LUAIN -- On January 28, 1967 , Helena Moloney, republican and trade unionist, died in Dublin. Moloney was born in Dublin in 1884. While only at teen-ager Moloney heard Maud Gonne give a pro-nationalist…

DOMHNAIGH -- On January 20, 1771, Don Hugo O'Conor was named…

DOMHNAIGH -- On January 15, 1702 Thomas Arthur Lally, a renowned but tragic officer in the Irish Brigade in the service of France, was born in Romans, France. Lally was the son of Sir Gerard Lally of Tullynadala, County Galway, one of…

There once was a particularly dark time in Ireland when the length of a man's hair determined his fate. If his hair was shorn close to the scalp as opposed to the longer hairstyles of most of Europe at that time, he ran the risk of arrest, interrogation and was often subjected to torture by…

LUAIN -- On December 31, 1602, Dónall O'Sullivan Beare and his clan began their epic march to Ulster. O'Sullivan had supported…

“The wran, the wran, the king of all birds,

on Stephen's day was caught in the furze.

His body is little but his family is sweet

so rise up landlady and give us a treat.

And if your treat be of the best

your soul in heaven can…

Fort Niagara - Betsy Doyle carries red hot cannon balls

Betsy Doyle married Andrew Doyle, a private in the First United States Artillery Regiment. "Private Doyle was with the U.S. forces when they invaded Upper Canada. He was captured in the Battle of Queenston and…

MÁIRT -- On the morning of Nov. 20, 1917, the 16th Irish Division of the British army assaulted an area of the German lines known as "Tunnel Trench," named for an elaborate tunnel system that ran…

MÁIRT -- On Oct. 30, 1892, Eoin O'Duffy, revolutionary and organizer of the infamous Blueshirts, was born in Castleblayney, County Monaghan.

(Right: O'Duffy's Blueshirts rally in a Dublin cemetery,…

In July 1690 the last battle fought on Irish soil between two kings played out in the hills and valleys of the Boyne river valley in County Meath, Ireland. The battle was fought between the deposed king James II who was the last Roman Catholic monarch of…

DOMHNAIGH -- On Oct. 14, 1814, Thomas Osborne Davis, the poet laureate of the Young Ireland party and one of its founders, was born in Mallow, Co. Cork. Like many other revolutionary Irish leaders, Davis was of an Anglo-Irish…

LUAIN -- On October 8, 1862, Irish-born Confederate General Patrick Cleburne commanded a brigade at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky. Cleburne's…

The next time you power up your computer or go to the rifle range, take aim and set your sights on a target off in the distance, knowing that you will hit the target, raise a glass to a ground-breaking Irishwoman from Donegal named…

In 1798, the new Oaths issued by the Wexford Council had good effect. As Crown forces gathered on Wexford’s borders for the showdown, Nicholas Gray, Secretary of the Council, wrote on 16 June to Fr. Philip Roche, the new commander‑in‑chief. Gray was…

LUAIN -- On Sept. 17, 1860, units of the Irish Battalion of St. Patrick of the Papal army fought a Piedmontese army allied with Garibaldi at Spoleto.…

LUAIN -- On September 3, 1842, John Devoy, (in a prison photo, left) one of the most devoted revolutionaries the world has ever seen, was born in Kill, County Kildare. John showed his commitment…

Five hundred and thirty years before the death and devastation caused in 1847 by An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger), Ireland suffered an equally horrific event that begun in 1315 and was the first in a series of large-scale disasters that devastated Europe in the 14th century. A continent-wide famine began with…

LUAIN -- On August 27, 1798, the combined force of Gen. Humbert's small French invasion unit and western Irish rebels won one of the most famous battles ever fought in Ireland at…

This is an article I wrote for my site about Coffin Ships and the Potato Famine:…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 22, 1864, the Irish 10th Tennessee of Hood's Confederate Army in Decatur, Georgia, was engaged…