When it came to the grand plan of how the Irish, with their meager resources, could defeat the forces of the greatest empire on earth in the Irish War of Independence, Michael Collins was the great architect who drew up the “flying column” blue print. But no matter how great the architect, other men have to take that…

Totally Irish Gifts is delighted to be shortlisted for the 2016 OPTIMISE Fund!

We here at Totally Irish Gifts are asking the Irish Diaspora worldwide to vote for our small Irish company.

“Securing this opportunity would help our company improve our digital…

Roger Cohen recently wrote in The New York Times about a Savoy Hotel located in Germany which, for him, is the perfect place in that he sees this hotel as untouched by time. For an example of what he is talking about, he explains that the lobby has the lingering scent of a good cigar. Cohen also describes walking into…

Patrick Gallagher was born in Derrintogher, County Mayo, Ireland on February 2, 1944. At the age of 18, Patrick immigrated to the United States for the promise of a new life, one filled with opportunity. He quickly started on the immigrant dream: studying law while working in real estate, even getting involved in local politics…

There are two routes I can take to my office when I leave the train station to go to work. They both pass a large 18^th century building of Palladian, neoclassical design, which I used to admire as a child, long before I knew of its connection to my own family.

Now, as I pass it by, I…

Noel Brady was standing with his father at the hall  door of their family home on St. Ignatius Road in Dublin’s North Strand area when they heard the drone of a Nazi Luftwaffe bomber flying overhead.

“I saw flashes in the sky. My father shoved me onto the…

Writing about the country she loves, Susan Boland delivers a love letter to the ancestral homeland she triumphantly returned to: Ireland. This gifted storyteller, scripting one of the world's most beautiful coastlines, the Coast Road of Clew Bay, with her perceptive cultural insights and warm sense of humor, has delivered a landmark in travel writing.…

Winfield Scott is well known as the hero of the Mexican War and as the over all commander of Federal forces during the beginning of the Civil War. Few have heard much about his experiences in the War of 1812, however. One…

Get ready for Father's Day...

Sunday, June 19th

This week's HOT DEALS are on a selection of gifts for Father's…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 22, 1805, Young Irelander Michael Doheny (right) was born in Fethard, Co. Tipperary. Doheny joined O'Connell's Repeal Association in the 1830s and wrote for the Young Irelanders' publication, The Nation, under the name Eiranach. He fled to the United States in 1848, along with James…

In the early part of the Irish War of Independence there had not been any major ambushes of Crown forces in County Mayo, unlike several other counties, notably County Cork. However, in May 1921, the Irish Volunteers began to escalate their attacks there. First, on May…

Growing up on Long Island with two Irish-American parents was not a particularly Irish experience. Carmel Quinn records played on our stereo and were appreciated by all. My father regularly annoyed my mother by listening to bagpipe music. The truth was that my parents were American Irish who had lost contact with most…

I’m partial to the west coast of Ireland for its myriad wonders, which appear in small towns that are hidden like gemstones in neat grids of logic separated by rambling, idle roads. There are worlds within worlds in these Irish small towns: history and lineage and myth and folklore, meaning so resonate and full of…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 15, 1847, The Syria, the first ship to arrive during what Quebecois would call the 'Summer of Sorrow,' landed at the Canadian quarantine station in the St. Lawrence River, just north of Quebec. The French had called that island 'Grosse Ile,' but since 1847 many have called it…

In the centuries after Christianity came to Ireland, when the only Christian Church was the Roman Catholic Church, it thrived there. In the Dark Ages it was monks from Ireland, "the island of saints and scholars," studying in Ireland and then moving out around Europe that helped preserve European civilization. But from…

PJ…

Marie Meehan

That Old Irish Mother of Mine

Mom, who lost her own mother at an early age, was burdened with…

A controversial figure from a very early age in Irish politics and journalism, Arthur Griffith has been noted by some source’s in history, as a man who courted controversy.  While he was a great orator, and not a monarchist himself, he struggled to get people to embrace his concept of a dual – monarchy, to allow Ireland…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 8, 1857, William Brown, of Foxford, Co. Mayo, an Admiral in the Argentine navy, died in Buenos Aires. Brown first came to the New World as a boy, when his family immigrated to the United States in 1786. He later went to sea on a merchant ship. Pressed into the…