Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers (Editor: Shannon O’Boyle)

Reviewer: J.A. O’Brien

Summary: Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers represents an important new contribution to the history of Australian folk music and to Australian folklore. The new…

George Arthur French was born at Roscommon, Ireland in 1841. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1860. 

In 1871, at the request of the Canadian government, he was sent…

Fidelma McCorry Breen is seeking out participants for a survey she is doing on the Irish Experience in Australia. Please read the following post to see if you can help her out.

Thank you so much for your…

You can imagine my surprise when I saw a large piece of wood washed up on Streedagh Strand recently. (For more information on the ongoing discoveries at Streedagh Strand go to Grange Armada Development Association …

Clonmel: July 16^th, 1843

"My dear Wife, I have received your kind and welcome letter of the 20^th of March which is the greatest happiness I have enjoted ever…

Book Review

"Against the Wind", by J.A. O'Brien

 Reviewer: Michael Halpenny

The full title of this book is "Against the Wind: Memoir of a Dissident Dubliner." However, this is not the diary of someone strenuously opposed to the Good Friday Agreement,…

Well, we did it. It was hard, but overall I conducted myself with class and rehearsed for hours with an array of talented, crazy people. It was so challenging as a first-time producer and director but what I got was a tight show that told the story. The story has always been my…

It's the stuff great films and spellbinding stage performances are made of.  In the case of "The Last Torch," though, the story is plucked right from the history books.  To be more specific, in this case, the story is taken from the personal journey of 16th century…

Most weekends, I get up at ungodly hours and go to the local flea market to look for interesting books. I usually arrive at 7:00 a.m. or so when they are still unpacking. The dealers there bid on storage units and end up with all sorts of miscellaneous stock, among which are the books I…

Come meet the cast of "The Last Torch"!  

"The Last Torch" is set in 16th century Ireland, where survivors of a shipwreck from the Spanish Armada have washed ashore,…

The Great Shame: And the Triumph of the Irish In the English-Speaking World

By Thomas Keneally (of "Schindler’s List" fame)

Reviewed by John Edward (Ed) Murphy

Overall a good book and a very scholarly work. Great Shame covers significant historical events in 19th century Ireland,…

It was a very exciting weekend auditioning for "The Last Torch." Both tiring and exhilarating. Casting has been a very tough job, but we have our cast -- all except Brian O'Rourke, but he will appear!

BUAGH!…

“The Last Torch” is an exciting new Irish ceoldrama being premiered in Melbourne, Australia October 1st - 4th, 2014 at the Malthouse Theatre, Southbank. It will be part of this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival. Auditions will be held in July. Please email Frances O’Neill to…

By Robert Doyle

He is one of the most iconic figures of the American Civil War and, as the commander of the Union Army’s Irish Brigade, Thomas Francis Meagher (right, from from Arthur Griffith's "Meagher of the Sword," Dublin, 1916) is probably the most famous of…

On Sunday May 18 around sixty people attended a concert in Bendigo to celebrate the victory of Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Organised by the Central Victoria Irish Association the event took place at the historic Brian Boru Hotel, established in the 1850s at the height of the ‘gold rush’ era. Where else?

A lively and entertaining program of music,…

The following is a transcript of the LIVE members' chat hosted here at TheWildGeese.com on Friday, May 9, 2014 with James O'Brien, an Irishman living…

When the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) marched up Fifth Avenue in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade it should have been crystal clear, if it wasn't already, that this parade is incompatible with any serious effort to support Irish freedom. The PSNI is the…