(First published 1/26/12) Waterford-based poet, writer and sociologist Jean Tubridy (left) writes about her Irish experience, often in lyrical, charming terms, in her blog, Social Bridge. In the following excerpt, she describes a recent night in her home town of Tramore: “At about ten o’clock on New Year’s Eve,…

(First published 12/14/11) 2011 marked the 150^th anniversary of the start of America’s Civil War, and in Ireland, a group of historians and writers used the occasion to promote the concept of a Civil War heritage trail. Archaeologist Damian Shiels and writers James Doherty and Robert Doyle  [All three…

(First publish 11/15/11) Mary Courtney is a Kerry-born folk artist and New York resident, and she is lead singer, guitarist and bodhran player for Morning Star [pictured below], a traditional Irish band that regularly travels between shows in the United States and Ireland.  Her music incorporates traditional Irish folk sound with a progressive social…

By Robert Doyle

Dublin, Ireland (First published 10/5/11) -- “Although this is…

A native of Crusheen, County Clare, Christy McNamara has spent a lifetime telling stories of the people of rural Ireland through his photography and his music. He is a true insider, having grown up in a household filled with traditional Irish…

Photo by Wilfred Judd Window of an abandoned cottage.

By …

[This interview was published on The Wild Geese on Nov. 15, 2011.]

Mary…

At the encouragement of some fellow members of TheWildGeese.com, I'd like to introduce myself to everyone here with whom I have not had the privilege of interacting (yet).  I've recently made the decision to combine two of my most ardent passions -- Irishness and photography -- into a new business venture.  That business is called Irish Homeland Photography.   I'm thrilled to be one of the very first…

The Book of Names is an Internet-based project to recognize the women in our past who have migrated from Ireland. By adding the names of your Irish mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and so on, you will have the chance to ‘light a candle’ in their memory.



The effort is…

Ireland to Texas, the Circle is Complete

In the most unlikely places, connections can be found linking two cultures, two worlds and two vastly different centuries. Such was the case in a small, village in County Laois, Ireland.

At the edge of Ballybritas, on the back road to Vicarstown, sits the dairy farm of Michael and Brigid Dempsey. It is a quiet, unassuming…

In a way of introducing myself, I thought I might share some of my "Trail Tales" from previous journeys home...

I think we shall start with this one:

Sing Us a Song, Cowboy!

By Catherine Lilbit Devine © August 18, 2006

Whispers of the West has made our second journey to the Emerald Isle to perform our Music…

By Joseph E. Gannon

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-- Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was one of the most famous political thinkers of the 18th century. Through his speeches and writings, he raised…

By Joseph Gannon

My country men awake! arise! our work begins anew!

Your mingled voices rend the skies, your hearts are firm and true,

You've bravely marched and nobly met, our little green isle through;

But, oh! my friends, there's something yet for Irishmen to…

Shalom Ireland," director Valerie Lapin Ganley's documentary about Ireland's small but vibrant Jewish community, manages to convey a huge amount of information about the past, present, and future of Ireland's Jewry, a community whose existence takes many by surprise. The film, showing in festivals around the U.S. in the coming months, creates a memorable, lyrical…

To the Irish that shared Constance Markievicz's life and times, the appellation, "The Countess" was enough to recall the fiery revolutionary and friend to Ireland's poor. Despite her exotic surname and title, she was born in Sligo, christened Constance Georgina Gore-Booth. Over the next few weeks, WGT will be chronicling the story of how Markievicz became a countess. The three-part narrative is adapted from WGT Connacht correspondent Joe McGowan's new biography, "Constance Markievicz: The…

By Christine Kinealy (First produced in 2003)

By 1849, the nationalist threat had passed, but the Orange…