Born a slave, Frederick Douglass died as a champion of human rights, and Ireland played an important role in his political awakening. In 1845, Ireland provided a safe refuge to Frederick Douglass, a 27-year-old “fugitive” slave from America. Douglass described his four months in the country as the “happiest times” in his life and the Irish people as the most “ardent” … [Read more...] about Frederick Douglass and Irish Home Rule
1863 Draft Riots
Leaves of Pain
How too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. At first, it seemed to be nothing. It was a curled-up dark brown leaf about the size of a good lock of hair and it was preserved in glass in a room in the Fairlow Herbarium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A typewritten card alongside the leaf said that it was taken from an infected potato plant in Ireland during the … [Read more...] about Leaves of Pain