The Bog Commission, 1809

The Bog Commission, 1809

How Napoleon Bonaparte inadvertently inspired a project to grow hemp in Irish bogs, resulting in 50 invaluable maps and 4 comprehensive reports on the extent and nature of over one million acres of Irish bogland. Complete access to all articles on this website for €12...
Humewood Castle, County Wicklow

Humewood Castle, County Wicklow

Humewood Castle is without doubt one of the most eccentric buildings in Ireland. Built in 1868 for Fitzwilliam Dick, it later passed to his granddaughter, Mimi, who married General Maxim Weygand, commander-of-chief of the Allied forces in Europe on the eve of the...
Robert Louis Stevenson – Of Wooden Legs & Birthday Gifts

Robert Louis Stevenson – Of Wooden Legs & Birthday Gifts

When Shane Leslie, the Anglo-Irish nationalist politician, was wooing his American wife Marjorie Ide in 1912, he was particularly impressed when she revealed how, during her childhood on the Pacific island of Samoa, Robert Louis Stevenson had read her bedtime stories....

Desmond Leslie (1921-2001) – an Irish Gentleman

DESMOND LESLIE (1921-2001) – AN IRISH GENTLEMAN Bernard Levin looked up at the tall, bespectacled Irishman in shock. The presenter of ‘That Was The Week That Was’ had not expected to be disrupted live on television. Indeed he had only just taken his seat when the man...
Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant (1761-1783)

Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant (1761-1783)

It’s not often that a funeral director buys everyone a drink, but this undertaker had his reasons. As the grateful and mostly Irish mourners supped upon free ale in an Essex pub that hot summer’s afternoon in 1783, the undertaker slipped out the back door. He made his...