While Thatcher's government demonised Irish identity through state-sanctioned paranoia, the children of immigrants were quietly staging a hostile takeover of the British charts. From the punk vitriol of Johnny Rotten to the ethereal subversion of Kate Bush, this is the story of how the displaced sons and daughters of the Irish Underground…

Donald Trump's latest intervention in Irish affairs has demonstrated a striking lack of appreciation for the constitutional and political sensitivities that continue to shape relations on the island of Ireland. During his visit to Dublin, the American president departed from the carefully guarded neutrality traditionally maintained by U.S.…

DOMHNAIGH -- On September 13, 1803, John Barry (left), of Ballysampson, Co.Wexford, considered by many to be the 'Father of the U.S. Navy,' died in Philadelphia. At a young age, Barry went to sea as a fisherman; by age 20, he had a master's license. He emigrated to Philadelphia in…

First responders carry Fr. Mychal Judge's body from the rubble of the World Trade Center…

Rocker Larry Kirwan, the founder and front-man of Irish rock mainstay Black 47, had a close-up perspective on the mayhem of 9/11. He shared the following reminscence of that day with subscribers to the band's newsletter in 2006. (Kirwan mentioned to readers that the excerpt is based upon a chapter from his memoir,…

Many Irish who contributed significantly to this nation have been undeservedly excluded from the pages of our school’s history books and their stories remain untold. One such is John Patton. Born in 1745 in County Sligo, John immigrated to Philadelphia about 1765. He met and married Jane Davis on 7 March…

Chicago Times correspondent John Finerty wiped his brow, drying the sweat from the hot July 7^th afternoon, as he looked up to the top of the grassy knoll where scout Frank Grouard was scanning the horizon with his binoculars. They were near the valley of the Little Bighorn in what is…

Born near Kill, County Kildare, in 1842, John Devoy would go on to become a man described by the London Times as ‘the most dangerous enemy of this country [Britain] Ireland has produced since Wolfe Tone’. His republican career began when, as a teenager, he met the Young Irelander John…

Last week, in his sleep, in his small palace in Rome, 400 years ago, one of the greatest figures in Irish history passed away, Hugh O'Neill. . With him in his final moments may have been his teenage son, John, whom he had nominated to succeed him as Earl of Tyrone and as The O'Neil. Also, there…

(“Lewis and Clark at Celilo Falls, Columbia River” from a mural by Frank H. Schwarz)

Nineteen-year-old George Shannon nervously trotted his horse across the flat ground to the north bank of the Missouri River and began scanning…

County Kildare native Charles Wogan pulled up the collar of his coat against the wind-blown sleet and snow and paced nervously back and forth on what is now Maria-Theresien-Street in Innsbruck, Austria. The city clocks had announced the new day, April 28, 1719, a few minutes ago.…

James Connolly said of "Big" Jim Larkin, his colleague in the labour movement: "We have amongst us a man of genius, of splendid vitality, great in his conceptions, magnificent in his courage." George Bernard Shaw described him as "the greatest Irishman since Parnell."

In 1913, Constance…

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…

I see the long, blue line, push back the rebel pickets

Far stretched o’er hill and dale; through break and thickets.

My old heart leaps

As up the steeps

Rock-crowned and flinty:

I see the dash,

And hear the crash,

Where leads the peerless…

This song is a constant reminder to me of my childhood, running around singing lines from it with my childhood friends, not knowing or not caring why we were singing it, or indeed who Napper Tandy was. Historical events were not seared into our minds. Only Religion took that place

The…

LUAIN -- On August 17, 1778, Bernardo O'Higgins, the father of Chilean independence, was born in Chile. Bernardo's mother was…

The guided tour on the 17th August of the route taken by the English army at the Battle of the Yellow Ford was organised by Armagh Irish language group, Cairde Teo.

The historian, Antaine Ó Donnaile, a local man and an acknowledged expert on the period, led the walk and his imtimate knowledge of the local countryside brought the detail of the battle back to life…

One armed man cannot resist a multitude, nor one army conquer countless legions; but not all the armies of all the empires of earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will prevail. -- Terence MacSwiney

Probably no man outside of Michael Collins was as responsible for getting England to agree to peace talks in 1921 as Terence…