Friday 8 November 2013

100th edition of HistoryIreland published

Having forgotten to renew my HistoryIreland subscription, I had to wait until the magazine appeared on the newstand to get my copy. It was worth the wait, of course, and came with the added surprise of discovering that this is the 100th edition. That's quite an achievement for a magazine in this genre, and a reflection of the content put together by Tommy Graham's team.

The cover feature in this new edition looks intriguing: How revolutionary were the Irish Volunteers? Peter Brown examines the conflicting narratives of the organisation that once drilled with hurleys. But I confess that my first concentrated read is going to be the article about Wolfe Tone and the culture of suicide in 18th-century Ireland. Why, asks Georgina Laragy, was Wolfe Tone's reputation among his peers not damaged by the then criminal and immoral character of his death?

Diarmuid Scully's examination of the earliest known Irish rejection of the Engish legal claims to Ireland also looks like a must-read, as does Bernard Kelly's tale of an outrageous IRA publicity stunt – the plot to kidnap Earl Jellicoe in 1930 – that could have had disastrous diplomatic consequences.

And Fiona Fitzsimons of Eneclann now gets into her stride in her second Kindred Lines column with a look at the Inquisitions Post Mortem and Inquisitions Post Attainder and their value to Irish genealogy research. Certainly something for me to learn, there.

There's plenty more in the 68 pages of the magazine! And all for just €7/£6 if you buy each issue in the shop. If you do as I (am about to) do and fill in a subscription form, you'll even get a discount. You can either fill in the subscription form that's been inserted inside the current issue (if you leave it lying around at home, perhaps someone will recognise it as a terrific Christmas gift), or subscribe online.