Good stories can be hard to find these days, so it is good to hear that Irishman Fergal Butler’s lost, found, and restored boat Old’s Cool is set to be relaunched. Continue reading
Filed under Irish history …
The Making of Irish Diasporas
The sheer distance between Ireland and Australia and the cost of the 12,000 mile passage for example meant that Australia was spared the ‘hundreds and thousands of refugees…ragged, starving and diseased, that were cast up on the shores of Great Britain and North America.’ Continue reading
Generation Emigration Here for Good? An Increase in Irish Migration to Australia
A research manager at the University of Adelaide, her profile notes that ‘Her interest in migration, particularly the global movement of the Irish, stems from a lived experience of repeat and frequent migration.’ Continue reading
Kerry Folklore: Na Cruacha Dubha agus Paróiste na Tuaithe: Seanchas agus Scéalaithe
Little of that inheritance was recorded in the new country, but books like this give a vivid impression of what came and what was lost. The Australian links in the material presented here are interesting. In one story a landlord declares that if any of his workers steal even a lamb they will be transported. Continue reading
What we are reading at the moment:
She used a blue biro pen and had numbered the pages on small, plain, lined notepaper…I was pleased to see, sometimes, the smudged ring of a teacup or saucer imprinted on the page. I ould see her in the kichen getting a cup of tea as she wrote to me on a Sunday night. Continue reading
Poetry: Mary Howlett, Colm Breathnach, Ray Givans, Diane Fahey, Patrick O Sullivan.
It’s not easy to be in love with
a place that has changed so much. Continue reading
Small Things Like These
The world of the film is a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, and yet no-one ever speaks of what happens just down the road. Continue reading
The Brothers O’Shea: becoming stardust
We are struck by the extent of the brothers’ influence on both their adopted countries. They made a difference. They added to the community and to the culture. Continue reading
Irish homestead names in Australia
While many Irish place names in Australia remain unchanged, especially those of populated areas and permanent geographical features, the names of homesteads are more likely to change. A homestead in Australia is usually a house and pastoral property. Some placename websites separate the homestead from the land, and some call a homestead a ‘station’. Continue reading
Memories of Our Old House
Who can forget the smell of the Ulster fry of bacon, eggs and fadges completely soaked in gravy? Continue reading
Tinteán 