History Glossary

n

Nationalism
devotion to one’s country. Nationalists sought ‘self determination’, that is, the right of a nation to govern itself. Home Rulers were nationalists who wanted limited self-government within the British Empire but most other Irish nationalists (such as the Fenians and Sinn Féin from 1917 onwards) wanted complete political independence.

Newsreel
moving film, shown in cinemas, to inform audiences of recent events across the world. These were shown from the early years of the twentieth century but did not have sound until the beginning of the 1930s. News on radio began in the early 1920s and on television in the early 1950s.

No Man’s Land
the term used to describe the area between Allied and German trenches on the Western Front during the First World War.