LUAIN -- On January 20, 1771, Don Hugo O'Conor was named Commandant Inspector of New Spain (Mexico). O'Conor was born into a Jacobite family in Dublin in December 1734. The…

Tracing Your Irish Ancestors 5th Edition by John Grenham  Published in Ireland by Gill Books and in the USA and Canada by Genealogical Publishing Company

John Grenham is something of a legend in Irish genealogical circles. During a professional career of…

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The night of November 1, 1920, All Souls Night, was extremely cold in the west of County Waterford. The members of the West Waterford Volunteers flying column huddled along the road at Piltown Cross were not only shivering because of the temperature. Most of them were also trembling slightly as…

The story of Chief O'Neill owes a great debt to his great-granddaughter Mary Lesch. It was Mary who followed through on family stories and hunted down her famous ancestor's unpublished manuscript. Then, with the aid of Chicago historian…

Dungarvan’s George Gerard Lennon (1900-1991), of O’Connell Street, Western Terrace (circa 1915) and Mitchell Terrace (1936), had a noteworthy revolutionary career.

Lennon's tenure encompassed some 17 engagements against enemy forces in Waterford, Limerick and Cork: a 14 year old “adjutant” in the…

There's a stone covered grave on the wild mountainside.

There's a plain wooden cross on which this is inscribed:

Kneel down, dear stranger, say an Ave for me

I was sentenced to death being a wild rapparee

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Dear Friends,

I attended a two-week writing workshop run by the Sancho Panza Literary Society at Trinity College in Dublin in June. It was a wonderful writing experience as well as an opportunity to explore historic Dublin and attend the…

I haven’t posted in a month and my Irish guilt is gnawing at me! So it’s back to business this week as “that time of year” is fast approaching. I’ve already started plumping my fruit for the several varieties of fruitcake that I make, but not for this one because the fruit is boiled! I’ve had the…

Francis O'Neill started as a policeman on August 17th, 1873. At that time, Chicago was still recovering from the devastation of the Great Fire a couple of years before. Francis had his own tragedies to contend with: He and his wife Anna lost their first child during that difficult time, and he struggled to keep a steady job in…