The rulers of Anghaile were all Uí Fhearghail but their title changed over the years. In 1172 Domnall Ó Fearghail was toisech Conmaicne (a larger area/people than Anghaile). Amhlaibh Ó Fearghail was rí thuisseach muinntire hAnghaile (king/leader of the people of Anghaile) in 1207. Gilla na naom Ó Fearghail was aon rogha thaoisech Erenn (choicest … Read more
The Annals of Connacht state that in 1271 Sefraig h. Fergail, along with the Muintir Angaile (the people of Anghaile), killed Nicol mac Seoan Berdun, tigerna Oirgiall (Nicholas fitz John de Verdun, the lord of Oirghialla/Louth). The phrasing is the same used for a death in battle, not a secret murder. The Annals of Multifarnham … Read more
A century ago, in December 1922, at the height of the Civil War, poet W.B. Yeats was nominated to the Senate of the newly established Irish Free State. In January of that year he had participated in the cultural programme of the Irish Race Congress in Paris. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize … Read more
To be aired on TG4, 9.30pm, Wednesday 7 December 2022 Over three nights in April 1922, thirteen Protestant men were shot dead in West Cork. According to Peter Hart’s 1998 book The IRA and its enemies, they were shot because they were Protestants—sectarian killings carried out by members of the IRA—and ‘the nationalist revolution had also … Read more
While not in the vanguard of the War of Independence, Donegal became the scene of the last stand-up fight between the IRA (pro- and anti-Treaty) and British military (in the ‘Pettigo triangle’), with the latter using heavy artillery for the first time in Ireland since 1916. On the outbreak of the Civil War some of these … Read more