TMO History
The Age of Richard Nixon – a study in cultural power
What do you think of when you think of Richard Nixon? Watergate, Vietnam, the televised debates with John .F. Kennedy? or perhaps you imagine the sweating, nervous, paranoiac portrayed by Antony Hopkins in Oliver Stone’s biopic Nixon? Images that emphasise his failures, that suggest a man unfit to be President, a villain and one thus [...]
Terrorism in Dostoevsky and Conrad – a Response from Irish History
The romantic view of terrorists as misfits and lost souls, presented by Dostoevsky and Conrad in their work, is very much at odds with the practical and structured guerilla warfare that was seen during Ireland’s War of Independence
Images, piety and women in late medieval devotion: The Hunt Crucifixion with Saint Clare.
First published in the journal of the University of Limerick History Society, History Studies, vol.6 (2005), pp.2-17. The small fourteenth-century Florentine panel in the Hunt Museum, Limerick, shows an image of the Crucifixion. Beside the cross the Virgin falls in a swoon, supported by one of the holy women and St John the Evangelist. At [...]
Who’s to blame? The Fosse Ardeatine and the struggle over memory in modern Italy.
One of the most infamous attacks against civilians, during the brief and bloody end-phase of the second world war in Italy, took place on March 24th 1944. The victims of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre were three-hundred-and-thirty-five Italian men, a fact recognised by all. Less clear, at least in popular memory, have been those ultimately responsible [...]
Sexuality, Sin, and Sacrifice – Deconstructing the Patriarchy. An interview with Dr. Mary Condren
Censorship is not limited to totalitarian States. It can be a subtle thing, when disconcerting ideas are not banned, but, through various means, marginalised. Dr. Mary Condren’s groundbreaking work The Serpent and the Goddess, a study on women, religion and power in Celtic Ireland, was never placed on an index of banned books, and yet [...]
Football and Fascism – The creation of Italy’s Serie A
On the 2nd of August this year (2005), football fans from the Sicilian city of Messina blockaded the strategic ferry route between the city and the Italian peninsula, protesting against their club’s relegation to Serie B. Another small episode in a long history of impassioned football support, and political intrigue (the Sicilian club were re-admitted [...]
Cosa Nostra – rebranding the Mafia.
“The mafia, in the strict sense of Cosa Nostra, the hierarchical criminal organization based in Sicily, does not ‘run Italy’ as you sometimes hear people rather glibly say,” explains John Dickie, senior lecturer in Italian at the University of London, and author of Cosa Nostra – a history of the Sicilian Mafia. It’s in response [...]
From Fertility Symbol to Political Propaganda – Decoding the Massa Marittima Mural.
In the year 2000, during restoration work, a rare and important mural was uncovered at the communal fountain of the Tuscan town of Massa Marittima. It was not necessarily a welcome surprise, at least at first, as this painting from the Middle Ages depicted a tree covered with phalluses. “At first when the painting was [...]
Mapping the past – the Historian’s dilemma.
Historians take from the past only what suits their purposes. Of the last 2500 years of historiography the above statement probably holds true for most of the period and for most of the historians. It can be argued that it is the historian’s job to take from the past what suits their purpose. The Historian [...]
The Age of Richard Nixon – a study in cultural power
What do you think of when you think of Richard Nixon? Watergate, Vietnam, the televised debates with John .F. Kennedy? or perhaps you imagine the sweating, nervous, paranoiac portrayed by Antony Hopkins in Oliver Stone’s biopic Nixon? Images that emphasise his failures, that suggest a man unfit to be President, a villain and one thus [...]
Terrorism in Dostoevsky and Conrad – a Response from Irish History
The romantic view of terrorists as misfits and lost souls, presented by Dostoevsky and Conrad in their work, is very much at odds with the practical and structured guerilla warfare that was seen during Ireland’s War of Independence
The Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Irish Civil War
The Treaty It is hard to understand how any young Irishman of sensibility could remain unmoved in [January] 1922 at the sight of a British regiment of soldiers marching out under the great arch of Dublin Castle as our own bedraggled lads marched in, heads high, to take over that fortress of imperial rule- Dermot [...]
The Congo Free State – a colony of gross excess.
&ldquoI foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly.”1 [Joseph Conrad] The later half of the nineteenth century saw a dramatic surge in colonial activity, as competing capitalist powers revisited mercantilism and sought to gain access to new [...]
The Glorious and Immortal Memory. Commemoration at the Dublin Statue of King William of Orange.
Those who might think that student pranks are of recent origin should consider the following tale of events in the eighteenth century that followed the erection of an equestrian statue to commemorate the famous William, Prince of Orange. The victory of the Protestant King William of Orange (King 'Billy') over the Jacobite army of the [...]
The Irish War of Independence and the IRA, 1916-1921
Introduction Six hundred years of oppression and slavery have passed in meloncholy succession over our father's heads and our own, during which period we have been visited by every evil which tyranny could devise and cruelty execute; we have been scattered, like chaff, over the land, and our name has been forgotten among the nations. [...]
Wilderness, past and present.
&ldquoThey took all the trees Put ‘em in a tree museum And they charged the people A dollar and a half just to see ‘em Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone They paved paradise And put up a parking lot” [Joni Mitchell. &ldquoBig Yellow Taxi”] [...]
Michael Collins and the Organisation of Irish Intelligence, 1917-21
Michael Collins and the Irish war of Indpendence In the first of a series of articles, Colm McInerney details events surrounding the Irish War of indpendence. For an brief introduction to the period click here Introduction &ldquoOur only way to carry on the fight was by organised and bold guerilla warfare. But this in itself [...]
History Matters
Two days before the invasion of Iraq, when Tony Blair addressed the house of commons defending his motion to authorise the war, history was very much on his mind. He repeated the word five times throughout his speech, although his chief concern seemed to be the making of history rather than any serious study of [...]
