The burning of the Westmeath Independent’s offices and the associated print works in November 1920 was an extraordinary and distressing incident in Athlone’s history, with ramifications across the Midlands. In this edition of the blog, we provide a brief overview of the events surrounding the destruction of the paper, events which are discussed in more […]
In this edition, we discuss the aftermath of the Parkwood ambush of 22 October 1920, in which the Athlone Brigade’s flying column attacked a convoy of Auxiliaries and Black and Tans near Moate. During the ambush, one of the police lorries had been put out of action and its occupants were stranded at Parkwood until […]
In a previous post, we discussed the first attack by the Crown forces on the Westmeath Independent and the following day’s IRA ambush of a British army patrol on Lough Ree. Fearful of further violence, a delegation of Athlone’s citizens attempted to meet with the senior British army officer in the locality, Brigadier-General Thomas Stanton […]
In June 1920, Laurence Ginnell, the TD for Westmeath and Director of Publicity in the First Dáil, set out for the United States after spending more than half of the previous two years in prison. In our latest guest blog, Paul Hughes discusses Ginnell’s activities in the USA. A member of the House of Commons […]
In a previous post, we discussed the arrival of the Auxiliaries in Athlone on 16 October 1920 and the first attack on the offices of the Westmeath Independent. A day later, as we see in this edition, the IRA launched a retaliatory attack against the Crown forces. In Athlone, residents were left stunned by that […]
In the second of Gretta Connell’s guest blogs, she discusses Westmeath County Council from summer 1920 to the aftermath of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922. The local government elections in January and June 1920 brought to the fore the supporters of an independent Ireland but they also showed that sections of support remained for the […]
In the latest of our guest blogs we discuss the role of Westmeath County Council during the Irish Revolution. In the first of two articles, Gretta Connell describes how the council responded to the transformations in Ireland between 1916 and 1920. The Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898 set up County Councils, Urban District Councils […]
Bad Island by Stanley Donwood perfectly proves the adage of "a picture paints a thousand words". The stark black and white illustrations evoke a feeling of watching an elegant silent movie or film. The book tells the story of an island from the savage prehistoric era to the destructive arrival of modern humans. The message […]
In the latest of our guest posts, we discuss Alice Ginnell’s activism between 1915 and 1923. Dr Anne Marie O’Brien takes up the story. Alice King was born near Mullingar, County Westmeath in 1882 to James and Georgina King. On 30 January 1902 she married Laurence Ginnell who was thirty years her senior. Between 1906 […]