I often find myself thinking about my cousin Michael Brennan. He was a firefighter assigned to the Pride of Midtown firehouse in Manhattan. I first met…
Added by John Anthony Brennan on September 10, 2020 at 10:54am — 11 Comments
This month we remember Irishman Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, who was hung, drawn and quartered, on July 1, 1681 at Tyburn Gallows, London. That barbaric act made him the last Catholic victim martyred as a direct result of the devious ‘Popish Plot’ instigated…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on July 1, 2020 at 12:30pm — 6 Comments
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 Mac Neill at the court at Tara. His journey would take him along…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on March 16, 2020 at 10:53am — 10 Comments
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 will answer 'Amen! Amen!"
Soon after Laoghaire Mac Neill's…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on March 8, 2020 at 4:11pm — 10 Comments
March is traditionally known as Irish Heritage month and this is highlighted on March 17th. with large parades in many towns and cities around the world. The parades are held in honor of a unique individual named Patricius, a roman Briton, taken with his two sisters as hostages to Ireland by one of Ireland's greatest warrior…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on March 2, 2020 at 1:30pm — 10 Comments
The story of Chief O'Neill owes a great debt to his great-granddaughter Mary Lesch. It was Mary who followed through on family stories and hunted down her famous ancestor's unpublished manuscript. Then, with the aid of Chicago historian…
Added by Ronan O'Driscoll on December 15, 2019 at 7:00pm — No Comments
Dear Friends,
I attended a two-week writing workshop run by the Sancho Panza Literary Society at Trinity College in Dublin in June. It was a wonderful writing experience as well as an opportunity to explore historic Dublin and attend the…
ContinueDown the hill from Francis O'Neill's homeplace of Tralibane, County Cork, is an 18th century stone bridge. If you closely read O'Neill's work, Tralibane bridge turns out to be personally very important to him, as a place and a tune. He wrote about the spot a number of times, particularly the "Pattern Dances" the community held there. No doubt this experience at a…
ContinueAdded by Ronan O'Driscoll on July 28, 2019 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment
From Bram Stoker to Oscar Wilde; Ireland boasts many names of great writers. As a big fan of Irish culture, I invite you to take…
ContinueAdded by Giles Kirkland on July 10, 2019 at 6:30am — No Comments
Fourteen-year-old Patricia Walsh, her mother, father, and six siblings, scratched out a living in the stone fields of County Galway, Ireland. Colum Walsh supported the family as a stonemason building estate structures and repairing the fences of an…
ContinueAdded by Johnnie Bernhard on February 15, 2018 at 5:30am — No Comments
This poem was penned after the death of King Charles I, who was beheaded outside Whitehall Palace in London on the afternoon of January 30th, 1649, exactly 368 years ago, today.
"He nothing common did or mean
Upon that memorable scene:
But with his keener eye
The axe’s…
Added by Brian Nolan on January 30, 2018 at 10:30am — 1 Comment
When I was asked to write a series of poems for an art exhibition in Australia earlier this year, I embarked on a dark voyage of discovery into the lives of Irish immigrant children 150 years ago.
Image: 'Image Above: Falling' by Jane Theau (2017)
There is a special brand of human misery so steeped…
ContinueAdded by Anne Casey on November 6, 2017 at 12:30am — 1 Comment
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 Limavady in what is now County Derry, Ireland. Upon reaching the safety of…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on August 30, 2017 at 7:00pm — No Comments
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 central themes in my poetry collection…
ContinueAdded by Anne Casey on July 25, 2017 at 4:00am — 6 Comments
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 Love, Again, with an Irish Historic…
ContinueAdded by Nollaig 2016 on May 30, 2017 at 5:00pm — No Comments
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 guilt trip in the first place. But I suppose it was to be…
ContinueAdded by Caroline Doherty de Novoa on March 28, 2017 at 8:00pm — 2 Comments
“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 such a labor of mercy on a people who once captured me when they wrecked my…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on March 16, 2017 at 5:00pm — No Comments
'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 type, and obstinately oblivious of their appearance. In Ireland,…
ContinueAdded by Brian Nolan on January 7, 2017 at 8:30am — 6 Comments
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 provinces, the fifth one being the province called Royal Mide.
At the…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on December 27, 2016 at 12:00am — 6 Comments
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, Britain and Scotland. The event involved three kings, who together…
ContinueAdded by John Anthony Brennan on December 10, 2016 at 5:00pm — 6 Comments
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