My Grandfather Tom left Westport, Mayo, and farm life in Aughagower, I assume around 1923.  As one of the "Lost Legion" of Irish republicans, disgruntled by the affairs of the state, he decided to emigrate. Accompanied by his best friend "Ton" Malone, he set out one evening from a…

Chicago Times correspondent John Finerty wiped his brow, drying the sweat from the hot July 7^th afternoon, as he looked up to the top of the grassy knoll where scout Frank Grouard was scanning the horizon with his binoculars. They were near the valley of the Little Bighorn in what is…

When at 18 or 20, or in my case 24, you fly away on the adventure of a lifetime, you aren't thinking of your future self. When I first winged my way to Australia, I had no inkling where it would lead. Or all the losses it would lead to. For me. For my future husband. For our future children. For our…

The Erie Canal in New York was the first canal dug by the Irish.  They did a splendid job and were hired by Mansuel White to dig the New Basin Canal in New Orleans. They were shipped in but the conditions were so bad -- no shelter. no food -- that they decided to leave.  There is an article in the Times-Picayune…

It is New York City and the Civil War is brewing. Norah McCabe, an Irish immigrant who escaped the Famine as a child, is now a young widow with a daughter. A milliner, struggling to survive in tumultuous times, Norah meets Abraham Lincoln, befriends the extraordinary African-American woman Elizabeth…

A short extract from a chapter in my book about the history of the role of the pub in the lives of Irish emigrants. This is a part of  Chapter 7 of 'Have Ye No Homes To Go To? The History of the Irish Pub' and is the start of a larger section on Irish…

There’s a saying we have in Ireland that you’d nearly think was coined for Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn. Namely, if you’ve the name of getting up early in the morning you can lie till lunchtime. And it seems to me that Tóibín lay too long when he wrote Brooklyn.…

Although the first census of the United Kingdom was held in 1801, it was not until the 1841 census that respondents were asked to state their country of birth, thereby enabling us to see the size of the Irish population in Britain. We cannot, therefore, accurately judge how many Irish refugees had flooded into England, Scotland…

Over the next two Sundays, RTE Radio 1 in Dublin will broadcast programmes on the legacy of the Irish in the American Civil War . Programme 2 will feature the importance of P. S. Gilmore as the unofficial 'bandmaster general' of the Union Army and the role that music played in the propaganda of the war.  The programs will…

There is a moment in "Brooklyn" -- the recently released 1950s period semi-romance -- when one naive and worried young Irishwoman turns to a slightly less naive and worried young Irishwoman and asks her what America will be like. The response is heartfelt, immediate, true and not quite true, all at once: "Like Ireland,…

Edward Joseph Flanagan was born in 1886 in Leabeg, County Roscommon, to John and Honoria Flanagan, both fluent Irish speakers. He was the eighth child in a family of eleven children.

Pictured, above, a scene from the "Boys Town" movie with Spencer Tracy as Father Edward Joseph…

On March 21 1879, 143 years ago, the worlds first working guided missile was successfully tested in Hobsons bay, Melbourne, Australia by Irish inventor Louis Brennan from Co. Mayo, Ireland.…

The whole day that I spent in Belfast and the evenings on either side really need more than one blog post. That day we went to so many places and I was shown so many things. It was mind-blowing and at times very emotional. Belfast is a lovely place and I was certainly shown a good time.  We started with breakfast, as…

In 1812, in the first summer of America's 'second War of Independence' with Britain, a valuable survey describing the whole Niagara Frontier was made by Irish immigrant Nicholas…

I ran across a man and his daughter lost in the 19th century history of Buffalo, Dr. John Cronyn (pictured) and Juliana Cronyn. They were extraordinary people by any stretch of the imagination.

John Cronyn was born in Blackrock, a suburb of Cork City, in 1825 and moved with his parents to Toronto. He finished first in his medical…

The huge Irish contribution to building today's London has been marked by a short video, 'We Built This City,' a project completed by the Irish Architecture Foundation as part of Irish Design 2015. It is a lovely piece, something we can all be justifiably proud of. So many of us either emigrated ourselves, or had family or friends…

We have no doubt that the word "Irish" in anyone's domain name, particularly as a TLD (top level domain, that is, 'behind' the dot) helps a marketer (and any devotee of the Irish experience) tap the passion that underscores the Irish experience…

Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers (Editor: Shannon O’Boyle)

Reviewer: J.A. O’Brien

Summary: Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers represents an important new contribution to the history of Australian folk music and to Australian folklore. The new…

This very interesting post from Claire Fullerton inspired me to write this one.

In the last 5 years or so my Dad has done a ton of work on genealogy. He has done both his side and my Mom's side. It's been…

By Dr. Laura Kelley

“No work was too menial, no venture too unprofitable, for her.”

Without question, among the Irish…