Added by John Anthony Brennan on September 25, 2020 at 10:30am — No Comments
This year 2022, is the 175th anniversary of the ‘Great Hunger’ that befell Ireland with the horror culminating in 1847. Otherwise known as ‘an Gorta mor’ or more commonly referred to as ‘Black ‘47’ it was a seminal turning point in the long tortuous history of Ireland.
Of the many…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on September 12, 2020 at 3:30pm — 1 Comment
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,…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on January 5, 2019 at 6:30pm — No Comments
Added by John Anthony Brennan on October 21, 2018 at 9:00am — 4 Comments
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 Kathleen McNulty. She is one of the six original…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on October 6, 2018 at 3:30pm — No Comments
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 heavy rains in the spring of 1315 causing crop failures all…
Added by John Anthony Brennan on August 27, 2018 at 7:00pm — No Comments
Delighted to learn that my book “Out of the Ice: Ireland Then and Now” has been chosen as an "Award Winning Finalist in the History category of the 2018 International Book Awards."…
Added by John Anthony Brennan on May 27, 2018 at 8:00pm — 5 Comments
This year 2017, is the 170th anniversary of the ‘great Hunger’ that befell Ireland in 1847. Otherwise known as ‘an Gorta mor’ or more commonly referred to as ‘Black ‘47’ it was a seminal turning point in the long tortuous history of Ireland.With the failure of the potato crop due to a serious blight,…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on October 6, 2017 at 5:00pm — 7 Comments
According to both oral and written traditions, at the beginning of the 4th century A.D., three brothers, known as the Three Collas, rebelled and killed their uncle, the high king of Ireland, Fíacha Sroiptine. This singular barbarous act started a chain of fateful events that would have a…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on August 13, 2017 at 10:00pm — 7 Comments
On a cold, stark night in August 1588, as a fierce gale subsided and the clouds slowly parted, light from a full autumn moon revealed a horrific scene strewn along the shoreline of Streedagh Strand in County Sligo, Ireland. The drowned corpses of 800 doomed sailors, washed up by the raging Atlantic Ocean waves, lay…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on January 10, 2017 at 3:30pm — 14 Comments
This year’s shortest day of the year is on Wednesday, December 21, which will also mark the longest night of the year. Every year, the winter solstice marks the turn of the calendar as autumn ends and the winter begins. From an astronomical standpoint, the winter solstice means that the two opposite points in the…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on December 21, 2016 at 1:00am — 2 Comments
In 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus purportedly discovered the New World, an incident, with far reaching effects, took place in a chapter house attached to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The incident ended a long running and bloody feud between two of Ireland’s most powerful dynasties, the FitzGeralds…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on October 10, 2016 at 7:00pm — 8 Comments
*note
Toward the end of the 8th Century A.D., Ireland was almost completely Gaelic and Christian. It was a rural society, with no towns or cities, and the only large settlements were hamlets that grew up around monasteries. The…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on September 19, 2016 at 1:30pm — 14 Comments
Ask most people who they believe were the first group of foreigners to launch highly organized, violent raids in Ireland, and more often than not, they will say it was the Vikings, who raided Lambay Island in 795 A.D. What many people are not aware of is the fact that a century before the emergence of the Vikings, an…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on September 14, 2016 at 7:30pm — 6 Comments
It looked sad and forlorn sitting by the side of the Creamery road as though it knew that it had long been abandoned. I first noticed it one rainy afternoon when I was almost seven years old and I can still vividly recall the sweet scent of wild honeysuckle, hanging heavily on the air that…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on August 31, 2016 at 9:00pm — 2 Comments
Three of Ireland’s well-loved 18th century Gaelic poets lie at rest in the graveyard of Creggan Church, near to my hometown of Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The poets, Filid Art Mc Cooey, Padraig MacAliondain and the rapparee poet Seamus mor MacMurphy sleep under the oaks and elms in the company…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on August 7, 2016 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments
Photo of Gullion courtesy of Colin Boyle.
I am Gullion, old as time itself, older than the pre-dawn of life, forged in the crucible of a ring of fire, before man existed. Up here the air is pure and fresh and crisp as the frost of winter’s breath. I’ve seen it all from up here, here by the bottomless lake, here beside…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on August 6, 2016 at 10:30pm — 10 Comments
In A.D. 451, the new Byzantine Emperor Marcian, an orthodox Christian, ordered a new Ecumenical council be convened to establish once and for all, the belief that Christ was and is both God and Man. Pope Leo 1 called for it to be held in Italy but Marcian insisted it be…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on March 9, 2015 at 5:30pm — 7 Comments
Europe, in the middle of the 5th century A.D., was in darkness and fear was dominant. The Master (the druid) sensed fundamental change. The Roman legions were advancing rapidly and had already crossed the Rhine. A new religion was upon him and his people.
In the…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on March 9, 2015 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments
Many thanks once again to the ‘Creggan Historical Society', its curator Mr. Michael McShane and local historian Mr. Kevin McMahon, for their vast knowledge, brilliant minds and tireless efforts toward ensuring that the history of South Armagh be kept alive and kicking for…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on January 6, 2015 at 2:30pm — 2 Comments
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