Two months after the ambush at the Burgery, on the 18th of May, the body of Pat Keating was disinterred for burial in Kilrossanty, at the request of his family.

Above: In the front, left to right, are Tommy Boyle, George Lennon, Michael Foley. In the rear…

I wasn't sure if this had been posted yet, but I saw it online and thought it would be of interest to the members. I have watched it, and it is amazing to see the different places associated with the 1916 Easter Rising. Here's the link. More info can be…

DEARDAOIN -- On January 24, 1862, Miles Byrne, United Irishman and officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, died in Paris. He was active in the 1798 Rising in Wexford and fought all its major battles, right through the rebels' climactic defeat at Vinegar…

The West, the American West, is the place in our souls where romance and reality meet head-on. Ironically it is also the place where reality and romance have always met head-on. Ever since “the West” was that ill-defined space on the map west of the White Mountains, west of the…

In 2011, I explored the farming area of Ardsallagh in the Clashmore parish of Waterford. My Hogan ancestors farmed in this area, which overlooks the Blackwater River. We enjoyed crossing the bridge to Youghal in County Cork and doing research in the Waterford library in Dungarvan, where my Whelan ancestors lived. Would love to…

Click HERE to access the podcast from RTE 1 , Sunday 17th January . 

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/the-history-show/programmes/2016/0117/760893-the-history-show-sunday-17-january-2016/?clipid=2077794

The Irish Cultural Society has announced its annual writing contest for students in the 9^th through 12^th grades in Nassau County (NY) high schools.  The materials describing the contest have been mailed to the English Departments of the Nassau schools, public and private, and they have been posted on the…

DOMHNAIGH -- On January 17, 1860, Dr. Douglas Hyde, Gaelic scholar and first President of Ireland, was born at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. Hyde was the son of a Protestant minister and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He had a great facility for languages, learning Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and German, but…

(Above: Lt. Bourke saving bugler Elmer Snow in "Battle of the Rosebud" by Andy Thomas)

On June 17^th, on the…

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;…

I'm not hugely into sports. I watch the big soccer and rugby games when Ireland plays. I appreciate the skill in a good boxing bout and I sit in awe whenever the Olympics is on and I can watch those jaw-dropping displays the gymnasts put on. Other than that, I’m not that pushed. However, my…

The streets of Galway were gray that night. Everywhere I looked, gray buildings, gray sidewalks, gray sky, beneath a mist that floated inward from the Atlantic and hovered ominously, casting contrasting coronas of light upon the sidewalk from the interior lights of the handful of pubs still open in the midnight hour. Our…

Over the next two Sundays, RTE Radio 1 in Dublin will broadcast programmes on the legacy of the Irish in the American Civil War . Programme 2 will feature the importance of P. S. Gilmore as the unofficial 'bandmaster general' of the Union Army and the role that music played in the propaganda of the war.  The programs will…

LUAIN -- On January 11, 1775, Louis De Lacy (right), soldier in the armies of Spain and France, was born in St. Roque, Spain, near Gibraltar, of Irish parents. Louis' father, Patrick, was an officer in the Irish Ultonia regiment of the Spanish army. Louis entered his father's regiment at the age of only fourteen.…

Himself: A Civil War Veteran's Struggles with Rebels, Brits and Devils.  By William J. Donohue 319 pp., 2014 Buffalo Heritage Press www.BuffaloHeritage.com, softcover $19.99…

In early 1916, a young Irishman was making secret plans to travel from England to Dublin to take up arms in an insurrection to achieve Irish independence. This was Liam Parr, a singer and bagpiper who was sometimes known as the ‘The Minstrel Boy” after one of his favourite songs. He was a Dubliner who had been living…

“Nollaig na mBan,” or “Little Women’s Christmas,” is an old custom that’s still celebrated by women all over Ireland. It goes back to the days when large families were the norm. Men never lifted a finger in the house to help, and were never expected to. If a man washed the dishes, he would be called an “auld…

By Richard Tillinghast b. 1940…

LUAIN -- On January 4, 1781, Irish-born Revolutionary War Gen. James Hogan died in British captivity at Haddrel Point, South Carolina. Hogan (sometimes spelled Hogun) was born in Ireland about 1721, and emigrated to North Carolina about 30 years later. In May 1776, Hogan was appointed a major in the…

In 1965, my father, at the age of 60, decided it was time to find his Irish roots. The only problem was that one of his daughters was to be married late that summer. My mother declared he could go, but to give her some relief, he would have to take their youngest child with him, which was their 11-year-old daughter. This is how…