Broadsides – A collection of bits and pieces
"Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a blog”
I wrote this play, in the vernacular of the Nottingham accent, about the fate of British Soldiers from Nottingham and Newark and Derbyshire, who were sent to Ireland in 1916 to crush the Easter Rising. Yet to be performed, so if you know any theatre groups in the East Midlands - drop me a line!... Continue Reading →
Four lawyers from the Roger Casement prosecution team. In 1916 Sir Roger Casement, for his role in the Easter Rising, was prosecuted for High Treason and was found guilty and sentenced to death. This portrait of the four lawyers is taken from the great canvas by Sir John Lavery depicting the appeal hearing of Casement... Continue Reading →
This piece was originally published in "An Cosantoir" (The Defender), edited by Wayne Fitzgerald and appeared in the 1916 -2016 Commemoration issue of March 2016 Who were they and where did they come from, those stern English soldiers, marching now towards the city, marching from Kingstown, marching through the spring Dublin sunshine, into the second... Continue Reading →
To the memory of the 31 soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were killed in this and other areas of Dublin during the Easter Rising 1916 -Lest we Forget- (your can read their story here and here) L/Cpl Barks (Newark); Private Barnett (Loughbourgh); Private Blissett (Nottingham); Private Bradford (Alfreton); 2nd Lieut. Browne (Nottingham); L/Cpl... Continue Reading →
Nottingham has been sending fighting troops to Ireland for over 800 years. There is a reference in the 1363 Rolls of Edward III calling upon the Sheriff of Nottingham to " select 40 of the best and bravest of Archers in Notts and Derby, to assemble at Liverpool, furnished with bow, arrows and other arms,... Continue Reading →
So far as I know there is but one single memento to the role played by the Four Courts during the Easter Rising of 1916. It is a portrait that hangs in the Irish bay of the barrister's Law Library. It is of Charles S. Bevan, the volunteer who helped to relieve the Chancery Place... Continue Reading →
Conscription came in March 1916. By Easter of that year the last of the army's voluntary recruits were coming to the end of their training for the trenches of France. They knew, those young men, of the risks they faced in Flanders; they knew of the casualty lists. But still they volunteered, to fight, be... Continue Reading →
Not all the late nineteenth century white men who cut their way into the wealth of untamed Africa were touched by dreams of colonial conquest, territorial gain or massive religious conversion of the native tribes. Sir Roger Casement, it is true, was in deepest Africa, in the Congo, as Consul for Her Majesty's Imperial Government... Continue Reading →
John LAVERY (1856-1941): High Treason 1916. Oil on canvas, 214 x 322 cms . The canvas is huge: ten feet by seven feet and it hangs at the foot of the great marble staircase within the King's Inns,Dublin where it dominates the descent of the Benchers as they process on their way to dine. It... Continue Reading →
Broadsides - A collection of bits and pieces 