Irish Volunteer Paddy "Bug" Callaghan and his two comrades stared up the road to the east as the cool, crisp air of February 2, 1921, caused their breath to fog the air around them. The three members of the North Longford Battalion of the Irish Volunteers were tasked with the most critical job of…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on January 27, 2023 at 10:30pm — 3 Comments
Seán Connolly and Leo Carter pushed a table into the corner of the upstairs bedroom of the Lloyd family in Ballymahon, Co. Longford. Carter, who stood 6’ 3”, jumped on the table and began to hack at the roof with an ax. It was just past midnight in the early morning hours of August 20,…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on August 11, 2022 at 9:00pm — 8 Comments
Seán Culhane stood across the street from the Cork & County Club Hotel, an Anglo-Irish social club in Cork City. Culhane, the Intelligence Officer, Cork 1 Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, was watching the door, waiting for a sign from his informer, waiter Ned “Bally” Fitzgerald. It was a…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on July 6, 2022 at 7:30pm — 4 Comments
Slowly marching back and forth through the still night air in Ballneety, Co. Limerick, the Williamite sentry standing guard over King Williams siege train blinked and rubbed his sleepy eyes, hoping his relief would be there soon. King William’s army had Limerick under siege, and the eight heavy…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on August 5, 2021 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment
Sgt. Henry Gallagher of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot, who was from Thurles, County Tipperary, paced up and down behind the red-clad soldiers looking over the mealie bag fortifications at Rorke’s Drift. He lifted…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on June 30, 2020 at 3:30pm — 8 Comments
Irish Volunteer Seán Hogan gazed out the window of the train toward the distant Galtee Mountains to the south. It was early evening on May 13, 1919. The train had just pulled out of Emly, County Tipperary, headed toward the small town of…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on April 6, 2020 at 5:00pm — 12 Comments
Chicago Times correspondent John Finerty wiped his brow, drying the sweat from the hot July 7th afternoon, as he looked up to the top of the grassy knoll where scout Frank Grouard was scanning the horizon with his binoculars. They were near the valley of the Little Bighorn in what is…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on September 1, 2019 at 11:30pm — 2 Comments
(Edwin O'Hara, loading the 4 inch gun on the SS Stephen Hopkins. By W.M. Wilson, on display at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.)
For them there are no big parades,
No heroes' welcome gay,
No uniforms, and no applause
To cheer them on…
Added by Joe Gannon on September 23, 2018 at 7:00pm — 4 Comments
On June 23, 1963 the people of Ireland fell in love with a member of “The Wild Geese” who had less than five months to live. If ever an American politician had a style and ease that allowed the people of Ireland to see the “Irish” in him, it was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. By the summer of 1963 he had become the…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on June 12, 2018 at 4:00pm — No Comments
Aidan MacCarthy crouched low in the air raid shelter he and the other prisoners of war had dug themselves. They had seen two American B-29 bombers flying toward the city of Nagasaki before they went into the shelter. A few POWs had stayed outside, though, wanting to see bombs fall on the Japanese for a bit of…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on October 13, 2017 at 10:30pm — 6 Comments
As John Paul Jones, captain of the Bonhomme Richard, prepared to face two British ships off Flamborough Head on the coast of England on September 23, 1779, he had some very interesting allies on board his…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on April 8, 2017 at 2:30pm — 2 Comments
(Above: "When Wagon Trails Were Dim," Charles Russell's depiction of a wagon train in the American west.)
Many men and women with Irish roots participated in the “winning” of the West for the new nation that was growing into a…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on March 14, 2017 at 10:30pm — 6 Comments
Winfield Scott is well known as the hero of the Mexican War and as the over all commander of Federal forces during the beginning of the Civil War. Few have heard much about his experiences in the War of 1812, however. One…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on May 26, 2016 at 1:30pm — 2 Comments
There are perhaps no participants in war who see more of the agony and despair that it brings to humanity than the doctors and nurses who tend to its physically and mentally broken combatants. During the American Civil War, many women with no medical background took up the usually thankless and horrific job of tending to these…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on May 3, 2016 at 9:00pm — No Comments
(Above: Lt. Bourke saving bugler Elmer Snow in "Battle of the Rosebud" by Andy Thomas)
On June 17th, on the…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on January 16, 2016 at 2:00pm — 6 Comments
Not many people in the United States or the world today know who Irish-American John Gregory Bourke was, and that is unfortunate. Few historical figures have ever had his rare combination of heroism in a major war; chronicling and participating in two decades of conflict with a fierce indigenous foe;…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on January 15, 2016 at 9:30pm — 5 Comments
Six weeks later, Stubby, the canine hero of the 102nd, was healed. The little scamp of a dog who had fought to survive on the streets of New Haven was was not easy to kill. He was sent back to the ranks, though the hospital staff and patients, who had been enjoying Stubby’s perky and therapeutic presence there, probably…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on September 25, 2015 at 8:00am — No Comments
" It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.”
- Mark Twain
On April 25th of 1919 in…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on September 22, 2015 at 10:30pm — 13 Comments
From "The Wicklow Mountains High" by Jim McGonigle.
One of the things I'm always on the alert for while driving along the roads of Ireland is any sort of roadside historical marker. The Irish have populated their cities…
ContinueAdded by Joe Gannon on July 17, 2014 at 9:00am — 6 Comments
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