Is history repeating? The Spanish flu of 1918

Contributed by Ida Milne

The influenza A H1N1 [definitely not Mexican, resolutely not pig, perhaps novel] flu  has added interesting dimensions to my research subject, the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic in Ireland.  For a start, people suddenly seem interested,  rather than considering it a rather fusty topic.  Then, there is the element of reliving history; the panic which struck Mexico City when the authorities admitted after several months of increased levels of influenza-like illness that they had a problem must have been similar to that experienced along the east coast of Ireland in October 1918 when the virus was killing hundreds of people each week.