On a cold, wet evening in 576 AD a flotilla of small, wave tossed, leather covered boats with tattered cloth sails, came to rest on the rocky shores of Lough Foyle close to the modern-day town of…

I am surely not the first Irish emigrant to have heard these words from their heartbroken mother. Guilt at the impact of my decision to leave Ireland and grief at the loss of my beloved mother are…

Remembering Oliver Plunkett this month.

On July 1, 1681 at Tyburn Gallows, London, Irishman Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland was hung, drawn and quartered, the last Catholic victim martyred as a direct result…

Tullaun Castle now has one room up and running: airbnb link read more on it's preservation journey from the below article in 2013.…

In the last week of July 431 A.D., Patricius left his residence at Ard Mhacha and traveled with his retinue south toward the kingdom of Midhe. He had been summoned, by royal decree, to a meeting with the reigning monarch, king Laoghaire…

I’ve spent a lot of time this past year talking about guilt, about exile and return, and about mammies, and about the guilt mammies can instil in their offspring when said offspring return from self-imposed exile, which was usually to escape said mammy’s…

“Could I have come to Ireland without thought of God, merely in my own interest? Who was it made me come? For here I am a prisoner of the Spirit so that I may not see any of my family. Can it be out of the kindness of my heart that I carry out…

Druid Lochra’s prophecy: 

"A tailcenn (baldhead) will come over the raging sea, with his perforated garments, his crook-headed staff, with his table (altar) at the east end of his house, and all the people…

In 431 A.D. and three days after the festival of Lughnasagh, a lone figure stood, head bowed in contemplation, next to one of five carefully positioned chairs, in the Great Assembly Hall at Tara…

'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus' was a much-used phrase in our house in Loughrea, 20 miles from the sea at Galway Bay. Boys, well you know boys, they never comb their hair, never wash their hands, wear the same clothes forever. . . . You know the…

Most people today will tell you, if you ask, that there are four provinces in Ireland, namely, Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught. What many people are not aware of is the fact that in the distant past, there were actually five…

The following story tells of a seminal event that took place in Ireland during the latter half of the first century A.D., and which set in motion a chain of events that would influence and forever change the political and economic landscapes of Ireland,…

Dear John, 

You were a rebel from the beginning and could not have been any other way. You got your survival instincts from your grandparents, who were from County Down, Ireland.

After you were born,…

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Donkey Look 26cm x 28cm…

The Irish Christmas Wreath

Have an Irish Christmas Dinner…

What can the artifacts found buried with Viking women in Ireland tell us about their lives? Maeve Sikora, assistant keeper at the National Museum of Ireland, focuses on everyday objects excavated at burial sites and what they tell us about the…

And there are among them composers of verses whom they call Bards; these singing to instruments similar to a lyre, applaud some, while they vituperate others. -- Diodorus Siculus, 8 BCE

All poets have the uncanny…

On a July day nearly 130 years ago, an unknown and homesick young Irish writer trudged along a busy London street. He stopped suddenly and stood still, for he thought he could hear the tinkling of water in the midst of the bustling thoroughfare.…