The Doegen Records Web Project (Tionscadal Gréasáin Cheirníní Doegen) has made available a treasure trove of audio recordings from the 17 counties of Ireland, mostly concentrated in the northwest.  This multi-media archive is a project of the Royal Irish Academy Library in collaboration with the Digital Humanities Observatory, and…

Sometimes, my husband has these crazy ideas:

"Let’s move to Ireland!” 

“Okaaaaay ...”

“It would be cool to get some chickens!” 

“Really?”

“I bet you could decorate these egg shells somehow.”  

“Umm ... I think I could!”



Sometimes, my husband has really good crazy ideas, and that last one was the…

Mary (Mollie) Gill, Murphystown, Dundrum - first President of Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael from 1923-1941

Frances Mary Josephine Gabriel Hurley, Ballybrack - released from the North Dublin Union on 29 September 1923

Dollie Jeffares, Grove Cottage, 7, Grove Ave, Blackrock - released from the North Dublin Union on 29 September…

We might have been called “narrow-backs” or “Micks” or “Donkeys” but the Irish of Laurel Hill were joined together as a community. My dad was in the Holy Name Society. He read the Epistles at Mass in St. Theresa’s. We would travel to Gaelic Park to watch Uncle “Mick” or Uncle Martin beat Kilkenny or lose to Kerry; all while we yelled “UP TIPP!” at the top of…

I believe the portrait at left is Nicholas Gray.

Nicholas Gray was an attorney in Co. Wexford, Ireland and in 1795 married Elinor Hughes. His life changed dramatically when he took part in the 1798 Rebellion as the Secretary to the Rebel Council of Wexford and also as Aide -de-Camp to Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey in 1798.  Mrs Patricia De Bernardi was a genealogist who…

by Mike McCormack, AOH National Historian

Two Hundred and ten years ago on August 25, 1803, a tragic event befell Irish history. It all began when the United Irishmen, a group of Catholics and Protestants united to work for Ireland's independence, rose for that freedom in 1798. The English put down the rising…

The Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, NY is pleased to join the Wild Geese Blog.  The following is a recent article for Berkshires Week.  For more information go to: www.katemullanynhs.org.

Paul F. Cole

Troy landmark honors…

Dr. Nicholas Grene, professor of English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, lectured on J.M. Synge’s “Riders to the Sea” on September 17, 2013 at Hofstra University.  Dr. Grene’s host was the Irish Studies Program co-directed by Dr.Maureen Murphy and Dr. Gregory Maney.

For his audience…

I recently finished Gerard Cappa’s thriller, "Blood From a Shadow."  If you had been with me at the time, you would have heard a loud exhale as the little readometer on my…

There is a link with Spain that is revealing itself. I was looking for a flamenco guitarist for for my Irish/Spanish musical. I scoured the web looking for people and came across a tapas bar that had flamenco guitar. I got an email and sent it off. A week passed and I wondered but decided to let it go. I got an email from an entertainment website where I have a profile because there were jobs matching me. I thought I would contact guitarist needs singer. Said nothing but…

I just recently came across these lovely colourised photos from circa 1930 which depict life as it was for most folks in Connemara and in the Claddagh area of Galway Town.  What's striking, to me, is that the lifestyle shown would not have been much different even 100 years (or more) earlier!  The conditions of rural Ireland all the…

After watching the videos produced by Coláiste Lurgan in Connemara and posted here a few weeks ago, I think a few eyes have been opened.  Any eyes who are still blind to the budding revival of the Irish…

The following is a transcript of the LIVE Wild Geese Community Chat hosted here at TheWildGeese.com on Sunday, September 8, 2013 with historian C. Michael (Mike) Harrington.  Some editing has…

This summer, driving through Connemara, I pulled into Sraith Salach, (Willow Stream) as Recess is now officially called, on the N59 Galway Clifden Road. All Gaeltacht villages throughout Ireland now only have the Irish name, though it caused such a furore in Dingle/ Daingean that they made an exception. The village consists of a shop, pub and marble shop. My friends were…

In June of 2013, Chetham's LIbrary in Manchester, England published an album, containing about 120 excellent prints of coastal scenes of rural Galway. Many of them were dated to 1879.  Founded in 1653, Chetham’s Library in Long Millgate, Manchester, is the oldest public library in…

Galway City has historically been among the "most Irish" of all Irish towns/cities -- some would even argue that it would top that list.  For evidence of this, one need look no further than Galway's unofficial slogan, Croí Cultúrtha na hÉireann,…

The image above on the left is a detail from Richard Bartlett's A.D. 1602 map of Ulster showing the inauguration of the O'Neill chief/king at Tullyhogue, County Tyrone. Bartlett has been called, "…

Sixteen Films screenwriter Paul Laverty (pictured at left) has called out CIA chief John Brennan, seeking an apology from him "for all the misery and murder that the institution has caused around the world." The former human rights lawyer was speaking in Effernagh, County Leitrim, at an August 16 commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Irish government's expulsion of…