For more than a century, James Joyce's Ulysses has occupied a near-sacred place in the literary canon. Yet its immense reputation raises an important question: has Joyce's masterpiece expanded the possibilities of fiction, or has its towering influence encouraged critics to prize complexity over connection, innovation over…

Empire, Convicts and First Encounters in Australia's North

By Tim Flynn

My interest in Fort Dundas began not in an archive but on the Tiwi Islands themselves.

Having worked on the islands, I came to appreciate their distinct character. Although only a short distance from the Northern Territory mainland, the Tiwi Islands…

Irish history is filled with soldiers, revolutionaries, politicians and adventurers. Occasionally, however, a figure emerges who refuses to fit neatly into any single category. Arthur Lynch was one such man. Engineer, scientist, physician, journalist, soldier, author and Member of Parliament, he lived a life of such…

One of the largest Irish communities outside Ireland was built in the industrial towns and cities of Northern England. For many families, the economic transformations of the 1980s were not an abstract debate about markets and monetarism, but a lived experience that changed communities, careers and migration patterns for generations.

By T.S.…

The Laureate of the Lash: Francis MacNamara and the Verse of Convict Defiance

By Westport House - Alabaster Statue of Grace O'Malley (Granuaile) (1530-1603) by Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122557070

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Grace O'Malley (Gráinne Mhaol), the sixteenth-century Irish chieftain, trader and naval commander whose life continues to inspire new generations.…

Kathleen Lynn and the Politics of Compassion

By Tim Flynn (T.S. Flynn)

History tends to remember revolutions through their soldiers, generals and politicians. We remember those who seized buildings, proclaimed republics and challenged governments. Yet some of the most important figures in the struggle for Irish freedom…

By Tim Flynn (T.S. Flynn)

Few women occupied centre stage in American radical politics quite like Elizabeth Gurley…

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Daniel O'Connell's statue in the gardens of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. The Great Liberator's ideas travelled further than he ever did, accompanying generations of Irish emigrants and helping shape democratic traditions across…

SATHAIRN -- On Sept. 27, 1847, Civil War veteran and middleweight champion 'Professor' Mike Donovan was born in Chicago to Irish-born parents. The first of many memorable events in Donovan's life came when he fought for the Union Army, serving in Sherman's army in its march through Georgia. After the war,…