by Dr. Laura Kelley

The Irish of New Orleans today can be found in many places, some familiar and others less so. Pauline Patterson’s much loved pub, …

What was life like in New Orleans' Irish Channel in the early to mid 20th-century?

The Works Project Administration (WPA) conducted a series of interviews with the people of the Channel in 1941.  Many of those…

by Dr. Laura Kelley

Street-fighting man, bare-knuckles, and hard-fisted: Why do the Irish like to fight? Is there more…

By Dr. Laura Kelley

“No work was too menial, no venture too unprofitable, for her.”

Without question, among the Irish…

By Dr. Laura Kelley

Usually, when we speak about the Irish Diaspora in the USA, New Orleans is not among the cities that first come to mind as centers of Irish population and…

Laura D. Kelley’s Irish roots dictated the focus of her study, and Irish luck lent a hand when she met on her first day in the Crescent City a man from “da Channel”– the Irish Channel – with an unusual accent reminiscent of New York City even though he was born and raised in New…

This farthing coin was recently sold on eBay for $102.50. When it was minted in 1842, as a trading token by James O'Flynn it was worth only a quarter of one penny. James O'Flyn(n) was listed under 'Linen and Woollen Drapers…

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry, the word, in its most general sense, encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of…

My Granny O'Rourke was the was the mainstay of our household. The Kavanagh family was made up of five children, Mam and Dad, and Granny's other grandchild (Terry) whom she also raised (read "That's Just  How It Was").  We lived with her and she had a huge influence on all our…

I was born on the the 8th of January in 1945 -- the year the war ended in Europe.  By chance, I also share  a birthday with Elvis Presley.  He would have been 80 years old on the 8th of January, 2015.  

My memories of my birthday are very precious. This was due to the fact…

My dad, Guard John Murphy (Killimor, Ballinasloe) died in Our Lady’s Hospice (Harold’s Cross, Dublin) aged forty-four, leaving my mother, aged thirty-nine, with ten children aged two and a half to eighteen years old.

On Christmas Eve of 1945, we spent most…

My mother, Ellen Brennan (O'Connor.) passed on Friday, December 20th, 2014 at her home in Crossmaglen, County Armagh.

"She is not dead, she doth sleep.

 'tis death is dead. Weep not for Ellen." 

(Apologies to PB Shelley for the name change.) 

Ellen.

"Sure, God help them, the poor crathurs." was her oft used expression.

Ellen was a…

One of the saddest tales in Hamilton’s history is that of the Irish cholera epidemic victims who came here on the immigrant ships of the 1800s, looking for new life -- only to find death on our shores. It’s the story of people of great religious faith, left to die without benefit…

Yes, believe it or not, I saw the oldest surviving manuscript in Ireland. It’s called the Cathach (meaning the Battle Book) and it was used by the O’Donnell Clan as a protection or talisman when going into battle.

Because of its fragile state, it is rarely shown…

Do you love to cook, or do you find the kitchen to be a challenge wrapped in an enigma?  Either way you’ll love our upcoming feature: Irish Cooking for Dummies!

Watch the hangout in The Wild Geese Virtual Síbín as renowned cookbook author and culinary guru Margaret Johnson (above left) as she coaches professional "cooking dummy" Kelly O’Rourke (above right) through one of her…

As mentioned in Part 1, our ecclesiastical families married and had children.…

Never since the glory days of gladiators has there been so much interest in hand-to-hand combat. It hasn’t happened overnight, it is rare that an overnight sensation actually happens overnight, but Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has passed the point of being a niche sport and is now…

A lesson on hard work. 

To the left of our house in Urker was a wilderness covered with boulders, and thorny gorse bushes. It was no more than a quarter acre, but to me, at seven years old it looked like a vast, forbidding jungle. It…

Are you descended from any of Ireland's hundreds of hereditary ecclesiastical families?  Many of us can point to our warrior and royal ancestors.  But how many of us know about our ecclesiastical ancestors?  

That's right.  Our ecclesiastical…

On Sunday August 6, 1911, readers of the Irish Sunday Independent opened their papers to read about a Dublin-born Irish-American who had been “sailor, tramp, shepherd, truckman, stevedore and tally clerk” before becoming a Buddhist monk in Rangoon, Burma  and working…