DOMHNAIGH -- On Sept. 17, 1860, units of the Irish Battalion of St. Patrick of the Papal army fought a Piedmontese army allied with Garibaldi at…

DOMHNAIGH On September 10, 1602, “Red” Hugh O’Donnell died in Simancas, Spain. “Red” Hugh is one of the most romantic figures in Irish history. (Right: Donegal Castle in Donegal Town) In 1588, at about…

DOMHNAIGH -- On September 3, 1842, John Devoy, (in a prison photo, left) one of the most devoted revolutionaries the world has ever seen, was born in Kill, County Kildare. John showed his…

MÁIRT -- On August 22, 1846 Fenian poet John Keegan Casey (right) was born at Mount Dalton, Co. Westmeath. While only in his teens Casey began writing poetry for The Nation. After teaching in Cleraun and Keenagh, Casey…

MÁIRT -- On August 15, 1909, the Ancient Order of Hibernians dedicated a monument to victims of the Great Hunger at Grosse Ile, in Quebec, Canada. More than 60 years had passed since more than 5,000 Irish men, women, and children had…

DOMHNAIGH -- On August 6, 1775, Daniel O'Connell , 'The Liberator,' one of the most influential men in Irish history was born near Cahirciveen, County Kerry. Raised by his uncle, Daniel learned the Irish language and…

CÉADAOIN -- On July 26, 1739, George Clinton, soldier, first governor of New York, and vice president of the United States, was born in Little Britain, N.Y., of Irish Protestant parents. Clinton served in his father's New York…

I began researching my family tree a little over three years ago, and two years ago I shared some of my journey in this post:…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 9, 1750, John Philpot Curran, lawyer and nationalist, was born in Newmarket, Co. Cork. Curran, a Protestant, first gained fame by winning a judgment for a Catholic priest who had been horsewhipped by Lord Doneraile. A colleague…

DEARDAOIN -- On July 2, 1779, on the West Indies isle of Grenada, whose name would be famous again in the 1980s, Colonel Arthur Dillon and his…

MÁIRT -- On June 20, 1763, one of the most famous revolutionary leaders in Irish history, Theobald Wolfe Tone, was born at 44 Stafford St., now called Wolfe Tone St., in Dublin. Tone…

LUAIN -- On June 5, 1868, James Connolly was born of Irish immigrant parents in the Cowgate, an Edinburgh,…

Irish loyalties in the Rebellion of 1641 were intertwined between religion and the destabilization of English politics. "The Catholic  landowners desire to recover their lost land was one main reason for the rebellion. The…

He stands in bronze and he stands on granite,

Facing the river where the fleet turned tail;

The stone lists the Davis Guards upon it,

Names that rhyme in the songs of the Gael.*…

LUAIN -- Beginning on April 3 and continuing to May 8, 1781, the Irish Hibernia regiment of…

LUAIN -- On March 27, 1872, Mary MacSwiney (Maire Nic Shuibhne), republican activist, was born in Surrey, England, of an Irish father and an English mother.

(Left: National Library…

(Above: "When Wagon Trails Were Dim," Charles Russell's depiction of a wagon train in the American west.)

Many men and women with Irish roots participated in the…

DEARDAOIN -- On March 16, 1828, Patrick Cleburne, one of the finest generals produced by either side during America's long, bloody civil war was born at Bride Park Cottage in Ovens Township, Co. Cork, just outside…

LUAIN - On February 27, 1735, Thomas Conway, a soldier in French and U.S. armies, was born in Cloghane, County Kerry. Conway was taken to France at the age of six to be educated and, in 1749, he joined the…

It is New York City and the Civil War is brewing. Norah McCabe, an Irish immigrant who escaped the Famine as a child, is now a young widow with a daughter. A milliner, struggling to survive in tumultuous times,…