February 1 is St. Brigid’s Day, also known as Imbolc, and marks the beginning of spring. Imbolc, also known as the Feast of Brigid, celebrates the arrival of longer, warmer…

Before reading the script for Richie Smythe’s The Siege of Jadotville neither Jamie Dornan nor Jamie O’Mara, had heard the harrowing tale of how 155 Irishmen deployed by the UN bravely fought…

1. Why was it called a Workhouse? A “House of Industry” for the employment and maintenance of the poor was a 17th-century English concept. The able-bodied were expected to work…

A new exhibition has been launched by Kilmainham Gaol Museum to mark the 200th anniversary of one of the most dramatic events in the history of Kilmainham Courthouse. On 30 December 1820,…

The legendary Cork strong man first appeared on the US professional wrestling circuit 86 years ago today Today marks 86 years since professional Irish wrestler Danno O’Mahony first made his…

Barry Kennerk writes about the trials and perils of Dublin’s Victorian Policeman. Now the city sleeps: wharves, walls, and bridges are veiled and have disappeared in the fog that has…

ALLEN FOSTER MUST be some guest to have at a party. An author and researcher, he has found some of Ireland’s strangest true tales, and delights in telling them. His…

Looking at images of times past gives an insight into history – we can see where we came from, and marvel at how different life was. The images can also…

No year in Irish history is better known than 1690. No Irish battle is more famous than William III’s victory over James II at the River Boyne, a few miles…

Published in Early Modern History (1500–1700), Features, Issue 3 (Autumn 2001), Volume 9 Kinsale, situated in a hollow and with poor walls, was the worst choice to withstand a siege. (Reproduced by permission of…

The history of the department store is inseparable from the history of the modern city, and Dublin is no different. Both grew in parallel with the growth of the middle…

Though subtitled ‘the Irish Revolution 1913–1923’, this work is as much concerned with how the revolution came to be remembered and contested in memory as it is with telling the…

Paul Gorry F.S.G., F.I.G.R.S., M.A.G.I,  Co. Wicklow This is my grandfather, John McDermott.  He was born in Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, in March 1877, son of Patrick and Bridget McDermott.  When…

The Eighteenth Century and the Chesterfield Era The 4th Earl of Chesterfield was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in January 1745, and is credited with initiating a series of landscape…

So was born what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctica expedition of 1914 – 1917. The goal was ambitious – audacious even, considering that only 10 men had ever stood at the…

The 1979 Fastnet Race was the 28th Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Fastnet Race, a yachting race held generally every two years since 1925 on a 605-mile course from Cowes direct…

A quarter million Filipinos served for the U.S. in WWII, only to have their rights stripped at war’s end. Now, the last survivors are fighting for what’s rightfully theirs. Patrick…

In rugby union, the Triple Crown is an honour contested annually by the “Home Nations” – i.e. England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales who compete within the larger Six Nations Championship….

When it comes to the illustrious history of lighthouses in Ireland, one name stands out – George Halpin. In 1800, George was Inspector of Works in the Corporation for Preserving…

The Six Nations Championship is one of the biggest dates in the rugby union calendar bringing together the best sides in Europe. England, Wales, Ireland, France, Scotland and Italy compete…

In the last 1300 years Spike Island has been host to a 6th century Monastery, a 24 acre Fortress, the largest convict depot in the world in Victorian times and…

Vilified by her English adversaries as ‘a woman who hath imprudently passed the part of womanhood’, Grace O’Malley was ignored by contemporary chroniclers in Ireland, yet her memory survived in…

On the 12th of September 1910, the first female policewoman with arrest powers was appointed in the United States. Since then, women in law enforcement have never looked back. Alice…

In July 1959, An Garda Síochána welcomed twelve female members to its rankings. These women were the first female officers to ever join the organisation, and their bravery paved the…