When visiting the West of Ireland, consider making time to explore County Leitrim.  This lesser-known gem is the homeland of my ancestors, and I first traveled there in 2008.  In addition to the beautiful countryside, lakes, and waterfalls, County Leitrim is home to …

Whether or not it is true, I have long been of the opinion that God never intended cabbage for human consumption.  The rubbery leaves seem more suited to adorn the bottom of brogues than to be cooked up alongside more edible sustenance.  I kid, of course, but I truly never have…

John P. Joyce is a name that would not be familiar to most people around the world, and even in his native Ireland.  Born in County Galway in 1839, Joyce was a pioneer in the development of professional baseball in the United States, and specifically in Ohio.  Along with Harry…

“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…

The Annual Connemara Pony Festival takes place in Clifden, County Galway from Sunday the 27th through Sunday the 24th of August. The highlight of the festival is the Connemara Pony Show on Thursday and Friday. To mark this important annual event, I'd like to offer this brief primer…

Duffy Square as it was in 1904

Duffy Square…

In the 1560s, Queen Elizabeth I began to see the value in becoming familiar with the Irish language.  The Queen was already well versed in the French, Italian, Latin and Greek languages.  There can be little doubt that her interest in the Irish language was brought on by her desire…

Ireland in the 1650s lay in ruins. Twelve years of calamitous warfare had destroyed the country's infrastructure and resulted in the death of over 20% of the Irish population.

In August 1649 the New Model Army, led by Oliver Cromwell, went to Ireland to re-occupy the country following the Irish Rebellion of…

Maps ... I love them.  My grandfather instilled a tremendous appreciation for the art / science of cartography, and the essentiality of being proficient in geography.  He was neither a professional cartographer nor an expert geographer, but he studied maps on a regular basis.  I…

If your mind is anything like mine, you have wondered and imagined what important historical figures may have looked like in the flesh. Before the photograph came into play -- and even centuries before its forerunner, the Daguerrotype, came on the scene -- men and women of high status and important positions were posed for portraits by the best painters of their own days.…

A priceless film archive which includes extensive footage of the Easter Rising and its aftermath has been released online by British Pathé.

The multimedia resource has made its entire archive, consisting of 3,500 hours of coverage on 85,000 films, available on YouTube. For…

April 23, 2014 will mark the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf. The battle was fought between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the…

I recently came across the lovely and nostalgic promotional poster from Ireland's Midland Great Western Railway shown above.  Although I live one of the areas formerly served by this grand old railroad, I didn't know much about the history thereof.  I've shared the information…

I recently sat down with the Director of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Dani Gill (picture above).  The Cúirt festival is in its 29th year here in Galway, and they have gone from strength to strength as one of the premier literature festivals in all the world.  Writers and…

I recently saw this fun flowchart graphic from the folks at TheIrishStore.com.  I wanted to share it here for your enjoyment (you can click the image to enlarge it a bit, by the way).…

Italian culture is strong -- endearingly strong.  I wouldn't want it any other way, because Italians do many things right.  Food, coffee, art, family ... the list could be a rather lengthy one.  So when a small bit of authentic Ireland creeps in and takes a foothold in the centre…

Instead of playing to the tired, old, and clichéd stereotype of St. Patrick's Day being all about how much green beer one can drink, let's…

Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Language Week) is an international Irish language festival and one of the biggest celebrations of our native language and culture that takes place each year in Ireland and in many other countries. 

This year’s festival is running from 1 –…

Colaiste Lurgan, the creative and ever-blossoming Irish language school in Connemara, is preparing for the March 3rd launch of their massive initiative to help people who would like to learn the Irish language.

Here's Lurgan's description of the initiative they're calling “Sé Seachtaini” (six…

An Irish language development officer in east Belfast says many people there are upset by an Orange Order claim that Irish is being used for political purposes by…