Turtle's History Library

An overview of the Past Tracks project, where history panels have been installed at railway stations across Ireland to highlight local history and stories. Initiated in collaboration with Irish Rail and illustrator Derry Dillon, the project aims to engage commuters with Ireland’s rich past through intriguing narratives and vibrant illustrations.

People, places and branches connected to the Butler family in Ireland and abroad.

In the 1420s, Kilkea Castle in County Kildare was considerably extended and improved by the Earls of Kildare who would become the most influential dynasty in Ireland by the end of the century. With the Tudors came a sensational but disastrous rebellion that would bring the FitzGerald elite to the brink of extinction.

The Butler earls of Ormond operated one of medieval Ireland’s dominant dynasties, centred on Kilkenny and Tipperary. From James Butler, 1st Earl (created 1328) through the “Noble Earl” and the cultured “White Earl,” they combined royal service, war in France, and control of the palatinate of Tipperary. Later earls like the fabulously rich “Wool Earl” and Red Piers navigated the Wars of the Roses, Tudor politics, and the Boleyn marriage connection, keeping Butler power central in Ireland for centuries.

By 1305, Sir John Wogan was the most influential man in Ireland. As a reward, King Edward I of England gifted him Kilkea Castle and its manor lands. The property was also of much interest to the FitzGerald family, now Earls of Kildare, who were partly descended from the de Ridelesfords. Meanwhile, the Pale itself soon became one of the bloodiest battlegrounds on the island of Ireland.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Tipperary’s past.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Kilkenny’s past.

Almost every Butler on Planet Earth traces their lineage to Theobald Walter, an Anglo-Norman knight who arrived in Ireland in 1185 in the retinue of Prince John, Lord of Ireland. This page looks at his ancestry, and the first five Chief Butlers of Ireland, plus their connection to Arklow, the Viscounts Dunboyne, and Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, father of the first Earl of Ormonde.

The Butlers of Scatorish and Maiden Hall, County Kilkenny, descend from a branch of the Viscount Dunboyne’s descendants who settled at Priestown, County Meath, returning to County Kilkenny in the nineteenth century.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Meath’s past.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, pubs, families, events and places connected to County Carlow’s past.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Wicklow.

  See also: Book Launch: ‘Tullow Through the Ages’ (2025) by Christopher McQuinn   Crosslow …

It is said that the first of the family to come to Ireland was an Alexander McClintock who arrived in Donegal 1597. A mercenary, perhaps, who fought during the Nine Years War? And yet it seems more likely he arrived as part of a settlement arranged by Bishop Knox of Raphoe circa 1620s. The first known McClintock home was a farm at Trintaugh near the River Foyle. They built the nearby church at Taughboyne. This page seeks to flesh out what we know of these early settlers.

A remarkable family, descended from a French Huguenot refugee whose grandson established the family at Ballinasloe in County Galway. Headed up by the Earl of Clancarty, its prominent figures include one of the architects of modern Europe after Napoleon's fall, a 20th century UFO expert and a celebrated dancing girl of the Victorian Age. 

In the medieval period, rivers and lakes were the principal highways that people used to get around. However, what happens when a darker force gains access to those same waterways? A force whose sole game-plan seems to be to raid and plunder and generally go on the rampage? The Vikings would be one of the most powerful influences on Irish life for the bones of 400 years.

In the distant past, the raths around Lisnavagh were part of the power base of the Uí Ceinnselaig (Kinsellagh). This section considers the links to Rathmore, Rathvilly, the Oldfort ringfort and the Slíghe Chualann, as well as two kings of Leinster, Crimthann mac Énnai (who was baptised by St Patrick) and his father, Enna Kinsellagh .

Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey are considered three of the greatest literary classics of all times. The three novels were published in 1847 by the brilliant Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. This is the lesser known story of their father, an Irish clergyman from County Down, and the Heathcliff-like story of his ancestors, as well as Charlotte Brontë's connections to Banagher, County Offaly.

