The new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690 – 1840, is a legacy tribute to the last Knight of Glin. Popularly known as the “long 18th century,” beginning with the ascendancy of William and Mary over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689 and culminating at the brink of Ireland’s Great Hunger in the … [Read more...] about Made in (18th Century) Ireland
History Archives
The Things They Carried
What more fascinatingly intimate look into the lives of soldiers of WWI than a glimpse into the tokens they brought with them to battle from home? Housed at the Imperial War Museum in London, the First World War Galleries are an extensively curated look at one of the darkest times in human history. Paul Cornish’s book, named for the galleries, dives into the treasures and at … [Read more...] about The Things They Carried
Trinity Geologists Rewrite
Earth’s Evolutionary History
Geologists from Trinity College Dublin have rewritten evolutionary history by finding that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth some three billion years ago – 60 million years earlier than previously thought.
Working with colleagues from the Presidency University in Kolkata, India, the geologists found evidence for chemical weathering of rocks leading to soil … [Read more...] about Trinity Geologists Rewrite
Earth’s Evolutionary History
Whatever Happened
to Launt Thompson?
By Michael Burke, Contributor
How one of the most important post-Civil War sculptors died in obscurity and is buried in an unmarked grave.
Lancelot (Launt) Thompson was born in the town of Abbeyleix, in what was then Queens County and is now County Laois, on February 8, 1833. He came to the United States in 1847 with his recently widowed mother, who had no means of support in Ireland. They settled in the … [Read more...] about Whatever Happened
to Launt Thompson?
The Irishman Who Invented the Submarine
By Teresa O’Dea Hein
August 12, 2014
August 12, 2014
August 12th 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of John Philip Holland, a Clare man recognized as “the father of the modern submarine.” Much of Holland’s pioneering work on submarines was done after he emigrated to the United States in 1873. Despite many challenging times and rough currents, Holland persevered for decades to refine and perfect his vision of a … [Read more...] about The Irishman Who Invented the Submarine