"Hey boy, who am I going to leave these hands to when I’m gone?”

A long silence…then the words were repeated, louder and more animated.

“I say, who will I leave them to, eh? I think I’ll leave them to science.”

Again, the words fell on deaf ears and were greeted with total silence…

Those immortal words were uttered by my father, Mal, as he…

Ireland’s Protestant Unionists 1800 - 1923:

A Persecuted Minority

or Strident Anti-Assimilationists?

As the centenary of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising approaches, many questions as to how to proceed with the …

Book Review                                 

The true nature of poetry is to first give us an insight into the heart and consciousness of the poet, then the collective consciousness of the society…

Walking tours on the historic campus of Trinity College Dublin are definitely interesting to studious visitors of Dublin.

(Left: Parliament Square, Trinity College from the Graduates Memorial Building - photo by …

Photographer Darren McLoughlin has lived in fair Dublin for 15 years and says walking, and more walking, is how he’s really gotten to know his city.…

Ireland's "Wild Atlantic Way" usually refers to the rugged conflux of seacoast and mountains to be found in the western counties. But in the city of Galway, "The Wild West" takes on a different connotation.

Galway, known throughout history as a trading center, has…

Did you know that there is a tunnel running under Parnell Square in Dublin's city centre? Indeed, if the truth be told, there is probably a network of tunnels down there. How do I know?  Well, believe it or not, there’s an entrance to this tunnel under no. 5 Cavendish Row, where Olivier Cornet…

This will be my first blog post here on The Wild Geese. Be gentle with me! I'm only part of this flock since October last year and am just about stretching my wings to fly now. To be honest, I have "flown" before. In the mid 90s I ventured to Herefordshire , England…

Every couple of years this man would come to Loughrea, County Galway and set up shop on the footpath outside Molloy's Harp Bar on Main Street. He was an itinerant blade grinder, or knife sharpener.

Folks would get wind he was in town and quickly a queue would…

Let me begin with a warning – I saw this show in a preview, and so there might have been changes, additions, subtractions before the show opened. I don’t think there is much room for a change in what is a very tightly and cleanly performed production, but one never knows.

As the name suggests,…

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 …

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. – Dylan Thomas

Lovely Loophead ~ ©2011 C.E. Devine

Ten years! My how the time has flown, it seems like that was just a few months ago.

It all started quite unexpectedly. In autumn of 2005, I was approached by friends who…

Review By Kieron C. Punch / Associate Editor (First published in 2011)

There is something…

There are many surprises to be found in Ireland's "Wild West," and one for me that was completely unexpected was to see eagles and other birds of prey flying above the countryside in County Sligo.

I happened upon Ireland's Raptor Research Centre after visiting the monument…

County Sligo (from the Irish Sligeach, meaning "a shelly place")  has a long history. First that can be recalled is the existence of middens along the coastline by Balisodare Bay (noted as the place that inspired William Butler Yeats's poem 'Down by the Sally Gardens' where he heard an old woman sing the opening lines).

The Culleenamore Middens are part of the earliest…

Constance Markievicz was born in 1868 at Buckingham Gate London, the eldest daughter of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5^th Baronet and Arctic explorer, and Lady Gore–Booth (nee Hill).  As an Anglo-Irish landlord and philanthropist, her father was not typical of his type…

Robert Morrison (1782-1863) was born in County Antrim of unknown parents and plied a linen weaver's trade until he emigrated to the United States in 1801. He married and was a pioneer in Adams County, Ohio, a captain in the War of 1812 commanding a company of dragoons, a state…

I was asked to write a review on the latest offering by Larry Kirwan, "A History of Irish Music."  As a scholar of Celtic music, I looked forward to reading his take on Irish music.  I will say that what I expected to read and what I read, whilst they meshed on some…

As a child, "The Great Escape" was one film that never failed to entertain me. Aside from a stellar cast that included Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough (above), Charles Bronson, James Garner and a host of others, the story was compelling and also happened to be true.

It’s…