Personal Histories
Daniel Davitt was, like so many of the Irish Volunteer Army, an ordinary working man. At the time of the Easter Rising he was 30 and living in the tenements […]
Read More →The village of Lisaniska, in which I was born lies six miles east of Castlebar. Shaped roughly like a horse-shoe, it was created or rather re-created at the beginning of […]
Read More →Political Lessons in Castleblayney The 8th of March 1976 was a memorable school day for me but for the wrong reasons. The night before, a loyalist bomb had exploded in […]
Read More →In this year of centenary commemorations of the Easter Rising, I recall my happy discovery two years ago of a photo that reminded me – nostalgically – of my own […]
Read More →On the 30th Nov 1920 during the War of Independence a tram was travelling down North Frederick Street Dublin when it was suddenly stopped by the Black & Tans . […]
Read More →Nobody knows for sure if William Diggin began his 1913 emigration with a ride aboard the Lartigue monorail from Ballybunion to the mainline train at Listowel. The monorail began operating […]
Read More →My guardian told me a story about one of his adventures in the boarding house of the school that he used to study. This story is around the 1970s in […]
Read More →When my granddad was a lot younger than he is now, he was in the navy in around the 1950’ He was in the royal navy but he wasn’t fighting […]
Read More →Oh, The story’s I could tell you about my mother and her siblings. The things that they would get up to is hilarious. Hmmm, where shall I begin… The Solid […]
Read More →At the age of thirteen, in the late 1950’s, my dad stole a horse. Well, when he tells the story he always insists that he only borrowed the horse, and […]
Read More →In the 1930’s my great granddad had bought a car which he needed for his job involved in the department of agriculture. It was a car that needed to be […]
Read More →My granddad when he was just 17 decided to drop everything , family , school , friends and his life to go and find work in England. He started his […]
Read More →In the early 1970s when my dad was five years old, my granddad and granny brought him along with his two younger brothers and his younger sister to the spring […]
Read More →My mums name is Dolores Henderson now but back in 1970 she was known as Dolores Mc Dermott. A little back ground to my mum. She lived in a Place […]
Read More →During the midterm I talked to a very interesting man, he was a former teacher in the SligoGrammar School and his name is Damhlaic MagShamhrain. He was a man born […]
Read More →From the age of five my mother, her sister and her three brothers would spend four to six long lazy weeks at her Auntie Annie’s farm in the country in […]
Read More →I lived in London until I was 8, then my family (Mam, Dad and I) returned to live on a farm outside Boyle. Both my parents were Irish, having emigrated […]
Read More →My Granda always told me stories about his job. He was a photographer. He moved from Glasgow to Buncrana in Donegal. The reason his family moved was because my great […]
Read More →My great, great,Uncle was James Connolly. He was born on the 11th of September 1897 in Kinlough, County Leitrim. He was the Captain of the Third Western Division in the […]
Read More →My story comes from my mother who was told this by her mother my grandmother. During the war of independence my grandmother was only a baby she lived through many […]
Read More →In Castletown, Wexford around the 1960’s I lived on a farm with my ma, da and 7 brothers and sisters. My Dad was a farmer so we lived out in […]
Read More →Secondary School Life during the 1940s in Sligo These are the memories of a lady who lived in Ballyshannon and attended boarding school in Markievicz House in Sligo during the […]
Read More →This story is from a first-hand account from my father. It happened when he was only five or six. At the time him, his parents, and his grandfather, lived in […]
Read More →My grandparents lived in a cottage in killery Balintogher near Lough gill. They had no electricity and there was no water and tap in the house for water. My grandfather […]
Read More →Michael Manning, Battalion Adjutant, Old IRA, Clifden District, Co Galway, received intelligence that the Black and Tans were searching for an informer in Clifden who had set up an ambush […]
Read More →I was too young to remember the start of the Second World War but as a young child one of the things I remember during the war the newspapers. On […]
Read More →“Don’t forget your music bag, Winifred.” Mother called as she came down the front steps waving the multi-colored canvas bag in my direction. Today was my piano lesson with Mrs. […]
Read More →My granny was talking to me about walking to school when she grew up in the 1930’s. She walked 3miles to school everyday bare footed on the summer time, with […]
Read More →Back in 1979 most people in her neighbourhood did not go away very much. So when she went to a summer camp for 5 nights to Ballina, Co Donegal, it […]
Read More →My grandad’s name is Michael Smith, he is 85 years old and has lived through many historical events such as World War II and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He […]
Read More →One day in the late 1970s, the natural curiosity of childhood led me to my parents’ sitting room in Co. Roscommon and a press full of books, papers and assorted […]
Read More →I could never have imagined that a shopping trip to the market of Antibes in Southern France could have triggered dormant memories of my childhood days in the village of […]
Read More →John Henry (Harry) Spackman was born on March 15th 1890 in Fyfield, Wiltshire. He was one of nine children all of whom were born before 1901 and all of whom […]
Read More →As a young Air Corps pilot in August 1972, I was on Search and Rescue standby duty with my two Alouette 111 helicopter crew at our base in Baldonnel, near […]
Read More →Benjamin granted Mt Lucas by CromwellOrdered by the lord protector to“put to the sword every man and boy of an area inIreland that had resisted the English invasion”Benjamin replied“I will […]
Read More →Life in rural west Tyrone in the years immediately following the Second World War was simple when compared to the present. Homes were small, usually just two or three rooms, […]
Read More →Irish immigrants to American during An Gorta Mor may have found much more than they bargained when they were caught up on the battlefields of the American Civil War. Into […]
Read More →AS Kerry prepared the 2006 All Ireland final against Mayo, a Donegal man recalled his first trip to a decider 60 years previously which attracted more than 90,000 fans. John […]
Read More →When Croke Park was opened up to rugby and soccer in 2007 I thought of my grandfather, P.J. O’Loughlin, who died in 1965. Originally a Cork man from Newmarket, he […]
Read More →I was very fortunate that both my grandmothers were still alive while I was studying twentieth century history in college. My maternal grandmother was born the same year the Great […]
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