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A visitor views a painting of Niccolo Machiavelli by Cristofano dell'Altissimo at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in Florence. Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

Why Machiavelli still matters today

Machiavelli / 14 Jan

Some happy customers disembark from the Viking Splash Tour

How blood-thirsty Vikings became the stars of Irish tourism

Culture / 09 Jan

Teresa Deevy. Photo: Maynooth University Archive

Teresa Deevey: the overlooked Irish playwright

Theatre / 09 Jan

Members of the Royal Irish Constabulary being inspected before duty at the Derry by-election in 1913 Londonderry. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Why commemorating the enemy is so contentious

Brainstorm / 07 Jan

"The custom was that women made social calls to the homes of their friends and neighbours and enjoyed tea and the last of the Christmas cake". Photo: George Marks/Getty Images

The roots and traditions of Nollaig na mBan

Brainstorm / 06 Jan

Beyonce rocking a kale sweatshirt in the video for "7/11"

How Beyonce and other celebrities made kale and seaweed hip

"Nano Nagle, Mary Fouhy, Elizabeth Burke and Mary Ann Collins were driven by a progressive and ambitious missionary devotion to educate Cork city's Catholic poor." Photo: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How four women sparked a social revolution on Christmas Eve 1775

History / 08 Jan

"There was huge emphasis in the past on natural materials to decorate the home". Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

How our ancestors enjoyed a sustainable Christmas

Folklore / 19 Dec 19

All fall down: "while performing this rhyme, all the kids innocently enact the deaths of those who perished during the plague". Photo: Getty Images

How innocent nursery rhymes tell tales of death and destruction

Nursery rhymes / 18 Dec 19

"If lucky, those in the Cairn may witness the sunlight snaking its way through the lightbox up the ancient path to penetrate the centre of this stunning architectural monument to a magnificent feat of nature."

Marking the Winter Solstice's shortest day and longest night

Winter Solstice / 16 Dec 19

Are you ready for us, Nano?

Would Nano Nagle have expelled the Young Offenders from school?

The Young Offenders / 16 Dec 19

A piece of the Berlin Wall outside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Photo: Orjan F. Ellingvag/Dagens Naringsliv/Corbis via Getty Images

Ronald Reagan and the fall of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall / 04 Dec 19

How Ireland's foreign policy told the story of the country

Ireland / 28 Nov 19

Ballycairn Presbyterian Church in Lisburn. Photo: Bobby McKay Drumbo https://www.flickr.com/photos/b0b0b/

How Northern Ireland's Presbyterians remember the Troubles

History / 27 Nov 19

William Molyneux: his contribution to Irish intellectual history deserves to be fully explored and better known

Who was William Molyneux?

History / 25 Nov 19

A refugee family leaving Memel in Lithuania in June 1939 after the German ultimatum. Photo: Getty Images

How Ireland responded to refugees fleeing Hitler and the Nazis

History / 18 Nov 19

Historical re-enactment of a surgeon operating on an archer who was wounded during an attack by the Mamluks on the monastery of the Order of the Hospitallers (1250-1291) in Acre in Israel. Photo: DeAgostini/ Getty Images

What was it like to go to the doctor in medieval Ireland?

Medicine / 14 Nov 19

A medieval Irish chief and attendants pose for a selfie. From The Image of Irelande, with a Discoverie of Woodkarne by John Derricke (1581).

Gaels, Normans and Anglo-Saxons: the world of medieval names

History / 07 Nov 19

"Burial close to a saint would increase the chances of getting into heaven, as if the saint's resurrection on Judgment Day would act like a vortex pulling other souls out of the ground with him/her"

The cult of the dead in medieval Ireland

History / 31 Oct 19

"Cleary was burned to death by her husband and family members, who claimed that they had done so to force fairies to return Cleary, whom the family believed had stolen and replaced with a changeling."

"Darkest Ireland" and the burning of Bridget Cleary

Folklore / 29 Oct 19

"Caistél ("castle"), cath ("battle"), ceol ("music"), bó ("cow") and the almost-inevitable fliuch ("wet") also appear"

A history of Ireland in 100 words

History / 11 Nov 19

Sunrise over the Peace Bridge in Derry. Photo: Breandan Murray

How memories of a past can be a powerful resource for the future

Policy / 17 Oct 19

A page from a previously undiscovered 15th-century Irish vellum manuscript showing a connection between Gaelic Ireland and the Islamic world. Photo: Irish Script On Screen/Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

A closer look at the Irish medieval book

History / 17 Oct 19

"Stormy Daniels refused to allow accusations of sexual immorality to be used as a means to shame her into silence"

The historical links between Stormy Daniels and Jonathan Swift

History / 10 Oct 19

Primary school teachers make their point with placards at the INTO congress in Galway in April 2019

How the Easter Rising split Ireland's largest teachers' union

History / 10 Oct 19

Showing 1 - 25 of 138 stories