On 31 October (Halloween), 1973, the IRA used a hijacked helicopter to free three of its members from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin.  Below is a video clip from RTÉ's archives which shows the footage from the aftermath of this daring escape:

As any Irish history enthusiast will know, 2013 marks the centenary of a very significant year in the Irish fight for independence - and the next ten years will provide many more milestones to commemorate. The years 1913-23 in Ireland saw the Dublin Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, and the Civil War. By the end of this tumultuous decade, Ireland would be a fledgling Free State, and the…

The Halloween 'Legend of Loftus Hall Experience Tour for Adults Only'  has been sold out for months! Having a wine and tapas bar and reserved table for after the tour had added to the value of this creative endeavour of the Hall's new owners.  

Near the end of my recent trip to Ireland, Wexford maritime historian and writer Jack O'Leary took me down to…

  In  the light of all the abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in…

'Green Blood Is For France'

A Timothy O’Mahony Novel by John J. Gaynard

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 23, 2012)

Available From…

On my last day in Ireland, before taking an early flight out of Dublin, fellow Wild Geese member and Irish-American Wexford farmer Oisin O'Connell offered to complete my Irish Tour by taking me to experience New Ross.  As…

This is a postcard of William Street in Galway City, circa 1930. The keen eye will see "DUBLIN TIME" underneath the clock at Dillon's Jewellers (the building on the right of the photo with the striped awning). In the past, Galway, like other Irish towns, operated according to local time, which was relative to its distance from Greenwich. Dublin time was twenty-five minutes…

She even calls her puppy Seamus. 

Linda Opyr began her tribute to Seamus Heaney with the story of her naming her new dog after the recently deceased Seamus Heaney, the Noble Prize Laureate in Literature in 1995, a native of Derry.  Dr. Linda Opyr presented her tribute to Heaney at the October 16 meeting of the Irish Cultural Society at the Garden City…

Lebor na gCeart, the "Book of Rights", details the rents and taxes paid by the King of Cashel to various others in Ireland.  The original manuscripts date to the 11th or 12th century, and it contains a treasure trove of references to the customs and practices of Irish nobility in the Middle Ages.  This collection of manuscripts was…

I wanted to share this very nice (and potentially useful) map created by Kingston University, London.  The Irish surnames plotted on this map have either historic or numeric importance to the counties of Ireland.  Of numeric importance are the birth counts from the 1891 census.…

The Doegen Records Web Project (Tionscadal Gréasáin Cheirníní Doegen) has made available a treasure trove of audio recordings from the 17 counties of Ireland, mostly concentrated in the northwest.  This multi-media archive is a project of the Royal Irish Academy Library in collaboration with the Digital Humanities Observatory, and…

Check out this absolutely brilliant history of Ireland in six minutes created by Wild Geese member …

Jimmy's Hall screenwriter, and former human rights lawyer Paul Laverty is certainly no stranger to controversy -- you only have to look at the comments on…

Sometimes, my husband has these crazy ideas:

"Let’s move to Ireland!” 

“Okaaaaay ...”

“It would be cool to get some chickens!” 

“Really?”

“I bet you could decorate these egg shells somehow.”  

“Umm ... I think I could!”



Sometimes, my husband has really good crazy ideas, and that last one was the…

We might have been called “narrow-backs” or “Micks” or “Donkeys” but the Irish of Laurel Hill were joined together as a community. My dad was in the Holy Name Society. He read the Epistles at Mass in St. Theresa’s. We would travel to Gaelic Park to watch Uncle “Mick” or Uncle Martin beat Kilkenny or lose to Kerry; all while we yelled “UP TIPP!” at the top of…