Looted Irish Treasure Recovered in Britain

A hoard of treasure including medieval silver coins, some military items and a Bronze-Age axe and spear-head that were looted from Ireland have been recovered and returned to the National Museum of Ireland. The use of metal detectors in Ireland requires a licence. It is suspected that several people searched for and found the historical treasures between 2009 and 2012 and removed them illegally. Some 899 items were removed from the County Tipperary area, a location that was already in the news this year for the discovery of a 17th Century Pot of Gold Found in the Foundations of an … Continue reading Looted Irish Treasure Recovered in Britain

Saint Patrick’s Day Traditions

The Wearing of the Green The tradition of wearing Shamrock to celebrate Saint Patrick seems to date from the seventeenth or eighteenth century. This was a very turbulent time in Irish history. The suppression of the Gaelic way of life by the ruling British invaders resulted in many aspects of the Catholic religion in Ireland being forced underground. Strict laws were enforced which prevented the Catholic population from attending schools so ‘hedge-schools’ were operated in secret. These were schools run outdoors in secluded places (sometimes literally ‘under a hedge!). The teaching of religion was also forbidden so it is only … Continue reading Saint Patrick’s Day Traditions

Saint Valentine Was Irish!

Ok, he was not really Irish but in the true Irish tradition of claiming association to just about anything that is good we Irish are claiming the Saint as our own. We do have some grounds for this assertion – bear with me. Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin is the unlikely resting place for the relics of Saint Valentine. That’s right! While desperate men the world over rush to their nearest Garage fore-court to buy half-battered bunches of red roses in the hope that it will get them out of jail, the knowledge that there is an Irish connection to … Continue reading Saint Valentine Was Irish!

Magdalene Laundries Abuses To Be Made Public

The Report by the Committee that was established to investigate the role that the Irish Government played in the abuses perpetuated in the notorious ‘Magdalene Laundries’ is to be published. In the decades that followed the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and the Republic in 1948 the Catholic Church had tremendous influence in Ireland. It is only since the 1970’s that this influence has declined. Over the last two decades the litany of abuse carried out in institutions by religious orders and sponsored by the State has been graphically exposed. One such institution was the ‘Magdalene Laundry’ … Continue reading Magdalene Laundries Abuses To Be Made Public

17th Century Pot of Gold Found in Foundations of Irish Pub

Ok there was no actual Pot but a hoard of 81 coins dating from the 1630’s to the early part of the 1700’s has been discovered by workmen at a County Tipperary Pub that had burned down some years ago. The hoard includes guineas and half-guineas including 35 Charles II coins, 25 James II coins, 19 William III and two William III and Mary III coins. Cooneys’ pub in Carick-on-Suir was one of the oldest pubs in the County until it was destroyed by fire. The unlikely find by the workmen has been described as perhaps the most significant archeological … Continue reading 17th Century Pot of Gold Found in Foundations of Irish Pub

1916 Easter Rising Building Saved from Demolition

The ‘Save No 16 Moore Street’ Committee has called on the Irish Government to provide funding for the restoration of a building in Dublin City Centre that is central to the story of the Easter 1916 Rising. The unassuming building that is just yards from Henry Street and the GPO was the location where the leaders of the Easter 1916 Rebellion decided to surrender their arms to the overwhelming British forces that were stacked against them. The Committee hopes that the building will be restored and turned into a museum in time for the 1916 centenary commemoration in three years … Continue reading 1916 Easter Rising Building Saved from Demolition

Ned Kelly, Irish-Australian Outlaw Finally Laid to Rest

The infamous Irish bushranger Ned Kelly has been buried in an unmarked Australian grave some 132 years after his death. Despite being hanged in 1880 it was not until 2011 when DNA evidence from one of his living relatives was matched against bones and remains found in a derelict Melbourne Jail that any funeral could take place. For a time there was a legal wrangle over the ownership of the remains but in the end his descendants won the right to give him the Catholic burial he is said to have wanted. A crowd of over 500 people turned up … Continue reading Ned Kelly, Irish-Australian Outlaw Finally Laid to Rest