In our April blog, Terry Clavin explores the heyday of McDaid’s, one of Dublin’s most (in)famous literary pubs.
With voters due at the polls on 8 March to vote on two proposed constitutional amendments, Eoin Kinsella looks at how the referendum - one of the core elements of our democratic system - was embedded in the constitution.
In our February blog, Turlough O’Riordan discusses the sequence of events that led to the resignation of attorney general Patrick Connolly in August 1982, and the origins of GUBU – a phrase that has become firmly embedded in our political and cultural lexicon.
In our first Dictionary of Irish Biography blog of 2024, Patrick Maume highlights some examples of Irish ‘great detectives’, elusive figures who have nevertheless become prominent in our fiction, politics and popular culture.
As demonstrated by the recent publication of a DIB entry on Sir William Hull, during the early seventeenth century west Cork briefly became the
When the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) was established in 1785, it was founded for the promotion and investigation of the sciences, polite literature and antiquities, and the encouragement of discussion and debate between scholars of diverse backgrounds and interests.
Since 2012, there have been a series of events commemorating the seismic shifts that took place across the island of Ireland between 1912 and 1923. During this ten-year period the foundations for the modern Irish state were laid.
Barlow, Jane (1856–1917), poet, novelist, and short story writer, was born 17 October 1856 in Dollymount, Dublin, the second child and eldest daughter of the Rev. James William Barlow (qv), history professor and subsequently vice-provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and his wife and first cousin, Mary Louisa (née Barlow) (d. 1894). Reared from early childhood in The Cottage, Raheny, Co. Dublin, she was educated by the family's governess and her father.
Adair, Rhona (Kathleen) (1881–1961), amateur international golfer, was born 2 September 1881 at Glenavon, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, one of six children of Hugh Adair, linen manufacturer, and (Mary) Augusta Lee Adair (née Graves). The family, who were presbyterian, were keen golfers: her father was a founding member of the Golfing Union of Ireland, while he and his wife served as captains of Royal Portrush men's and ladies’ golf clubs respectively. Having begun playing at the age of 8, Adair spent her early golfing years primarily at her home club of Killymoon, Co.
Markievicz, Constance Georgine (1868–1927), Countess Markievicz, republican and labour activist, was born 4 February 1868 at Buckingham Gate, London, eldest of the three daughters and two sons of Sir Henry Gore-Booth of Lissadell, Co. Sligo, philanthropist and explorer, and Georgina Mary Gore-Booth (née Hill) of Tickhill Castle, Yorkshire. She was taken to the family house at Lissadell as an infant, and retained a strong attachment to the west of Ireland despite her frequent sojourns in Dublin and abroad.