Paddy Maher, 2nd South Wales Borderers, KIA 4th April 1916
On April 6th 1916, barely three weeks before the Easter Rising, Paddy Maher (a 35 year old British Army veteran who had seen service in China and Gallipoli) from Lower Conaghy, County Kilkenny, had just arrived at the Front. The Battalion had shipped into France from Egypt in March as part of the latest push […]
EARLY IRISH ALE 2
Continuing our series of old posts (to mark our 10th year in business), ones we feel were good, prescient or elicited some good conversation or debate, this post was first published in February 2008. Continuing our research on ancient beer, Declan spent a long evening reading and searching the Annals of the Four Masters for […]
Reach the Future through the Past
Via Brian Dolan at www.seandalaiocht.com One day conference announcement: Reach the Future through the Past The County Museum, Dundalk, is hosting a one-day conference, Reach the Future through the Past, on Wednesday 25 August 2010. The conference will explore the use of innovation in a heritage setting, and will examine new ways of promoting concepts […]
Assemblage VI
Gathering stuff from the internest on Beer, Archaeology, the Environment, Aquaponics and anything else that strikes us as interesting, since May 2008. On architectural job losses and planning, more garbage patches – this time in the North Atlantic, Irish Film Stereotypes, Atheistic visitors to the Emerald Isle, Adolf Hitler and his fondness for Trad and […]
1911 Census, Antrim, Down & Kerry
Via the Irish Family History blog we see that the second tranche of the 1911 census has gone live on the National Archives website. The website now covers Antrim, Down and Kerry as well as Dublin (which was put up early last year). It’s been a while coming but, that criticism aside, is a great […]
An Poll Mór, Bearna
Sean Beatty very kindly allowed us to present the following piece about Bearna, Co. Galway and the ‘Poll Mór’ (big hole), on the Pier Road. Much of the information was provided by Sean. Located on the Galway to Spiddal road, the original settlement at Bearna was concentrated in the townland of Freeport, in a predominantly […]
Oh Dear..
Why it’s important to listen in History class.. (via Greg Laden). To quote Santayana – ‘Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it’…. or as a commenter on another great blog says – are condemned to make fools of themselves on television… And while we’re at it here’s more from the […]
2008 – International year of the Spud
Photo: IPC Welcome to 2008, Chinese Year of the Rat, Australian Year of the Scout, European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, International Year of the Planet, International Year of Sanitation, and, most significantly, International Year of the Potato (IYP). Suggested by Peru, where pre-Columbian farmers in the Andes first began to cultivate the crop, the International […]
Beyond kinship – Irish Caribbean studies
This is an excerpt from Orla Powers abstract of her recently published ‘Beyond Kinship -A Study of the Eighteenth-century Irish Community at Saint Croix, Danish West Indies’ in Irish Migration Studies in Latin America. The full article is available online here and makes for a fascinating read. Abstract The Irish trading post, and its associated […]
Bee Laws
Joyce reports on a somewhat curious legal custom (which has parallels in India) in Early Ireland – the procedure by fasting. The plaintiff in a case (having served notice) simply went to the defendants house and went on hunger strike. As long as he remained there, the defendant was also obliged to starve himself/herself. In […]
Civil War in Connaught
Now with added theme song (27th November 2011) – For more about this song see this post. Every so often, a friend, friend of a friend, client, passer-by or, in one case, our regular courier, will drop in and present us with a remarkable find and ask us what they should do with it. It […]
Gunmoney, Dragoons and Gideon of Dunmore
Billy has recently completed most of the post excavation work for the excavations in Dunmore, Co. Galway as part of the Dunmore Sewerage Scheme, financed by Galway County Council. The trench at Barrack Street impacted on an unrecorded cemetery associated with the nearby Augustinian Friary. The Friary in Abbeyland South is first mentioned in 1425 […]
