Bill Ochs died on October 5^th after a long battle with a cancer he had largely kept to himself, hoping to tell everyone after he had defeated it.

He was a man whose life was music and the music he most loved -- and he loved many kinds of music -- was traditional Irish music.

He was an excellent player, first tin whistle player and ultimately an uilleann…

In 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus purportedly discovered the New World, an incident, with far reaching effects, took place in a chapter house attached to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The incident ended a long running and bloody feud between two of Ireland’s most powerful dynasties, the FitzGeralds…

Wow, Totally Irish Gifts is four-years-old -- how time flies when you are having fun!

Our anniversary gift to you is world-wide free shipping

Receive free shipping on orders placed up to 31st October 2016, at checkout enter code:…

There’s something about mid-October that I love — the weather, the thought that Halloween (and Thanksgiving) is right around the corner, and baking breads like this “brack,” a fruity loaf from the Quay House, in Clifden, County Galway. Dating from about 1820, it’s the town’s oldest building, was originally a…

Delicious on their own, pears are also a wonderful ingredient in recipes from sweet-tart salads to sweeter-than-sweet pies and tarts. They’re great partnered with blue cheese — Kerrygold’s Cashel Blue…

LUAIN -- On Oct. 17, 1803, nationalist politician and Young Irelander William Smith O'Brien was born in Dromoland, County Clare. O'Brien was educated in England and was a Conservative when elected to…

There are over 3,000 known pear varieties grown around the world, each with a distinctive character, texture, and flavor. The most popular and recognizable pears are the yellow Bartlett, egg-shaped Anjou, graceful Bosc, pudgy Comice, and tiny Forelle. Crisp, crunchy, and sweet, U.S.-grown pears are harvested from the…

We have just started to stock our first Ogham gifts and I thought I had better learn a little bit about it. 

Ogham (Oh-ehm) is the earliest version of an ancient Celtic language, used c.4th -7th century AD. Each letter of the Ogham alphabet is formed by up 5 strokes and is identified by the number, position and direction of their…

Nora Connolly was born into a family that knew hardship from birth. The second child of James Connolly and Lillie Connolly (nee Reynolds), she would forge her way through life based on the knowledge and learning that was instilled into her by both of her parents; her mother a governess who home schooled all of her children -…

*note

Toward the end of the 8th Century A.D., Ireland was almost completely Gaelic and Christian. It was a rural society, with no towns or cities, and the only large settlements were hamlets that grew up around monasteries. The…

Both of my parents were from County Donegal here in Ireland, and there can’t be many areas more deprived and remote…

Ask most people who they believe were the first group of foreigners to launch highly organized, violent raids in Ireland, and more often than not, they will say it was the Vikings, who raided Lambay Island in 795 A.D. What many people are not aware of is the fact that a century before the emergence of the Vikings, an…

You’ll love this Irish cheese-inspired dip for the slightly Mediterranean taste it gets from the marinated artichokes, the color it gets from the spinach, and the creamy texture from Kerrygold’s Dubliner and cream cheese. Perfect for autumn get-togethers, football Sunday, or a family gathering, it’s delicious with…

If as an Irishman/Irishwoman you've ever wondered where you got your love of the spoken word, your love of storytelling, your love of long winded conversation, the following…

Gustavus Conyngham is known to history as the “Dunkirk Pirate,” but that was the name the British gave him. It was not a name that he ever would have given himself. He thought of himself only as, Gustavus Conyngham, USN (United States Navy). He was never, in fact, a pirate. He was a commissioned officer in the new U.S…

This book represents the first installment of a planned trilogy that encompasses the progression of transported felon, John Turner Flinn through the various stages of the Tasmanian penal system of the 1840’s and is based upon actual records and newspaper articles from the time. The second novel will culminate in his being…

To say that truth is always the first casualty of war may be a cliché, but it never was more apt than when applied to the thirty years of Ireland’s most recent, painful and pointless ‘Troubles’ [1968-98]. Many…

I was at a wedding in Co Cork recently, it was truly a lovely ceremony and was made extra special with this ancient Celtic custom of handfasting. I had heard of handfasting before, but this was the first wedding ceremony I was at that this custom was actually performed and I was intrigued to learn that the phrase 'tying the knot' came from…

Thoughts of labor this holiday, however modest in its aspirations, invite me to contemplate the role of work in both defining and coloring the lives of my family.



My grandfather Ray Regan was born in Harlem, in upper…

His name was Eoghan, and I never did catch his last name. A solid year spent with the desultory coming and going of this enigmatic man through the door of The Galway Music Center, and I came to accept him as Kieran’s friend from Derry. Kieran rarely explained himself, much less anyone attendant, and because he was the…