Mike McCormack

One hundred years ago, in the Ireland of 1914, many pacifists adhered to the legacy of Daniel O’Connell’s and Charles S. Parnell’s non-violent course and put their hopes in Home Rule and John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) as an answer to equal rights for the native Irish.  Unfortunately, Home Rule meant different things to different people.  O’Connell had seen a domestic Parliament for Ireland under the Crown while Young Ireland and the Fenians saw Home Rule as total separation from Great Britain.  Parnell sought a Parliament in Dublin through constitutional means with limited … [Read more...] about A CENTURY AGO – 1914

One hundred years ago was a great time to be in Ireland to paraphrase Thomas J. Clarke who had been sent by Clan na Gael leader John Devoy to revitalize the dormant IRB.  Clarke was, of course, talking about rising nationalist sentiment across Ireland and the growth of the Irish Volunteers as an army of his dream of a new Irish Republic!  We are currently in a decade-long period from 2013 to 2023 when the centenary of many of the events along the road to that Republic should be commemorated.  Beginning with the Great Dublin Lockout of 1913 which established the Irish Citizen Army to 1923 when … [Read more...] about To Commemorate Or Not To Commemorate

August 7, 1916 is significant in Irish history because it marks the premiere of Ireland’s first motion picture O’Neil of the Glen. It also led to another link between Ireland and America. There are so many Irish-American patriots who deserve to be remembered for the contributions they made for the sake of Ireland, yet their names have faded. One Irish-American was really an American Irishman, for even though he was raised in America, he was born in Kerry. His name was James Mark Sullivan and his family had been members of the Young Ireland Movement and editors of its newsletter, The Nation, … [Read more...] about Jim Sullivan

In June the world celebrates Bloomsday, a day in the life of James Joyce’s fictional character - Leopold Bloom, as he walks the back streets of Dublin. Some seem to know why, but most do it for the craic (merriment) - an exercise in self indulgence. Incredible as it may seem, in 1856, a man was born into those very same dirty Dublin streets who deserves more to be honored and revered than all the characters in Joyce’s book; more than even Joyce himself. His name was Matthew Talbot. One of 12 children he was reared in absolute poverty in north central Dublin at a time when there were no social … [Read more...] about From Dublin Drunk to Servant of God

A thousand years ago, April 23 was an important date – it was Good Friday, a date significant to Christians everywhere.  However, in Ireland it had another significance.  It was the day that the forces of High King Brian Boru met the Vikings on the field of Clontarf and broke Viking power in Ireland forever – the only country ever to do so. It really all began about the year 941, when Brian was born to Kennedy MacLorcain,  Chieftain of the Dalcassian clan in County Clare.  He was born near present day Killaloe on the River Shannon.  As the youngest son, he was destined to become a monk as his … [Read more...] about Brian Boru

Many don’t know that the national symbol of Ireland is the harp, not the shamrock!  Ancient Irish harpers were professionals of the highest order.  Because their status was one of great honor, their training was long and rigorous.  It generally began before the age of 10, and the student had to become the absolute master of three forms of Irish music, the history of the instrument, its maintenance, and all of the scales and arpeggios related to it.  It’s no wonder then, that the excellence of Irish harpers was recognized world wide.  Dante praised them with rare admiration, as did Francis … [Read more...] about Irish Harpers

The month was February in 1861 and the place was Fort Buchanan – a military installation near Apache Pass in the southeastern Arizona territory.  At the time, tension was high between the American military and the Chokonen band of Chiricahua Apaches led by a young chief named Cochise.  An unrelated Coyotero Apache raiding party had stolen cattle and kidnapped the 12-year old son of a local rancher named John Ward.  Ward blamed Cochise and demanded action by the local U.S. Army at nearby Fort Buchanan.  Lt. Col. Morrison ordered an inexperienced young Second Lt George N. Bascom, 7th U.S. … [Read more...] about The Fighting Doctor

January 12, 1885 saw the birth of Thomas Ashe, a most beloved poet, piper and patriot in Ireland’s cause of independence.   He was born in Lispole, Co. Kerry and educated in the nearby town of Dingle where he attended Ardamore National School.  After completing his education there, he began a five year term as assistant teacher in Ardamore.   His deep interest in the Irish language and culture led him to become an active member of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Gaelic League, an organization devoted to the revival of all things Gaelic.  He entered De La Salle Training College in … [Read more...] about Thomas Patrick Ashe

December is a memorable month for the Irish for it marks the celebration of the birth of Christ.  Yet, there are other dates in December that are also significant.  For example, it was on December 24, 1601, that the most significant battle in Irish history was joined.  It was the Battle of Kinsale.  It put an end to Ireland's hopes for independence at the time and destroyed Gaelic aristocracy forever.  And it was all due to a tactical blunder. The conflict known as the Nine Years War was waged for a variety of reasons. The Irish wanted independence from English rule, the English wished to … [Read more...] about December in Irish History