The Christmas Truce of 1914 has become one of the most iconic events of the war, a moment when British and German soldiers sang carols, exchanged cigarettes and met in the killing fields of No Man’s Land for informal kickabouts with a football on Christmas Day.

It was my ambition with this study to trace the Musgrave family of Derrinasoo on the Roscommon-Leitrim border (and by extension of Cork) back to the 18th century. The earliest forebear I've found is William Musgrave (1817-1876). Alas, concrete evidence still eludes me although there are many strange connections, which are surely more than mere coincidences, linking the various Musgrave, Mosgrave and Musgrove families of Scotland, Northern Ireland, London, Limerick, Sligo and Roscommon, not to mention the Canadian branches.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Roscommon’s past.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Leitrim’s past.

My grandfather packed a lot into his 44 years. Born during the Great War, he lost his mother at the age of eight and, an only child, became very close to his father, the 3rd Baron Rathdonnell. Educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge in England, he lived it up in the US in the late 1930s but life turned serious again at the age of 21 when his father died and he succeeded as 4th Baron. He married Pamela Drew, a free-spirited artist, a few weeks later. And then came Hitler’s War, in which he found himself in command of a squadron of tanks …

The Vigors hailed from Devon, England, and came to Ireland in the early 17th century when one of them became chaplain to the influential Boyle family. During the reign of Charles II, they  were granted estates in County Carlow, where branches were established at Old Leighlin, Holloden and Burgage. Family members include a zoologist, an antiquarian and the writer Wilfred Thesiger.

Giles was one of my father's best friends from his time in the Royal Navy. In 1972, he managed to avoid crashing a Royal Navy Buccaneer jet into East Belfast after it malfunctioned during a routine test flight but his courage came at a cost and he was invalided out of the Navy.

Gilbert Butler was our mother's father. He lived at Scatorish, Bennettsbridge, County Kilkenny, and farmed at nearby Annamult, Drumherin and Burnchurch. He was president of the President of the Royal Dublin Society in 1975-1976, during which time he opened the RDS pavilion, and also a past president of the  Irish Dairy Shorthorn Society. He was closely  involved with the National Farmers Association. He was a brother of the essayist Hubert Butler of Maidenhall.

A eulogy to our father, who died on 28 February 2025. Delivered at St Mary’s Church, Rathvilly, County Carlow, on 5 March 2025.

The Formative Years – Tom McClintock Bunbury (1848-1929) would become probably the most influential member of the Irish branch of the family in history. This section looks at his childhood, his Eton education, his time in the Scots Greys, the death of his parents and sisters, his marriage to Kate Bruen and his position as heir apparent to his uncle, the 1st Baron Rathdonnell.

See here for more stories of County Dublin.   The Forty-Foot   Sandycove is the …

Highlighting notable figures from Enniscorthy, including Eileen Gray, a pioneering modernist architect and furniture designer; Martin Cash, an infamous Australian bushranger; acclaimed novelist Colm Tóibín, as well as Denys Corbett Wilson, the first aviator to fly from Britain to Ireland, and John P. Holland, the submarine inventor. Includes references to local landmarks such as Brownswood House and Enniscorthy Castle.

Tim became heir apparent to Lisnavagh and the lordship of Rathdonnell, after his brother Billy was killed in the Anglo-Boer War. As a young man, he was Private Secretary to the Governors of Ceylon and Fiji, and the High Commissioner of Australia. A key figure at the Imperial Institute, he served in the war in East Africa, Italy and Carinthia, now Slovenia. His only child was my grandfather.

The White House was built by a fellow from Kilkenny and burned down by a man from Down. At least 22 of its presidential occupants had Irish roots, as did numerous other founding fathers and leading political figures in US history. This epic tale looks at the many, many connections between Ireland and the US presidents, including the White House staff over the years and the Irish links to the 2024 showdown between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

In 1921, Rory O’Connor stood as best man when his old friend Kevin O'Higgins married Birdie Cole in Dublin. The friendship would be torn apart with the outbreak of the Irish Civil War, during which O'Higgins gave the order for O'Connor to be executed. O'Higgins, the second most senior politician in Ireland, would be assassinated in 1927. During his last months, he was engaged in a romance with Lady Lavery. 

