Where was your family during the famine? Animo Television 8 September 2008, RTÉ 1 by John Gibney The notion of tracing one’s ancestors in any kind of formalised way can easily prompt Irish people to cynicism, usually (and unfairly) directed at Irish-Americans. But the US is fertile ground for genealogy, for in a country where … Read more
I’m looking at my beaten-up copy of The Liberties of Dublin when Eddie Kelly’s photo from the book launchparty drops out. It’s stamped ‘Irish Times, June 16th, 1973’. We’re sitting on the steps of Marsh’s Library, with curator Muriel McCarthy beaming just off camera. It’s another Ireland and I’m young and foolish in the long skirt … Read more
Harps have been associated with Ireland since ancient times, when harpers were the musicians maintained by chiefs and kings. In the 1500s the harp became the symbol of Ireland itself on the coins of Henry VIII, the first ‘king of Ireland’. After the collapse of the Gaelic order, harpers still found patronage among the aristocracy … Read more
Catalpa Performed and directed by Donal O’Kelly Music by Trevor Knight Axis Theatre, Ballymun, 18 September 2008 Running Beast Performed and directed by Donal O’Kelly Music by Michael Holohan National Concert Hall, Dublin, 11 May 2008 Donal O’Kelly’s highly individual approach to the theatre involves adramatic reworking of key themes and events in Irish history. … Read more
References to fishing grounds off Arklow can be found in Patrician legends and medieval documents. Over the centuries the activity and the area became synonymous, so that by the 1800s the ‘Arklow Fishery’ denoted both the practice and the place. The entry for Arklow in Lewis’s Topographical dictionary (1837) begins: ‘This place . . . … Read more