Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
1430 – A great council meets at Dublin on this date; it states that Irish enemies and English rebels have conquered almost all of Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Kildare, Meath and Louth, so that hardly anything but Dublin remains in the colony. 1598 – The English poet Edmund Spenser is appointed Sheriff of Cork. […]
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Ireland’s capital city gives us an interesting example of an Irish place name where the commonly used English form and the native Irish form bear no relationship to each other. Unlike many Irish place names, Dublin is not transliterated from or related to the Gaelic name for the area: Baile Átha Cliath and each name […]
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Old Michaelmas Day – Celtic holiday. According to an old legend, blackberries should not be picked after this date. This is because, so folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them. Michaelmas, the Feast of St Michael the Archangel […]
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1678 – ‘Popish plot’ is alleged in England. The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England in anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at least 15 men and precipitated […]
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“Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England – Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation.” –Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell made his final public appearance speaking at Creggs, Co Galway in torrential rain. Already in poor health, the drenching rain effectively proved fatal. He returned to his home […]
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World Tourism Day 1662 – An “act for encouraging Protestant strangers and others to inhabit and plant in the kingdom of Ireland” is passed in the Irish Parliament under Charles II. 1725 – Patrick Darcy, scientist and soldier, is born in Kitulla, Co Galway. 1739 – Birth of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock. He was […]
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The Ballynoe stone circle is a large circle of over 50 standing stones, some as large as 2 metres high and is located near the town of Ballynoe in Co Down. It is thought that the site dates back to around 2000BC and was begun in the Stone Age. The original site was modified during […]
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In the Liturgical calendar, today is Feast day of St. Colman. 1289 – ‘All men of good will to the king’, both Irish and English, in Munster and Leinster are summoned to Buttevant in Leix (Queen’s County). A ten-day expedition which begins on this date, subdues and forces the local Irish into an uneasy peace. […]
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In the Liturgical calendar, it is the Feast day of Saint Finbarr (c. 550-c. 620). He was Bishop of Cork in the 6th century and patron saint for the city and Diocese of Cork. Possibly born near Bandon, and originally named “Lochan,” he is said to have studied in Co Kilkenny where he was renamed […]
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1661 – Faithful Tadpole is admitted as a clerical vicar choral of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. 1786 – Birth of Irish passenger-car entrepreneur, Charles Bianconi, in Costa Masnaga, Italy. 1798 – United Irishman, Bartholomew Teeling, is hanged in Dublin. 1801 – James Moore O’Donell, former MP for Ratoath, is killed in a duel with Major […]
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