Brendan Bracken, one of Winston Churchill's closest friends, was the son of a prominent Irish nationalist. He ran away from school as a child and reinvented himself as an Australian schoolteacher. Brendan served as Britain's Minister of Propaganda during the Second World War and went on to found what would one day become The Financial Times.

I was utterly elated by the first review of my 2021 book, ‘The Irish Diaspora,’ from BBC History Magazine, the UK’s biggest selling history magazine: ‘This fascinating assortment of case histories, spread across 1,400 years and six continents, is an impressive feat of research … The summaries of often-complex historical background to the lives explored are models of lucid compression.' Here's some further detail.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to the city and county of Dublin.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Limerick’s past.

That great silence which accreted around the extraordinary conflagration of the Great War in so far as it affected Ireland, has been often, ironically, spoken of in our time. But there always has been a trace of the war, silence or no silence, inside, literally, almost everyone in Ireland.

With links to all the various branches of the Bunburys I have written about from Lisnavagh to Guyana, Suffolk to Liverpool, New Zealand to Cheshire.

This is a lesser known branch of the Bunbury family, connected to Ballyseskin in the barony of Bargy in County Wexford. The founder of this branch may have been a Cromwellian officer, even if other Bunburys fought for the king, and its descendants include Walter Bunbury, MP for Clonmines in the reign of Queen Anne, and his formidable wife, Dame Elizabeth.

A branch of the Bunbury family lived at Johnstown House outside Carlow town for most of the 18th and early 19th century. This account looks at such characters as the travel writer Selina Bunbury and the pioneering postmaster Sir Henry Noel Bunbury, as well as connections to the Irish Volunteers, William Pitt, Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Galton, Oscar Wilde, the Connellan family and sub-branches in Liverpool, Essex, Miami and Cuba.

Humewood Castle is without doubt one of the most eccentric buildings in Ireland. Built in 1868 for Fitzwilliam Dick, it later passed to his granddaughter, Mimi, who married General Maxim Weygand, commander-of-chief of the Allied forces in Europe on the eve of the German invasion of France. The castle is now owned by the American business executive and philanthropist John Malone whose extensive refurbishment earned Humewood the best conservation/restoration scheme award from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 2016.

Norman‑origin Barnewalls rise as Pale magnates, judges and Lords Trimleston, anchored at Crickstown and Turvey House. They back Simnel, shelter Edmund Campion, tie themselves to O’Neill and Bagenal, fight in Confederate and Jacobite wars, endure Penal‑era exile and foreign service, then re‑emerge as émigré peers, scandal‑tinged Trimleston dowagers and Carlow merchants.

A genealogy from the line of Morugh MacFinn, son of Finn macMael Morda O'Faelain, who reigned as King of Leinster from 965 to 972. The Uí Fáeláin branch of the Uí Dúnlainge dynasty were based at Naas (Nás na Ríogh / Nás Laighean), Co. Kildare, whose name preserves its role as the assembly‑place of the Leinster kings.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Kildare’s past.

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Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Waterford’s past.

For more stories, see County Kildare or County Carlow or County Waterford   The first …

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Down’s past.

Looking at some notable figures and historical events associated with Holywood, including golfer Rory McIlroy, sculptor Rosamund Praeger, and Captain Theophilus Alexander Blakely.

The Bangor‑born sportsman overcame serious childhood illness to excel at both hockey and golf. He won 135 caps for Ireland and 94 for Great Britain, securing Olympic bronze in 1984 and gold in 1988. Later, he captained GB at Barcelona 1992 before moving into high‑performance sports administration and leadership roles in both the Irish and British Olympic structures.

When the ancient Egyptian cartographer Ptolemy sketched his map of the known world some 1900 years ago, he sketched the Howth Head peninsula on the north side of Dublin Bay as an island. Some hold that Howth was also known to the Phoenicians. Here are a dozen highlights from Howth's history from ancient deer to Russian mutineers, the famous gun-run to a lesser known hero of 1916.

