On this Day: 8th May 1916, Éamonn Ceannt, Michael Mallin, Seán Heuston and Cornelius Colbert were executed. On Sunday, 7th May, 1916, Éamonn Ceannt was informed at 4 p.m. that he was to be shot at 3:45 a.m. the following morning. Upon receiving this news Ceannt requested writing materials, and wrote his last words to […]
In her biography of the 1916 proclamation signatory, Joseph Plunkett, Honor O Brolchain tells a fascinating story. A Dublin jeweller on the afternoon of May 3rd 1916 was attending to a young lady who was purchasing wedding bands. She bought two rings but seemed very upset. When he asked her what the matter was she […]
Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill c. 1743 — c. 1800, was an Irish noblewoman and poet, and the composer of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, a lament she wrote for her husband who was murdered by Abraham Morris, a planter and Sheriff in Cork. In 1767 she fell in love with Captain Art Ó Laoghaire of Rathleigh, Macroom who […]
Thomas MacDonagh was born in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary in 1878 to schoolteacher parents. His parents were not supporters of nationalist politics and in fact the young Thomas was not interested in the burgeoning Irish language movements of the time. Like his parents he went into teaching. He also became involved in the cultural and literal […]
“There’s nobody living that can tell anyone where to put the grace notes,” Joe Éinniú once told an interviewer. The best songs had to be learned over years of listening, and sung with great passion and deep feeling. He preferred the laments – Caoineadh na dTrí Mhuire, Anach Chuain, Úna Bhán – the great Conamara […]
Redmond O’Hanlon is often described as the ‘Irish Robin Hood’ or Scotland’s Rob Roy McGregor. Born in Armagh in 1620 he joined the Irish Catholic rebel forces and served under Owen Roe O’Neill at the Irish victory at the battle of Benburb. He fled to France after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland; his families’ lands […]
“It was in an English prison that they led him to his death. ‘I’m dying for my country,’ he said with his last breath. He’s buried in a prison yard, far from his native land And the wild waves sing his Requiem on lonely Banna Strand.” The story of Roger Casement’s landing and capture at Banna […]
Since the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising the men and the words that inspired the eventual founding of the Irish Republic are thankfully being given a prominence by at least some people in the public arena – in places such as the voluntarily restored monument of Kilmainham Gaol. There are two facets to Kilmainham […]
Organised by a seven-man Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916 and lasted for six days. These illustrations were by Brian O’Higgins, also known as Brian na Banban, who was an Irish writer, poet, soldier and politician. He was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers […]
When William Sydney Clements, the 3rd Earl of Leitrim inherited a vast estate from his father in 1854 he became a controlling landlord and bullying tyrant. The estate was massive and included lands in Leitrim, Donegal, Kildare and Galway. Lord Leitrim was obsessed with improving land productivity. He evicted families or sometimes paid them to […]
ON THIS DAY: 30TH MARCH 1849, Doolough Tragedy where a large crowd of starving people died on the journey to receive food they had been promised. 170 years ago on Friday night, March 30th, 1849, during the starvation, 600 people, including women and children, were living in the town of Louisborough. The starving people were […]
In 1974 local farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian came across one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made. The discovery of a clay warrior figure soon revealed many more by state archaeologists. In fact there may be 8,000 terracotta figures in total, each individually modelled and purposely arranged in three […]