On Easter Monday, April 24 1916 one of the most important events in the long, tortuous history of Ireland took place. The event, so shocking and bold, is still debated and analyzed until this very day.…

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

In 1897, Mark Twain was reported to have made this famous statement upon being…

One of the most iconic figures that emerged out of the Easter Rising was Michael Collins. Born in 1890, he was the third son in a family of eight children. Some sources would suggest that the Collins family were part of a very ancient clan who were widely spread over County Cork. 

Collins' father did not marry…

Tomás Malone, aka Seán Forde, looked down at the gaping hole in the roof of the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks and hurled in another Mills bomb, hoping that this time he would see the roof explode in flames. They had thrown several gasoline-filled bottles into the gaping hole already from their…

THE LABOUR HERCULES: The Irish Citizen Army and Irish Republicanism 1913-1923

[Irish Academic Press ISBN: 9781788550741]

Jeffrey Leddin’s latest book charts the rise and activities of Irish Labour’s first urban working-class militia. The Irish…

I see his blood upon the rose

And in the stars the glory of his eyes,

His body gleams amid eternal snows,

His tears fall from the skies.…

One of the many events held during 2016 to honour those who took part in the Easter Rising 100 years before was a stage play From the Backbone Out, which told the story of Richard O’Carroll, a labour leader and a member of the Irish Volunteers.

O’Carroll…

During the past year I had the privilege and honour to be commissioned to write a new orchestral suite for 1916 by Roscommon County Council. The suite, called IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN, is of eight movements

1. IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN,

2. Raising The Flag, 

3.…

Alice Milligan (1866-1953) was born into a middle-class Methodist family, one of 11 children. (Some sources would suggest that there were 13 children.) Her father was Seaton Milligan, a writer, poet, antiquary, member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), and a businessman. Her mother was Charlotte Milligan (nee Burns).

Alice was always…

Nora Connolly was born into a family that knew hardship from birth. The second child of James Connolly and Lillie Connolly (nee Reynolds), she would forge her way through life based on the knowledge and learning that was instilled into her by both of her parents; her mother a governess who home schooled all of her children -…

My Grandfather was John Joseph Scollan, Commandant, Hibernian Rifles.

He was at The GPO in Easter 1916 with James Connolly and Michael Collins and the seven signatories to the 1916 proclamation of The Irish Republic. I am presently researching his life, having just returned from Dublin.

Photo: The General…

Racing fruitlessly after a tram that was speeding away from him, a young British soldier spotted a shy young woman, out for a stroll in Dublin City, on her day off from working as a governess in Merrion Square. Lillie Reynolds, a softly spoken young woman who had been raised in the Protestant faith, did not usually flirt…

My mother (God rest her) must have taken this photo. It was in Connemara and they were on their honeymoon… It was a long time ago, but we still had a copy in a dusty old photo album at home in Ranelagh. It was lovely to see it projected onto the gable end of Pearse’s Cottage in Ros Muc last weekend.

It’s a long story. But maybe today, I’ll just tell you about the short film that I produced as part of my artist’s…

Easter is the principal feast day of the Christian religion, and, like the Jewish feast of Passover – which immediately preceded the first Easter, it is rooted in an actual event. Like Passover, it represents a passage from darkness to light, from death to life. The Crucifixion of our Lord and his subsequent Resurrection are…

Speech by John Bruton, former Taoiseach, at 11 a.m., Monday 28^th March, in Iveagh House, Dublin, as part of RTE's “Reflecting the Rising” series.

President John Kennedy once said that a “nation reveals itself “ by the events and people it chooses to commemorate.

This state is a rule of law based, parliamentary democracy, which has…

The GPO, Mount Street Bridge, The South Dublin Union -- these are names that resonate when it comes to Easter 1916 as the battlegrounds for what became Padraig Pearse’s ‘glorious failure.’ However, for some quirk of history, the success that took place in the sleepy town of Ashbourne, County Meath, during the Rising has…

The following comment to a recent post of mine, this by Richard R. Mc Gibbon Jr. , had me perplexed for a minute, as I do know that there are lots of unknown and unsung hero's in our Irish History........…

May 27th, sees the opening night of Cásca '16' -- a musical drama based on the events of the Easter Rising of 1916.

The production, penned by myself will be held at the South Birmingham College, For further information you'll find me on

Cásca'16 web page.

Is mise

Risteárd…

Robert Erskine Childers {Erskine} 25^th June 1870 – 24 Nov1922 -  was born in Mayfair London the second son in a family of five children – to Robert Caesar Childers and Anna Mary Henrietta Barton.…