Born in Co Cork, Anne Bonny was the illegitimate daughter of lawyer William Cormac and his housemaid. They immigrated to America after Anne’s birth and settled on a plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. A headstrong young woman ‘with a fierce and courageous temper’, she eloped with James Bonny against her father’s wishes. James took her […]
England used Galway as a launching pad for capturing the Pirate Queen, Gráinne Ní Mháille — and failed miserably. Gráinne Ní Mháille was chieftain of the Ó Máille clan in the west of Ireland, following in the footsteps of her father Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille. Commonly known as Gráinne Mhaol (anglicised as Granuaile) in Irish […]
Ní Saoirse go Saoirse na mBan! ‘Invisible Women’ (by Brian Moore) The singer sings a rebel song and everybody sings along. Just one thing I’ll never understand: Every damn rebel seems to be a man. For he sings of the Bold Fenian Men And the Boys of the Old Brigade. What about the women who […]
International Women’s Day 1574 – Captain William Martin lays siege to Gráinne Ní Mháille in Rockfleet castle. 1594 – English expedition sets out from Galway to kill pirate queen, Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O’Malley). Pádraig Pearse rewrote the lyrics to Óró Sé do Bheatha ‘Bhaile as a rallying call to Irish nationalists leading up to […]
In a few hours time I shall be twenty-seven grand years of age. Paradoxically it will be a happy enough birthday; perhaps that’s because I am free in spirit. I can offer no other reason. I was at Mass today, and saw all the lads minus their beards, etc. An American priest said Mass and […]
Out of the crew of 35, only six were saved. The vessel was en route from Liverpool to Cork when it was struck. Most of the crew were in their bunks asleep when they were awoken by a loud explosion that shattered the ship from end to end. It sank in less than two minutes. Among […]
Paddy Clancy, was an Irish folk singer best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. In addition to singing and storytelling, Clancy played the harmonica with the group, which is widely credited with popularising Irish traditional music in the United States and revitalising it in Ireland. He also started and ran […]
The Irish Tricolour flag was first flown publicly by Waterford man and Irish-American Patriot Thomas Francis Meagher in his native city at the Wolf Tone Confederate Club at 33 The Mall, Waterford on 7 March 1848. On the 15th of April he presented a fabulous version of the Tricolour made from the finest French silk […]
Kerry had seen more violence in the guerrilla phase of the Civil war than almost anywhere else in Ireland. By March 1923, sixty-eight Free State soldiers had already been killed in Kerry and 157 wounded. Eighty-five would die there by the end of the war. The day after Five Free State soldiers were killed by […]
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