A.D. 2014 has been a magnificent year for The Wild Geese Irish Social Network.  As this year draws to a close, we thought it would be interesting to compile the most popular articles and videos from the community.  Depending on how new you are to The Wild Geese…

WGT photo by Joe Gannon Carriganuss Castle, an O'Sullivan castle just outside of Glengariff

CÉADAOIN -- On December 31, 1602, Dónall O'Sullivan Beare and his clan…

Yes indeed, what to do?  After the festivities are festivitied - after all the ceremonies, the lighting of candles, the opening of presents, the cooking and the eating…

A wee bit of a Wren Day celebration in my home ground... Armagh..

New Year’s eve had been celebrated with cheerful noise for many years, but in New York City on December 31, 1888, that all changed with the formal addition of music to the annual celebration and it took an Irishman to do it. In those early days, the tiny triangle of land at the…

"Here's to the three birds! May you always have a bird on the table, a bird in your glass and an eagle in your pocket."

I first heard that toast when I was very young from an elderly neighbor. It was a toast from her childhood in the early 1920s. The toast her mother and uncles always used. Already something of an antique in Jazz Age America.…

Messines - I had the privilege to travel to Messines with the Island of Ireland Peace Choir last weekend. This is our story.

Don Mullan, author, humanitarian and Christmas Truce ambassador, stood in front of two graves in Messines, Belgium. On the left was Private T Delaney of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who died on Christmas Eve 1914 and on the right,…

My dad, Guard John Murphy (Killimor, Ballinasloe) died in Our Lady’s Hospice (Harold’s Cross, Dublin) aged forty-four, leaving my mother, aged thirty-nine, with ten children aged two and a half to eighteen years old.

On Christmas Eve of 1945, we spent most…

On this day 23rd December,1920-



The Government of Ireland Act enforces Partition-26 Counties become The Irish Free State while Britain splits the northern 6 Counties from the rest of Ireland.…

Part 3 of 3 of the Series 'We Will Probably Land Christmas Day’: At War in the Atlantic, 1942 

This…

Dear Wild Geese,

"An Irish Father" is an Irish independent co production being made by Rose Finn Films & MooreForLess Productions. IFTA winning Irish Actor Gerard McSorley will lead the cast. The film looks at mental health and the relationship between an estranged Father and Son who meet for the first time in nearly a decade. It's based on the real life…

I have just made a wonderful connection via The Wild Geese Irish Social Network and thanks to my Wild Geese Irish Heritage Partnership that I wanted to share with…

Linen Hall Library A 17th century portrait of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.

CÉADAOIN -- On December 24, 1601,…

My mother, Ellen Brennan (O'Connor.) passed on Friday, December 20th, 2014 at her home in Crossmaglen, County Armagh.

"She is not dead, she doth sleep.

 'tis death is dead. Weep not for Ellen." 

(Apologies to PB Shelley for the name change.) 

Ellen.

"Sure, God help them, the poor crathurs." was her oft used expression.

Ellen was a…

Check out our past quizzes here.

In January 2015, Fordham University Press released "The Sons of Molly Maguire." Mark Bulik’s upcoming work is the latest in a line that characterizes Pennsylvania’s alleged “Molly Maguires” as Roman Catholic…

The Boys of Barr na Sraide

Oh the town, it climbs the mountain and looks upon the sea

At sleeping time or waking, 'tis there I'd long to be

To walk again that kindly street, the place where life began

And the Boys of Barr na Sráide went hunting for the wren

With cudgels stout they roamed about to hunt the dreólín

We searched…

Check out our past quizzes here.

William Paterson (December 24, 1745 – September 9, 1806) was born in County Antrim to William Paterson and Unknown named mother. (How about it, Ireland – who is she?) He immigrated to the U.S. at the age of two, and entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton…