Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
Despite the official name, the city is more usually known as simply Derry, which is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire, which in modern Irish is spelt Doire, and translates as ‘oak-grove/oak-wood’. The name derives from the settlement’s earliest references, Daire Calgaich (‘oak-grove of Calgach’). The name was changed from Derry in 1613 during […]
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If any one single battle of Ireland’s Nine Years War was pivotal in nature, it is the Battle of Kinsale. Kinsale is a sleepy little port town in the southeastern portion of the country. Through tactical blunder, it became the focus of a battle that would permanently destroy Ireland’s hopes for independence during this time […]
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The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 is an Act of the Oireachtas which declared that Ireland may be officially described as the Republic of Ireland, and vested in the President of Ireland the power to exercise the executive authority of the state in its external relations, on the advice of the Government of Ireland. The […]
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The first historical record of the Celts was by the Greeks about 700 BC, the Celts were a loose grouping of tribes that lived in an area north of the Alps around the Danube river in central Europe. Over the next few hundred years they spread east and west across Europe. The Celts first arrived […]
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Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, anglicised as Owen Roe O’Neill “Red Owen”, was a seventeenth century soldier and one of the most famous of the O’Neill family of Ulster. An Irish rebel commander during a major Roman Catholic revolt (1641–52) against English rule in Ireland; his victory at Benburb, on 5 June 1646, was one of […]
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The Irish Uprising of 1641 was a long-term result of the “plantation” policy of Tudor and Stuart monarchs under which Ireland was aggressively colonised by Protestant settlers from England and Scotland. From the mid-16th century, Irish landowners were dispossessed to make way for the settlers and a vicious cycle developed whereby rebellion against the English […]
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The Ulster Covenant, was signed by just under half a million Irishmen and women, mainly from Ulster, on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year. Sir Edward Carson was the first person to sign the Covenant at Belfast City Hall […]
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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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Captain Bartholomew Teeling was born in 1774 in Lisburn, Co Antrim. He was a leader of the Irish forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and carried out an act of bravery during the Battle of Collooney. Following his capture at the Battle of Ballinamuck where an Irish-French army under General Humbert was defeated by […]
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1711 – John Holwell, surgeon and survivor of ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ is born in Dublin. 1798 – 3,000 French troops depart for Ireland from Brest. 1862 – The Irish Brigade suffered over 60% casualties at the Battle of Antietam at an area that came to be known as Bloody Lane. Over 500 Irish Brigade […]
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