Historical Happenings

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

At midnight on the rainy night of November 24, 1865, there was hardly a soul to be seen on the streets of Dublin.  Policemen on duty took shelter in doorways, blowing on their fingers to warm them in the bitter cold. Not far away and colder than the policemen six men, soaked to the skin, were waiting outside Richmond Prison.  When they spoke, they spoke in whispers and watched the high wall of the prison for a signal.  In a cell within the prison, a man paced back and forth.  He too awaited a signal for he knew that unless plans miscarried, this was the night he was to be rescued.  His name … [Read more...] about James Stephens

There are many heroes associated with the Confederate States of America (CSA) whose stories have been forgotten or swept under the rug; after all, the winners write the history.  Among those forgotten in our northern history books are Irish Catholic priests like Rev. Tom O’Reilly of Cavan, Rev. Abram Ryan of Tipperary parents and  Rev. Peter Whelan of Wexford.  Rev. O’Reilly earned fame as the man who threatened General Sherman with a mutiny by the Irish Catholics in his army if he torched the church district of Atlanta at the start of his infamous march to the sea; Sherman acquiesced and the … [Read more...] about Reverend Peter Whelan – The Angel of Andersonville

The Easter Rising, which led to the Republic of Ireland, was the work of Thomas J. Clarke, who returned to Ireland from his Manorville, Long Island farm, with his wife Kathleen, to re-organize the dormant Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).  Tom not only rebuilt the IRB, but organized the Irish Volunteers who would plan a rising;  Katty, as he affectionately called his wife, became President of Cumann na mBan, the Ladies Auxiliary to the Volunteers, and she organized the women. Katty had come from a staunch Republican family, and was so zealous for the cause that just before the rising, she … [Read more...] about Kathleen Daly Clarke – Leader, Heroine, Patriot

June 14 is a special day for America and especially for the Irish in America. It is a day set aside to honor our national emblem - the stars and stripes. June 14 is flag day, a day when we should all be flying our flag in honor. Why is it flag day, what does it mean, and what is our flag anyway that it should have a day of its own? When you describe it in terms of material, it is only a piece of cloth, dyed with a little blue and red that makes a design symbolizes the United States. And that may be all that it is to some; to those who show it no respect, to those who make clothing from it, to … [Read more...] about A Little Green in the Red, White and Blue

On May 15, 1847, an Irish patriot died. He had been born in Kerry on August 6, 1775, the year America made her bid for independence, and he would bring a measure of freedom to Ireland. His name was Daniel O'Connell. Adopted by an uncle, he was forbidden, as a Catholic, to attend college in his own country, so after local preliminary education he went to France to study at the Jesuit College. He completed legal studies in England, and returned to Ireland in 1798 where he was admitted to the Irish Bar. It was a historic time, when Catholic and Protestant had combined in the United Irishmen to … [Read more...] about The Cyclone from the West