Although the first census of the United Kingdom was held in 1801, it was not until the 1841 census that respondents were asked to state their country of birth, thereby enabling us to see the size of the Irish population in Britain. We cannot, therefore, accurately judge how many Irish refugees had flooded into England, Scotland…

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DOMHNAIGH -- On March 20, 1780, Miles Byrne, United Irishman and officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, was born in Co. Wexford. He was active in the 1798 Rising in Wexford and fought all its major battles, right through the rebels' climactic defeat at Vinegar Hill.

(Right: The…

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…

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,…

Van Diemen’s Land, Australia -- Richard…

Irishmen everywhere celebrate the

1916 Easter Risings 100-Year Anniversary

Where was Irish Patriot Tom Barry during the Easter…

CÉADAOIN  -- On March 16, 1828, Patrick Cleburne, one of the finest generals produced by either side during America's long, bloody civil war was born at Bride Park Cottage in Ovens Township, Co. Cork, just outside Cork City. Robert E. Lee would one day say of…

After a long period of prayer and reflection, it is with deep sadness that I realize that as a matter of conscience, I will be unable to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City on March 17^th.

Although I belong to five groups who march,…

"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…

The following comment to a recent post of mine, this by Richard R. Mc Gibbon Jr. , had me perplexed for a minute, as I do know that there are lots of unknown and unsung hero's in our Irish History........…

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

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!…

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…

The Mississippi Territory existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817. The Territory had the usual frontier problems of land claims and the establishment of law. The attraction of vast amounts of high quality, inexpensive land ideal for growing cotton attracted hordes of settlers. From 1798 through 1820, the…

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…

“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…

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…

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.…