On the Galway's Horrible Histories Walk, I weave the Brendan Voyage tale into the stories I tell, explaining how in 929 AD the Vikings raided the Priory Abbey of Annaghdown, 4 miles up the Corrib River from Galway city, which was founded by St. Brendan for his sister, Briga, and where he died in 577 AD.…

Library of Congress General Joseph Finegan

DOMHNAIGH -- On…

From a St. Patrick's Day card published about 1910 Theobald Wolfe Tone

DOMNAIGH -- On November 10, 1798,…

I wrote about my novel, Ghost of Gallipoli, in a previous blog. However, given the significance of Sunday, 10^th November, I’d like to dedicate this article to all those men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, including my great-uncles, who died during the Gallipoli Campaign, in 1915.

A…

On this day in history:



1884 - The foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association.



The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded at 3 pm on Saturday, 1 November 1884, in the billiards room of Lizzie Hayes' Commercial Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary.

All present that day…

As any Irish history enthusiast will know, 2013 marks the centenary of a very significant year in the Irish fight for independence - and the next ten years will provide many more milestones to commemorate. The years 1913-23 in Ireland saw the Dublin Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, and the Civil War. By the end of this tumultuous decade, Ireland would be a fledgling Free State, and the…

O'Duffy's Blueshirts rally in a Dublin cemetery, 1934

CÉADAOIN -- On Oct. 30, 1892, Eoin O'Duffy, revolutionary and organizer of the infamous Blueshirts, was born in…

Handball in Ballymore Eustace                       

Copy of photo below of Mickey Dowling appearing at P. 54 of the Ballymore-Eustace GAA Centenary Book.

Book

Tom McElligott in his book on handball devoted two sections to Ballymore Eustace players.  Tom is now deceased.  The late Mickey Dowling of Barrack St. was one of the two Ballymore Eustace players to receive a…

This is a postcard of William Street in Galway City, circa 1930. The keen eye will see "DUBLIN TIME" underneath the clock at Dillon's Jewellers (the building on the right of the photo with the striped awning). In the past, Galway, like other Irish towns, operated according to local time, which was relative to its distance from Greenwich. Dublin time was twenty-five minutes…

Lebor na gCeart, the "Book of Rights", details the rents and taxes paid by the King of Cashel to various others in Ireland.  The original manuscripts date to the 11th or 12th century, and it contains a treasure trove of references to the customs and practices of Irish nobility in the Middle Ages.  This collection of manuscripts was…

The Doegen Records Web Project (Tionscadal Gréasáin Cheirníní Doegen) has made available a treasure trove of audio recordings from the 17 counties of Ireland, mostly concentrated in the northwest.  This multi-media archive is a project of the Royal Irish Academy Library in collaboration with the Digital Humanities Observatory, and…

Check out this absolutely brilliant history of Ireland in six minutes created by Wild Geese member …

Tom Davis from an illustration in Atlas and Cyclopedia of Ireland, c. 1903.

LUAIN -- On Oct. 14, 1814, Thomas Osborne Davis, the poet laureate of the…

Book

In his book on handball the late Tom McElligott devoted two sections thereof to Ballymore Eustace players.  The book itself was published to coincide with the World Handball Championships which were played in Ireland in 1984.  

General Secretary and Journalist

Tom was a teacher and loved handball. His book has become the standard book on handball.  For six years in the late forties and early…

By Patrick Lavin (First published in 2004)

The Celts stand out as one of the most daring of all the ancient European people in the history of pre-Roman Europe. They arrived on the European stage in prehistoric times as a "fierce naked warrior class that collected enemy heads as war trophies," and evolved into a singular culture that flourished…

Writing

When I first got involved on the official side of handball in succession to Seamie Curran as Secretary of the Ballymore Eustace Handball Club in 1958 I began writing previews and reviews of games.  These I did initially for the Leinster Leader and later on for the Ballymore Echo.  In 1972 Fr Browne did his final Chronicle and via my late father asked me to do an article on handball for it.

From 1958 until 1997 I wrote…

Ballymore Eustace through the Years

The First Chronicle

In 1953 we saw the first Ballymore Eustace and Hollywood Chronicle. 

This publication gave a flavour of the area.  The next publication was Christmas 1958 when we had a pamphlet.

Other Publications

In 1972, we had another Chronicle.  In 1984, the Football Club brought out a book to mark the centenary of the GAA.  In 2000, Michael…

Mary (Mollie) Gill, Murphystown, Dundrum - first President of Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael from 1923-1941

Frances Mary Josephine Gabriel Hurley, Ballybrack - released from the North Dublin Union on 29 September 1923

Dollie Jeffares, Grove Cottage, 7, Grove Ave, Blackrock - released from the North Dublin Union on 29 September…

I just recently came across these lovely colourised photos from circa 1930 which depict life as it was for most folks in Connemara and in the Claddagh area of Galway Town.  What's striking, to me, is that the lifestyle shown would not have been much different even 100 years (or more) earlier!  The conditions of rural Ireland all the…