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The Skibbereen Eagle and the Czar of Russia

Posted on Mar 20, 2018 in Ireland | 3 comments

The Skibbereen Eagle was a small paper from a very small town in West Cork, Ireland. Once it warned the Czar of Russia who ignored it. Some years later he was out of a job. The rest, as they say, is history! The legendary Skibbereen Eagle newspaper was founded in 1857 in the small town […]

The Real St. Patrick

Posted on Mar 17, 2018 in Ireland | Comments Off on The Real St. Patrick

On Saturday March 17, the Irish and the Irish-at-heart across the globe will observe St. Patrick’s Day. What began as a religious feast day for the patron saint of Ireland has become an international festival celebrating Irish culture with parades, dancing, special foods and a whole lot of green. And today at Twickenham in the […]

More Irish than the Irish themselves

Posted on Feb 18, 2018 in Ireland | 3 comments

Edward III had a problem in 1366, English power and influence in Ireland and the reach of the Crown was being eroded by the Anglo-Norman aristocracy and officials becoming “More Irish than the Irish themselves” in the words of a chronicler. This was the description applied to the Anglo- Norman Lords who controlled English occupied […]

Dublin’s Saint Valentine

Posted on Feb 14, 2018 in Dublin | Comments Off on Dublin’s Saint Valentine

As we approach the annual soppy snogfest of St. Valentine’s Day you might be surprised to hear that Saint Valentine is yet another romantic Dubliner! There have been many famous Dubliner’s but as we approach St. Valentine’s Day you may be surprised to hear the good saint is among the illustrious group! The saint […]

West Cork’s singing Ambassadors

Posted on Feb 6, 2018 in Ireland | 2 comments

WEST Cork Choral Singers performed in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall in January as part of a ‘choir of distinction.’ The choir – which features between 40 and 50 men and women from the locality, as well as eight different nationalities who have made West Cork their home – joined choirs from 14 other countries […]

Ann Lovett’s Death in Granard

Posted on Jan 31, 2018 in Ireland | 2 comments

Remembering today Ann Lovett, the 15 year old who died while giving birth to her son in the Granard Town grotto on this day 34 years ago. This tragedy embodies what a cold, cruel place Ireland was for single mothers and women who faced crisis pregnancies in the 1980s. No flowers are laid at the […]

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Posted on Jan 30, 2018 in Ireland | one comment

THE Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972 is remembered as one of the darkest and bloodiest events of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Today 30th January 2018 is the 46th Anniversary of the murder of Irish Civil Rights protesters by the British Army, determined in the mindset and brutal tradition of Colonial armies to teach the Irish protestors […]

William Butler Yeats Remembered

Posted on Jan 28, 2018 in Ireland | Comments Off on William Butler Yeats Remembered

On this day 79 years ago, William Butler Yeats died in the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, Menton, France. His epitaph: Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death. Horseman, pass by! One of the “advantages” of being a native Dubliner is that you hail from the city which gave the world the largest number of […]

The murmurations of West Cork

Posted on Jan 15, 2018 in Ireland | Comments Off on The murmurations of West Cork

The moment hundreds of starlings gathered together to perform a spectacular murmuration has been caught on camera. Grouping together to form different shapes, the birds could be seen flying over their roosting site before suddenly swooping to the ground for the night. Birdwatch Ireland West Cork Branch captured this incredible footage in Timoleague, Co Cork […]

Nollaig na mBan – Women’s Christmas

Posted on Jan 8, 2018 in Ireland | 2 comments

The 6th January is known as Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas in Ireland. For many people in Ireland, 6 January marks the final day of the Christmas season – when the tree and other decorations are taken down. From a Christian perspective, it marks the day the three wise men are said to have […]