“The Bog Road” as it is know is a three mile stretch of road between Athlone and the village of Clonown. The village has the unusual distinction of not having a pub - for Ireland this is quite an anomaly!…

There are some great bog walks all around the Irish midlands. For those of you who are unfamiliar with bog let me give you a few words of introduction.

Bog is derived from the Irish word ‘bogach’ which means soft ground.  First of all, there are two types of bog in Ireland: The “raised bog” that we see in the midland…

While P.S. Gilmore prepared for his departure from Athlone in September of 1849, the papers are filled with example of the depraved…

Eugene Daly was dreaming, in a deep sleep. In the dream, he was playing his uileann pipes to a rapturous audience of dancers in the ship's sumptuous main ballroom. He played like a man possessed, jigs and reels, in perfect pitch. The audience were thrilled. All of a sudden he panicked and woke. He had woken up to the sound of water lapping under his bunk. Unused to…

So you have always told your wide-eyed, disbelieving grand-children that those scratchy 78's you have carefully stored in the attic would some day be worth money, y'know, the ones that you have been collecting for years at 'garage sales' and storage-lot auctions? Well they just got…

In this, the Year of the Horse, I am becoming more and more disheartened by the news stories and social media postings of various Animal rescues of Ireland with whom I am associated. There seems to be an epidemic of sorts. Horses left to starve in fields, locked in barns without food or water, left to the elements of these…