Before the phrase “anti-social behaviour” was ever coined, Detective Sergeant Jim ‘Lugs’ Branigan declared war on Dublin’s street thugs, making a name for himself as a legendary street policeman from…

Remembering the colour and the atmosphere of the old countryside fairs, taking Foxford in Mayo as an example. By Tony Ruane   Long ago, in the pre cattle-mart days, farmers…

Before it was the Garda Síochána College, Richmond Barracks played host to 2,300 German prisoners of war detained between September 1914 and March 1915. When it came time to leave,…

Emerging from a troubled childhood in Ireland, Brendan Bracken made his way up the British power ladder, becoming Churchill’s right-hand man and closest confidant. Despite his high acclaim, Bracken forever…

The tradition of poitín distillation has seen invasion, rebellion, independence and above all prohibition over the centuries but the practice has survived through the centuries. The reasons why the tradition…

“My first son was my 1993 World Trade Center bombing baby,” says Gina Bennett, a veteran CIA analyst who has spent her career tracking down the perpetrators behind some of…

One Sunday afternoon in 1951 schoolchildren walked out of a Dublin cinema to see a lioness running through traffic, pursued by her owner. The incident shone a global spotlight on…

No other business in Ireland has been as legislated against or litigated on as the common pub. However, in the 19 th Century the legal status of public houses, as well…

In this Centenary year we remember the heroes of the Rising who sacrificed their lives for Ireland. Yet, amongst the Irish dead were those who fought against the rebels. Ray Bateson…

On August 27, 1329, by Letters Patent, Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond was confirmed in the feudal seniority of the entire county palatine of Kerry, to him and his…

Every so often we come across stories that leave us with a certain eery feeling. People disappearing without a trace, or someone behaving strangely before winding up dead. It’s not…

In the course of the 1913 Lockout the labour leader Jim Larkin made great play of the poor pay and conditions of service of the DMP, and especially the longer…

Father Francis M. Browne was born on 3 July 1880 in county Cork. He was the eighth child of Brigid and James Browne and baptised on 8 January at the…

Long ago, in the pre cattle-mart days, farmers drove their animals on the hoof, along the country roads to the Fairs in the local towns. There they haggled and tangled…

Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has sought ways to distinguish truthfulness from lying in those individuals suspected of criminal wrongdoing. Various inventive techniques for the verification of truth and…

Forget the Star Wars rebel alliance, we have our own homegrown rebels to watch this January. RTÉ have just unveiled its new epic 1916 drama, ‘Rebellion’, and if first impressions…

Before Ireland was even a free state, there was Pearse St Garda Station. Built in 1915, on what was then Great Brunswich St, a new book chronicles the 100 year…

Maryland and South Carolina were the first states to build railroads in the early 1830’s.  By 1835, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois were part of the…

Following DNA testing of remains exhumed from Cork Prison in an investigation carried out by the National Monuments Commission, Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that Thomas Kent will receive a full State funeral, a hundred…

In the middle of the road between the Tower Hotel and Reginalds Tower in Waterford City stands a statue of Thomas Francis Meagher. Erected in 2004, the statue pays tribute…

Commander Bill King of Oranmore Castle, who died in 2012 at the age of 102, crammed an incredible amount of adventure and achievement into a long and colourful life. A…

The Great Chicago Fire burned ferociously through the city from October 8th to October 10th, 1871, destroyed thousands of buildings, killing an estimated 300 people. The damage caused by the…

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, a brutal and bloody conflict in which millions died on the battlefields of Europe and beyond. Among…

The hatter Boston Corbett was celebrated as a hero for killing John Wilkes Booth. Fame and fortune did not follow, but madness did. One morning in September 1878, a tired…