To lovers of history, Ireland is a land of castles and battlefields, and there are many of both in the Emerald Isle, given its contentious past. The Clontarf Castle Hotel brings the history-minded both, given its location in a renovated castle, close by the site of the important…

If your mind is anything like mine, you have wondered and imagined what important historical figures may have looked like in the flesh. Before the photograph came into play -- and even centuries before its forerunner, the Daguerrotype, came on the scene -- men and women of high status and important positions were posed for portraits by the best painters of their own days.…

Brian Boru Country. Co. Clare

One thousand years ago tomorrow, on April 23rd 1014, Ireland's High King, Brian Boru of Thomond (Munster) fought and won…

While the rest of Europe plunged into darkness with the fall of the Roman Empire, the light of learning and western civilization was kept flickering in Ireland, preserved in the monasteries established by the followers of St.  Patrick.   However, it would only be a matter of time…

April 23, 2014 will mark the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf. The battle was fought between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the…