History Shorts: snippets of local history

In the heart of Randalstown, County Antrim, a remarkable transformation has taken place. The imposing eight-arched railway viaduct, designed by the famed architect Sir Charles Lanyon and built by engineer William Dargan in the 1850s, has been revitalised into a beautiful urban green space. This is an example of an historical structure being reclaimed from its industrial past and potential decay or ruin, to become something positive for current and future communities. The viaduct, spanning the River Maine, carried its last trains in the 1950s, after which the tracks were lifted and a linking bridge over the main road removed. However, community efforts starting in the 1990s breathed new life into the structure, replacing the road bridge and clearing the overgrown viaduct to become a crucial part of a footpath and cycleway linking two ends of the town.  During the 2020s, it has been further transformed into a community garden, offering a serene escape from the hustle and bustle of da...

In 1907, Ireland’s ‘Crown Jewels’ vanished from a safe in Dublin Castle, four days before they were to be used during a state visit by King Edward VII.  Public domain image of the jewels from the police reward notice More than a century later, the mystery behind their disappearance remains unsolved, at least officially.  Suspicion continues to linger around Francis Shackleton, younger brother of the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton, despite being officially cleared by a commission of enquiry.  Did he pull off a heist under the nose of his colleague, friend and sometime housemate Sir Arthur Vicars? Sir Arthur was the Ulster King of Arms, or senior herald, responsible for the safe-keeping of the jewels and who was disgraced by their disappearance.  But why, more than 110 years later, are we still fascinated by this crime? Simply put, if these treasures still exist today, they would be worth millions.  So, what are the Irish Crown Jewels?  Officially called t...

"Then I found a two faced stone On burial ground, God-eyed, sex-mouthed, its brain A watery wound." — 'January God', by Seamus Heaney. In an apparently ancient cemetery on an island in Lower Lough Erne, county Fermanagh is a historical curiosity. The two-sided Boa Island figure is an enigma, even whether it is pagan Iron Age or early Christian (Caldragh cemetery has been dated to 400-800 AD). It's not really a Janus figure either but two separate figures standing back to back. Is one side male and one side female, as many think? Writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy in 1933, the Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry described and published photographs of the carved stone, which she believed represented male effigies on both sides. In that she disagreed with George Du Noyer who had first officially recorded the figure in a sketch in 1841 (not very accurately, she said). In her photos, the stone is very noticeably askew and partially sunk in the ground. She also...

Built between the 15th and 17th centuries upon basalt cliffs along the dramatic north Antrim coast of Ireland, this was a former stronghold of the famed Clan MacDonnell, a sept of the Scottish Clan Donald. Dunluce Castle was first built by their rivals the MacQuillan family circa 1500 (on the site of an earlier Norman settlement), before the MacDonnells seized it around 50 years later. Sorley Boy MacDonnell ( Scottish Gaelic Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell) effectively established the Clan MacDonnell as powerful rulers in Antrim; his father having been lord of Islay and Kintyre just across the sea (so close that the isle of Islay is visible from Dunluce). After defeating the MacQuillans in 1558, Sorley Boy's next great rival was to be the Gaelic chieftain Shane O'Neill, who took him captive in 1565 before he himself was murdered by MacDonnells in 1568.  At various times the MacDonnells were in conflict with English forces, and Sorley Boy's wife and children were among the...