After the Battle of New Ross in 1798, an ancient blade was prised from the hands of a dead rebel fighter. The unnamed warrior had gone to war not with an iron pike like so many of his compatriots but something much older. He died clasping a weapon not seen on a battlefield for over 2,500 years. In his arms lay a Late Bronze Age sword. 

On the…

MÁIRT -- On July 26, 1739, George Clinton, soldier, first governor of New York, and vice president of the United States was born in Little Britain, N.Y., of Irish Protestant parents. Clinton served in his father's New York state militia unit during the French and Indian War before being elected to the New…

MÁIRT -- On July 18, 1874, Irish revolutionary Cathal Brugha (left) was born Charles William St. John Burgess on Richmond Avenue in Dublin. Cathal joined the Gaelic League in 1899 and became a lieutenant…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 9, 1750, John Philpot Curran, lawyer, and nationalist, was born in Newmarket, Co. Cork. Curran, a Protestant, first gained fame by winning a judgment for a Catholic priest who had been horsewhipped by Lord Doneraile. A colleague of Gratton,…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 2, 1779, on the West Indies isle of Grenada, whose name would be famous again in the 1980s, Colonel Arthur Dillon and his regiment of the Irish Brigade of France were among 2,300 troops landed from ships commanded by Count…

DOMHNAIGH -- On June 25, 1870, Robert Erskine Childers…

MÁIRT -- On June 20, 1763, one of the most famous revolutionary leaders in Irish history, Theobald Wolfe Tone, was born at 44 Stafford St., now called Wolfe Tone St., in Dublin. Tone was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and called to the bar,…

I recently spent 10 days visiting “Ireland’s Ancient East,” a touring region tapping 5,000 years of history in the south and eastern area of the country. Described as a touring region rather than a specific route, it was designed to offer a "relaxing, compact journey of…

MÁIRT -- On June 12, 1844, Januarius A. MacGahan , war correspondent, was born near New Lexington, Ohio. MacGahon's father was a native of County Derry. Januarius was an excellent student and became a teacher and then moved to St. Louis and was hired as a newspaper…

LUAIN -- On June 5, 1868, James Connolly was born of Irish immigrant parents in the Cowgate, an Edinburgh, Scotland, slum. He served in the British army but deserted to marry an Irish girl and returned to Edinburgh. Under the influence of Scottish socialist John…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 28, 1779, poet and songwriter Thomas…

John L. Sullivan, heavyweight champion of the world, strode into the bar in the small town of Belfast in western New York state as if he owned it. He had done…

DOMHNAIGH --  On May 21, 1745, Count Daniel O'Connell, the uncle of the 'Liberator,' and an officer in the Irish Brigade of France, was born in Derrynane, Co. Kerry. Young Daniel became a cadet with the French army in 1761. He served in Clare's Regiment of the…

MÁIRT -- On May 15, 1847, Syria, the first ship to arrive during what Quebecois would call the 'Summer of Sorrow,' landed at the Canadian quarantine station in the St. Lawrence River, just north of Quebec. The French had called that island…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 7, 1915, the English passenger ship Lusitania was sunk near Old Head, Co. Cork, off the southern Irish coast. The liner had left New York bound for Liverpool on May 1. German intelligence believed, and most historians now believe, that the ship was carrying munitions.…

The Dictionary of Statistics by Michael G. Mulhall, London, George Routledge and Sons, 1892

I have been browsing through the above book and found many interesting population, emigration and property statistics relating to Ireland in the 19^th century. These statistics reveal the impact the artificial famine of the 1840s had…

LUAIN -- On May 2, 1870, Father Francis Duffy, World War I chaplain of the 69th New York, was born in Cobourg, Ontario. Francis moved to New York at age 22 to teach at St. Francis Xavier College but quit to enter the seminary. Father Duffy became well known around the town…

DOMHNAIGH -- On April 23, 1014, the Battle of Clontarf, one of the most famous and important battles in Irish history, was fought just north of Dublin. It was a bloody stand-up battle, fought mainly with ax and sword, with Brian Boru's men prevailing. This…

DOMHNAIGH -- On April 16, 1746, a battle was fought in Scotland that would have long-term implications for Ireland, as well as Scotland. It ended "Bonnie" Prince Charlie's Jacobite uprising, known in Scotland as simply, "The '45." It was the battle of "…

DOMHNAIGH -- On the morning of April 9, 1916, a German merchant ship, the Aud, had just left the port of Lübeck, loaded with guns and ammunition for the …