The Irish Story Top Ten articles 2020

Happy New Year to all Irish Story readers and contributors. It’s been an eventful year with world pandemic and a series of highly contentious centenaries in Ireland.

The year start with a contentious proposal to commemorate the Royal Irish Constabulary, And also saw a polarising general election, on which we commented here.

Below are the Top ten most read  new articles of the year, having taken out the articles on centenary events of 1920 (see blow extra category!)

Top Ten articles

1. The Black and Tans and Auxiliaries – an overview, by Sean Gannon
2. Epidemics in Ireland, a short history, by John Dorney
3. The Only Irishman that was incorruptible, Sean Russell and the IRA, part one, by Gerard Shannon. See also part two here.
4. Tom Barry and the Road from Mesopotamia to Klimichael, by John Dorney
5. The Black and Tans in Palestine, the Irish connections to the Palestine police, by Sean Gannon
6. ‘Taking Matters into their own hands’ The Ulster Special Constabulary, by John O Neill
7. Imprisonment aboard the Prison Ship Argenta, by Ann-Marie McInereny
8. Hair Cutting and Women in the War of Independence, by Margaret Ward.
9. The life and death of Black Jack Adair, Mastermind of the Derryveagh Evictions, by John Joe McGinley.
10. Today in Irish history, June 22, 1922, the Assassination of Henry Wilson, by John Dorney

There were many, many other great articles that were read by only slightly fewer people. Well worth checking out the site’s archives to find them.

Top ten Centenaries in Irish History articles

Because of the large number of prominent centenaries this year, I’ve created a separate category for the Today in Irish History and commemorations articles.

1. The Derry Riots of 1920, by Patrick Concannon
2. Commemorating 1920 in 2020, The Perils of reconciliation, by John Dorney
3. Today in Irish History, July 20, 1920, the start of the Belfast Pogrom, by Kieran Glennon, see also Counting the dead of the Pogrom here.
4. Today in Irish History, March 20, 1920, the Shooting of Tomas MacCurtain, by John Dorney
5. Bloody Sunday Revisited, 21 November 1920, by John Dorney
6. Commemorating the Partition of Ireland 100 years on by Cormac Moore
7. The Hunger Strike and General Strike of  April 1920, by John Dorney
8.  The Sack of Balbriggan, September 21, 1920, by John Dorney
9. The Cattle Drives of 1920, by Terry Dunne
10. Book Review: Kevin Barry, a rebel in Life and Death, by Eunan O’Halpin, reviewed by John Dorney

Top 10 Podcasts

This has been a bumper year for our sister site The Irish History Show, a benefit of the lockdowns has been that we have had more time available to record podcasts this year.

Most of these have been reported on the Irish Story, the top ten most listened on this site to are:

1. Joseph Quinn on World War II in Ireland
2. Padraig O Ruairc on the Disappeared of the Irish Revolution
3. Browsing the 1641 Depositions with John Dorney and Cathal Brennan
4. Belfast Violence with Kieran Glennon 1920-22
5. Commemorating the RIC, with John Dorney and Cathal Brennan
6. The Kilmichael Ambush, with John Dorney and Cathal Brennan
7. Ireland and the  Middle East in the British Empire, with John Dorney and Cathal Brennan
8. Ireland ‘the Jewish Question’ in interwar Europe with Brian Hanley
9. Public Housing in Dublin with Ruth McManus
10. Bram Stoker and the Cholera Epidemic of 1832 with Fiona Gallagher and Marian McGarry