Invite a seanchaí into your home . . . you will be glad that you did. With Jim Hawkins new CD, My Own Native Land: Stories and Songs of Ireland, that has never been easier. Hawkins’ debut album will carry you across the miles, over the waters and back in time.

When a colleague suggested that I review “My Own…

Irishmen everywhere celebrate the

1916 Easter Risings 100-Year Anniversary

Where was Irish Patriot Tom Barry during the Easter…

Even on the best of days, when the weather is temperate and the sky soft and cloudless, Galway City has a worn, secondhand feel to it: an historic, pensive, erudite quality everywhere you roam down its serpentine streets. But there’s also an energetic undercurrent to Galway that seems to thrive on the idea of opposites,…

Photo of window at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, courtesy of George R. Doyle, 2014

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the…

In the next few hours a large chunk of the world will go green – not out of a love for the environment, but because that’s what you do on March 17.

Forget about any sense of style, every shade of green you can envisage will be flown, painted, worn and waved on St Patrick’s Day. All those inner Irishmen and women will…

When the Tuatha system of rule was replaced by Gaelic rule the areas of Ireland were known as 'cúige',  which in Irish means 'portion' or 'fifth', indicating the original division of the five areas:

Mide * Ulster * Munster *…

In days gone by, there was a popular Irish…

Saint Patrick’s Day as been celebrated on March 17th since the early seventeenth century. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, as well as the celebration of all things Irish; culture and heritage. It is widely celebrated all around the…

I am NOT advocating revolution or organization in any manner but I do have something I would like all of us to consider if you will.

Do you not find it to be a bit insulting to have the Irish alway characterized as brawling stiffs and drunkards?

Why, everywhere I travel I find novelty shops selling items show…

"Brother Pleads Guilt to Free Jailed 'Twin' " reads the headline in the July 30, 1931, edition of The New York Times.

The story refers to two of my grandmother’s first cousins, Tom and John Irwin. Tom stood accused with two other men -- and all were later convicted -- in the rape of a woman and the armed robbery of the…

I know that many of you have been to Galway (or intend visiting) and I…

In this silent land

Say nothing

And keep saying it

In this silent land.

Men draped in cassocks

Possess a Nation’s secrets

To barter for souls over open graves

And we stay silent

In…

Our esteemed Irish Heritage Partner Wild West Irish Tours has kindly supplied us with some new photos of last year's successful ‘Wild West of Ireland: You Won’t Forget Your First Time’ tour giveaway competition!…

Unfortunately Thomas’ new employer, like so many of chiefs in the region, was dishonorable and motivated by greed and little else. Still, as had been the case with The Begum, Thomas was an honorable man in a dishonorable world. He served his new employer well, refusing several chances to…

While reading Dancing to an Irish Reel by Claire Fullerton, I felt as if I had joined a dance myself, part of a song beyond the ordinary world I’d left behind. The setting, Connemara on the West Coast of Ireland, lives on every page—the coastal pathways, a midnight pier, a hillside graveyard.

Readers meet one of…

DOMHNAIGH -- On March 6, 1831, Philip Sheridan, one of the greatest Union generals on the American Civil War, was born. We know he was the son of Irish immigrants, but his place of birth is uncertain, with Albany, New York; somewhere in Ohio; at sea; and County…

There is a place where fiction overlaps reality and creates a place where half-truths and should-have-beens and never-really-were’s create something that is less than factual and more than fictional -- "Blue Bloods" occupies one such place.…

“The Wolf and the Shield: An Adventure with Saint Patrick” by Sherry Weaver Smith, reads like a heartwarming parable. Although it is ostensibly a children’s story, ideal for ages seven through twelve, this lovely book hit all the requisite high notes to hold my rapt attention: that it is set in…

May 27th, sees the opening night of Cásca '16' -- a musical drama based on the events of the Easter Rising of 1916.

The production, penned by myself will be held at the South Birmingham College, For further information you'll find me on

Cásca'16 web page.

Is mise

Risteárd…

I believe the decline occurred because Irish-Americans in general don't understand what our…