REED: As the confessional panel slid open at the…

DOMHNAIGH -- On April 10, 1923, General Liam Lynch, chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army, was mortally wounded by Free State troops in Tipperary. Born in Limerick, Lynch commanded the…

Easter is the principal feast day of the Christian religion, and, like the Jewish feast of Passover – which immediately preceded the first Easter, it is rooted in an actual event. Like Passover, it represents a passage from darkness to light, from death to life. The Crucifixion of our Lord and his subsequent Resurrection are…

Introduction to Author James Francis Smith's Upcoming Sunday Posts…

Boy, we had us a whopping week of celebrations. There isn't a child in the country who can't now recite the Proclamation, nor an adult that cannot name everyone who fought in the GPO in 1916. We can all quote Yeats and Pearse, Connolly and Casement. We can sing songs that weren't sung in a century, and we can recite thumping…

Nellie was able to fool the doctors at Bellevue into believing she was mentally incompetent and was transported out to Blackwell’s Island (in a 19th century illustration, above). After ten harrowing days there, the paper managed to get her out, but she admitted to feeling a lot of anxiety waiting for it to happen.…

"I have never written a word that did not come from my heart. I never shall." -- Nellie Bly - The Evening-Journal (8 January 1922)

The world of media today, be it print, radio, television or online, includes a very large percentage of female reporters, but it was not…

DOMHNAIGH -- Beginning on April 3 and continuing to May 8, 1781, the Irish Hibernia regiment of Spain helped lay siege to British forces in Pensacola, Florida, during the …

Carmel, California -- Before I get to the acclaimed Irish traditional musicians from Donegal who comprise the band, Altan, I’m going to editorialize to put the show I saw the other night into context. When I lived on the western coast of Ireland, it fascinated me to realize that in the…

(Scroll down to read the English translation of this post.)

Bhuel, bhí sé go h-iontach a bheith i láthair i Ros Muc i mbliana le hÉirí amach na Cásca a chomóradh, céad bhliain níos déanaí.  Bhí brat na hÉireann ag foluain i ngach gáirdín agus cuma álainn ar an cheantar ar fad.  Bhí gach sórt…

Irish March Ends at midnight.

So will the free Kindle book The Irish-American Chronicle

and the discounted The Last of the Fenians…

“Have you ever been to Mars?” I was asked one morning at 2am as I made my way up east 81st. street in Manhattan. I was returning home from a night out at Manny’s Car Wash, a favorite blues bar on 2nd avenue. I stopped and heard it again, louder this time, “Have you ever been to Mars?” Looking around I couldn’t see anyone and…

Hi everyone,

I have written a trilogy based on my Irish ancestor from County Mayo. My first book, which begins in 1847, is called "A Woman Undefeated." Maggie emigrated to the Irish settlement in Chester, England. It is a gripping tale and has received good reviews.

The sequel is called "…

Speech by John Bruton, former Taoiseach, at 11 a.m., Monday 28^th March, in Iveagh House, Dublin, as part of RTE's “Reflecting the Rising” series.

President John Kennedy once said that a “nation reveals itself “ by the events and people it chooses to commemorate.

This state is a rule of law based, parliamentary democracy, which has…

Hi. I'm James Francis Smith - author of the Irish-American series - consisting of 7 historical novels which place characters in real-life scenarios ranging from the ancient Celts through the American Revolution, America's Civil War, WWI, and the Irish-Anglo War - WWII, the Kennedy Era, including the Korean War and…

My friends kid me about one of the websites I frequent, a place called Banjo Hangout (dot Org). It’s a place where banjo geeks like me go and talk about strings and rings, and pots and picks, and necks and woods and, well, banjo makers! And occasionally I receive messages from those fellow Banjo geeks – so I wasn’t too…

In remembrance of the 1916 Easter Rising, the Kindle edition of James Francis Smith's The Irish-American Chronicle, will be free starting March 28th through Thursday, March 31st.

The 44-pages dedicated to Kennedy's assassination and funeral are well worth acquiring.

Travel an historical byway few…

William Thomas (Liam) Cosgrave was not one of the iconic figures of the early 1900s, nor indeed was he a man who had any real status of leadership in the 1916 Rising, although he was a chief adviser to Eamonn Ceannt during the 1916 Rising at South Dublin Union. It was an apt role because the vicinity was his home turf…

DOMHNAIGH-- On March 27, 1872, Mary MacSwiney (Maire Nic Shuibhne), republican activist, was born in Surrey, England, of an Irish father and an English mother.

(Left: National Library of Ireland: Mary MacSwiney, in her later…

Mayo born singer songwriter Seamus Ruttledge has recorded a new version of 'James Connolly' to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter rising.

Ruttledge has adapted, arranged, and written new verses for this 2016 interpretation of the famous…