PIARAS MAC CANNA represented East Tipperary in the First Dáil Éireann. He was a founder member of both Sinn Féin in 1905 and the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and was commander of the Volunteers in County Tipperary. Free article

Mícheál Mac Donncha takes us back to January 21st 1919, that fateful day after which here was no going back Free article

Aengus Ó Snodaigh gives an account of the IRA attack carried out on the same day of the First Dáil that was to have a profound effect on the course of Irish history Free article

Cian MacMahon revisits the Democratic Programme, assessing the legacy and lessons of this vital declaration Ireland today Free article

Brexit is not the first time that Ireland has been at the heart of a political and constitutional crisis in Britain. On and off from 1886 until 1922 the 'Irish Question' was high on the agenda of British politics and caused deep divisions within and between parties. The question made and broke governments.  Free article

The first truly democratic election held in Ireland was the General Election of December 1918. Seismic political events, including the Home Rule crisis, the World War, the 1916 Rising and the Conscription threat had shaken the country since the last General Election in 1910. Women had the vote for the first time, other restrictions on the universal right to vote had been removed and the widening of democracy helped to ensure a stunning victory for Sinn Féin on a Republican platform. Free article

The flu epidemic that swept across Britain and Ireland in 1918 struck at the weak and elderly in society. Hundreds died and many more spent many weeks crippled in agony in their beds during the winter months. Free article

On 28 November 1938, IRA Volunteers blew up six customs posts along the border in Counties Armagh and Fermanagh. Two other posts - at Clady and Strabane in Co Tyrone - were also to have been demolished that night but the bombs to be used exploded prematurely, killing three Volunteers at Stranamuck, near Castlefin, Co Donegal. Free article

The writer, newspaper editor and Irish republican Seumas O’Kelly was a native of Loughrea, County Galway. Author of short stories, plays, poems and a novel, The Weaver’s Grave which was his masterpiece, O’Kelly’s life was cut short because of his commitment to Irish freedom. The O’Kelly family of Loughrea were flour millers and merchants and Seumas received a good education. He was a fellow student of James Joyce in University College Dublin. There is a remarkable photograph of the BA degree class of 1902 including Joyce, O’Kelly and George Clancy. Like O’Kelly, George Clancy, a close friend of Joyce, was to die a tragic death. He was Sinn Féin Mayor of Limerick when on 6 March 1921 he was murdered in his home by the Black and Tans, on the same night as former Mayor Michael O’Callaghan. Free article

At the start of the 20th century women began to campaign actively against the denial of their right to vote. In 1903 the Women’s Social and Political Union was founded in England and the militant feminists commenced the battle for the vote. In Ireland there had been groups working for women’s suffrage but the campaign really began here on the instigation of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Margaret Cousins. Free article

BY the end of 1913, the campaign against Home Rule for Ireland organised by the Ulster Unionists and their allies in the Conservative and Unionist Party (the Tories) in Britain had reached a crescendo. The Ulster Volunteers had been established as well as a provisional government which threatened to seize power if Home Rule became law. Free article

Scoil Éanna opened on 8 September 1908, 110 years ago this week. Free article

"In Dublin, Constabulary hurried from street to street, noting who was speaking, who was listening. Soon they realised that it was all Dublin which was defying them, and, in the country, all Ireland" Free article

Between the 1916 Rising and the December 1918 General Election the biggest crisis faced by the British government in Ireland and the most seismic shift in Irish politics was the confrontation provoked by the attempt to impose conscription – compulsory service in the British Army by men of military age in Ireland. Free article

The Dubs – the Complete Record of Dublin Football 1887-2017, Nama-Land and Battle of Moore Street – Cath Shráid Uí Mhordha Free article