Peter Dargan – made immense contribution to community life in Ranelagh

An Appreciation

Second-generation Irish: ‘We were outsiders among the English – and the Irish too’

Ian Duhig’s parents emigrated to England in the 1950s in search of a better life. In this essay, he looks at growing up under the influence of Ireland and never feeling quite at home

Hodges Figgis: A 250-year-old story of selling books

‘On Christmas Eve there was always a sherry reception for the customers’

Pádraig Pearse: Preparing for the ‘end times’

Long a Gaelic revivalist, Pearse was a latecomer to politics and gunfire, his unfortunate brother an even later one

Grand plans for WB Yeats’s ‘invincible tower’ at Gort

The 15th-century Norman tower Thoor Ballylee was home to the poet and his family for 12 years. An auction is planned to raise funds to turn it into a cultural centre

Progress on social housing backed by long-term commitment but scale of problem is daunting

How the stage was set for armed revolution in Ireland

In a second, edited extract from his book Vivid Faces, historian Roy Foster considers the role of theatre in shaping the minds of the revolutionary generation