Historical Happenings

Jane Frances Agnes Elgee was born in Dublin at about 1821 and grew up in a deeply conservative family. She was a gifted linguist and published several translations of French and German works which were reprinted in America. Her first volume of poetry also contained translations from several European languages. In 1845, impressed by the size of the funeral of Young Irelander, Thomas Davis, she began to read his poetry in The Nation, an extremely nationalist newspaper published by Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon, which awakened her to Irish nationalism. After Davis’s … [Read more...] about SPERANZA

Last month, we presented the circumstances that led up to the most defining moment in Irish history. They included growing nationalism, extending voting privilege to all men over 21 and women over 30 (from 701,475 registered in 1910 to 1,936,673 in 1918) and then, the UK General election on 14 December 1918. In the Irish part of that election, Sinn Fein won 73 of the 105 contested seats to the Irish Parliamentary Party’s 6 and Unionist’s 22. It was the last all-Ireland election; it was also the first to allow women to vote, the first to elect a woman (Countess Markievicz) to the British … [Read more...] about THE MOST DEFINING MOMENT IN IRISH HISTORY, II

As 2018 ends, we recall that a century ago was a time of great change in Ireland. The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) goal of Home Rule, an Irish parliament under the Crown, was supported by many before 1916, but Britain’s reaction to the Rising struck them like an Irish Pearl Harbor. The British secretly court-martialed and murdered the leaders who should have been treated as prisoners of war; they unleashed nation-wide Martial Law treating every Irishman as a rebel and Loyalists convinced Lloyd George to break off a piece of Ireland and give it to them. The reaction was predictable – no … [Read more...] about THE MOST DEFINING MOMENT IN IRISH HISTORY

One hundred years ago this month, the War to End All Wars concluded as an armistice was signed at 5 AM on November 11, 1918. Because of the six-hour time difference, in America it was the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month – a remarkable coincidence! And again, the Irish were there. Up until the United States entered World War One on 6 April 1917, there were some Irish-Americans pulling for Germany to overpower Britain; after all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend! However, loyalty to the land that adopted their families came first and foremost and when America entered the war on … [Read more...] about A LEGACY OF WW1

In the late 1800s, banks were charging as much as 50% interest on mortgages and Railroad rates were uncontrollably high. As a result, mid-west farmers were experiencing a downward economic spiral. In Kansas, among the frustrated farmers, one voice was heard that would unite them in search of a solution. It came from Mary Elizabeth Lease who raised her voice in defense of her Kansas farming neighbors. Mary Ellen, as she was known, was the sixth child of Irish immigrants, Mary (Cullen) and Joseph Clyens, who had fled Ireland’s Great Hunger. Born in Pennsylvania on 11 September 1850, she … [Read more...] about PROTEST ON THE PRAIRIE