The 535ft-long, 15,000-ton Blue Star Line luxury liner was built in 1927 by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. She was one of the best-known cruise liners of the 1930s, taking 354 first-class passengers in palatial style to destinations in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, the fjords of Norway and the Arctic Ocean. With her white hull … Read more
Established in 1939 by the Defence Forces to provide landward defence for a country with no naval service, the Coastwatching Service was an unarmed military force numbering approximately 700 and made up of army reservists and men with maritime experience who joined up after the outbreak of war. Manning 83 LOPs, one located every ten … Read more
On 6 August 1940 Garda William Cullen of Belmullet station received a phone call from coastwatchers at the nearby Annagh Head lookout post (LOP). He learned that the Atlantic currents had washed ashore the dead body of a British soldier. Cullen cycled to Annagh Head to investigate. With the coastwatchers he searched the body. Among … Read more
For a brief period, in 1924–5, the National Athletics and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACA) enjoyed undisputed jurisdiction over the island in athletics, cross-country and cycling, receiving formal recognition from the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF). The association was the product of an uneasy post-independence embrace between the Athletics Council of the separatist GAA and … Read more
Built c. 1813 on a 57-acre site owned by Sir John Craven Carden (1757–1820), Richmond Barracks, when completed, was one of the largest in Ireland. Over the course of the nineteenth century it saw a large throughput of regiments, but by 1909 the barracks had been vacated. Templemore Town Council was informed by the War … Read more