Delving into its ancient roots with Viking refugees, Roman artefacts, and the Talbot dynasty at Malahide Castle, as well as pivotal figures like the regicide Myles Corbet, the heroic Tom Kettle and the Barings of Lambay. The article also explores connections to Canada and Tasmania and curiosities from salt production to railway collections.

See here for more stories of County Kilkenny   Robert Fulton, inventor, Kilkenny roots – …

Above: A gathering at Dalmonach on the shores of Loch Lomond. The impressively bearded Alexander …

Looking at the Bunbury family during the 100 Years War and the Wars of the Roses, including a timely sickie on the eve of Agincourt.

Carlow-born Pierce Butler is recognised as one of United States' Founding Fathers. As well as serving over a decade as a Senator for South Caroline, he was also one of the greatest landowners and slaveholders in America.

An eccentric and prolific architect. Robertson left his mark on such well-known Irish mansions as Killruddery, Powerscourt and Lisnavagh. An American of Scots origin, he grew up between South Carolina and Georgia before training as an architect in London. Having gone bankrupt in 1830, he moved to Ireland where he lived until his death in Howth in 1849.

The life of a Georgian gentleman farmer in 18th century Ireland as he extends his land ownership from County Carlow into Longford and Kildare. Thomas Bunbury was grandfather of Jane Bunbury who married John McClintock of Drumcar, from whom the McClintock Bunbury family descend, and also of Field Marshal Viscount Gough.

Considering the impact of Ireland abroad from Jessie Buckley and Cillian Murphy to St Patrick's Day to Mick Lynch and the Trade Unions, as well as the historical precedent behind the Biden presidency's support of the Good Friday agreement and the Irish diaspora around the world.

The story of the feisty Donegal missionary who brought Christianity to Pictish Scotland, after a devastating battle in Ireland, plus Iona's links to Lindisfarne … and how a court case that he was embroiled in set a useful precedent for anyone advocating Google’s right to free content.

The underground of any city is replete with the possibilities of another world. Think of the darkly magical catacombs of Edinburgh or Rome, or the abandoned Tube lines under London. Many of the legends of a subterranean Dublin riddled with interconnecting tunnels are codology. The Irish capital is too wet for a decent underground, resting upon reclaimed marshland, but there are nonetheless some tunnels worth knowing about …

During the medieval period, the most prominent legal family in County Clare was the O’Davoren, or Ó Duibhdábhoireann, a minor Gaelic gentry sept who ran a celebrated school of fénechas (native law) at Cahermacnaghten in the Burren. As well as being famous jurists and scholars, the O’Davorens served as hereditary brehons to the O’Loghlen family.

The Burren of County Clare has one of the highest concentrations of ringforts in the country, including those at Cahermore and Caherconnell, as well as cashels such as Cahercommaun, Caherballykinvarga and Cahermacnaghten.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Clare’s past.

See here for more stories of County Clare   How long has there been life …

See here for more stories of County Clare   After the Neolithic period, came the …

One of the most celebrated families of the Kildare hunting scene during the middle decades of the 20th century, the Kennedys were direct descendants of Sir John Kennedy, the Father of the Kildare Hunt. Indeed, for much of the 20th century, the area around Straffan was known as ‘Kennedy country’.

May Malone, the eldest of ten children, was born in 1945 and spent the first decade of her life growing up in a single room on the top floor of a decrepit four-storey townhouse, No. 7 Henrietta Street. She shared this one small room with her parents, her grandmother, her uncle and four of her younger siblings. This is her account of tenement life.

Dr Bartholomew Mosse was the founder of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, the first purpose-built maternity hospital in the world, which opened in 1757. This highly motivated surgeon and man-midwife achieved his ambition through his immense gift for corporate fundraising: running lotteries, staging concerts and productions in the theatre, including a number of Handel's oratorios.

Between 1916 and 1929, Leonard Hutcheson Poe (1888-1929) was the agent at Lisnavagh and lived in Germaines.

