Shamrock

The shamrock is the traditional symbol or Ireland. The shamrock forms a triad and the Celts believed three was a mystical number. Saint Patrick used the shamrock to explain the holy Trinity to the Celts. If good things come in threes then this silver 3-leafed shamrock pendant in beautiful…

It's almost like looking in the mirror.

High unemployment, mass emigration of the young and problems affecting health and education services are as current today as they were in the first decade of Irish independence, the period that informs the narrative of Ken Loach's newest film, "Jimmy's…

I found this website a while back and was able to note the location of several interesting monuments and find them while I was in Ireland in June. This is by no means all the war memorials in Ireland, far from it, but it's an attempt to catalog them.

The site…

What would you expect to see inside this old overgrown cottage on the side of the road in Donegal? Would you just pass by or would you try and get in to have a look?  Well, I was passing this cottage every day a few years ago until eventually, my curiosity got the better of me.

It wasn’t that difficult to enter, despite the tangle of brambles…

The Wild Atlantic Way waters are alive with all kinds of marine creatures ... with their own interesting stories to tell.…

The past, present and future happily coexist on my workplace doorstep. I’d written about the past in four books, but it was the future that caught my eye one day in the form of a crane, standing stark against a grey Dublin sky.

I work in a newspaper in the city centre, on Talbot Street. During my lunch break, I would leave the office and walk past the…

Linen Hall Library Lord Charles Cornwallis had already lost one colony, and his reputation wouldn't survive the loss of another.

MÁIRT -- On September 8, 1798,…

One could argue that freelance photographer Joss Barratt has done as much to inform movie goers about Ken Loach’s past 20 years of work as the noted British filmmaker himself. Barratt’s photography is seen far and wide, perhaps by millions, across newspapers, magazines, on movie house walls and windows, and across the Internet, by far more people than ever get around to seeing Loach’s provocative and…

With her luxurious platinum locks, enormous honey-colored eyes and a petulant mouth, Elizabeth Conway (pictured) has the appeal of a pedigreed Persian cat in heat. By looking at her head shot, one would surmise that this girl, both aristocratic and…

Among the many islands that scatter the coastline of Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way, you'll find traditions and cultures proudly being kept alive. Explore just some of these incredible stories!…

I was just reading through some articles on another site regarding the dark history of the Orphan Trains and their arrival in Arizona. In doing further research, I came across this amazing article written by Margaret Regan.

Here is the article in its entirety, reproduced here with her kind permission. It…

(Pictured: The field in the hills north of Dungarvan where Sgt. Michael Hickey's body was found)

(Read  Part 1 - 'Nigh Comeragh's Rugged Hills')…

With the approach of the 1916 Irish Easter Rising Centennial, there’s been renewed interest in "Shalom Ireland," a documentary film I made about Ireland’s remarkable, yet little known, Jewish community (www.ShalomIreland.com).  So I picked up my copy of "For the Life of Me," the…

The following Q&A with Dublin-born actor Barry Ward (Jimmy Gralton in Sixteen Films' biopic "Jimmy's Hall") is part of the studio's Production Notes for the film, shot in the story's actual locales in County Leitrim. The notes, assembled for the produceers by Benji Wilson, were presented to the…

The Hanging of Henry Joy McCracken by John Carey (1896). Ulster Museum.)

LUAIN --On August 31, 1767 Henry Joy McCracken, leader of the United…

When silence overcomes me

My dreams they seem to fill

Of my dear native happy home

Nigh Comeragh's rugged hills

 -- From a poem by Pat Keating

My wife, Lindy, and I have just completed…

On July 22, 2013 I formed this group to honor my Roscommon heritage.  We now have over 1,500 members worldwide who are focused on researching their Roscommon heritage as well as helping others with  Roscommon research.  There is no charge for our services. If your heritage includes County Roscommon, we would be happy to have…

I ran across a man and his daughter lost in the 19th century history of Buffalo, Dr. John Cronyn (pictured) and Juliana Cronyn. They were extraordinary people by any stretch of the imagination.

John Cronyn was born in Blackrock, a suburb of Cork City, in 1825 and moved with his parents to Toronto. He finished first in his medical…

The Irish custom of “waking the dead” has long been thought off as a purely Irish tradition, and many would argue that this is, indeed, the case. However, if we look at paganism, spiritualism and other religions, it is not too hard to find similarities in their traditions with ‘waking the dead.“ They believe…

The huge Irish contribution to building today's London has been marked by a short video, 'We Built This City,' a project completed by the Irish Architecture Foundation as part of Irish Design 2015. It is a lovely piece, something we can all be justifiably proud of. So many of us either emigrated ourselves, or had family or friends…