Northern Ireland’s oldest woods have been a well-kept secret for many years. Remarkably, there has never been a comprehensive record of the country’s ancient woodland, meaning that this rare resource is afforded little or no protection. Now, thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Environment and Heritage Service, the Woodland Trust is … Read more
Listeners to Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin’s broadcast on Sunday nights of the nationwide GAA club results might be familiar with the name ‘JK Brackens’ of Templemore, Co. Tipperary, named after one of the founders of that organisation. While Bracken was a notable figure in his time through his interesting and turbulent career in the GAA, … Read more
The recollections of Ina Heron, fourth child of James Connolly, are preserved in the recently released Military Bureau collection of archives as document WS 919. As a member of Fianna Éireann she was involved in gunrunning in the preparations for the Easter Rising, and during the Rising she took dispatches into areas that men could … Read more
The name William Rooney has long been familiar to historians of Ireland, primarily because of his closeness to Arthur Griffith in the 1890s, yet he remains an elusive figure. Reports of public meetings at this time often end with the enigmatic phrase ‘. . . and William Rooney spoke in Irish’. Given the centrality … Read more
A man who worked alongside me under Douglas Gageby at the Evening Press subsequently wrote of him as being ‘caustic, cynical’ and ‘near scepticism’. Douglas was certainly all of the above. But as I have often observed in nature, the most succulent shellfish generally have the hardest carapaces. Underneath his outer shell he was a … Read more