The GPO, Mount Street Bridge, The South Dublin Union -- these are names that resonate when it comes to Easter 1916 as the battlegrounds for what became Padraig Pearse’s ‘glorious failure.’ However, for some quirk of history, the success that took place in the sleepy town of Ashbourne, County Meath, during the Rising has…

I have  arranged for my novel "Part an Irishman" to be available via a free download from Amazon over the Easter weekend. This is to say thanks for all of the marvelous support and good will that I have received from my friends.

In 1820, Lieutenant John Turner Flinn R.N stood in the witness box in the House of Lords. The Queen of Great Britain…

When I entered the University of Notre Dame in 1965, the first thing I had to do was make some close friends. Notre Dame has no social fraternities and in 1965 no women. So one had to fish around your residence halls and classes to find some friends with mutual interests.

During the…

Invite a seanchaí into your home . . . you will be glad that you did. With Jim Hawkins new CD, My Own Native Land: Stories and Songs of Ireland, that has never been easier. Hawkins’ debut album will carry you across the miles, over the waters and back in time.

When a colleague suggested that I review “My Own…

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…

Dont miss your classic Official Irish Harp Pin™ at:

Buy your classic official Irish Harp Pin under this link…

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…