LUAIN -- On Oct. 26, 1771, John (Juan) MacKenna, who would rise to fame in South America, was born in Clogher, County Tyrone. MacKenna was related to Gen. Alexander O'Reilly, of the Spanish army, and O'Reilly helped MacKenna get established in Spain. In 1787, MacKenna was appointed a cadet…

Shattering the Sunny Dream: The Dark Reality of the Irish Diaspora in Australian Fiction and Cinema

For more than a century, James Joyce's Ulysses has occupied a near-sacred place in the literary canon. Yet its immense reputation raises an important question: has Joyce's masterpiece expanded the possibilities of fiction, or has its towering influence encouraged critics to prize complexity over connection, innovation over…

Empire, Convicts and First Encounters in Australia's North

By Tim Flynn

My interest in Fort Dundas began not in an archive but on the Tiwi Islands themselves.

Having worked on the islands, I came to appreciate their distinct character. Although only a short distance from the Northern Territory mainland, the Tiwi Islands…

Irish history is filled with soldiers, revolutionaries, politicians and adventurers. Occasionally, however, a figure emerges who refuses to fit neatly into any single category. Arthur Lynch was one such man. Engineer, scientist, physician, journalist, soldier, author and Member of Parliament, he lived a life of such…

One of the largest Irish communities outside Ireland was built in the industrial towns and cities of Northern England. For many families, the economic transformations of the 1980s were not an abstract debate about markets and monetarism, but a lived experience that changed communities, careers and migration patterns for generations.

By T.S.…

The port of Brest in the mid-1790s by Jean-François Hue (1751-1823)

As he watched the small French fleet carrying his friend Theobald Wolfe Tone and about 3,000 French troops sail out of Brest, France on September 20,…

When did the War begin and who was the first casualty?

The majority of historians will be able to answer these without hesitation, but, now I am going to throw, yet, another name into the mix!! Luke Quinn may be a name unfamiliar to many, but it deserves to be remembered along with the many other Irish that gave “the last full measure” between…

The Laureate of the Lash: Francis MacNamara and the Verse of Convict Defiance

By Westport House - Alabaster Statue of Grace O'Malley (Granuaile) (1530-1603) by Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122557070

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Grace O'Malley (Gráinne Mhaol), the sixteenth-century Irish chieftain, trader and naval commander whose life continues to inspire new generations.…

Kathleen Lynn and the Politics of Compassion

By Tim Flynn (T.S. Flynn)

History tends to remember revolutions through their soldiers, generals and politicians. We remember those who seized buildings, proclaimed republics and challenged governments. Yet some of the most important figures in the struggle for Irish freedom…

By Tim Flynn (T.S. Flynn)

Few women occupied centre stage in American radical politics quite like Elizabeth Gurley…

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Daniel O'Connell's statue in the gardens of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. The Great Liberator's ideas travelled further than he ever did, accompanying generations of Irish emigrants and helping shape democratic traditions across…