A short extract from a chapter in my book about the history of the role of the pub in the lives of Irish emigrants. This is a part of  Chapter 7 of 'Have Ye No Homes To Go To? The History of the Irish Pub' and is the start of a larger section on Irish…

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 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

MÁIRT -- On November 29, 1895, Denny Lane (right), author and poet, and member of the revolutionary Young Ireland party, died in Cork. Lane was born in…

Staying overnight in Derry, Grant spent the next day looking at the city's historic walls, and the "Roaring Meg" cannon. He and his party then headed for Belfast.

(Right: The walls of Derry City.)

En route, workers and other spectators waited in the rain and snow at various points to greet the ex-president, Young…

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…

'My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' -- JFK

For JFK

May 29, 1917 - Nov…

DOMHNAIGH-- On the morning of Nov. 20, 1917, the 16th Irish Division of the British army assaulted an area of the German lines known as "Tunnel Trench," named for an elaborate tunnel system that ran along it. The attack was meant as a diversion for the main attack, about 8 miles to the southeast at…

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…

Recovering from a stroke provides a fellow time to consider his future. I plan to make 2 changes as my 83^rd BD rapidly approaches. …

If you’ve tried every possible recipe for cranberry desserts and are looking for something new, you’ll love this one! Similar to an Italian panforte, a classic fruitcake-like confection loaded with nuts, dried fruit, and spices (the name means “strong bread”), this is a pleasant departure. It’s delicious with coffee,…

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.…

CÉADAOIN -- On Nov. 16, 1814, Michael Kelly Lawler, general in the Union army during the American Civil War, was…

Navy veteran John Washington Michael Condon died as he lived, a gregarious man with a penchant for sharing a good story. He was one of my father’s numerous uncles, and was known to me through Dad’s recollections as Uncle Jack. As evidenced by the following letter, dated July 19, 1918, Jack served during World War 1,…

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…