DOMHNAIGH -- On July 2, 1779, on the West Indies isle of Grenada, whose name would be famous again in the 1980s, Colonel Arthur Dillon and his regiment of the Irish Brigade of France were among 2,300 troops landed from ships commanded by Count…

DOMHNAIGH -- On June 25, 1870, Robert Erskine Childers…

MÁIRT -- On June 20, 1763, one of the most famous revolutionary leaders in Irish history, Theobald Wolfe Tone, was born at 44 Stafford St., now called Wolfe Tone St., in Dublin. Tone was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and called to the bar,…

I recently spent 10 days visiting “Ireland’s Ancient East,” a touring region tapping 5,000 years of history in the south and eastern area of the country. Described as a touring region rather than a specific route, it was designed to offer a "relaxing, compact journey of…

MÁIRT -- On June 12, 1844, Januarius A. MacGahan , war correspondent, was born near New Lexington, Ohio. MacGahon's father was a native of County Derry. Januarius was an excellent student and became a teacher and then moved to St. Louis and was hired as a newspaper…

LUAIN -- On June 5, 1868, James Connolly was born of Irish immigrant parents in the Cowgate, an Edinburgh, Scotland, slum. He served in the British army but deserted to marry an Irish girl and returned to Edinburgh. Under the influence of Scottish socialist John…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 28, 1779, poet and songwriter Thomas…

John L. Sullivan, heavyweight champion of the world, strode into the bar in the small town of Belfast in western New York state as if he owned it. He had done…

DOMHNAIGH --  On May 21, 1745, Count Daniel O'Connell, the uncle of the 'Liberator,' and an officer in the Irish Brigade of France, was born in Derrynane, Co. Kerry. Young Daniel became a cadet with the French army in 1761. He served in Clare's Regiment of the…

MÁIRT -- On May 15, 1847, Syria, the first ship to arrive during what Quebecois would call the 'Summer of Sorrow,' landed at the Canadian quarantine station in the St. Lawrence River, just north of Quebec. The French had called that island…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 7, 1915, the English passenger ship Lusitania was sunk near Old Head, Co. Cork, off the southern Irish coast. The liner had left New York bound for Liverpool on May 1. German intelligence believed, and most historians now believe, that the ship was carrying munitions.…

The Dictionary of Statistics by Michael G. Mulhall, London, George Routledge and Sons, 1892

I have been browsing through the above book and found many interesting population, emigration and property statistics relating to Ireland in the 19^th century. These statistics reveal the impact the artificial famine of the 1840s had…

LUAIN -- On May 2, 1870, Father Francis Duffy, World War I chaplain of the 69th New York, was born in Cobourg, Ontario. Francis moved to New York at age 22 to teach at St. Francis Xavier College but quit to enter the seminary. Father Duffy became well known around the town…

DOMHNAIGH -- On April 23, 1014, the Battle of Clontarf, one of the most famous and important battles in Irish history, was fought just north of Dublin. It was a bloody stand-up battle, fought mainly with ax and sword, with Brian Boru's men prevailing. This…

DOMHNAIGH -- On April 16, 1746, a battle was fought in Scotland that would have long-term implications for Ireland, as well as Scotland. It ended "Bonnie" Prince Charlie's Jacobite uprising, known in Scotland as simply, "The '45." It was the battle of "…

DOMHNAIGH -- On the morning of April 9, 1916, a German merchant ship, the Aud, had just left the port of Lübeck, loaded with guns and ammunition for the …

LUAIN - Beginning on April 3 and continuing to May 8, 1781, the Irish Hibernia regiment of Spain helped lay siege to British forces in Pensacola, Florida, during the …

LUAIN -- On March 27, 1872, Mary MacSwiney (Maire Nic Shuibhne), republican activist, was born in Surrey, England, of an Irish father and an English mother.

(Right: National Library of Ireland: …

Walt Whitman removed his wide-brimmed hat and wiped his brow with his handkerchief. The summer of 1881 was hot and humid in New York City, with 22 days hitting 80̈° or more. The 62-year-old had come downtown to see a massive work of art. It was causing a sensation in the few places it had…