In 1793, England needed soldiers to support a war with France. On Oct 3, they advertised in the Connaught Journal for volunteers to start a British Army regiment to be called the Royal Regiment of Connaught Rangers.  That advertisement became an invitation to death for thousands of men of the Irish west who gained fame on international battlefields as the Connaught Rangers.  It was a time when military service provided the only steady employment an Irishman could find that offered an escape from the serfdom of tenant farm life.  Between Nov 1793 and Mar 1794, 30,000 Irish enlisted in the … [Read more...] about The Murder of Private Daly

On October 30, 1963, Cahirciveen, County Kerry saw the largest outpouring of grief since the loss their favorite son, the great Daniel O’Connell in 1847.  This time it was for another one of their own – Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty.  Although he was born in Kiskeam, County Cork and grew up in Killarney, where his father was the steward of the old Killarney Golf Club, Hugh retired to Cahirciveen three years before his death and was honored as one of their own.  He was also honored with many decorations, including Commander of the British Empire and the US Medal of Freedom for Hugh O’Flaherty was a … [Read more...] about A Rivalry that Became a Friendship

Four hundred and five years ago on September 4, 1607, the last of Ireland’s great Gaelic Royalty left for the continent and the ancient Celtic system of government came to an end.  It was known in history as the Flight of the Earls and it was only supposed to be a temporary abdication.  However, it was never redeemed.  Most are familiar with the English incursions into Ireland since the Norman invasion and the reaction of the Irish Chieftains to them.  Some led rebellions against the invaders while others sought cooperation.  A few even tried both. Up to the reign of Henry VIII (1509-47), … [Read more...] about Plantation of Ulster

One hundred years ago on August 19, a force was born that changed Irish history.  It is doubtful that the Easter Rising of 1916 could have taken place without the organizational ability of the Irish Citizen Army which sprang from the labor union movement in Dublin and the effects of the Great Dublin Labor Lockout.  Yet, that movement was very slow to organize in Ireland compared to the remarkable impact that the Irish had on organizing labor earlier in America which will be presented in Part Two.  The labor union movement was slow to grow in Ireland, partly because there was little industry in … [Read more...] about The Irish In Labor

On July 1, 1867, three nations mourned the loss of one of their heros  Ireland, Australia and the United States.  The heros name was Thomas Francis Meagher and he was born on August 3, 1823.  His grandfather's successful trading business made it easy for his father to own a small hotel and pub in Waterford, where he was educated at a Jesuit boarding school.  Later at a Jesuit college in England he earned a reputation as an effective orator. He returned to Ireland in 1843, just two years before a blight hit the potato causing a great starvation among his people.  Watching his countrymen starve … [Read more...] about Thomas Francis Meagher

There are many Irish radio programs today which feature bits of our history, news and musical heritage, but which one was the first?  For the answer, we must return to the early days of broadcast communication.  In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated that rapid variations of electric current could be projected from point-to-point as telegraph waves.  Most credit him with inventing wireless communication, but few know that his mother, Annie Jameson, daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle in County Wexford of the Jameson Irish Whisky family, was the one who encouraged and funded the young … [Read more...] about The First Radio Broadcast

Thirty-two years ago, a protest by Irish republican prisoners ended in one of the most courageous and tragic events in Irish history.  It began 9 years earlier in July 1972, when Political Prisoner Status was introduced after a hunger strike by 40 IRA prisoners led by Billy McKee.  It meant being treated as prisoners of war and not having to wear prison uniforms nor do prison work.  In 1976, the Brits decided that disagreeing with the government was a crime and political dissidents were criminals just as thieves, rapists and murderers.  They ended Political Prisoner Status; prisoner’s clothes … [Read more...] about The Hunger Strike of 1981

One of the least known today, yet the most influential Irish Revolutionaries of her time, was a lady named Maud Gonne. She was born on Dec. 20, 1865, in England, to a British army colonel of Irish descent and an Irish mother.  Her mother died when Maud was only six and she and her sister were sent to France to be educated.  In 1882, her father was posted to Dublin Castle and he brought his two daughters with him and Maud assumed the role of hostess of the household.  She grew into a stunningly beautiful woman - six feet tall, pretty face, hour-glass figure and long, wavy, red hair; she was … [Read more...] about Maude Gonne McBride

Today, when we hear of the intransigence of some extremists in Northern Ireland, it may help to look at where we were just 40 years ago this month and realize how far we’ve come.  Back in 1973, the Nationalist command structure in Belfast was losing the support of people once sympathetic to their cause.  It was as a result of the slanted coverage distributed by the British-controlled press to the media around the world.  Even the people in the Republic to the south were being insulated from the true story and, as a result, had lost much of their enthusiasm for the cause.  Reports of IRA … [Read more...] about Forty Years Ago

William of Orange defeated King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and claimed the Throne of England.  He had beaten and deceived the Celts of Ireland into submission, and turned his attention to the Celts of the Scottish Highlands.  He demanded that all clan Chieftains swear an oath of allegiance, and surrender their lands to the Crown by 1 January, 1692 or suffer government reprisal.  By that date, the clan of MacIan MacDonald of Glencoe had not yet signed.  On 31 December MacIan had travelled to Fort William to ask the governor, Colonel Hill, to administer the required oath, but … [Read more...] about Glencoe