Ballinasloe, in the Irish province of Connacht, is a town in the mid–western part of Ireland. Historically the area had high levels of poverty, population decline from potato famines, and from large scale emigration. Local unrest including riots and killings occurred over land reforms at the turn of the twentieth…

On July 25th, 1905, Arthur Devereux stood trial for the crime of murder. It was alleged that he had poisoned his wife, Beatrice. It was also presumed that at the same time he had murdered his two-year-old children, twins Evelyn and Lawrence, although he was not tried for their murders…

On September 18th, 1634, the Reverend John Lothropp arrived at Plymouth in New England, with some 200 religious dissidents aboard The Griffin, a ship that had sailed from England. The passengers included several families who were deaf and whose future children had an impact on the life of the community…

History might have been very different if Violet had achieved her goal.

Politics in the United Kingdom has recently been awash with allegations of scandal, corruption and malfeasance. It is, unfortunately, nothing new. When Robert Walpole resigned on February 1st 1742 he left in his wake a lengthy trail of political successes, ruthless dealings and reverberating allegations of corruption. Commonly referred to…

James Stanhope, who was the First Earl Stanhope, can lay claim to being the first Prime Minister of England. It might be pointed out that Robert Walpole is often referred to as such, but that’s debatable because Stanhope was certainly referred to as First Lord of the Treasury, the title…

For the pub quiz or the TV game show the name of the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated is useful to know. Less well-known is the name of his assassin: John Bellingham. Even less well-known is why he did it and what happened afterwards. On May 11th 1812…

No doubt you have seen it: Vladimir Putins’ long, oval table. I would guess that it is at least three metres long. It has, I think, three supports beneath it, saving it from looking like a misplaced suspension bridge. It is a white table, possibly embossed around the edges, although…

“Can you tell me,” enquired Mr Louis Staunton of the local postmaster, “whether Forbes Road, Penge, is in the county of Surrey or Kent?” It was a question that, later, he surely regretted asking, overheard as he was by a relative of his deceased wife, Harriet. Staunton needed to know…