In the first pitched battle of the civil war that shaped a newly independent Ireland, seven centuries of history burned. On June 30, 1922, forces for and against an accommodation with Britain, Ireland’s former colonial ruler, had been fighting for three days around Dublin’s main court complex. The national Public Record Office was part of the complex, and that day it was caught in a colossal explosion. “This happened just after the First World War, when all over Europe new states like Ireland were emerging from old empires. They were all trying to recover and celebrate their own histories and cultures, and now Ireland had just lost the heart of its own.”

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Persons: ”, Peter Crooks Organizations: Trinity College Dublin Locations: Ireland, Britain, Dublin’s, “, Europe