Category Archives: Blog

The Re-Introduction of Direct Rule in Northern Ireland: 24 March 1972

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Forty years ago today, the British government reassumed direct control of the province of Northern Ireland, thus ending one half of an early British experiment with devolution. (The other half, the establishment of a semi-independent ‘Dominion–style’ government in Dublin, can be said to have ended officially with the declaration of an Irish Republic in 1949.)

Home Rule in Northern Ireland

‘Home Rule’, as devolution was called back then, had been proposed for Ireland in the 1860s as the best way of keeping the United Kingdom (and the British Empire) together while satisfying the aspirations for independence of Irish nationalists. Nevertheless, this compromise suggestion had been met with utter rejection on the part of a large minority in Ireland who saw their status, economic well-being, and religious and civil liberties threatened by any loosening of ties to London and to the Empire. These opponents were named ‘unionists’, because they wished to maintain the union between Ireland and Great Britain. They were overwhelmingly Protestant (unlike the majority of the population of Ireland, who were Catholic) and concentrated in one geographical area — roughly, the Province of Ulster in the north of the island.

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Osama bin Laden – a summary

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History In An Hour offers a brief summary on the life and death of Osama bin Laden.

Born 10 March 1957, Osama bin Laden was one of 52 siblings born to his billionaire father, Mohammed, and his numerous wives. Osama’s mother, Alia, was 14 when she married Mohammed and 15 when she gave birth to Osama (‘young lion’ in Arabic).

Mohammed bin Laden had built from scratch a large building empire in Saudi Arabia and when, in 1968, he died in a helicopter crash – his vast fortune was distributed amongst all his children.

Osama bin Laden stood 6ft 5in tall and married the first of his four wives, a 14-year-old, when he was 17. He had 19 children, of whom his 22-year-old son, Khalid, was killed in the US attack that killed Osama in May 2011.

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Harriet Tubman – a summary

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As the concept of banning slavery within the United States grew, so did the number of people who were willing to risk their safety and security to help runaway slaves.  One such person was Harriet Tubman. Here, Kat Smutz summarizes her life.

Harriet Tubman was a fugitive slave with a high price on her head in the American South.  Born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman, the eleventh child, was often called Minty. Harriet was a name she chose for herself as an adult.

“I felt like I was in heaven”

In 1844, aged about 25, Harriet sought permission from her owners to marry. She married John Tubman, a freeman, and lived with him in his cabin, but was obliged to continue working for her master. She once confided in her husband her dreams of running away and obtaining freedom. John Tubman threatened to denounce her if she ever tried it.

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The February Revolution – a summary

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8 March 1917 saw the February Revolution on the streets of Russia’s then capital, St Petersburg. Rupert Colley summarizes the events leading up to the revolution, the revolution itself and the abdication of Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II.

(Up until January 1918, Russia used the ‘Old Styled’ Julian Calendar that was 13 days behind our Gregorian calendar, hence the revolution of 8 March is referred to as the ‘February Revolution’.)

Bloody Sunday

The Russian Revolution of 1905, triggered by the events of Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg, heralded the beginning of the end for the tsar, Nicholas II. Strikes and insurrection crippled the country eventually forcing Nicholas to introduce his ‘October Manifesto’: ‘The disturbances and unrest in St Petersburg, Moscow and in many other parts of our Empire have filled our heart with great and profound sorrow… Fundamental civil freedoms will be granted to the population, including real personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and association.’

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Dickens and the Blacking Factory

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1824 was a particularly difficult year for the Dickens family. As we saw in ‘The Inimitable Mrs Dickens‘,  John’s debts had spiralled out of control and our great matriarch, Elizabeth, had been unable to remedy the problem. When the family’s cousin and former lodger, James Lamert, swooped in with an employment offer for Charles, it seemed like a step in the right direction. Grateful of the offer, John and Elizabeth immediately accepted. But the experience at Warren’s Blacking Factory would leave an indelible scar on the young Dickens and, more importantly, on the relationship with his mother.

On 9 February 1824, only two days after his twelfth birthday, Dickens left his home at 4 Gower Street North and walked the three miles to Warren’s Blacking Factory. Situated by the Thames, at Hungerford Stairs, it was a “crazy, tumbledown house with rotten floors and a staircase.” Here, for ten hours a day, Monday through Saturday, Dickens pasted labels onto the individual pots of blacking, a mixture used for polishing boots. In return he received six shillings per week – around £12.50 in modern currency.

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Andrey Zhdanov

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Born 26 February 1896, Andrey Zhdanov was typical of Joseph Stalin’s inner circle – mendacious, ruthless, indifferent to the fortunes of the ordinary citizen, but, answerable only to Stalin, utterly fearful lest he should ever fall out of favour. For this, in common with all members of the sycophant Politburo, Zhdanov put the interests of Stalin ahead of all else.

