The Book of Kells is Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure and the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. It contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text which St Jerome completed in 384AD, intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The book is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and […]
Thomas Clarke Luby was an Irish revolutionary, author, journalist and one of the founding members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was a member of Daniel O’Connell Repeal Association whose aim was to repeal the 1801 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. He parted company with O’Connell after the repeal campaign failed, having […]
The suspicion that RTE has been living “way beyond its means” and has been engaged in the provision of exorbitant rates of pay to its ‘top talent’ has moved from the realm of tentative speculation into that of clear fact. Indeed, such suspicions have a long and notable history. For example; in December 1966 the […]
The Irish Citizen Army was founded at the height of the Dublin Lockout of 1913 to protect strikers at their demonstrations from the police. Three years later it took part, alongside the Irish Volunteers, in the insurrection of Easter 1916. Its leader James Connolly along with his second, Michael Mallin, were executed for their part […]
After the Birmingham Pub bombings the previous day, six men were arrested; Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Robert Hunter, Noel McIlkenny, William Power (Belfast-born Catholics), and John Walker who was a Derry-born Catholic. All six had lived in Birmingham since the 1960s, and were arrested on the way to a funeral in Belfast, while in custody […]
Joseph Mary Plunkett, Seosamh Máire Pluincéid, was an Irish nationalist, poet, journalist, revolutionary and a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising. Throughout his life, Joseph Plunkett took an active interest in Irish heritage and the Irish language; joined the Gaelic League and began studying with Thomas MacDonagh, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. The […]
ON THIS DAY: 21 NOVEMBER 615: SAINT COLUMBANUS (Columbán meaning white dove) died in present day Italy As an Irish missionary, he was notable for founding a number of monasteries from around 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy. He was one […]
After serving in a scout-sniper platoon in Mosul, Iraq, Tom Voss came home carrying invisible wounds of war — the memory of doing or witnessing things that went against his fundamental beliefs. This was not a physical injury that could heal with medication and time but a “moral injury” — a wound to the soul […]
Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone (20 June 1763 – 19 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members of the United Irishmen, and is regarded as the father of Irish republicanism and leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. He was captured in Buncrana on 3 November […]
Dr Peter Boylan has been all over the media this week, flogging his new book in which he pats himself on the back for helping to legalise abortion. The tome, with the ominous title, In the Shadow of the 8th, is apparently hitting the market just in time for Christmas. Nothing proclaims the birth of Baby Jesus like a book […]
Australian aged care is in crisis It’s hunting season on Australia’s aged care providers. After numerous complaints of abuse and undercover media investigations, the Federal Government formed a Royal Commission to investigate the quality and delivery of aged care. Some of the stories emerging at public hearings have been sickening. Earlier this week, the distressed […]
Willie James Pearse – Uilliam Seamus Mac Piarais – was an Irish republican executed for his part in the Easter Rising. He was a younger brother of Pádraig, a leader of the rising; Willie was very devoted to Pádraig and the brothers had a very close relationship. Pearse inherited his father’s artistic abilities and became […]