DOMHNAIGH -- On November 8, 1987, in one of the most widely condemned actions of the "Troubles," an IRA…

In Irish mythology, a "thin place" was a divider between the physical, tangible world and the "otherworld" of dreams, the afterlife, and other unseen but very real dimensions hiding behind the veil of reality. Thin places could be actual places or they could be seasons of change. The night of Samhain (sow-in), the Celtic…

Edward Joseph Flanagan was born in 1886 in Leabeg, County Roscommon, to John and Honoria Flanagan, both fluent Irish speakers. He was the eighth child in a family of eleven children.

Pictured, above, a scene from the "Boys Town" movie with Spencer Tracy as Father Edward Joseph…

This is the prologue to the following posts about my trip to Ireland to present my musical "The Last Torch" at the Celtic Fringe Festival, Sligo. I have been writing them backwards as things are best understood this way. It means the reader can read…

What followed next was a scene that has occurred numerous times when Irish rebels were faced with the question of what to do with an informer. Irish history and literature are replete with references to this scourge of failed rebellions. Liam O' Flaherty's character Gypo Nolan betrayed his former…

Oh dear, it’s been such a long time since I wrote anything for The Wild Geese … I didn’t realise how long until I re-entered the site. Why? I moved house (or 'flitted' as we call it in Northern Ireland). I moved to a house that looked great on viewing but proved otherwise when we got in. With all the furniture removed and no one there, the extent of what needed to be done swiftly became all too clear.…

I'm new here as of today! I tried uploading a profile picture to no avail. It turns out that Windows 10 was my problem and after switching to Chrome, there was no problem.

I thought this might be helpful to some.

We are always looking for a fight.

When the Irish county councils introduced the concept of the wheelie bin we opposed them tooth and nail.

How would people manage them?  Weren’t we grand with the regular bins? Why did we need to change? How would people living in flats (apartments) manage? What about…

They say the best business is grown in a recession -- where labour, rents and expectations are cheap, but equally venture capital, support and credit is short. To straddle that gap comes the new sidepreneur -- someone who has…

DOMNAIGH-- On the morning of Nov. 1, 1920, two masses were celebrated at an altar that 18-year-old IRA member Kevin Barry had constructed in his jail cell in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin. Barry was then led…

If you have missed the ongoing conversation about the need to preserve the tradition of the parade in New York, and to protect the role and the voice of its many affiliate groups, it's worth looking up the many places where the dialogue continues. There is a petition to help focus the…

Saturday was busy. I was still jet lagged, but I had no choice. Today was a big day. Everyone was walking to Streedagh Strand to pay tribute to the Spanish Sailors and later the festival marquee would rock some music. Triona arrived mid morning and we rehearsed in the hall. We decided that she would sing Eleanor’s aria and I would do the Lament. Two really sad songs, I would have to cheer everyone up with a video from the show “Feed the Queen”. Triona commented about my calmness. There was…

I broke my own rule. I never go on vacation or take a trip (yes, they are different) during holiday season. I would rather stay at home and catch up on repairs and maintenance. Circumstances dictated I visit Ireland in August in 2015. It seemed the entire population of the world had the same idea.

The Wild Atlantic Way has been receiving a great deal of media attention. It is the world's longest defined…

While in Ireland during what laughingly passed as a summer in 2015 I spent time doing maintenance at a graveyard. Three of us spent a few hours mowing and strimming Rath Graveyard near Ballyvaughan in County Clare. Well, I did the mowing and my companions hogged the strimmers. There was only a limited area where mowing…

Holy wells can be found all over Ireland -- and evoked in our minds, as well. As children, we would pick the daisies and buttercups, and place them by a well. Or, if we happened to be playing in someone’s garden, we would dig a well, and pour water into it, placing the daisy and buttercups by the stones we would place…

He would have stood out anywhere, and standing in front of the entrance to a boutique hotel in Spiddal, wielding a black walking cane with an ivory handle two paces before him made him glaringly incongruous to everything I’d come to know about the western coast of Ireland. He wore a three-piece suit on his…

RIP Maureen O'Hara

http://news.yahoo.com/actress-maureen-ohara-dies-aged-95-183235805.html

Hello all:

I am usually hesitant to read a book unless I know a bit about it. Assuming many of you have a similar habit, I post here a few lines from the first chapter of The Lockwoods of Clonakilty. One of the major themes in the…

LUAIN -- On Oct. 26, 1771, John (Juan) MacKenna  (left), who would rise to fame in South America, was born in Clogher,…

I'm seeking some background on John Boyle O'Reilly and his life in Boston, particularly his involvement with the Irish community then (including the Catalpa Affair). I have uncovered some wonderful inks between…