Kevin O’Higgins the Irish Minister for Justice is gunned down by Anti-Treaty activists on his way to Sunday Mass. O’Higgin’s own father had been gunned down by the IRA in 1923. Kevin O’Higgins had attracted the hatred of the anti-Treaty IRA for his actions in the name of the Free State, Ireland’s newly-formed nationalist government […]
The earliest reference to Dublin is sometimes said to be found in the writings of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Egyptian-Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year 140, who refers to a settlement called Eblana. This would seem to give Dublin a just claim to nearly two thousand years of antiquity, as the settlement must have […]
Palm trees in Ireland are frost hardy and grow in gardens all over. They decorate our towns and suburbs, they are blasted by the salt air on our seafronts, and they are often seen in pairs guarding the entrances to farmhouses and give a tropical look to any garden. However, they are not palm trees […]
In a Dáil Éireann debate on The Emergency Powers Act which was primarily designed to curtail IRA activity, independent TD Oliver Flanagan unleashed an astonishing attack on Jews. “How is it that we do not see any of these Acts directed against the Jews, who crucified Our Saviour nineteen hundred years ago, and who are […]
Muriel Gifford was born in Rathmines, Dublin, of a Catholic solicitor father and a fiercely Protestant mother, the children were raised Church of Ireland, an unremarkable phenomenon among the wealthy professional classes of the time. Among the three Gifford sisters, Nellie, Muriel and Grace, Muriel married Thomas MacDonagh and Grace married Joseph Plunkett, who were […]
Fuair sé bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. Twas England bade our wild geese go, that ‘small nations might be free’; Their lonely graves are by Suvla’s waves or the fringe of the great North Sea. Oh, had they died by Pearse’s side or fought with Cathal Brugha Their graves we’d keep where the Fenians […]
Charles Bianconi was an Italo-Irish entrepreneur, a brilliant salesman and knew how to develop his brand. He is possibly the first person in Irish transport history who tried to brand his business; he engraved his automobiles, when no one else was doing anything like that. After working as an engraver and print seller in Dublin, […]
1815 – Charles Bianconi, opens his first horse-drawn coach service, between Clonmel and Cahir, Co Tipperary, a distance of 10 miles. 1844 – Anti-Irish, anti-Catholic Nativists riot in Philadelphia against the increasing influence of the Catholic (i.e. Irish) Church and the influx of Irish immigrants. At least fifteen people die in the rioting. 1858 – […]
The proclamation stated that the proscribed organisations are dangerous and a ‘grave menace’ designed to ‘terrorise the peaceful and law-abiding subjects of His Majesty in Ireland’. It goes on to say that these associations ‘encourage and aid persons to commit crimes and promote and incite to acts of violence and intimidation and interfere with the […]
Rosie Hackett was a trade unionist, a founder-member of the Irish Women Workers’ Union, and supported strikers during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. She later became a member of the Irish Citizen Army and was involved in the 1916 Easter Rising. Rosie, christened ‘Rosanna’ was born in Dublin on 25 July 1892. At the time of […]
