Some of the most unlikely rebels were women who grew up in Protestant Unionist households, in other words part of the Anglo Irish elite .They went to private schools, socialized with those of their own class, lived in large Georgian houses in the same neighborhoods as...
An Irish bus is the only way to travel for some people. Let’s face it. Driving in Ireland is not for everyone. The drawbacks are numerous including expense, lack of street signs, dangerous roads and definitely driving on the left if you come from the...
St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland is shrouded in so many fantastical stories that one wonders if he was a man at all. The real Patrick was a simple human being who was kind, gentle, courageous, and confident in his beliefs. True, he was...
Like Pope Francis, Diana Gabaldon is one of my heroes, but not because she wrote best selling novels translated in zillions of other languages, won awards and recently her first book, Outlander has aired as a television series on Starz network. I adore this author...
LIFE AND TIMES OF CONSTANCE MARKIEVICZ Referred to as Madam by many of her friends, Constance Markievicz was well known throughout Dublin during the period leading up to the Easter Rising. Her life has been documented in books and periodicals as a woman that was militant, dangerously...
Celtic people measured time not by days but by nights. beginning at dusk instead of dawn. With Samhain when the crops were waning. Beginning on Oct. 31st. Not Jan 1st. One of the reasons for beginning with evening, is the Celts’ reverence for the moon...
The picture above is a tree in Dublin, Ireland. Spectacular isn’t it? And below may be Grafton St, also in Dublin. Everyone wants to go to Ireland at once time in his or her life. Like any country, you cannot see it all in one trip...
My father was extremely proud of being Irish, though I would learn later in life, that were are also part Polish with a smattering of Russian in the pot too. See my post on the Polish Jews in Ireland. Polish is one of the most...
The Celts believed water had magical properties, hence the holy wells of Ireland. One reason might have to do with how the water got here. Though there are many myths about the beginning of civilization, one theory is that the world was covered in water, flooded...
It’s rained in Ireland for over a month now. No big surprise there right? Did you know that the water is so high that the trains are underwater, storefronts and schools are closed, roofs have been torn off the tops of houses? I saw one...