubicon
I am reading Rubicon by Tom Holland to prepare for an essay question for Roman History. He gives a quote that I put in the blog last year from Caesar’s account of his campaigns in Gaul. Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred for servitude. Of course the Gallic…
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The Last Exit From Iraq
Joel Rayburn, a Major in the U.S. Army and from 2002 to 2005 taught history at the U.S. Military Academy, has an essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs. In it, he draws historical comparisons between the British involvement in Iraq and the current American intervention. In light of the recent Sunni-Shiite tensions in…
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Medieval Irish warlord boasts three million descendants
I meant to blog this last week, so I am just sticking it in the archives. Up to three million men around the world could be descended from a prolific medieval Irish king, according to a new genetic study. It suggests that the 5th-century warlord known as “Niall of the Nine Hostages” may be the…