25 June 2026
Mounted Volunteers
A Special Army Order issued at the beginning of January 1900 established the machinery for recruiting the Imperial Yeomanry, a volunteer mounted force intended for service in South Africa. The decision followed the British defeats of December 1899, when Boer commandos demonstrated the effectiveness of mobile riflemen operating across difficult country. Existing yeomanry units were invited to provide trained volunteers, while suitable civilians could also enlist for a limited period of overseas service. The new formation was organised as mounted infantry rather than conventional cavalry, emphasising movement, marksmanship and the ability to fight after dismounting.
Read Article
24 June 2026
Difficult Ally
Tim Healy remained one of the most influential yet troublesome figures involved in the effort to reunite Ireland’s divided parliamentary nationalists during January 1900. A formidable barrister, experienced Member of Parliament and devastating political speaker, Healy possessed an authority that could not easily be ignored. He had opposed Charles Stewart Parnell during the leadership crisis of 1890 and subsequently quarrelled with leading anti-Parnellites, particularly John Dillon. By the end of the decade, Healy commanded his own following of MPs and local activists. Any credible agreement restoring nationalist unity therefore required his cooperation, even though many former colleagues distrusted his intentions and feared his independence.
Read Article
19 June 2026
Royal Dublin
Queen Victoria arrived in Ireland today for what will become the final Irish visit of her long reign. The royal programme is centred principally upon Dublin, where streets, public buildings, railway approaches and the route towards the Viceregal Lodge have been extensively decorated. Crowds gathered at Kingstown and throughout the capital to witness the arrival and procession. Although Limerick is not included prominently in the itinerary, reports of the ceremonies are being followed closely throughout the city and county by loyalists, nationalists, soldiers’ families, clergy, merchants and political organisations. The Queen landed at Kingstown before travelling through Dublin in an…
Read Article
25 June 2026
Coal Dues
A substantial case before Judge Richard Adams examined the Mayor of Limerick’s asserted right to receive dues upon coal brought into the city. The proceedings, reported on 12 January 1900, required the court to consider whether this inherited privilege rested upon royal charter, lease, long-established prescription or some combination of those authorities. Counsel disputed both the legal foundation of the claim and the capacity in which the Mayor exercised it. What appeared to be an obscure municipal custom therefore became a serious test of whether an ancient commercial right remained enforceable within Limerick’s modern port economy.
Read Article
24 June 2026
Civic Defiance
Edmond Sexten inherited his family’s extensive Limerick property around 1594 and became one of the most powerful, persistent and controversial figures in the city’s early seventeenth-century government. A grandson and namesake of the Tudor mayor who had acquired the former lands of St Francis’s and St Mary’s religious houses, Sexten served as an alderman, held the mayoralty several times and repeatedly occupied the office of high sheriff. His municipal service did not produce harmony with Limerick Corporation. Instead, much of his adult life was consumed by arguments over whether his inherited lands stood inside or beyond the authority of the city’s mayor and council.
Read Article