Series: Life and Times New

The story of the life of Henry McCracken is inextricably fused with the history of eighteenth-century Belfast. Formed of stout Presbyterian stock, McCracken’s family were the founders of the Belfast Newsletter—the oldest English-language newspaper still in circulation, published since 1737—and also worked as textile merchants, rope-makers, and philanthropists. Where the McCrackens and Joys exemplified the economic dynamism and vibrant civic...

A gripping biography of Geróid Mór Fitzgerald, Lord Deputy of Ireland during the rule of Henry VII. Gearóid Mór, the Great Earl of Kildare, or simply Gerald Fitzgerald, was, historiographically speaking, a great deceiver, and he paid for his deception in similar currency. Over time, he was regarded as the uncrowned King of Ireland, a reputation which he himself would...