A special edition of Century Ireland has been published to mark the centenary of the formation of the Irish Volunteers at a meeting held at the Rotunda, Dublin, on 25 November 1913.
Century Ireland is a free online news service and digital resource for information and analysis of crucial events from the time of the Home Rule debate, through WW1 and the Easter Rising, to the Civil War.
Launched in May this year, it is published fortnightly with a daily blog and twitter feed. Through news reports, historical documents, photographs and academic analysis, it tracks the Irish – and international – experience day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.
It's a terrific publication, beautifully presented and offering multiple levels of depth in the way it recounts events that shaped modern Ireland.
The formation of the Volunteers was one of the milestone moments in a tumultuous decade. It came in the wake of the establishment of the Ulster Volunteer Force, on which it was modelled but whose objectives it opposed and the emergence of the Irish Volunteers signalled the beginning of the militarisation of nationalist Ireland.
Century Ireland covers this ground-breaking event through news reports, reproductions of key historical documents, fresh historical analysis and filmed interviews from the RTÉ Archives with actual participants in the Rotunda meeting, including Seán T. O’Kelly, future President of Ireland.
Supported by Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Century Ireland is a partnership between RTÉ, Boston College, the National Cultural Institutions and other partners.