Almost 4000 years ago the High King of Ireland, King Luaghaidh Lamhfada, founded An Aonach Tailteann. The festival was to honour and celebrate his deceased mother, Queen of Tailte, and as a tribute to the dead. On the 1st of August, kings, queens, and noblemen travelled from all over the country to watch the games […]
“We are bound to love our own people with a special and peculiar love, a love that is not founded upon the common characteristics of the human race, but which is founded upon the special and distinctive character of our own nationality.” – Father Mícheál Ó Flannagáin Michael Flanagan was born near Castlerea in Co. […]
ON THIS DAY: 12 AUGUST 1652: English Parliament under Cromwell passes the Act for the Settlement of Ireland (1652) Cromwell was in Ireland from 15 August 1649 to 26 May 1650. As Olivercomwell.org – a charity founded to advocate for Cromwell writes: “He accomplished a more complete control of Ireland than had been achieved under […]
From the 9th to the 11th of August 1971, ten civilians, including a 13 year old boy and a Catholic priest, were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment of the British Army in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast. The three days of terror became known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. Just days after […]
The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Irish: Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) or the Annals of the Four Masters (Annála na gCeithre Máistrí) are chronicles of medieval Irish history. They were a compilation of earlier annals, although there is some original work. They were compiled between 1632 and 1636 at a Franciscan friary near the Drowes […]
A total of 341 people were arrested
The Holy Roman Empire, founded in the 700’s, was formally dissolved on this day in 1806 by the Austrian Emperor Francis II. It had dominated European politics for a thousand years. The Empire was founded by the Carolingian dynasty of Charlemagne. In modern terms, it was not really an Empire at all, but a federation. […]
The great heathen army that invaded England (and Ireland) in 865AD came, according to legend, in response to the execution of Ragnar Lothbrook by King Aelle of Northhumbria. Whether that is true, or false, it was the largest invasion that these islands had seen since Roman Times. For 45 years the Vikings dominated Northern England, […]
He joined the Gaelic league as he believed that the language must be preserved
Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa was buried in Glasnevin cemetery
Have you ever heard the phrase “lose the battle but win the war”? The opposite happened to the Roman triumvir Mark Antony on this day in 30BC. Having been defeated at the Battle of Actium, Anthony and Cleopatra retreated to Alexandria, which was soon besieged by the forces of Octavian. For the whole month of […]
By July 29th, 1848, most of Ireland had been truly devastated by the Great starvation. Outside of Ireland, Europe was being convulsed with revolutions. In France, King Louis-Philippe was overthrown, to make way for the second republic. Revolutions seeking the vote, and liberalisation, broke out in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and elsewhere. Inspired by these […]