Our aim is to provide serious comment and an independent perspective on a wide range of Australian/Irish topics.
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Cloisim gach coisméig is scuabadh ár gcosa le gach méanfach sa dorchadas..lI hear every squeak and sweep of our feet with every yawn in the dark. Continue reading
I usually held my father’s hand and would walk on the outside of the path as the hedges and bushes we passed seemed to develop a sinister aspect in the night shadows. Our footsteps resonated in the silence of the night. No memory of the cold temperatures of those nights remains with me. Only the joy of the special experience. Continue reading
Each visit to Ireland runs deeper than the last. Back in the 1980s, I met distant relatives before hitching around The Republic. When I felt the Atlantic’s chill, I retreated south towards the equator and finally home to The Great South Land. From August to early October 2022, I crisscrossed Ireland, listening to RTÉ and … Continue reading
by Mae Leonard I knew there was something not quite right the minute I rounded the bend of the road after Birdhill and was moving towards Annacotty on the last mile home. I was at the outskirts of Limerick on the main Dublin Road where the terrain is familiar to me and I knew there was … Continue reading
Tom Keneally tells the story of John Mitchel, the story being more significant than the history Continue reading
Donal Ryan at his best. His central characters are four women of four different generations. Continue reading
Susan has had international recognition with her interview on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio1…The Irish National Foresters were a Friendly Society that commenced in Ireland and then started in Melbourne in 1886 … Continue reading
2-7 January 2023: Lake School in Koroit Join the Lake School of Celtic Music Song and Dance in Koroit VIC January 2-7 2023. You can learn fiddle, whistle, bodhran (irish drum), harp, concertina , guitar, ukulele to mention but a few of over 100 classes, workshops, sessions, dances and concerts. Extensive program for Kids and … 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
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
