An encounter between eight young volunteers from the 1st Battallion IRA and a large body of the Black and Tans took place at Tolka Bridge in Drumcondra on 21 January 1921 during the War of Independence. The volunteers set out to ambush the Royal Irish Constabulary patrol which used that road to travel from their […]
The St Vincent de Paul Society who ran a Free Night Shelter in Dublin City centre released figures for the year to date. They indicated there were a total of 16,785 admissions the previous year year (1920), a 5,180 increase on the year previous to that. In addition the number of free meals supplied has […]
The mother of Bobby Sands MP died this day in 2018. She was 95. She was born in the Markets area of south Belfast in 1922 and her father died when she was just 12 years old. The young Rosaleen Kelly was set to emigrate to New Zealand, with a job lined up at the […]
Thomas Ashe trained as a teacher and worked as a school principal in Lusk, Co. Dublin. He was a poet, piper and talented singer and having being reared in the Gaeltacht in Kerry, was an avid supporter of the Irish language. This brought him to the governing body of the Gaelic League, he was also […]
William Higgins was born in Drumlish, the thirteenth and youngest child, of William and Elizabeth Higgins. Initially he was educated by his mother and that would form his early formation. The rising of 1798 was deeply impressed on the mind of the young boy. The Longford Leader’s article on the unveiling of a statue in […]
Clansmen and women of native Irish families were lured to discuss terms with the English at Mullaghmast, Co. Kildare. To the famous Rath at Mullaghmast which has figured in Irish history from as far back as 82AD. The site consists of a raised circular rampart breached at two sides allowing grazing cattle to wander through […]
Daniel Breen – Dónall Ó Braoin – was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He was born in Grange, Donohill parish, County Tipperary, his father died when Dan was six, leaving the family very poor. He was educated locally, before becoming a plasterer […]
St. Stephen was the first Christian Martyr, killed by stoning for refusing to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ. Saul of Tarsus was present as a prominent persecutor of Christians. It was on this day December 26, 415 AD, his remains were recovered after having been lost for centuries. It is said that as the […]
ON THIS DAY: 25 DECEMBER 1351: A special feast was held for poets, bards and harpers on Christmas Day At Christmas 1351, Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh issued a gairm sgoile, ‘the summons of a poetic school’, to ‘all the Irish poets, Brehons, bards, harpers, Gamesters or common kearoghs, Jesters and others of theire kind of Ireland’. […]
‘Irish priest who resisted Chinese communists’
By this time, 1.5 years into the worst starvation Ireland had experienced in the 19th century, the death and destruction of famine was gaining international headlines. Accounts were so horrific that many thought they were exaggerated, alas, it was not the case. Several went themselves to establish the truth only to find it worse than […]
Willie Clancy was born into a musical family in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. His parents both sang and played concertina, and his father also played the flute. Clancy’s father had been heavily influenced by local blind piper Garret Barry. Willie started playing the whistle at age 5, and later took up the flute. He first […]