Edmund Burke was born in Dublin in 1729. Educated in this city, it was not long before he quit ‘the bogs of Ireland’ and moved to London, where…
Category: Today
What was the Cheka?
This colourful European word in initials stood for ‘The Extraordinary Commission for combatting Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation’ and we will not attempt to put that in Russian. It…
The Canadian Pacific Railway
The name of the longest railway in the world may confuse. It is transcontinental, not a railroad running along the western or Pacific coast of Canada. Work began…
A message from Dean Swift
There will be fewer posts during the next few weeks as we are assembling and compiling etc. a book. It is a selection taken from the six hundred…
The Japanese Peace Constitution (1947)
After the horrific end of World War II in the East, the Japanese decided to replace the draconian Meiji Constitution agreed to in 1889. But the new draft…
The United Nations Organisation (based in New York)
The most expensive organisation on this planet started life in October 1945. Its predecessor the League of Nations had proved to be useless, and the founder nations were…
The Treaty of Trianon (1920) and its effect on Hungary
This treaty is another good example of the collateral damage to be expected when states join in wars with the express intention of gaining territory, though the war…
‘Stadhouder’: what was a ‘stadholder’?
The names in Dutch and English are similar; this was the office of the chief executive of the Dutch Republic when Holland was a republic and not, as…
That Special Relationship
This is a favourite (or favorite term) used mainly by British social commentators and diplomats to describe what they like to see as special Anglo-American relations. The term…
The House of Bourbon (and Borbón)
The French (and later the Spanish) royal house descends from a Capet – Louis IX (The Saintly). As such it was absolutist and conformist in ideology, and dedicated…