Guardians of the Peace is a political history of the Irish police force, An Garda Síochana, from its foundation at the birth of the Irish State, through the Irish Civil War, the threat of the fascist ‘Blueshirts’, the continuing campaign of the IRA, de Valera’s entry into the Dáil in 1932 and the creation,...
A razor-sharp examination of Gone with the Wind, the emergence of ‘the Lost Cause’, and how they have influenced American culture – from race riots to Trump. Margaret Mitchell’s epic novel became an overnight bestseller in 1936; the film rights were snapped up before it was even published and the production would famously go on to win ten Academy Awards. Yet Mitchell’s early...
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the British Army, and the battle for Irish Freedom. This illustrated talk begins at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, where Lord Edward Fitzgerald fought in the last battle of the American Revolution. Stella will argue that his journey to republicanism began on that battlefield and continued without interruption until 1798....
Before 1871, Germany was not a nation but an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to...
The astonishing story of the English heiress who devoted her life to the IRA. She grew up in a Chelsea townhouse and on a Devon estate. She was presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace as a debutante in 1958. She trained at Oxford as an academic economist and had a love affair with a female professor (who was...