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Hugh O’Neill and The History Behind City of the Damned

Hugh O’Neill and The History Behind City of the Damned

A new short story, City of the Damned, follows Ireland’s most formidable rebel from the battlefield to Rome, tracing the life of a man who came close to breaking English rule.

My short story City of the Damned traces the years of Hugh O’Neill's life from his defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 to his exile in Rome surrounded by spies, plots, and the threat of poison. This is the man who came closest to ending English rule in Ireland and...

A Fairytale for Christmas – Review

A Fairytale for Christmas – Review

A burst of Irish cheer lit up the Dominion Theatre as this festive show delivered a whirlwind of music, dance and Christmas spirit.

A Fairytale for Christmas - Review Irish - and English - eyes were smiling at the Dominion Theatre on Sunday evening as the venue hosted Fairytale For Christmas, a celebratory show featuring Irish standards and festive hits. There may have been no discernible plot to...

AoH Book Club: Gretchen Friemann on The Treaty

AoH Book Club: Gretchen Friemann on The Treaty

Historian Gretchen Friemann considers long-running conflicts, peace processes and their legacies in discussing her 2021 book.

Gretchen, your book, The Treaty, dealt with the negotiations for the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. As an Australian who lives in Dublin, why did you want to write about them? The idea for the book came from a chance encounter in an archive. While I was studying for a...

The Plaster Saints, by David Roy

The Plaster Saints, by David Roy

With richly drawn characters and a brisk narrative, The Plaster Saints earns its place among the novels of the Troubles.
Oliver Webb-Carter

Novels set during the Troubles have done well in recent years. Whether it’s the Booker Prize winning Milkman by Anna Burns or Michael Hughes’ re-interpretation of the Iliad with Country, writers have found new ways to deal with a hugely traumatic time in British and...

David Roy on The Plaster Saints

David Roy on The Plaster Saints

The author of a new novel on the Troubles discusses the conflict and the story inspired by it.
David Roy

David, your novel follows a British battalion on its tour of Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Why did you want to write about this difficult period in British and Irish history? To some extent the Troubles are a forgotten ‘war’ and quite unlike almost any...

AoH Book Club: Gretchen Friemann on The Treaty

Gretchen Friemann on The Treaty

The author of an account of the Anglo-Irish Treaty discusses the negotiations and the agreement's legacy.

Gretchen Friemann, your recent book, The Treaty, dealt with the negotiations for the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. As an Australian though living in Dublin, why did you want to write about them? The idea for the book came from a chance encounter in an archive. A few years...

AoH Book Club: Gretchen Friemann on The Treaty

Gretchen Friemann

Gretchen Friemann is an author and award-winning journalist. She holds a Masters in International History from Trinity College Dublin, and her first book, The Treaty, is a narrative history of the 1921 Anglo Irish negotiations that brought about Ireland’s independence and led to the civil war.
Gretchen Friemann

Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...

Unionism & The Treaty

Unionism & The Treaty

Ulster leader James Craig thought he had beaten Lloyd George during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations.
Gretchen Friemann

Unionism & The Treaty The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to civil war in Ireland as those for and against descended into bitter conflict. But what of Northern Ireland, established in May 1921? There were plans to include Ulster politicians in an...

The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson

The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson

The assassination of the Chief of the Imperial General Stuff began a series of events that led to the Irish Civil War.
Ronan McGreevy

The assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP on June 22nd 1922 was a profoundly shocking event in British and Irish history. There had not been an assassination in Britain of a sitting MP since the prime minister Spencer Perceval who was killed in 1812....