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
Filed under Irish history …
Snow in Alberta, Canada
The sun slips behind the black silhouettes of the Rockies.
Fingers and ears chill with disturbing speed.
Faster than in an Irish winter dusk. Continue reading
The Healing Has Begun
Written and directed by Branagh,Belfast is a touching story of lost innocence, with an outstanding cast and soundtrack by Van Morrison, has already won festival awards and is considered a major Oscar contender. Continue reading
Fiche bliain i nGaeltacht Laimbé agus Ráth Chairn: Twenty years in the Lambay-Rathcairn Gaeltacht
What we seldom see in print, though, are those individuals stories from the Lambay-Rathcairn Gaeltacht experiment that point to another kind of success. Éamonn Ó Neachtain is one such person. Continue reading
Ghosts of Irish-Australia: Barnaby Fitzpatrick
Nobody wanted to know convicts in early British settlement of Australia and now family historians are eager to find a connection to a convict in their family tree. How times have changed. Continue reading
The Elusive Fenian
While his comrades John Devoy, John Boyle O’Reilly, and Michael Davitt achieved international renown over decades, Cody was so shadowy that historians lost track of him after the celebrated Catalpa rescue of 1876. Continue reading
What’s in the name ‘Sheila’? new research
According to Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, the name Sheila derives from Cecily, ‘the English form of the Latin name of the…virgin martyr St Cecilia…The Anglo-Normans brought the name to Ireland and in time it became in the Irish language Síle.. Continue reading
Ghosts of Irish Australia. Bridget Gorman
Stood up at the altar, assisted migrant from Thurles, Bridget Gorman became the matriarch of a large and successful Irish Australian family. Continue reading
The Nation writers emigrate to Melbourne
It is a remarkable fact that three writers associated with The Nation newspaper emigrated to Melbourne in the mid-1850s: Edward Hayes, Charles Gavan Duffy and Gerald Henry Supple. Professionally diverse, they shared a deep love of poetry and song. Continue reading
Ghosts of Irish-Australia
(Ghost) Henry Fenton worked as a storekeeper for many years and built the White Flag pub which I ran for the rest of my life without even one breach of the licensing law. Continue reading
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