by Ann McVeigh From 31 March 1947 the bargain of a life-time became available to British subjects: they could now emigrate to Australia for just ten pounds — about the equivalent of an adult male’s weekly wage. This exceptional offer became possible after an agreement between the governments of Australia and the United Kingdom resulted … Read more
HM: Could you tell us about your background? ATQS: My father was a Belfastman. He had emigrated to Australia but in the middle of the first world war, he enlisted in the Australian Expeditionary Force and was brought back to Europe. When the war ended, there was a problem getting Australian troops home so … Read more
by Andy Bielenberg A distillery was first established in Kilbeggan in 1757 when there was a proliferation of small distillers setting up in the midlands. They were attracted by the quality and availability of barley in the region, which was (and still is) the distiller’s greatest cost, and of turf from the extensive local bogs. … Read more
Sean Murphy It has been claimed that Molly Malone was a real person who lived in the late seventeenth century, and that records of her baptism in St Andrew’s Church and burial in St John’s Graveyard have been discovered. Accordingly, the Grafton Street statue of Molly is dressed in seventeenth- century style and is located … Read more
Maria Luddy The obsessive fear of venereal disease in the Victorian period has been likened to the dread occasioned by AIDS today. The ravages of these diseases were seen in the mid-nineteenth century as a cause of the apparent weakness of the British army, a weakness most apparent in the aftermath of the Crimean war. … Read more