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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