The Irish Central seems to think so. There are as many accents in Ireland as there are villages. …

The History Press is bringing out a folk tale series for several counties. The first one I read was ‘Dublin Folk Tales’ and while I was expecting kitsch I was pleasantly surprised. The series has several authors and Brendan Nolan, who has a very natural and entertaining story telling style, has written a few of…

It is often said that Ireland of the seventies was a much safer place than today.  “The Boy in the Attic”, the true story of Ireland’s only satanic murder dispels such notions. The brutal murder took place in 1973 in Palmerstown, County Dublin and…

The Irish book market is heavily saturated and books tend to have short shelf lives so it is often possible for good books to go unnoticed. I first heard about this book on the radio show Liveline, where the presenter, Joe Duffy was fascinated by the long forgotten about Seapoint Tragedy. In 1890 a mother and four of her children died from eating toxic mussels,…

I had occasion to visit Dan O’Hara’s hillside farm in Connemara recently as part of my work as a tour guide, work that takes me all over the country. The owner Martin Walsh, a natural born storyteller captivated the group with the story of how the unfortunate farmer ended up in New York and sang the sad song which told of his misfortune.…

Carrowntryla House was one of the ‘Big Houses’ in Dunmore, County Galway and is a place of personal interest to me as it was in this house that my grandmother was born in 1915. Her father, a former RIC constable, was the caretaker there until 1928. It is not known for certain where the name comes from. In its corrupt English form it appears to have several spelling variations.…