Between 1142 and 1270, the Cistercian Order built 38 abbeys in Ireland from which, at their peak, they owned almost half a million acres in Ireland, including 48,000 acres at their mother-house, Mellifont Abbey. Famed for their agricultural prowess, the Cistercians were particularly adept at bringing sheep's wool to the markets of Flanders, by which means they became a corporate megastar – closely affiliated with the Knights Templar.

  The High Cross   Shaft is 10th century, but head came later in 12th …

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Laois.

The builder of Drumcar House, John McClintock was one of the most prominent MPs during the age of Grattan’s Parliament, serving as MP for Belturbet and Enniskillen between 1783 and 1797. He was also Chief Serjeant of Arms to the Irish Parliament (when his wife’s cousin John Foster was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons) and Treasurer of the Northern Rangers. This story also takes in the remarkable tale of John Suttoe, a black man who worked for the McClintocks and married Margaret O’Brien from County Louth.

Looking at the region’s rich history at Tomies Wood, Ross Castle, Innisfallen Island and the McCarthy Mór stronghold Castlelough, later owned by Crosbie and Blennerhassett families. Tourism boomed under Thomas Browne, Viscount Kenmare. The Lakes of Killarney were home to Fionn Mac Cumhaill and admired by Queen Victoria. The Guinness, Bourn, Vincent, and McShain families owned Muckross House, while local heroes include Hugh O’Flaherty, Janie McCarthy, and Sarah Scullin.

By the time of his death in 1966, Walt Disney was a household name across the world, having racked up far more Oscars than anyone else in history and established a multination company with zillions of dollars, as well as resorts and theme parks. A classic American success story from man whose ancestors emigrated to the US from Ireland in the 1830s but when it came to his Irish roots, Walt was all about the blarney. This article looks at his ancestry and his visit to Ireland on a research mission for ‘Darby O'Gill and the Little People'.

Short histories taking in Henry VIII’s creation of the county, Jonathan Swift’s connections, Peg Plunkett’s life as a courtesan, Mary Molesworth’s imprisonment, John Wesley’s Methodist influence, and James Joyce and J.P. Donleavy’s literary contributions, amongst others.

In terms of source material, as well as the persons acknowledged here, I salute the …

Highlighting friendships between George Harrison and Jim Fitzpatrick, U2’s spiritual journey while composing their album “October,” and the influential work of Frances Power Cobbe in animal rights and women’s suffrage. It also recounts the dramatic romance of Mabel Bagenal and Hugh O’Neill, the legacy of Erskine Dunphy in the art world with Damien Hirst, and the impact of Turvey House on local history.

The founder of W. R. Grace & Co was an Irishman who made a fortune during the Peruvian guano boom before he became New York’s first Catholic mayor. Born into a Catholic family from the Laois-Kildare border, Billy liked to say of his ancestors, ‘they’re like potatoes – the best of them underground.’

See here for more stories of the Kildare Gentry and Aristocracy   Headed up by …

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Cork and Cork City’s past.

An astonishing lesson in leadership from the Irishman whose attempt to cross the Antarctic by land left him with the immense challenge of leading his 27 crewmen on a godforsaken adventure through the world's most hellish waters and an uncharted mountain range.

Plantation owner Hugh Mill Bunbury of Guyana (Demerara) was born in Devon and moved to the West Indies as a young man. His daughter Lydia was disinherited for marrying the French Romantic poet Count Alfred de Vigny. His son Charles commanded the Rifle Brigade and married Lady Harriot Dundas. One grandson was Privy Chamberlains to the Pope, as well as heir to Cranavonane, County Carlow. Another was the much-decorated businessman, Evelyn James Bunbury.

A look at the origins of Lisnavagh's name, and the various players – Butler, Leyn, Meredith, Gilbert and Korton – who were connected to the townland before the Bunburys arrived. The more I learn about the past, the more connected I feel to the future.

