#OTD in 1636 – The Annals of the Four Masters is completed.

10/08/2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

Annála Ríoghachta Éireann, The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, better known as the Annals of the Four Masters, is an anthology which covers the medieval period in Ireland, from AM 2242 to AD 1616. They contain records of the High Kings of Ireland as well as provincial kings, chiefs, distinguished families, men of science, […]

The Ark of the Covenant and The Hill of Tara

19/06/2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

During 1899 and 1902, members of the British-Israel Association of London came to Co Meath to dig up the Hill of Tara. These ‘British-Israelites’ believed they would find buried there the Ark of the Covenant, the chest said to contain the Ten Commandments inscribed on stone tablets. Their strange and unlawful activity provoked a protest […]

#OTD in 1874 – Irish painter, Frederic Burton, was appointed director of the National Gallery, London, and began an unprecedented programme of art collection.

20/02/2023.Reading time 1 minute.

As Director of the National Gallery, London, Burton bought over 500 works, many of them masterpieces by Botticelli, Canaletto, van Dyck and Leonardo da Vinci, creating possibly the finest art collection in the world. Burton’s painting, ‘Meeting on the Turret Stairs’ was voted by the Irish public as Ireland’s favourite painting in 2012 from among […]

Ancient Irish Law

15/02/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

‘Irish law is the oldest, most original, and most extensive of mediaeval European legal systems. It is a unique legal inheritance, an independent indigenous system of advanced jurisprudence that was fully evolved by the eighth century. It is also far less well-known than it deserves.’ ‘Early medieval Ireland evolved a system of law (often called […]