I am please to say that RTÉ Brainstorm has made a podcast of my article on Irish people who helped France during the Second World War. You can listen to it here.
Cork and France have been trading together and sharing culture and ideas for hundreds of years. I have just written an article for RTÉ Brainstorm looking at 6 people who exemplify the cultural connection between the two places. Read it here.
A little background - As Ireland holds the 6-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (Jul-Dec 2026), it was decided to link up counties in Ireland with countries in the EU. It is known as the EU Presidency Country Pairings. In this initiative, Cork was linked with France, so it makes sense to dig a little deeper into the historic connection between Ireland's southern capital and la France.
Included in the list of people I chose for this article are Bishop John O'Brien (1701-1769), the artist Henry Jones Thaddeus (1859-1929), Professor Mary Ryan (1873-1961), the operatic tenor John O'Sullivan (1877-1955), the musician, academic and composer Seán Ó Riada (1931-1971), and the graphic artist Jean-Thomas (Tomi) Ungerer (1931-2019).
Cathal Ó Sándair (1922-1996) was the best-selling Irish language author of all time. He wrote more than 160 books in Irish and sold more than 500,000 copies. I have just written An Irish Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about Ó Sándair's life and work. Read it here.
His first book was Na Mairbh a d'Fhill. It was incredibly popular with its target audience, which was children and teenagers. Ó Sándair's Réics Carló series of books that followed the escapades of the star private detective Réics Carló were snapped up by his young readers.
It is fitting, therefore, that an award at An tOireachtas each year for the best children's book in Irish is called 'Gradam Réics Carló'. There are five books in the running for this year's award and you can find out more information about it here.
Apart from the detective series, Ó Sándair wrote a western-style series called Réamonn Óg and a series on interplanetary space travel called Captaen Spéirling. Copies of his books can be found in libraries all over Ireland and you can even find examples of his work in the British Library in London and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
Thanks to the curator of the Cork Public Museum Mr Daniel Breen for welcoming my 2nd year undergraduate class today. They viewed items in the museum's collection from the First World War and heard from historian Mr Gerry White about the period.
The French weekly newspaper Le Canard enchainé is an usual paper. It is in print since 1915 and does not carry any advertising. Instead, it relies solely on subscriptions and sales at the newsstand. That is not all - it is known for its investigative reporting on the great and the good of French society and of course, its cartoons. I have just written a short piece about the history of the newspaper for RTÉ Brainstorm. Read it here.
As mentioned in my piece, Le Canard has had many scoops over the years, including the 'Affaire des diamants' (which implicated the then President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing) and the 'Fillon Affair' (which implicated the former Prime Minister François Fillon and his Welsh-born wife Penelope).
Released every Wednesday, it now available online as well as in print.
The edited volume Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict: Historical Perspectives From Ireland and Europe has been launched!! A good crowd attended the launch of the book in the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) on St Stephen's Green, Dublin on Tuesday 6 October 2026. See here for details of the book.
Thanks to Dr David McCullagh (presenter with RTÉ) who spoke very positively of this new volume at the launch. We also had contributions on the night from editors Dr Aoife Whelan and Felix Larkin, as well as the Series Editor at Peter Lang, Dr Eamon Maher.
Edited by Prof Richard C. Allen, Felix M. Larkin, Dr Oliver O'Hanlon and Prof Aoife Whelan, the book will be launched by the historian and broadcaster Dr David McCullagh.
The book came about following a conference organised by the Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland (NPHFI). The book's table of contents is reproduced below and you can order a copy of the book on the publisher's (Peter Lang) website. It is the latest in Peter Lang's series on Studies in Franco-Irish Relations. Thanks to Eamon Maher (Series Editor) and Anthony Mason (Peter Lang) for their assistance during the publishing process.
Register here to attend the book launch on Tuesday 6 October at 6pm.
