Tag: Co. Galway

#OTD in Irish History | 19 August:

19/08/2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

1504 – Battle of Knockdoe/Battle of Axe Hill. After Ulick Burke of Clanricard seizes Galway city, Edward Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, goes to Connacht and defeats Burke at Knockdoe. This is the largest battle ever fought between Irishmen, with 10,000 participants and 2,000 fatalities; however, most of the fighting is done by gall óglach […]

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#OTD in 1882 – Five members of a family in Maamtrasna, Co Galway were murdered.

17/08/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

At Maamtrasna, Co Galway, five members of the Joyce family were brutally killed on 17 August 1882. The initial victims were John Joyce, his mother, Margaret Joyce, his wife, Bridget Joyce, his daughter, Margaret Joyce (also known as Peigí). John’s son, Michael Joyce, died of his injuries the following day. The sole survivor of the […]

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#OTD in 1316 – Battle of Athenry | Irish rising in support of Edward the Bruce of Scotland.

10/08/2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

Many of the men of Erin all, around the great plain— Many sons of kings, whom I name not, were slain in the great defeat: Sorrowful to my heart is the conflict of the host of Midhe and Mumha. On the day of St Laurence the martyr these deeds were committed; and Fedlim was twenty-three […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 7 July:

07/07/2023.Reading time 12 minutes.

1691 – Ginkel offers pardon and security of property to opponents. 1700 – MP for Co Sligo, Captain Hugh Morgan of Lord Dungannon’s Regiment, is summoned to appear before a board of general officers at the Curragh of Kildare to answer accusations of being ‘a rogue and rascal’ and several other complaints. (On 17 July, […]

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#OTD in 1950 – Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, writer, drowns while swimming off Co Galway.

25/06/2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

“I am a boy who was born and bred in the Great Blasket, a truly small Gaelic island which lies north-west of the coast of Kerry, where the storm of the sky and the wild sea beat without ceasing from end to end of the year and from generation to generation against the wrinkled rocks […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 22 June:

22/06/2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

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.

14/06/2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 | 8 June:

08/06/2023.Reading time 14 minutes.

1561 – Shane O’Neill rebels and is proclaimed a traitor. 1739 – Earl of Clonmel and Chief Justice John Scott, aka ‘Copper-Faced Jack’, is born in Co Tipperary. 1798 – United Irish Rebellion: The Arklow garrison is reinforced in Co Wicklow. In Co Wexford, The rebel southern division moves camp from Carrickbyrne to Slievecoilte. In […]

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