Stories of Leixlip, Ireland, detailing events from Viking battles to the establishment of notable landmarks like Leixlip Castle and the Ryevale Distillery. It highlights influential figures such as Desmond Guinness and Kit Cavanagh, and discusses local heritage, architecture, and cultural contributions throughout the centuries.

See here for more stories from County Clare. The Bear From Clare   Perhaps the …

Accounts of the Dalkey hawks and the Atmospheric Railway, of Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, and Harry Styles, of the Kingdom of Dalkey, a gold rush and a woman who tried to kill Mussolini, of Flann O’Brien, Maeve Binchy, Gail Slater and the evolution of Sorrento Terrace, Vico Road and Monte Alverno, amongst other tales.

See also Notes on Kilcock.   The High King’s Rendezvous   Rathcore Golf Club, north …

Descended from two great Catholic Irish families, the More O’Ferralls combined with the marriage in 1751 of the Balyna heiress Letitia O’More and the Dublin banker Richard Ferrall. During the 1840s, Sir Richard More O’Ferrall emerged as a great champions of religious toleration and independence.  Balyna is an exclusive hotel near Enfield, County Kildare.

Built as a rectory for the Church of Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars, Bishopscourt was considered such a fine abode that two Bishops of Clogher opted to use it as their main place of residence during the first decades of the 20th century. This tale takes in the Lennard family, scions of a natural daughter of Charles II, as well as Cassandra Hand, champion of Clones Lace; the dairying enterprise of the Mealiff family; the fabulously named Baldwin Murphy; and the enigmatic Archie Moore, Consultant Surgeon at Monaghan General Hospital.

Having arrived in Ireland in 1617, the Pringle family were major egg and butter merchants by 1900. A branch was based on the Diamond in Clones, with major residencies at Clonboy House and Ballinahone. The Pringle Memorial Hall was opened in 1908 in honour of John Pringle of Clones. His eldest son Seton Sydney Pringle was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Seton and his wife Ethel were father to three sons (Commander John Pringle, RN; Donald Pringle, headmaster of Castle Park; and Air Marshal Sir Charles Pringle) and two daughters (Betty Butler and Peggy Snow, grandmother of Dan Snow).

See here for more stories of the Bunbury family.   Born on 18 December 1813, …

Following the final quarter of a century of Tom Rathdonnell's life from the outbreak of the First Word War and the Easter Rising through the Irish revolutionary period to his death on the eve of the Wall Street Crash.

Three parishes and circa 74 townlands across the island of Ireland are named after eskers, ridges formed in glacial times. This article offers a few thoughts on how and why some of Ireland’s present-day roads have been used for several thousand years.

Located just east of the Lisnavagh farmyard, Acaun is the smallest of Carlow County's 603 townlands. This account considers the origins of its monastery, mill-race and castle and touches on its connections to people such as Alice Kyteler, Bishop Ledred and Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick.

Located on the River Dereen, this 350 acre townland includes the beautiful Haroldstown Dolmen, while neighbouring Ballykilduff appears to have been home to a Bronze Age settlement that was first charted by a drone in 2018. Closely linked to the nearby monastery at Acaun, its past owners include two former Lord Chancellors of Ireland and an eccentric newspaper man. It was also the scene of an appalling eviction of 173 tenants in the 1830s, including numerous widows.  

It is over 260 years since the first houses were built on Merrion Square. It just goes to show what you can do with a few acres of undeveloped marshland if you put your mind to it.

Once an elevated stretch of marshy bogland, Dublin's Mountjoy Square were founded by the enigmatic Gardiner family, who also counted Henrietta Street and Gardiner Street amongst their creations. Spanning the era of Georgian Ireland, this is the story of the family who became Viscounts Mountjoy.

The FitzGeralds would face no end of challenges during the opening decades of the 20th century with two tragic deaths and the loss of a huge portion of their ancestral wealth. However, with the birth of the Irish Free State, Kilkea Castle in County Kildare remained home for many FitzGerald sons and daughters through both wars until 1961 when sold by the 8th Duke of Leinster.

