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The first two casualties of the American Civil War were suffered at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina, on April 12th, 1861, when southern, pro-slavery forces fired on the garrison of the US Army. Daniel Hough was 36 years old, from Tipperary, and Edward Galloway, whose age has not been recorded, was from Cork. Both men had […]
The Céide fields in Ballycastle, Co Mayo, date back 5,500 years, making them the world’s oldest field systems, with a complex of walls, houses and tombs, protected beneath a bog and is the largest Stone Age site on the planet. It is the most extensive Neolithic site in Ireland. Discovered in the 1930s by schoolteacher […]
The fates have clearly conspired to deny Dublin a six-in-a-row. Or have they? Perhaps our focus for a source of the virus ought not to be on Wuhan but Lyrecrompane? You would not be up to them. On a more serious note, it would seem that the GAA inter county season will fall victim to the […]
ON THIS DAY: 16th May 1920, Joan Of Arc was cannonised a saint “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 […]
Easter Rising leaders: Pádraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh were executed by a firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol. #gript
“My dear Mother, You will I know have been longing to hear from me. I do not know how much you have heard since the last note I sent you from the G.P.O. On Friday evening the Post Office was set on fire and we had to abandon it. We dashed into Moore Street and […]
Europe is filled with great Gothic churches, but for me Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral has always been one of the greatest. Not because her soaring bell tower and serrated steeples are so much more beautiful than those of other cities, but because it was St. Stephen’s that presided over some of Europe’s most consequential battles, […]
ON THIS DAY: Good Friday: Poem written by Joseph Mary Plunkett referencing Good Friday Joseph Mary Plunkett (Irish: Seosamh Máire Pluincéid, 21 November 1887 – 4 May 1916) was an Irish nationalist, republican, poet, journalist, revolutionary and a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising. He was married to his childhood sweetheart Grace Gifford in 1916, 7 hours before […]
The infamous and notorious Black and Tans will not be forgotten in Irish history. 100 years ago, the first tranche of them arrived from Britain, mainly recruited from the unemployed veterans of World War 1. They had 3 months training and their pay was ten shillings a day. Their ‘uniforms’ were mixed, some with Khaki […]
On the 5th February 1981, republican prisoners in Long Kesh issued a statement to the British government that unless the prisoners were awarded special category status, there could be further hunger strikes. There had been several smaller strikes in the Maze and Armagh Women’s Prison previously following the tradition of Thomas Ashe, Terence MacSwiney, Frank […]
Perhaps it is an age thing but one of the most irritating, vacuous songs considered to be a rock classic must surely be Imagine written by John Lennon with the assistance of the deeply weird Yoko Ono. It will be 50 years old next year. Lennon was a key part of the then contemporary zeitgeist […]
Britain’s Salt Act of 1882 prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in their diet. Indian citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from their British rulers, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also charged a heavy salt tax. Though it affected everyone, it […]
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