Established in 1993 and now published every two months, each issue of History Ireland features  a wide variety of topics, from the earliest times to the present day, giving a sense of the distant past while offering a contemporary edge. Every article is illustrated with photographs, maps or paintings to provide a vivid impression of the topic.  

History Ireland September/October 2026

VOLUME 34 NO. 5

  REGULARS

From the Editor

HISTORY IN THE NEWS:

       Lodgers and language—students and recreation in Rann na Feirste Gaeltacht

     Brendan Ó Dufaigh

       West Cork History Societies Association—a local history meitheal

     Con Kelleher 

       ON THIS DAY

     Aodhán Crealey

1BITE-SIZED HISTORY

     Donal Fallon

LETTERS

       The scorpion and the frog

       Know-Nothingism in America, then and now

       John Regan’s review of Clear, hold, build

       Lyng brothers

       The Royal Dublin Society and slavery

       Leon Uris’s Trinity

       Queen Victoria statues

PLATFORM:

       The history of science in Ireland—why the neglect?

     Malin Starrett 

GEMS OF ARCHITECTURE:

       Kylemore Church (1877–81), Co. Galway 

     Damian Murphy

KINDRED LINES: 

       Coercive confinement—finding mother and baby homes in the 1926 Census

     Fiona Fitzsimons

TALES FROM THE GRAVE:

       The funeral of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy to Glasnevin Cemetery, March 1903

     Brian Casey

ARTEFACTS:

       Gold standard—the first Dublin Ph.D robes

     Andrew Hogg 

IFI FILM EYE:

       A week in the life of an Irish newsreel production

     Helena Mulkerns

LOCAL ARCHIVES:

       The Daniel MacCarthy (Glas) Collection

     Felix Meehan

100 YEARS AGO:

       Roddy Connolly and the Workers’ Party of Ireland

     Joseph E.A. Connell Jr

  REVIEWS

SEEN ON TV:

       Réabhlóid Mheiriceá—Na Laochra Gael, Declaration and Freedom Founder: Thomas McKean and the American Revolution

     Sylvie Kleinman

MUSEUM EYE:

       Gulliver 300, Marsh’s Library

     Donal Fallon

Bookworm

       Daragh Fitzgerald

The Big Book

       Callanan, James Joyce: a political life

       By Luke Gibbons

Book Reviews

       Hill, Gothic: building castles in post-Union Ireland

       By Damian Murphy

       McGreevy (ed.), Seán Lemass: the lost memoir

       By Kevin Kiely

       Griffin, McGarry and Moore (eds), College Players: a century of theatre (1926–2026)

       By Fiona Brennan

       McBride and Gibney (eds), The story of us: independent Ireland and the 1926 census

       By Fiona Fitzsimons

  FEATURES

ANNIVERSARY:

       Gulliver’s Travels @ 300—still relevant after all these years

     Brendan Twomey

USA 250:

       The Caldwells of County Fermanagh and the American Revolutionary War

     David Murphy

ELECTIONS: