Allow me to introduce myself to The Wild Geese social network.

I am an expert on International and Irish Cuisine.  I am the pioneer of the new Irish cuisine movement dating back to 1960. My work as been acknowledged worldwide and I have been a TV guest on RTE…

Found in the seas off the coast of Donegal, Ireland's most northern county, Tory…

Hello Wild Geese!

I've decided to write this blog to get congratulations - yes, for me - for not only finishing writing my book, but also this week publishing a readable copy of it. I actually published it in August but the print was so small only leprechauns could read it. Now I've improved it and it looks quite nice - just have a look and see on www.HuesBooks.com.

Finishing my project is quite a surprise. Now another has turned up. I…

Oh! to return to that time, place and space of yesterday's papers. Back when I was young, undaunted and sure of nothing, stronger than an oak, spellbound in innocence. Back when being seventeen was wide-eyed and ‘rarin to go, driven by the magical, heady arrogance of youth. Back to that time of transitional transmissions when the curtain was torn down, rent…

The Annual Connemara Pony Festival takes place in Clifden, County Galway from Sunday the 27th through Sunday the 24th of August. The highlight of the festival is the Connemara Pony Show on Thursday and Friday. To mark this important annual event, I'd like to offer this brief primer…

Iveagh Gardens

Clonmel Street, Dublin 2, Ireland



The Iveagh Gardens are amoung the finest and least known of Dublin's parks and gardens. They were designed by Ninian Niven, in 1865, as an intermediate design between the 'French Formal' and the 'English Landscape' styles. They demonstrated the artisitc skills of the landscape architect of the mid 19th century and display…

I am proud that Gerry Conlon was a friend of mine. Not surprisingly, what brought us together was that the British government kept framing people the same way they framed him.

I first heard from Gerry a few weeks after he got out of prison in October 1989. The phone rang and…

I came across this old election poster from the mid-1950's lately. I was born in 1956, so it resonated a bit. Political comparisons aside, I had totally forgotten how the 'old prices' were written and this poster, with it's comparison chart of commonly purchased items brought back floods of childhood memories to me.

For instance the 1954 price tag of 2/4 for Cigarettes…

Link to back cover blurb:

Against The Wind (on The Wild Geese)

Image of back cover:

Eugene Daly was dreaming, in a deep sleep. In the dream, he was playing his uileann pipes to a rapturous audience of dancers in the ship's sumptuous main ballroom. He played like a man possessed, jigs and reels, in perfect pitch. The audience were thrilled. All of a sudden he panicked and woke. He had woken up to the sound of water lapping under his bunk. Unused to…

When the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) marched up Fifth Avenue in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade it should have been crystal clear, if it wasn't already, that this parade is incompatible with any serious effort to support Irish freedom. The PSNI is the…

The family homestead -- still in use and productive to this very day!

One of my most magnificent or poignant 'Great Irish Spots' would certainly have to be finding my 7 times Great-Grandfather's homestead where he settled in America after imigrating from Ireland.  In 1755, Robert Steen of The…

I am amazed at how often the descendants of Limerick emigrants come back to Limerick and are shocked that we do not look like the photo above, with barefooted children an women in shawls:

It has been said to me "Oh! I thought you all lived in the…

We live in the age of the instantaneous. Emails, instant messaging, phone calls and video Skyping put us in almost immediate contact with our loved ones and our friends. Even if they live an ocean away, thanks to modern technology, the means of instant communication is…

'Oiche na Gaoithe Moire' - The night of the big wind! That phrase usually refers to one of the most devastating hurricanes that ever hit Ireland, which made land during the night of Little Christmas, on the 6th of January 1839, almost 174 years ago, just before the outbreak of the…

If Christmas in Killarney is anything like Christmas in the Garden City Library, then Christmas in Killarney is a grand day.

Seanchai…