Ireland is often referred to as a land of myth and legend. The primary definition of both words describes a widely known story describing historical or natural events. Given that for centuries Irish history, like Irish music, was an aural tradition (and during much of English rule a necessity) passed down from one generation to the other the description is … [Read more...] about St. Brendan the Navigator
Scholarship
POBLACHT NA h-EIREANN
POBLACHT NA h-EIREANN THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret … [Read more...] about POBLACHT NA h-EIREANN
James Connolly, Champion of the Irish Working Man and Woman
James Connolly was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1868. His parents were poor rural laborers from Monaghan that had traveled to the capital of Scotland in search of better opportunity only to settle in one of the city’s poorest sections, an Irish enclave in the Cowgate section nicknamed “Little Ireland”. Poverty was a constant childhood companion; forcing young Connolly to … [Read more...] about James Connolly, Champion of the Irish Working Man and Woman
Sean Mac Diarmada, the “Mainspring of the Rising”.
Sean Mac Diarmada was born in Corranmore, near Kiltyclogher in County Leitrim, the third youngest of ten children. He grew up in an area scarred by the sad history of Ireland’s experience under English rule. Surrounding his boyhood home there was an ancient sweathouse, Mass rocks from the penal law days when the Catholic faith was illegal and priests hunted like wolves and … [Read more...] about Sean Mac Diarmada, the “Mainspring of the Rising”.
Joseph Plunkett “more courage in his little finger than all the other leaders combined”.
On April 24, 1916 amidst the chaos of the newly seized Dublin General Post Office (GPO), a fifteen year old Roddy Connolly, acting as an aide to his father James Connolly, noticed a peculiar site. He saw men putting down a mattress in front of the stamps counter and a man in a resplendent uniform complete with saber then lying upon it while everyone else was dashing about him. … [Read more...] about Joseph Plunkett “more courage in his little finger than all the other leaders combined”.