The Aran sweater is Ireland's major contribution to international style. A national icon, the sweater is still worn  and loved, connecting people with Ireland, all over the world. Cozy, cool, and knitted with the best quality wool, the …

Let’s face it, studying any language gets boring after a while even if the language itself is fun. To resolve this problem, we need to examine the nature of language and how to use that to our advantage. The most basic need for language is to communicate ideas, of course, and this…

It's the stuff great films and spellbinding stage performances are made of.  In the case of "The Last Torch," though, the story is plucked right from the history books.  To be more specific, in this case, the story is taken from the personal journey of 16th century…

At the Commemorative mass for Anne Devlin in St. Catherine's Church, Meath Street, Dublin on Sunday 14 September, 2014 I gave the following Eulogy:

"As we celebrate this decade of centenaries, it is easy to forget those who went before, and without whom many of these events would not have happened.

One such person was Anne Devlin, in…

On a sunny afternoon in the early 1960s, a Canadian sea-plane touched down on the silvery-grey waters of Loughrea lake, taxied to a jetty and tied off. The children swimming at Long Point were distracted for a while but quickly returned to doggy-paddle and soccer on that…

Book review

"Loughrea, ‘That Den of Infamy’ The Land War in County Galway, 1879–82", by Pat Finnegan

224 pages; illustrated.

Available Now

Retail Price: €14.95/€35.0

Review by Ronnie O’Gorman, Chairman of the Galway Advertiser…

a story from my collection 'Out of the Blue'

Dreamin' Dreams

Just days after MJ celebrated his thirtieth year in America, the foreman gripped his hand, muttered that…

On Friday September 20th, 1803, Robert Emmet was hanged and beheaded by Executioner Thomas Galvin in Thomas Street, in front of St. Catherine’s Church, before a crowd of up to 45,000 people.

Each year the Emmet and Devlin Memorial…

Every year, on the Sunday closest to her anniversary, I organise a commemoration of Ireland's greatest women - Anne Devlin. I have been dong this for the last nine years now, and each year the format is the same: Midday mass in St. Catherine's Church on Meath Street in Dublin's…

The  following is a transcript from the LIVE Community Chat held here at TheWildGeese.com on Friday, September 26, 2014 with with Niall McKay of…

Book Review

"The Decline and Fall of the Dukes of Leinster, 1872–1948

by Terrence Dooley

304 pages with colour…

“Although we all have tongues, we are surprisingly bad at knowing precisely what they're doing or conveying that to others,” says UC Santa Cruz professor of linguistics Jaye Padgett.

Tongue motion, it turns out, is crucial to the documentation of endangered…

If you are an Irish movie buff, you are certainly familiar with the films of celebrated Dublin-born director Jim Sheridan.  If you have a bowl of popcorn and a night-in planned, you may find this list of Sheridan films helpful.  I have seen all of his early work, and I am now…

In 804, monks from St. Colmcille’s of Iona, Scotland founded a monastery in the town of Kells, County Meath. There, the Book of Kells was completed in the 9th century. The monastery is also known for its round tower and high crosses.

The town of Kells in County Meath boasts ecclesiastical significance, as it was the site of a monastery founded in the 9th century…

Geneticists at Trinity College, Dublin have recently discovered that the Irish gene pool is the least diluted in all of Europe if not indeed, the world. They have also discovered that the Irish traveling people (tinkers) are purely…

A pilgrimage in the 1950s from Belfast to Knock (County Mayo) as a boyhood memory

Today I went to one of Ireland’s holy places of pilgrimage -- the holy shrine of Knock, where it is said that in 1879 our Holy Mother Mary appeared to 15 people on the…

Most weekends, I get up at ungodly hours and go to the local flea market to look for interesting books. I usually arrive at 7:00 a.m. or so when they are still unpacking. The dealers there bid on storage units and end up with all sorts of miscellaneous stock, among which are the books I…

If you're a first time visitor to Ireland next year, you'll probably already have numerous places on your must-see list. However, if you've been before and want to experience something new, then Camden Fort Meagher in County Cork might be for you.

The fort…

If you've studied Gaeilge for any amount of time in the United States than you probably have experienced the problem of expanding beyond the basic vocabulary. However, if you live in Ireland you might have a different experience. For those who want to learn advanced vocab there is a studying method which is always helpful to those…

One Celtic custom that survived the conversion of Ireland to Christianity was divorce. Ancient Irish law, written in the seventh century, and known as Brehon Law, set forth several reasons that divorce could be obtained. In the…