March, 1916, and the Great War rages across Europe. In the British Army garrison town of Bethune in northern France, a woman’s body is found in a park. Her throat has been cut. Marie-Louise Toulon is a prostitute at the Blue Lamp, the brothel catering exclusively to officers of the British Army stationed in the […]
The Somme 1916 – From Both Sides of the Wire
About two thirds of the way through the first episode of The Somme 1916 – From Both Sides of the Wire (BBC2; six parts starting 18 July; prod/dir: Alastair Laurence) there is a sequence which could stand as a paradigm of what can be done with history on television. Peter Barton stands in the field […]
Ireland’s Revolutionary Sisterhood
On the 2nd April 2014, over 100 women gathered in Wynn’s Hotel Dublin at a gathering presided over by Agnes O’Farrelly, Professor of Irish Language at University College Dublin and Ireland’s first female Irish-language novelist. Their purpose was to discuss the role of women in the lead up to revolution and on into the fight […]