Bully’s Acre, Dublin

06/04/2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Bully’s Acre (officially, the Hospital Fields) is a former public cemetery located near the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin. Behind a black gate off the entranceway to the expansive grounds of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, now the Irish Museum of Modern Art, lies a large, green field that is home to Dublin’s oldest cemetery. […]

#OTD in 1844 – Daniel O’Connell was convicted of ‘conspiracy’, fined £2,000 and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

10/02/2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

Once Catholic emancipation was achieved, Daniel O’Connell campaigned for repeal of the Act of Union, which in 1801 had merged the Parliaments of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. To campaign for repeal, O’Connell set up the Repeal Association. He argued […]

#OTD in 1014 – Battle of Clontarf | The Dublin Norse and the king of Leinster, with Viking allies from overseas, are defeated by Brian Boru’s army at Clontarf.

23/04/2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

The bounds between Irish Legend and Irish Myth has often been blurred, especially as the retelling of heroic deeds has been passed on through generations. Brian Boru was no legend although his life deeds were legendary. He was very much a real man and was in fact the last great High King of Ireland and […]

#OTD in Irish History – 23 April:

23/04/2020.Reading time 15 minutes.

1014 – Battle of Clontarf: The Dublin Norse and the king of Leinster, with Viking allies from overseas, are defeated by Brian Boru’s army at Clontarf. Brian, now an old man, is killed. This thwarts the potential domination of Ireland by the Norse, but they are well established in the coastal towns, and will continue […]