Ireland

Kevin Haddick Flynn looks at the attempt of the Grand Old Man of Liberalism to solve the Irish question and his conversion to Home Rule in the mid-1880s.

Patricia Fara recounts the moving story of a gifted contemporary of Isaac Newton who came to symbolise the frustrations of generations of female scientists denied the chance to fulfil their talents.

Michael Morrogh shows that Renaissance men like Sir Walter Ralegh had a decidedly darker side.

Hugh Kearney reconsiders the models for and motives of Charles I's most controversial minister in 'John Bull's other island'.

The story of the British anti-slavery and abolitionist movements has been dominated by the figures of Clarkson and Wilberforce. Yet, the success of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 benefited from the votes of Irish MPs. Christine Kinealy shows how Daniel O’Connell, Irish campaigner for Catholic Emancipation and Repeal of the Act of Union, played a prominent role in the anti-slavery movement.

The flight of the earls on September 4th, 1607, was the first of many departures from Ireland by native Irish over the following centuries.

Kevin Haddick Flynn looks back at the life and times of radical Michael Davitt as Ireland remembers the centenary of his death on May 31st.

Charles Townshend has read hundreds of 'witness statements' from the men and women who took part in the Easter Rising, made available to the public in 2003 after decades in a government vault.

Anthony Fletcher uses the papers of his artistic great-aunt, who, as a young nationalist, wrote an eyewitness account of the Easter Rising ninety years ago this month, to explore her youthful patriotism and vigorous activism.

Richard Cavendish marks the demise of an important Renaissance figure, on March 20th, 1656.

Brian Girvin explains the tensions between the Irish government and many of the Irish people in their attitudes to the war against Nazism.

Phil Chapple examines a titanic and controversial figure in modern Irish history.