By way of introduction I should tell you that I have great affection for the United States of America. Just over a century ago most of my uncles and aunts migrated from a dirt-poor part of Donegal to settle in Chicago. If my mother hadn’t married a home-bird and moved to Derry with him I would now be living somewhere in…

For one more gingerbread-inspired holiday treat, try this rich, spicy pear and ginger cake reminiscent of an upside-down cake your mother might have made. This recipe starts with a raisin-studded pear and caramel bottom that’s topped with gingerbread. After you flip it, serve it with whipped or clotted cream and a light…

By John Yacobian

Special to TheWildGeese.com

John Yacobian, producer for Grace Pictures' documentary, "An Unreliable Witness," offered tips on travel to Ireland's spectacular north country—Derry, Donegal, and Antrim for us back in 2004.

(Right: The author at Donegal's Horn…

DOMHNAIGH -- On December 4, 1887 Maria Winifred (Winnie) Carney (right), trade unionist and revolutionary was born at Fisher's Hill, Bangor, Co. Down. Her father, Alfred was a protestant…

Gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, even the smell of ginger signals that the Christmas season is upon us. Made from sugars and spices brought back from the Middle East by soldiers returning from the Crusades, gingerbread first appeared in central Europe in the Middle Ages. Monks baked gingerbread for religious…

This Christmas, consider giving gifts handmade in Ireland. 

Our last order dates for Christmas delivery are as follows:

Ireland - 3 p.m., Wednesday 21st December

Northern Ireland - 3 p.m., Tuesday 22nd December

United Kingdom - noon, Monday 19th December

Europe - noon, Tuesday 13th…

There’s many a lonely hearth-stone tonight in wide Mayo,

There’s many a gallant heart content again can never know

But darkest woe and grief for him the saintly true and tried,

Who on the Saxon scaffold that day for freedom died.

         --  From “The Priest of Addergool,” by William Rooney (Founder of…

A great way to use up leftovers from Thursday’s turkey is to make a potpie laden with potatoes, carrots, and peas. (Add mushrooms if you like.) This recipe is a popular post-Thanksgiving dish in the United States and a year-round favorite in homes and restaurants throughout Ireland. Try the Spiced Cranberry…

Alice Milligan (1866-1953) was born into a middle-class Methodist family, one of 11 children. (Some sources would suggest that there were 13 children.) Her father was Seaton Milligan, a writer, poet, antiquary, member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), and a businessman. Her mother was Charlotte Milligan (nee Burns).

Alice was always…

1. Ancient Irish law decreed 24-hour opening.

Under Brehon Law – first codified in the sixth and seventh centuries – each local king was required to have his own bruigu (also sometimes spelled brughaid), or brewer. A bruigu was obliged to have “a never-dry cauldron, a dwelling on a public road and a welcome to…

There’s a saying we have in Ireland that you’d nearly think was coined for Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn. Namely, if you’ve the name of getting up early in the morning you can lie till lunchtime. And it seems to me that Tóibín lay too long when he wrote Brooklyn.…

For the festive season, serve hot- or cold-smoked salmon on mini potato pancakes or in crispy bread baskets. Top the pancakes with a dollop of sour cream or crème frâiche and a sprinkling of fresh chives; try tangy horseradish-mustard cream on the baskets. You’ll find these holiday recipes and more like them in my…

O.K., it should be obvious (hopefully) that I am not a man.

But dear old dad definitely is... and as, like it or not, I've always been dad's girl I've acquired a bit of an insight into what makes certain types of men…

On  the 5th. of November 1605 an event took place in the heart of London, that if successful would have forever changed the political and economic future of Ireland, the…

This year the prize for our Thanksgiving Day draw for subscribers to Totally Irish Gifts is a mounted image of Ireland 'Irish Wolfhounds', by Irish photographer Sean Tomkins.…

Happy November! I’m purposely posting today so I can shock you into thoughts of the coming holidays: Thanksgiving in 24 days and Christmas, well, you know when that is! Shopping aside, it’s also time to start planning holiday foods, and what better ingredient than Irish smoked salmon for both. You might want to…

The oratory of St. Colman echoes with hundreds upon hundreds of years worth of worshipful memory.

In a secluded glade of ancient trees nestled against the breast of the Burren, a landscape so surreal and old it seems the surface of a planet in a galaxy far, far away, the ruins of yet another holy structure keep…

To fully experience the Celtic spirit, one must embrace not only the essence of a pilgrim, but also the land the pilgrim walks upon.

Places such as Galway's Brigit's Garden are sacred keepers of beloved earthly traditions. A calendar year in the form of gardens lovingly corralled by their keepers, the Garden…

I’ve heard of life imitating art, but the only time I ever saw death imitating it was at Samuel John MacPherson’s wake down in Glut, a tiny village not far from Slievefada…

The ancient Celtic harvest feast called Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) is celebrated October 31-November 1, marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, the “darker half” of the year. It was suggested in the late 19th century that it was the “Celtic New Year,” and over time, Samhain and All…