Before conquest and colonisation transformed Ireland, the island was home to a sophisticated Gaelic civilisation governed by native law, kinship, and local sovereignty. Yet the Ireland remembered today is often as much a creation of nineteenth-century poets, folklorists, and revolutionaries as it is of medieval reality. From the kings of the…

I don't particularly like Ed Sheeran's music. I think Steve Earle wrote the better "Galway Girl", and one of Ed's Brisbane concerts once cost me a $140 parking fine. Yet living near Suncorp Stadium has taught me that his significance lies elsewhere. He fills stadiums, supports local businesses and helps sustain communities like Caxton…

By T.S. Flynn for The Wild Geese History Site

Image Caption: History leaves behind documents, testimonies, and archives. Drama restores voices, faces, and moments. Say Nothing succeeds because it understands the value of both.

When a masterpiece of narrative…

Shattering the Sunny Dream: The Dark Reality of the Irish Diaspora in Australian Fiction and Cinema

The Black & Tans 1920-1921 – A Complete List, Short History and Genealogical Guide by Jim Herlihy.

Rightfully described as ‘Ireland’s foremost authority on the history of Irish policing and police…

Colm Herron knows all about The Troubles. He lived through them. Protested his way through them. Now he reveals a slice of the chaos that pitted friends and neighbors and family against each other. In his current book, activist Anna leads naive teacher Robert through local battles and through the joys and complexities of his first-time-ever love. As…

THE LABOUR HERCULES: The Irish Citizen Army and Irish Republicanism 1913-1923

[Irish Academic Press ISBN: 9781788550741]

Jeffrey Leddin’s latest book charts the rise and activities of Irish Labour’s first urban working-class militia. The Irish…

I’m celebrating new membership in The Wild Geese. Recently I read Colm Herron’s A Maiden So Bewitching and asked him if I might post a comment. Having read other of his books and essays, how could I help but notice right away that this is something different – totally different – from his earlier…

Because I once lived in a small town in Connemara, at the gateway of the Irish-speaking area called the Gaeltacht, I look for those novels that depict the region as it is, for once one has spent significant time there, its ways and means register in the soul with perpetual resonance, leaving one forever nostalgic for…

I’ve been following author Billy O’Callaghan’s career with rapt enthusiasm, since I fortuitously came across him online, last year. That he is Irish caught my attention, and as I delved further, I discovered he is the author of three short story collections, all of which I’ve read, all of which, to me, are in their own…

By Patricia Jameson-Sammartano

WG Culture Editor

(This review was first produced in 2007, when Pat Jameson served as our culture editor. She died in April 2012.)

Setting: A shabby two-story house, in a suburb north of Dublin, on Christmas Eve. We had originally thought that a play about five drunken…

In 2008, Radovan Karadžić, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia,’ was captured in Belgrade and went on to be convicted by an international tribunal, of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Heavily bearded and with his distinctively abundant white hair styled in a…

Invite a seanchaí into your home . . . you will be glad that you did. With Jim Hawkins new CD, My Own Native Land: Stories and Songs of Ireland, that has never been easier. Hawkins’ debut album will carry you across the miles, over the waters and back in time.

When a colleague suggested that I review “My Own…

“The Wolf and the Shield: An Adventure with Saint Patrick” by Sherry Weaver Smith, reads like a heartwarming parable. Although it is ostensibly a children’s story, ideal for ages seven through twelve, this lovely book hit all the requisite high notes to hold my rapt attention: that it is set in…

Himself: A Civil War Veteran's Struggles with Rebels, Brits and Devils.  By William J. Donohue 319 pp., 2014 Buffalo Heritage Press www.BuffaloHeritage.com, softcover $19.99…

TITLE: Irish Hunger and Migration: Myth, Memory and Memorialisation…

The film "Spotlight" was recently released, based on the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigation of the Boston Archdiocese’s willful coverup of child molestation and abuse. The reviews have been, like the movie itself, scattered.

This is, without a doubt, a shattering film. Well made and well acted, it…