The Yugoslav writer, Milovan Djilas, described Zhdanov as ‘rather short, with a brownish clipped moustache, a high forehead, pointed noise and a sickly, red face’.

The ‘Zhdanov Doctrine’

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Elizabeth Dickens

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Much attention has been directed to the women in Charles Dickens’ life – most notably his wife Catherine and his lover Ellen Ternan – but it is with his mother, Elizabeth Dickens, that I have become particularly interested, writes Kaye Jones.

An attractive and vibrant woman, she was the inspiration for the foolish and self-absorbed Mrs Nickleby. She had a profound influence on Dickens’ development – both as a man and a writer – and certainly informed his view of and relationships with other women in later life. So let’s take a brief look at the inimitable Mrs Dickens…

“A Dear Good Mother And A Fine Woman”

When John Dickens married the nineteen-year-old Elizabeth in 1809, she was a “pretty, bright-eyed, vivacious-looking woman with her hair clustered in dark ringlets and a neat wasp of a waist.” Their first child, Frances, was born the following year and Charles Dickens in 1812. She took full responsibility for the children’s education in these early years, teaching reading, writing and even the basics of Latin. Dickens would later recollect that she taught him “thoroughly well” and it was certainly her influence that inspired his lifelong love of reading.

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W. E. B. Du Bois

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Born 23 February 1868, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was perhaps the most influential African American leader of the first half of the twentieth century. The first black graduate from Harvard, W.E.B. Du Bois believed in protest and activism to advance the rights and conditions of African Americans.

His views were in stark contrast to his fellow campaigner, Booker T Washington, who believed that through education and hard work, blacks could eventually win the respect of whites and thus gain greater equality. Du Bois became increasingly critical of what he considered Booker T Washington’s accommodating approach to racial integration, believing that Washington’s approach undermined the black person’s status in society. Instead, Du Bois believed in a more proactive approach, and strove to achieve greater political representation for blacks. He believed education should do more than merely teach vocational trades; it should teach black people how to live assertively, fighting for equality and to be demanding of their civil rights.

Du Bois was also critical of fellow black campaigner, Marcus Garvey. ‘Without doubt,’ wrote Du Bois of the flamboyant Garvey, ‘he is the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world. He is either a lunatic or a traitor.’

NAACP

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Battle of Verdun

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As 1914 drew to a close, the Western Front had become a permanent fixture of trenches stretching 400 miles from the English Channel to Switzerland. Stalemate ensued. A year later, the situation was no better. Each side looked for a ‘Big Push’ that would break the opposing line of defence and bring about victory. Rupert Colley summarises one such push – the Battle of Verdun.

‘France will bleed to death’

At the end of 1915, the German commander-in-chief, Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that Germany’s ‘arch enemy’ was not France, but Britain. But to destroy Britain’s will, Germany had first to defeat France. In a ‘Christmas memorandum’ to the German kaiser, Wilhelm II, Falkenhayn proposed an offensive that would compel the French to ‘throw in every man they have. If they do so,’ he continued, ‘the forces of France will bleed to death’. The place to do this, Falkenhayn declared, would be Verdun.

An ancient town, Verdun in northeastern France, was, in 1915, surrounded by a string of sixty interlocked and reinforced forts. On 21 February 1916, the Battle of Verdun began. 1,200 German guns lined over only eight miles pounded the city which, despite intelligence warning of the impending attack, remained poorly defended. Verdun, which held a symbolic tradition among the French, was deemed not so important by the upper echelon of France’s military. Joseph Joffre, the French commander, was slow to respond until the exasperated French prime minister, Aristide Briand, paid a night-time visit. Waking Joffre from his slumber, Briand insisted that he take the situation more seriously: ‘You may not think losing Verdun a defeat – but everyone else will’.

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Frederick Douglass

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The title of Renaissance man would not be inaccurate in describing Frederick Douglass.  Born a slave in about February 1818, Douglass, originally called Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was raised by his grandmother. Denied even the most basic education, Douglass rose beyond life in bondage to a man of intelligence, principles, and influence.

Douglass’ mother was a slave named Harriet Bailey.  The identity of his father is uncertain, but is believed to be his mother’s owner, Anthony Bailey. Like most slave children, Douglass was taken from his mother at birth and fostered by an older slave woman.  He later said that he saw his mother no more than five times in his life.

At the age of 12, he went to live with a relative of his owner whose wife began teaching Douglass to read.  When her husband learned of it, he demanded his wife desist.  Not only was it illegal to educate a slave, but it was believed that if a slave learned to read, he might become dissatisfied with his lot in life and attempt to rise above it.

But Douglass had already obtained the rudimentary skills of reading and continued to teach himself using the Bible and newspapers.

Slave breaker

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