The author, Simon Smith, is a filmmaker who has recorded stories from around the world, and that background is seen in the writing as he fills in little details and concentrates on the lives, likes and troubles of the main characters. Continue reading
Though the shrine was built in the early twelfth century, Saint Manchan died in AD. 644. Contextual evidence allows the authors to point to possible reasons the saint’s life and work might be commemorated years later by such craftsmanship. Continue reading
With the passage of time Irish Catholics eventually did become part of the fabric of Australian society. With the coming of each generation, they moved along and some of them, up the social scale. But their ascent was neither rapid nor easy. Continue reading
. To this day, we have a saying in Irish ‘Bhí togha gacha bí agus rogha gacha dí le fail ann’, The finest of every food and the choice(st) of every drink was to be had there. This is believed to originally date from bards of one to two thousand years ago. As a chieftain or king, one’s reputation had to be maintained, or enhanced and these ‘songs of praise’, so to speak, were pivotal in this regard. Continue reading
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they were usually ‘a reused glass spirit, wine or mineral bottle often containing a carved wooden cross, with a ladder leaning against it inside, sometimes (but not always) filled with water’. The water was usually holy water, or at least marketed as such. Continue reading
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How the schools became divided. Continue reading
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One of Ireland’s best-known writers and his take on the years since he was born in 1958 Continue reading
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The offspring of a full suite of 8 Irish great grandparents, Brenda Niall grew up in a cosily inwardly-focussed Catholic world, until and beyond her university training. This was not unusual in her era Continue reading
The Irish language thriving in Australian soil. Continue reading
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I have never smuggled anything over borders before or since and I was extremely nervous, but our car was not searched on the way over. The return trip was a different matter. Continue reading
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Tinteán 