Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland, which aims to capture the individual histories of Irish people both in Ireland and around the world. It is hoped to build an extensive database reflecting Irish lives, giving them a chance to be heard, remembered and to add their voice to the historical record.
If you wish to be part of this historical record, please enter your own Personal History by clicking here
- A Week in the Life of Daniel Davitt - Daniel Davitt was, like so many of the Irish Volunteer Army, an ordinary working man. At the time of the Easter Rising he was 30 and living in the tenements of Russell Street, Dublin, with his wife, Elizabeth and two small children, Vincent and Eileen. The family were poor but proud, just about surviving on ... Read more
- A Christmas Eve Eviction - The village of Lisaniska, in which I was born lies six miles east of Castlebar. Shaped roughly like a horse-shoe, it was created or rather re-created at the beginning of the 20th C by the Congested Districts Board on land purchased from Lord Lucan. Each of ten families, migrants from the Pontoon area, received a ... Read more
- - Political Lessons in Castleblayney The 8th of March 1976 was a memorable school day for me but for the wrong reasons. The night before, a loyalist bomb had exploded in my hometown of Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, killing one man and devastating its centre. Although my primary school, Annalitten NS, is situated three miles from town, ... Read more
- Memories of the 1966 Easter Rising Commemorations and a recent discovery in a history book. - In this year of centenary commemorations of the Easter Rising, I recall my happy discovery two years ago of a photo that reminded me – nostalgically – of my own role in the commemorations of the Rising, half a century ago. I was perusing Ernie O’Malley’s book, On Another Man’s Wound, given to me by ... Read more
- Michael McHugh - On the 30th Nov 1920 during the War of Independence a tram was travelling down North Frederick Street Dublin when it was suddenly stopped by the Black & Tans . They boarded the tram and arrested a 47 year old man. They brought him to the North Dublin Union where he was imprisoned in harsh ... Read more
- An Odd Coincidence - Nobody knows for sure if William Diggin began his 1913 emigration with a ride aboard the Lartigue monorail from Ballybunion to the mainline train at Listowel. The monorail began operating between the two north Kerry towns in 1888 and attracted more than 72,000 riders in 1913. But no passenger lists survive for the railway like ... Read more
- STEALING POTATOES - My guardian told me a story about one of his adventures in the boarding house of the school that he used to study. This story is around the 1970s in Galway. He explained me that in this boarding house at lunch time, the cookers always put potatoes in each table of the canteen, the potatoes ... Read more
- A Day In Life Of My Granddad In The Navy - When my granddad was a lot younger than he is now, he was in the navy in around the 1950’ He was in the royal navy but he wasn’t fighting or anything like that. He mapped/charted and also patrolled the local coast. The furthest they would go out would be from anything to 10 or ... Read more
- My Mum and Her Siblings. - Oh, The story’s I could tell you about my mother and her siblings. The things that they would get up to is hilarious. Hmmm, where shall I begin… The Solid Sweets. One day my mum, (Annette) and her two sisters, (Gwen, Bernadine) where really bored. They went into the house and tried to look for ... Read more
- Trinity - At the age of thirteen, in the late 1950’s, my dad stole a horse. Well, when he tells the story he always insists that he only borrowed the horse, and I suppose that he did give it back in the end, however borrowing usually implies that you’ve asked permission beforehand which he hadn’t, so I ... Read more
- My Great Granddads First Car - In the 1930’s my great granddad had bought a car which he needed for his job involved in the department of agriculture. It was a car that needed to be cranked up at the front with a handle to start the engine. In that time there were only two cars in his area, swords Dublin, ... Read more
- From £17 to Conway Taverns - My granddad when he was just 17 decided to drop everything , family , school , friends and his life to go and find work in England. He started his journey with only 17 pounds in his pocket. today my granddad is supporting more than 60 jobs and housing over 70 families. There were an ... Read more
- Trip to the spring show - In the early 1970s when my dad was five years old, my granddad and granny brought him along with his two younger brothers and his younger sister to the spring show in Dublin which was held on the grounds of the Royal Dublin Society. To go up to the show my dad had to get ... Read more
- The day the pigs and granddad ran away. - My mums name is Dolores Henderson now but back in 1970 she was known as Dolores Mc Dermott. A little back ground to my mum. She lived in a Place called Corrigeenboy near Ballyfarnon, Co. Roscommon. This rural area was made up of small farmers. Children helped on the farms. After her dad died in ... Read more
- Life gives you lemonade and books. - During the midterm I talked to a very interesting man, he was a former teacher in the SligoGrammar School and his name is Damhlaic MagShamhrain. He was a man born and raised in Ireland. As a child, he lived in the busy city of Dublin in the 1950s and attended a school there. When I ... Read more
- SUMMER HOLIDAYS - From the age of five my mother, her sister and her three brothers would spend four to six long lazy weeks at her Auntie Annie’s farm in the country in the summer. Her uncle Jack would arrive in his black Morris Minor car and the whole bunch of kids, all five of them, would load ... Read more
- Mother’s memories as a returned emigrant - I lived in London until I was 8, then my family (Mam, Dad and I) returned to live on a farm outside Boyle. Both my parents were Irish, having emigrated to England in the 1940s as there was no work in rural Ireland and for most 2nd level education and definitely 3rd level education was ... Read more
- My Grandad’s job as a Photographer – By Megan Sheerin - My Granda always told me stories about his job. He was a photographer. He moved from Glasgow to Buncrana in Donegal. The reason his family moved was because my great Granda didn’t want my Granda being conscripted in the army in Glasgow. My Granda was the eldest of five children. My Grandad had studied as ... Read more