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 […]
99 years ago the Government of Ireland Act passed through both houses of parliament in London. The Act divided Ireland into two territories, “Southern Ireland” and “Northern Ireland”, each intended to be self-governing. “Northern Ireland” as defined by the Act, amounting to six of the nine counties of Ulster, Down, Derry, Armagh, Antrim, Fermanagh and […]
Since 2016, the Irish political and media establishment has clung to a single, unifying, and unshakeable theory about Brexit: It was a fluke result, fuelled by the confluence of several unique factors. A poor remain campaign. Lies by Brexiteers. A surge in anti-immigrant sentiment, or when they’re not being diplomatic, “racist bigotry”. Poor turnout by […]
ON THIS DAY: 12TH DECEMBER 2001: Nuala O’Loan, Police Ombudsman for the North of Ireland presents report to relatives of the Omagh bombing victims As the Police Ombudsman for the North of Ireland, Nuala O’Loan met with and presented the relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing with a report into her findings into […]
Saint Finnian of Clonard was a member of Clanna Rudhraighe from the Ulaid in the vicinity of New Ross. According to some sources, Finnian studied for a time at the monastic centre of Martin of Tours in Gaul. Tours was noted for its austerity. He later went to Wales and continued his studies at the […]
On this night, the Black and Tans burnt Cork City Centre with a devastating series of fires that swept through the city centre; looted businesses, assaulted firefighters and shot at the local population. The burning and the subsequent controversy is one of the most significant events of the Irish War of Independence; on the day […]
The important thing to note here is that there has been no “cure” discovered for Downs Syndrome. It’s not that medicine has gotten better at preventing Downs Syndrome, it’s that doctors have gotten better at identifying those children before they are born, and eliminating them: “The number of babies born with Down’s syndrome has fallen […]
The ad is called “the gift that gives back”. Let us sincerely hope, for this woman’s sake, that what it gives him back is a divorce: My fellow men: If you only ever listen to one piece of advice, let it be this: Do not, under any circumstances, present your wife with an exercise bike […]
Known as the fastest field game in the world, a sliotar can top 93mph from a good strike. Hurling is also mentioned in the 11th/ 12th century Leabhar na hUidre, while further descriptions are to be found in 13th/14th century romantic tale Cath Mhaigh Tuireadh Chunga. This latter account details a very bloody hurling game […]
ON THIS DAY: 3RD DECEMBER 1974: Maguire Seven charged with possessing materials for bomb making 40-year-old Irish born Anne Maguire, from North London, was convicted of possessing nitro-glycerine, which was then allegedly passed on for use to the IRA. Her husband, Patrick Maguire, 42 was also sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Her two younger sons, […]
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 […]