The Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland held a national synod at Kilkenny in Leinster to discuss ways of controlling the Irish Uprising and of achieving national unity against the Protestant invaders. With representatives of the native Irish nobility and the Catholic “Old English” aristocracy in attendance, an alternative government for Ireland was proposed. Asserting their […]
In 16th century Ireland, the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains were overrun with wolves and bounty hunters arrived from England, Scotland and Europe and wolf hunting became a profitable holiday adventure. In the mid-17th century, Oliver Cromwell published a declaration in Kilkenny on this date that Irish Wolf Dogs or Irish Wolfhounds were prohibited to be […]
The Statutes of Kilkenny were a series of thirty-five acts passed at Kilkenny in 1366, aiming to curb the decline of the Hiberno-Norman Lordship of Ireland. This aims to halt the widespread adoption by the Norman-Irish, especially in frontier areas, of Gaelic Irish culture, customs and language. It bans the use of the Irish language […]
The title Fenian was taken from an old Irish legend about an invincible army called the Fianna that constantly defended Ireland against foreign invaders. The development of the Fenian movement with its obvious influence for self-determination, grew rapidly amongst the men and women of Ireland. It became a stepping stone in the lead up to […]
John Lavery was born in Belfast, the son of a wine and spirit merchant, but was orphaned at the age of three and for a number of unsettled years wandered between Moira, Magheralin, Saltcoats, Ayrshire and Glasgow. Finally he started working by touching up photographic negatives in Glasgow and attended evening classes at the Haldane […]
1495 – Garret Mór Fitzgerald, Eighth Earl of Kildare, is arrested in Dublin by Sir Edward Poynings, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 1760 – François Thurot holds the castle and the town of Carrickfergus until this date. 1792 – The Irish House of Commons is partly destroyed by fire. 1841 – William Bruce, Sr., the last […]
The Anglo-Irish parliament met in Kilkenny and produced a body of royal decrees that became known as the Statutes of Kilkenny. The statutes aimed to prevent English colonists living in Ireland from adopting Irish culture and mandated that the Irish conform to English customs before they could obtain certain social, legal, and religious rights. In […]
St Valentine’s Day, commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day, is a holiday observed on 14 February. Many churches claim to be Valentine’s final resting place, including the Carmelite Church on Whitefriar Street in Dublin. According to the story told there, the St’s remains were given to Fr John Sprat by Pope Gregory XVI and a shrine still […]
Dame Alice Kyteler was born at Kyteler’s House, Kilkenny in 1280 to wealthy Norman parents. Forty-four years later, in 1324, she fled to England to escape being burned as a witch and in July of that year, her property, including Kytelers Inn was confiscated. In the intervening years Dame Alice had married four times, had […]
1585 – Death of Nicholas Walsh, Bishop of Ossory. The son of Patrick Walsh, Bishop of Waterford, Nicholas Walsh was consecrated a priest in 1567. He introduced prayer-books and catechisms printed in Irish. He was appointed Chancellor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1571. Starting in 1573, Walsh worked on translating the New Testament into Irish. […]
