Up to 1971 Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day, and Decoration Day has been celebrated each year to remember the Fallen, officially from 1868 in Arlington Cemetery. In a speech that day on May 30, 1868, by future President James A.Garfield, a former General, addressing a crowd of 5000 he said - "Hither our children's children shall come to pay their…

MÁIRT -- On June 1, 1866, the Fenian Brotherhood undertook the most famous action of its history: the invasion of Canada. Mexican and…

MÁIRT -- On May 25, 1798, in Co. Wicklow, as the British authorities began to receive news of people rising up in several parts of the island, anxious loyalist militia units committed two massacres of men they suspected of being rebels. In Dunlavin, 28 or…

What’s not to love about spring vegetables!  Everyone welcomes asparagus, spinach, and pencil-thin spring onions for salads, soups and side dishes, but I love them in cheese-filled tarts and quiche. Make your own crust, use refrigerated or frozen pie crusts, prepared puff pastry, or make one…

LUAIN to MÁIRT -- On May 17-18, 1918, the British government began arresting all the leaders of Sinn Fein that it could round-up. Britain desperately wanted to impose conscription on the Irish to replace its tremendous losses in the trenches of…

Three thousand feet above Moreuil Wood, southeast of Amiens, in northern France, Captain George Edward Henry “McIrish” McElroy, peered down through a gap in the clouds. McElroy had already shot down two German Albatross fighter planes in his British S.E. 5a (Scout Experimental-5a) earlier, his…

On 10th May 1916, the "Daily News" posted a letter from the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, in which he condemned the ongoing execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising: "My own view is that the men who were shot in cold blood, were prisoners of war, and that it was, therefore, entirely…

LUAIN -- On May 10, 1806, James Shields (left) , who would have one of the most remarkable careers in…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 2, 1870, Father Francis Duffy, World War I chaplain of the 69th New York, was born in Cobourg, Ontario. Francis moved to New York at age 22 to teach at St. Francis Xavier College but quit to enter the seminary. Father…