Nationalist, Volunteer, Soldier, Poet. Francis Ledwidge's life defies the neat categories later generations imposed upon Ireland's revolutionary era. A member of the Irish Volunteers who served in the British Army and mourned the execution of his friend Thomas MacDonagh, Ledwidge embodied the overlapping loyalties of a generation caught between Home…

For centuries, Irish literature reserved heroism for warriors, rebels, and national leaders. Shane MacGowan did something far more radical. He brought mythology down from its pedestal and handed it to emigrants, labourers, boxers, drinkers, and the forgotten dead. In The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn and The Body of an American, he…

By Tim Flynn

From the penal barracks of colonial Australia to the post-industrial concrete of late-1970s Manchester, the street bard has always been the ultimate weapon against oppression. Tim Flynn traces an unbroken radical lineage connecting 19th-century convict icon Frank the Poet, punk-poetry pioneer John Cooper Clarke,…

From the rain-soaked streets of Soho to the haunted dreamscapes of Irish history, Shane MacGowan's finest songs reveal a writer caught between intimate realism and mythic memory. Through the ghostly presence of James Clarence Mangan, The Snake with Eyes of Garnet suggests that MacGowan was not merely a songwriter, but a participant in…

By Tim Flynn

Poet, professor, parliamentarian and soldier, Tom Kettle believed Ireland's future lay in Home Rule and European cooperation. His death at the Somme in 1916 marked not only the loss of a remarkable individual but the eclipse of an entire political tradition.

In the crowded landscape of Irish history,…

By T.S. Flynn

W.B. Yeats spent much of his life mistrusting constitutional nationalism and the men who practised it. Yet the poet who mocked shopkeepers, doubted parliamentarians and wrestled with the legacy of 1916 ultimately found himself helping to build the institutions of the Irish Free State.

For a man who spent much…

To bear His heir, perfection

No stain or fault, detection

This House of David's promised place

Her conception full of grace

Original sin, suspended

Eden's triumph, upended

I AM's ark of flesh and blood. 

Whose prophecy withstood

Herod's…

During a nostalgic trip to Dublin City, Ireland in June 1971, I found myself in the delightful St. Stephen's Green, a welcome oasis in that bustling, cosmopolitan city. The park is sited not far from the Four Courts building, which sits on the north bank of…

My Tír na nÓg

To Patricia A. McLaughlin from Dan,

her husband, February 14, 2022

Though this poem may…

In an old peat bog at Ummericam, sits the cruel headcutter's stone,

stained with the blood and fused with the ghosts, of men who are now long gone.

In the gorse and the furze their cries could be heard, when Johnston was out on the roam

their fates soon sealed with the headhunters wield, and where red still…

If as an Irishman/Irishwoman you've ever wondered where you got your love of the spoken word, your love of storytelling, your love of long winded conversation, the following…

Thrilled to learn that another one of my books is now listed on the worldwide Library web site…

I've been down in the green valley, the holy place.

Hello, Everyone, 

My name is Mary and I'm from County Cork, Ireland. I have just joined this great group and I'm still trying to find my way around the site. I heard of this group through the lovely Claire Fullerton and I want to say thank you to her. I am a published writer and enjoy crocheting when not writing. 

I have two gorgeous grandsons and being a Nana is one of my greatest joys. I am a Mum of four…

I will arise and go

(After William Butler Yeats)



My people are a migrant clan

Prospering not by hook or crook or craft

But by diligent labour and an easy charm

Flung from one small corner

Across every wind-tossed sea

Mountaintop to valley floor

To lay a thousand roadways

Or stand on…

This year marks an uneasy halfway for me—I have been in Australia for as long as I lived in Ireland. So where does that leave me? The truth, I have come to realise, is somewhere in between. In Australia, I am regarded as Irish. My accent, parlance, even my ‘writing voice’ are often differentiated as such.…

26 Common Irish Sayings

The following is a compiled list of 26 common Irish sayings with their translations below written by The Irish Store.

You may find these useful to save confusion & hassle when crossing paths with an Irish person.…

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…

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…