Many thanks once again to the ‘Creggan Historical Society', its curator Mr. Michael McShane and local historian Mr. Kevin McMahon, for their vast knowledge, brilliant minds and tireless efforts toward ensuring that the history of South Armagh be kept alive and kicking for…

A visit to the cemetery next to little Mission Dolores reveals how important the Irish influence was on the city, and how brief life could be on the Gold Rush frontier.…

http://http://jimgregory52.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/my-son-the-brother/

Kudos to the California State Department of Military History for posting this on their Facebook Page. 

Historic California Militia

and National Guard Units:

The Wolfe Tone Guard

Military Unit…

To All of the Flock...where ever you might call home

Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duibh!

May all good things find their way to your door in the coming year.... And may all things bad get lost on their way

This is one of my favorite versions...

RE/MAX Team Fogarty bring you this excellent two-bedroom end-of-terrace property with modern and stylish finish throughout, at a very affordable price, located in Waterford ... Ireland's oldest city.

The property is located close to the Outer Ring Road, Waterford…

As someone who is working on the story of one of the most famous of those Famine Refugees Patrick S Gilmore who escaped the famine in 1849 , and as someone who knows this man as well as most did in his life I can say without doubt that he would be disgusted that 150 years later we would be working on a comedy about the people he saw dying in Ballygar ,Athlone ,in Dublin , in Boston, on the ships ,being thrown overboard . From Roanoke Island Battlefield he wrote back to his editor " I eat as…

Alright, lads. Your lady is out celebrating Nollaig na mBan (Women’s Christmas) with her girlfriends. Traditionally, this is your turn to take on a larger share of the household chores. Here are a…

January 6th is celebrated in Ireland as "Women's Christmas" (Nollaig na mBan).  More commonly known in other parts of the world as the Feast of the Epiphany, it marks the end of the Christmas period in Ireland.  It is known as "Women's Christmas" because of the…

My Granny O'Rourke was the was the mainstay of our household. The Kavanagh family was made up of five children, Mam and Dad, and Granny's other grandchild (Terry) whom she also raised (read "That's Just  How It Was").  We lived with her and she had a huge influence on all our…

Courtesy of the New York Public Library A drawing of the British siege lines at Charleston in 1780.

DOMHNAIGH -- On January 4,…

Screenwriter Hugh Travers is now writing Hungry, a sitcom about the famine commissioned by Channel 4 in Ireland.  Hungry came  came about after Channel 4 read one of the 31-year-old Dubliner's other scripts and gave him an open commission for a sitcom. “Any idea I wanted –…

I was born on the the 8th of January in 1945 -- the year the war ended in Europe.  By chance, I also share  a birthday with Elvis Presley.  He would have been 80 years old on the 8th of January, 2015.  

My memories of my birthday are very precious. This was due to the fact…

Mary Kate Neill was born on June 11th, 1900 in the tiny township of Graiguenaspiddoge in County Carlow. The 1901 census shows her ten months old. Her mother was Catherine or Kate Neill (née Cullen) aged 38, and her father Michael Neill aged 51. Born in 1850 just after the potato famine of 1845-7, he was a blacksmith. Graiguenaspiddoge was a row of 28 houses beside a main road in the countryside,…

Originally recorded as January, Janaway, Jenery, Jennery, Jennardy, in England, Janvier (France) Janer and Jane in Spain, Januario in Portugal, Gennaro and Zannari (Italy) and many others, and recorded throughout Europe, this is a name of truly ancient origins. It has…