Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland’s Sex Scandal that Wasn’t

When four men were accused of an act of ‘gross indecency’ in 1950s Belfast, just three were put on trial. Despite efforts by the unionist government to protect a member of a prominent local family, not everyone was willing to be complicit in a cover-up.

Writing Wrongs

The anti-Russian poetry of Frances Browne, the ‘Blind Poetess of Ulster’.

On the Spot: Feargal Cochrane

Why am I a historian of Irish politics? I grew up in 1970s Belfast, where contested versions of history were literally written on the walls.

Ulster’s ‘Lost Counties’

In December 1922 a proclamation signed by George V formally established the Irish Free State. Among loyalists in three border counties of Ulster, partitioned and cut adrift from unionist jurisdiction, the sense of betrayal was acute.

Assassin’s Creed

Was the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson the ‘murder that triggered the Irish Civil War’?

The Curragh Incident

In March 1914, writes Robert Blake, it seemed that Ulster might have to he coerced into accepting the Irish Home Rule Bill. A crisis was provoked when a number of British Army officers resolved to he dismissed rather than obey the Government's orders.

Dividing Ireland, 1912-1914

John Stocks Powell describes how conflict between Nationalists and Unionists was still unhealed when the First World War began.

The Derryard Attack

Chris Darnell examines the political and military background to the IRA’s last major action against the British army.