Book Offer
This will close in 10 seconds
Peter O’Neill was born in Coona, Cork, a descendant of the O’Neil clan of Co. Tyrone. He attended a hedge school in Inch, studied classics at Kilworth, and then began ecclesiastical studies at the Irish College in Paris, eventually teaching Celtic language and literature there. An exceedingly popular curate, he was appointed Parish Priest of […]
Ó Néill (1585 – 6 November 1649) was a Gaelic Irish soldier and one of the most famous of the O’Neill dynasty of Ulster in Ireland. O’Neill left Ireland at a young age and began the formal continental military career serving in the Spanish army. He was a brilliant military strategist and tactician. With the […]
ON THIS DAY: 30th May, Feast day of Joan Of Arc “You Englishmen, who have no right in this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven sends you word and warning, by me Jehanne the Maid, to abandon your forts and depart into your own country, or I will raise such a war-cry against you as […]
A Marist priest and Irish historian, he is known for his writings and his rejection of revisionist Irish history and historians. He relayed in an interview with History Ireland that he felt stifled in UCD and ironically, it was in Cambridge, which was originally the origin of revisionism, that he found the data and evidence […]
The first record of a hurling match describes an epic encounter that took place in 1272 BC between the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha Dé Dannan at Maigh Tuartha near Cong in County Mayo. Hardly a stronghold of the modern game, Maigh Tuartha is nevertheless part of the rich body of lore that relates the […]
And the murder of Baothnalach MacAodhagáin (Catholic Bishop of Ross) The Battle of Macroom was a significant encounter that took place on the 10th May 1650, during the Cromwellian assault on Ireland. An English Parliamentarian force under the command of Roger Boyle (Lord Broghill) engaged a big Irish force that was commanded by Irish Confederate […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
This will close in 10 seconds