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 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”.

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”.

In the aftermath of the Easter Rising, 16 men were executed for taking part in the fight for Ireland’s freedom.  Naturally, the majority of the attention falls upon the leader and the signatories of the Proclamation.  It would, however, be a grave injustice to not remember the other gallant men who willingly made the ultimate sacrifice for Ireland; among the foremost would be … [Read more...] about Con Colbert, Forgotten Hero of 1916

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was born Jeremiah O'Donovan in Reenascreena, County Cork on 10 September 1831. While he was the son of tenant farmers, the family could trace their ancestry back to nobler days when before the English confiscation of Irish land they had held the parish of Kilmeen, the honorary title "Rossa" coming from the town of Rossmore in that parish. Rossa saw the … [Read more...] about Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, the Ashes from which the Phoenix of 1916 Rose