On Easter Monday, April 24 1916 one of the most important events in the long, tortuous history of Ireland took place. The event, so shocking and bold, is still debated and analyzed until this very day.…

One of the most iconic figures that emerged out of the Easter Rising was Michael Collins. Born in 1890, he was the third son in a family of eight children. Some sources would suggest that the Collins family were part of a very ancient clan who were widely spread over County Cork. 

Collins' father did not marry…

One of the many events held during 2016 to honour those who took part in the Easter Rising 100 years before was a stage play From the Backbone Out, which told the story of Richard O’Carroll, a labour leader and a member of the Irish Volunteers.

O’Carroll…

During the past year I had the privilege and honour to be commissioned to write a new orchestral suite for 1916 by Roscommon County Council. The suite, called IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN, is of eight movements

1. IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN,

2. Raising The Flag, 

3.…

Alice Milligan (1866-1953) was born into a middle-class Methodist family, one of 11 children. (Some sources would suggest that there were 13 children.) Her father was Seaton Milligan, a writer, poet, antiquary, member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), and a businessman. Her mother was Charlotte Milligan (nee Burns).

Alice was always…

Nora Connolly was born into a family that knew hardship from birth. The second child of James Connolly and Lillie Connolly (nee Reynolds), she would forge her way through life based on the knowledge and learning that was instilled into her by both of her parents; her mother a governess who home schooled all of her children -…

Racing fruitlessly after a tram that was speeding away from him, a young British soldier spotted a shy young woman, out for a stroll in Dublin City, on her day off from working as a governess in Merrion Square. Lillie Reynolds, a softly spoken young woman who had been raised in the Protestant faith, did not usually flirt…

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…

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…

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…

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........…

Robert Erskine Childers {Erskine} 25^th June 1870 – 24 Nov1922 -  was born in Mayfair London the second son in a family of five children – to Robert Caesar Childers and Anna Mary Henrietta Barton.…

Following the surrender of the Easter Rising, the  Rebel leaders were tried, court-martialed and executed by firing squad in the former stonebreakers yard at Kilmainham Prison, Dublin, from May 3^rd to May 12^th 1916, with Roger Casement being court-martialed and hanged in the U.K. on 3^rd August 1916.

General Sir John…

To have a relative who was ‘out’ in 1916 – that is, someone who took part in that mad assault on the British Empire known as the Easter Rising – is something to be treasured.

Of course, there were plenty of other…

The Irish Proclamation 1916

In preparing this blog, I realise how little I know about the 1916 Proclamation, the Signatories and the Easter Rising. While this blog only touches the tip of the story of the Proclamation I hope it is of…

I have produced an education film on Ireland's quest for Independence, to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising. I have been showcasing the film at schools and festivals around Ireland for the past 12 months. The film has been placed on DVD and can be purchased at…

When the actor Arthur Shields strode towards the Abbey Theatre on Easter Monday, 1916, it was with one intent -- not to rehearse or act in a play, but to collect his rifle and take part in the greater drama that was about to shake the streets of Dublin.

Pictured, Arthur Shields

Once…

In early 1916, a young Irishman was making secret plans to travel from England to Dublin to take up arms in an insurrection to achieve Irish independence. This was Liam Parr, a singer and bagpiper who was sometimes known as the ‘The Minstrel Boy” after one of his favourite songs. He was a Dubliner who had been living…

I would love all of you to see a very recent film piece about my Aunt Winifred.  Here she is for a posed photograph with her mother (Sarah Cassidy Carney) and her two sisters, Mabel and Maud, who later become nuns.  She is standing between her two sisters.  Winnie also had four brothers:  Alfred, Ernest,…

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I began to write about Saving Dublin's Moore Street and found I could not write it any better than Robin Mary Heany has, taken from this site:…