Marie Winifred Carney was born into a large family of seven children to Alfred / Sarah Cassidy Carney ; in Bangor, County Down – her parents were estranged for many years. Leo [missing child – a record of birth but no record of…

Lola Montez

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl… so far, so true (and with thanks to Barry Manilow), but this particular Lola  also happened to be one of Europe’s most beautiful and talked-about women, who married several times and who…

Josephine Bracken wearing traditional Filipino dress, 1896.

DOMHNAIGH -- On August 9, 1876,…

In the following three-part series, Sixteen Films' screenwriter Paul Laverty writes about the genesis of "Jimmy's Hall." His observations were first published in Sixteen Films' Production Notes, and are reproduced here with permission. Production Photos see here are by …

I've written before about the Lakes of Killarney, the "crown jewels" of Ireland's "Kingdom" of County Kerry. But to complete your royal tour, you have to take one of Ireland's, if not the globe's, most scenic drives, the "Ring of Kerry." …

Jane [Jennie] Wyse-Power nee O'Toole was born in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, in 1856 to Edward And Mary O’Toole [nee Norton]. Her father owned his own business and before she was two years of age her father had sold his business and moved the family to Dublin. Some sources say she attended attended Warrenmount National School or the Loreto Day School Dublin.

Pictured, 'Liberty Girls,' with Wyse-Power in the…

Recorded in the spellings of August and Augustine, and the more popular Austin and Austen, this is a medieval surname of biblical and Roman origins. Introduced into Europe in the 12th century by the returning Crusaders from the Holy Land, the derivation is from the pre-Christian "Augustus," meaning venerable or sacred. The name was particularly popular on the continent where it was and still is, associated with St. Augustine and the monasteries that he founded in the 7th century, but less so…

Throughout Ireland's lovely and storied countryside, visitors can find magnificent religious sites that are a testament to Ireland's glorious and tragic history. Some of the best known include the Rock of Cashel, St. Kevin's Monastery at Glendalough, and the ancient university of Clonmacnoise.

But in addition to these…

DOMHNAIGH-- In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, a small American torpedo boat was moving just west of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. In command was a young Irish-American destined to one day be the first Catholic…

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was born Jeremiah O'Donovan in Reenascreena, County Cork, on 10 September 1831. While he was the son of tenant farmers, the family could trace their ancestry back to nobler days when, before the English confiscation of Irish land, they had held the parish of Kilmeen. (The honorary title "Rossa" came…

In the following three-part series, Sixteen Films' screenwriter Paul Laverty writes about the genesis of "Jimmy's Hall." His observations were first published in Sixteen Films' Production Notes, and are reproduced here with permission. Production Photos see here are by …

We have no doubt that the word "Irish" in anyone's domain name, particularly as a TLD (top level domain, that is, 'behind' the dot) helps a marketer (and any devotee of the Irish experience) tap the passion that underscores the Irish experience…

Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers (Editor: Shannon O’Boyle)

Reviewer: J.A. O’Brien

Summary: Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers represents an important new contribution to the history of Australian folk music and to Australian folklore. The new…

Elizabeth O’Farrell was born in 1884 at 33 City Quay, Dublin, to Christopher and Margaret O’Farrell [nee Kenneah]. Her father died when she was a small child, so this left her family not only bereft but financially insecure. Not born with a silver spoon in her mouth, nor having the comfort of working father’s wage…

While hiking with my American-born kids I found myself repeating the words “hay foot, straw foot” trying to motivate them to keep going as they were getting tired. I reflected on how I first learned the phrase from my West Cork granny, and decided to investigate the term a little further.  I grew intrigued to learn this phrase is shared between Ireland and America.



“Hay-foot, straw-foot” was a term my late granny…

New York -- Dozens of individuals filled the terrace at the Irish Consul General's quarters in Manhattan's East Side on May 28 to learn more about "The Rising," a film project led by film producer Kevin McCann, head of Ireland-based Maccana Teoranta. Irish Consul General Barbara Jones served as host for the reception, which featured spectacular views…

I was staggered at the thought, which for 62 years had been hiding from me in plain sight -- the likelihood that after Jesus’ crucifixion, his followers fell into deep grief and…

And then when we got to Miami, the Gesu Church, which is a beautiful Catholic church, an old church in the heart of Miami, they had big signs posted as you entered, ‘Colored seat from the rear.’…

“You won’t forget your first time.”

We’ve incorporated that aphorism in our ongoing travel initiative and contest, titled “The ‘Wild West’ of Ireland,” now in Day 12 of 25. According to one recent visitor to the ‘Wild West,’…

Was it the IRA who created the bomb that killed two detectives outside the New York World Fair's British Pavilion 75 years ago today?

Or was it a German agent or Nazi…