The Department of Education’s decision not have history as a mandatory subject in the Junior Cert still raises concerns that many students may not then study it in the Leaving Cert, and so as citizens may have big gaps in knowledge of our country’s past and its impact on today.

Des Ekin’s new book is filled with all sorts of tales from Ireland’s pirate past, writes Esther McCarthy.

The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 was the highlight of a three-month siege of Spanish forces in the town and ended their hopes of conquest. Tom Hickey takes a look at a new book on this landmark moment in Irish history.

It is 382 years this week since the Jun 20, 1631, raid on the thriving Cork fishing village of Baltimore by pirates from Algiers in Morocco.

IT WAS a warm peaceful summer’s night on June 20, 1631, as the inhabitants of Baltimore harbour village slept soundly in their beds.