The Shan Van Vocht


The Shan Van Vocht was a national monthly magazine founded in 1896 by two Belfast women, Alice Milligan and Anna Johnston (later Anna MacManus) following their departure from another journal, the Northern Patriot. The Shan Van Vocht contained literature, poetry, historical articles, and political commentary, as well as news and events of various cultural and political societies. Poetry and prose in Irish were included, occasionally with an English translation. As the centenary commemorations of 1798 approached, many issues included articles, short stories, oral histories, and poetry relating to the United Irishmen’s rebellion. Alice Milligan is listed as the editor and Anna Johnston as the secretary in most issues, but in practice the two are believed to have acted as co-editors. Both women also wrote for the journal; Anna Johnston, often under the name ‘Ethna Carbery’, and Alice Milligan, sometimes under the name ‘Iris Olkyrn’. James Connolly, Douglas Hyde, and Arthur Griffith were among those who contributed to the Shan Van Vocht. The journal also featured writings by P. J. McCall, Lionel Johnson, T.W. Rolleston, John MacNeill, William Rooney, Michael Cusack, Thomas Concannon, Alice Furlong, Nora Hopper, and Seumas MacManus under the pen name ‘Mac’. In 1899 the Shan Van Vocht ceased publication and the subscription lists were transferred to Arthur Griffith’s United Irishman.

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The Kangaroo


The newspaper, called ‘The Kangaroo’, was produced on board the troopship HMAT Afric, which carried men of the 1st battalion Australian Imperial Force (AIF), from its departure from Sydney on the 19th October 1914 until its arrival in Alexandria, Egypt on the 3rd December 1914. The newspaper was edited by Walter Wade, an Irish-born soldier in the AIF. This collection represents twenty-three issues of the paper, comprising of most issues published, along with variant editions and duplicates. There are gaps in the daily publication record, but this collection does have copies that are absent from other nationally significant holdings of ‘The Kangaroo’ extant in Australian libraries.

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