GALLAHER, David (Dave) (1873–1917), rugby footballer, was born on 30 October 1873 at Ramelton, Co. Donegal. Emigrating to New Zealand with his family in 1878, he lived at Tauranga before settling in Auckland. Educated at Katikati School, he showed an early aptitude for rugby and, at 6ft tall and weighing 13 stone, soon played for … Read more
The Lincoln County War of 1878 was really a battle fought between two business factions. Nowadays the weapons in such a contest would be advertising, pricing and shopping convenience. In the lawless territory of 1870s New Mexico, the weapons were more lethal. In the early 1870s Lawrence G. Murphy, an Irish emigrant and ex-Union Army … Read more
The Freeman’s Journal was published in Dublin continuously from 1763 to 1924. In its early years it was associated with the ‘patriot’ opposition in the Irish parliament—most notably Charles Lucas, Henry Grattan and Henry Flood. Lucas is generally credited with having founded the paper, though its first editor was Henry Brooke, well known as an … Read more
Alexander Mitchell, eighth son of William Mitchell and Jane Ferguson, one of thirteen children, was born in William Street, Dublin, on 13 April 1780. His father was inspector-general of barracks in Ireland, a duty that took him all over the country. When at home he relaxed by playing the violin and the harpsichord and often … Read more
The last few years have seen a sudden resurgence of interest in the history of polar exploration, focused mainly on the major Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth-century ‘heroic period’. Yet these expeditions represented the end of a long history of polar exploration, and twentieth-century explorers based their methods on the experiences of an earlier … Read more