#OTD in Irish History | 22 June:

1770 – James Smyth, MP for Dundalk, is killed in a riding accident. 1777 – Birth of Admiral William Brown (also known in Spanish as Guillermo Brown) was born in Foxford, Co Mayo and died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 3 March 1857. 1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Rebel southern column marches through Sculloge Gap, […]

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#OTD – In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast day of Caomhán of Inisheer, a 6th-century saint.

Caomhán is the patron saint of Inisheer (Inis Oírr), the smallest of the Aran Islands. Even though he is “by far the most celebrated of all the saints of the Aran Islands”, little is known about him. He is said to have been a disciple of Saint Enda of Aran. He is also said to […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 4 May:

1699 – According to Jonathan Swift’s book, Gulliver’s Travels, it was on this day that Lemuel Gulliver sets sail on board the Antelope from Bristol. 1715 – Joseph Deane, Justice of Assize for Munster and MP for Co Dublin, dies of a fever resulting from a cold he caught (allegedly caused by a total eclipse […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 21 April:

1738 – A Mr Lorimer, receiver of Sir Arthur Acheson (MP for Mullingar), is killed in a duel. 1816 – Birth of author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, daughter of an Irish father and eldest of the three Brontë Sisters. 1871 – Birth of Labour leader and Irish nationalist, John Fitzpatrick, in Athlone, Co Westmeath. […]

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#OTD in 1871 – Birth of poet and playwright, John Millington Synge, in Dublin.

Birth of Irish playwright, poet and author John Millington Synge in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin. Synge was one of the leading lights of what was known as the Irish Literary Revival and along with William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory, founding members of the Abbey Theatre. His most famous work is The Playboy of the Western […]

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Na Seacht dTeampaill (Seven Churches) | Aran Islands, Co Galway

Situated on Inis Mór, Na Seacht Tempaill, or as its otherwise known, the Seven Churches was for centuries one of the biggest monastic foundations and centres of pilgrimage in Ireland since it’s construction in the 7th or 8th century. There are three theories as to why the site is called ‘Seven Churches’; the most common […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 2 March:

1718 – Birth of John Gore, Baron Annal, lawyer, politician and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench from 1764 to 1784. 1836 – Texas declares its independence from Mexico at a meeting in Washington on the Brazos, Texas. At the time, at least ten Irish-born soldiers were fighting at the Alamo (23 Feb-6 March) with […]

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Dry Stone Walls of Ireland

Stone walls are one of Ireland’s most distinctive landscape features and it is estimated that the Irish countryside is a patchwork of over 250,000 miles of stone wall. The dry stone walls are mortarless and are made by carefully selecting stones that will balance and ‘sit’ into the wall as they are built. To date […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 19 January:

1003 – Death of Abbot, Kilian of Cologne. Kilian was a native of Ireland. In 974, he and a group of Irish missionaries, led by Minnborinus of Cologne (died 986), arrived at Cologne where they established St. Martin’s Abbey in an island on the Rhine. Minnborinus ruled as first abbot; upon his death, Kilian succeeded […]

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Dún Aonghasa | Co Galway

The view from the summit of the fort is most impressive and solemn: the desolate-looking fields…fall away to the golden crescent of Kilmurvey strand, and rise up the opposite hill…to the old lighthouse near Dun Oghil. Eastwards runs the long range of steep, dark headlands, and deep bays, rarely unsheeted by high-leaping spray…The limits of […]

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