Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
‘Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth; a thing no more to be doled out to us or withheld from us by another people than the right to life itself.’ Roger Casement was born at Sandycove, Co Dublin in 1864. He joined the British colonial service and was knighted in 1911 […]
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Roddy McCorley was an Irish nationalist from the civil parish of Duneane, Co Antrim. Following the publication of the Ethna Carbery poem bearing his name in 1902, where he is associated with events around the Battle of Antrim, he is alleged to have been a member of the United Irishmen and claimed as a participant in […]
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1689 – William and Mary, daughter of James II, are proclaimed king and queen jointly. 1820 – Death of lawyer and English informer, Leonard McNally. 1850 – Michael Kelly, fourth Roman Catholic archbishop of Sydney is born in Waterford. Kelly was a leading figure in the foundation in 1901 of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association […]
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In the Liturgical calendar today is the Feast Day of St Gobnait, also known as Gobnat or Mo Gobnat, a medieval, female saint whose church was Móin Mór, later Bairnech, in the village of Ballyvourney (Baile Bhuirne), Co Cork. She was associated with the Múscraige and her church and nunnery lay on the borders between […]
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1356 – The 1st Earl of Desmond dies; Kildare is his replacement as justiciar. 1533 – England’s King Henry VIII, Lord of Ireland and ‘self declared’ King of Ireland (1541) marries Anne Boleyn after divorcing Catherine of Aragon. 1627 – Birth of chemist and alchemist, Robert Boyle, physicist, in Lismore, Co Waterford. Boyle is largely […]
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1362 – Birth of Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, Marquess of Dublin, and 9th Earl of Oxford KG. He was a favourite and court companion of King Richard II of England. He was the ninth Earl of Oxford and the first and only Duke of Ireland and Marquess of Dublin. 1700 – Richard Levinge, an […]
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Viking influence in the Celtic lands goes back to the very beginning of the Viking Age, when men from Scandinavia decided to make the perilous journey across the seas to take what treasures they could. One of these Viking raiders was Magnus Olaffson (Magnús Óláfsson), better known as Magnus Barelegs or Barefoot, the king of […]
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1878 – Death of John O’Neill. Born in Co Monaghan, he was an officer in the American Civil War and member of the Fenian Brotherhood. O’Neill is best known for his activities leading the Fenian raids on Canada in 1866 and 1871. He had won the only success the Fenians ever achieved in their numerous […]
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1691 – Robert Boyle, pioneer chemist and physicist dies. 1820 – Birth of author, Mary Anne Sadlier. Born Mary Anne Madden in Cootehill, Co Cavan, Sadlier published roughly sixty novels and numerous stories. She wrote for Irish immigrants in both the United States and Canada, encouraging them to attend mass and retain the Catholic faith. […]
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1691 – Patrick Sarsfield and The Wild Geese sail out of Cork harbour for France. The Flight of the Wild Geese refers to the departure of an Irish Jacobite army under the command of Patrick Sarsfield from Ireland to France, as agreed in the Treaty of Limerick on 3 October 1691, following the end of […]
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