Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
“If the men of property will not support us, they must fall. Our strength shall come from that great and respectable class, the men of no property”. –Theobald Wolfe Tone The founder of the United Irishmen had an abiding hatred of England declaring his objective was “to subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to […]
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Joseph Plunkett, one of the leaders of the 1916 rising and a signatory of the Proclamation is born into a privileged background. His father was a Papal Count. A gifted writer, he met Thomas MacDonagh when he was tutored by him in Irish in preparation for the University College, Dublin, matriculation examinations. MacDonagh was to […]
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Wolfe Tone was one of the founders of the United Irishmen. In efforts to free Ireland from English rule, he had encouraged a French invasion of Ireland which due to bad planning and bad luck was never successful. In October 1798, French forces consisting of eight frigates were intercepted by British ships off Buncrana, Co […]
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The Irish Famine of 1740–1741, Bliain an Áir (Year of Slaughter), in Ireland was perhaps of similar magnitude, or equally destructive (in fact, it killed a greater percentage of the population in a shorter period of time) to the better-known An t-Ocras Mór of 1845–1852. An t-Ocras Mór where more than a million died in […]
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“To unite Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter under the common name of Irishmen in order break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, that was my aim”.” –Theobald Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone was one of the founders of the United Irishmen. In efforts to free Ireland from English rule, he […]
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It was a famous Irish Thoroughbred racehorse; a bay gelding by Archive out of Bright Cherry, his grandsire was the unbeaten (in 14 races) flat racehorse and prepotent sire Nearco. Arkle was bred at Ballymacoll Stud, Co Meath by Mrs. Mary Alison Baker of Malahow House, near Naul, Co Dublin. Owned by Anne Grosvenor, Duchess […]
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Fenian, John Devoy, whom the London Times called ‘the most dangerous enemy of this country Ireland has produced since Wolfe Tone’. John Devoy was born in Kill, Co Kildare, on the 3 September 1842. He worked for a short time as a clerk before joining the Fenian organisation. In 1861 Devoy travelled to France where […]
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1601 – Battle of Kinsale. 1626 – Charles I offers twenty-six concessions (“graces”) to the Irish in return for subsidies to expand his army. 1798 – Colonel Trench marches from Castlebar and takes Ballina. 1821 – Birth of Confederate General, Patrick Moore, in Galway. 1864 – Col. James Mulligan, who commanded “Mulligan’s Irish Brigade,” dies […]
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‘The most dangerous enemy of this country [Britain] Ireland has produced since Wolfe Tone’. –The London Times John Devoy was born in Kill, Co Kildare in 1842 just prior to The Great Hunger (1845-1852) which saw approximately one million Irish starve to death and another million emigrate to America and elsewhere. After Irish defeats by […]
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Although not a direct participant in the 1916 Rising, Batt O’Connor was sentenced to be shot by British authorities but was sent to Wandsworth Jail and later Frongoch internment camp in North Wales. During the War of Independence he ran a number of safe houses and hid funds and documents for the IRA. He was […]
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