Immigration Alert

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