This book represents the first installment of a planned trilogy that encompasses the progression of transported felon, John Turner Flinn through the various stages of the Tasmanian penal system of the 1840’s and is based upon actual records and newspaper articles from the time. The second novel will culminate in his being…

Gustavus Conyngham is known to history as the “Dunkirk Pirate,” but that was the name the British gave him. It was not a name that he ever would have given himself. He thought of himself only as, Gustavus Conyngham, USN (United States Navy). He was never, in fact, a pirate. He was a commissioned officer in the new U.S…

I was at a wedding in Co Cork recently, it was truly a lovely ceremony and was made extra special with this ancient Celtic custom of handfasting. I had heard of handfasting before, but this was the first wedding ceremony I was at that this custom was actually performed and I was intrigued to learn that the phrase 'tying the knot' came from…

To say that truth is always the first casualty of war may be a cliché, but it never was more apt than when applied to the thirty years of Ireland’s most recent, painful and pointless ‘Troubles’ [1968-98]. Many…

DOMHNAIGH -- September 4, 1607, (Julian calendar) was a crucial day in Irish history. On that day Hugh O'Neill, Ruari O'Donnell and many other chiefs of their families departed from Lough Swilly for the continent. It is known in Irish history as the 'Flight of…

Okay, it’s not the Super Bowl, but for fans of Ireland, the Aer Lingus College Football Classic pitting Boston College against Georgia Tech in Dublin on Saturday was nothing short of “super!” Regrettably, I didn't attend the big game at Aviva Stadium, won by Georgia Tech 17-14, but I’m delighted to count myself among…

It looked sad and forlorn sitting by the side of the Creamery road as though it knew that it had long been abandoned. I first noticed it one rainy afternoon when I was almost seven years old and I can still vividly recall the sweet scent of wild honeysuckle, hanging heavily on the air that…

His name was Eoghan, and I never did catch his last name. A solid year spent with the desultory coming and going of this enigmatic man through the door of The Galway Music Center, and I came to accept him as Kieran’s friend from Derry. Kieran rarely explained himself, much less anyone attendant, and because he was the…

I was lying on the couch one lazy Sunday evening ‘channel surfing,and doing my utmost to avoid the news channels. I find that watching the news these days only deepens my brooding sense of melancholia and re-awakens the primal urge to run away, wrap myself in animal skins and take up…

Seamus Heaney, considered by many to be the greatest Irish poet since William B. Yeats, texted his wife Marie a few hours before his death: “Do not be afraid!” How comforting these words were to her I do not know. They seem, however, appropriate words for a man who faced so many crises in his life, dealt with them with…

LUAIN -- On August 29, 1803, Samuel Neilson, one of the founders of the United Irishmen, died in Poughkeepsie, New York. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Neilson had made a fortune in business by 1790, then he dedicated himself to Irish politics. It was Neilson, a native of Ballyroney, County…

Within the written she resides 

in quiet assurance of her place. 

Lithe and languid, with regal mien, 

she glides from the page bearing gifts.

The mantle, flowing through the ages,

envelops her in verity profound.

Gently musing all the while, 

in soft tones of…

On a July day nearly 130 years ago, an unknown and homesick young Irish writer trudged along a busy London street. He stopped suddenly and stood still, for he thought he could hear the tinkling of water in the midst of the bustling thoroughfare. He followed the sound and found he was looking in a shop window. There…

BLACKBERRY TIME

Late August, given heavy rain and sun

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen,

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was…

My Grandfather was John Joseph Scollan, Commandant, Hibernian Rifles.

He was at The GPO in Easter 1916 with James Connolly and Michael Collins and the seven signatories to the 1916 proclamation of The Irish Republic. I am presently researching his life, having just returned from Dublin.

Photo: The General…

On August 19, 1876, 140 years ago , the whaling ship Catalpa  was given a tumultuous welcome as it sailed into New York harbor. She had no whales…

LUAIN -- On August 22, 1846 Fenian poet John Keegan Casey (right) was born at Mount Dalton, Co. Westmeath. While only in his teens Casey began writing poetry for The Nation. After teaching in Cleraun and Keenagh, Casey gave up the profession to work for the Irish Republican…

The next time you make a trans-Atlantic phone call, raise a glass, smile and tip your hat to an ingenious Irishman; a man that Charles Darwin once described as being “like an odious specter.” This man had incurred the wrath of Darwin for daring to oppose…