See here for more stories of the Bunbury family   Francis Ramsay St Pierre Bunbury, …

This branch of the main Lisnavagh family initially settled between County Tipperary and Connemara. Descendants include a man who held the world record for shorthand writing, the Borneo settler for whom the Bunbury Shoals are named and the unfortunate Molly Bunbury who was murdered by her doctor husband in 1886.

Click here for further tales of Dublin City and County Dublin   Eureka!   Born …

An overview of Turtle's professional career, including bundles of photos from the last two or three decades.

See also Booterstown and Monkstown. The Diver’s Baths   The nearby Blackrock Baths were once …

See here for the longer version of this story.   For a brief moment on …

See here for more stories of the Grand Canal Docks   *****   The Evolution …

A quick overview of the Bunbury baronets in England, including the Jacobite supporter Sir Harry Bunbury and the family of Sir Charles Bunbury, Admiral of the Turf, and Henry William Bunbury, the artist.

The vampire horror film ‘Sinners' just broke the record for the most Oscar nominations received by a single film, after being nominated for 16 of Hollywood's most prestigious honours. The vampire cult owes an enormous amount to Irish writers such as Bram Stoker (Dracula), Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Carmilla) and Thomas Crofton Croker, not to mention Abhartach, a psychotic dwarf chieftain from Donegal. Here's why …

See here for more stories of the Bunbury family.   Born on 15 February 1851, …

A lesser known branch of the Irish family whose members include the mistress to one of George III's sons, one of Australia's most celebrated clockmakers, a brilliant pianist, a Victoria Cross winner and the landlord of the Yellow-Lion Inn in Carlow Town, as well as a cameo by the creator of Big Ben.

Taking the story from his succession as 2nd Baron Rathdonnell in 1879 and the complexities of the Land Wars, through the glory days of Anchor, Bluebeard and the other Lisnavagh bulls, plus the marriage of his daughters, the death of Billy in the Anglo-Boer War and up to the eve of the Great War.

See here for more stories from Vanishing Ireland   ‘When you got a blow from …

Tales of Terry Wogan, Richard Harris, Patrice MacMahon, the castrato Tenducci and the Limerick-born governess to the children of the last Tsar of Russia …

Ballyvolane is one of the most admired guest houses in Ireland. Built by a former Chief Justice of Ireland, past occupants of the County Cork mansion include a butler and a maid executed for murder and a nationalist politician who vanished without trace. Owned by the Green family since 1953, its recent guests have included Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. This history includes a piece I wrote for National Geographic Traveller.

Looking at stories of Captain Seán Heuston, St Maighneann, Oliver St John Gogarty, Grizelda Steevens, who founded a hospital, and Prior Keating’s defiance, alongside events like the Crimean Banquet and the Phoenix Park Tunnel.

The FitzGeralds rose from the ashes with the remarkable return of the Wizard Earl of Kildare in the 1550s. Despite a litany of premature deaths, his successors managed to ride out the turmoil of the 17th century intact, extending Kilkea Castle in County Kildare along the way. The castle also served as a Jesuit novitiate for 12 years before being extended in the 1660s. In the 18th century, the great-great-grandson of the Fairy Earl would become the first Duke of Leinster.

The stories of Ernest Shackleton, a saviour ape, a Scottish invasion of Kildare, a World War One hero, a bare knuckle champ, amongst others, from the very first Past Tracks panel – installed in 2019 and illustrated by Derry Dillon. Nationwide filmed an episode with Turtle guiding viewers through the panel. 

This part takes up from William’s retirement from the navy, after 20 years at sea, and the complete revolution in his life in 1846 when, in the space of 5 weeks, he succeeded to his wealthy uncle’s fortune and became MP for Carlow, just as Peel’s government collapsed and the potato blight began to scorch the land. It looks at his sojourn in County Fermanagh, his marriage into the Stronge family of Tynan Abbey, his political term at Westminster and the construction of Lisnavagh House.

During the 1820s, William McClintock Bunbury sailed around the coast of South America as 1st Lieutenant on board HMS Samarang to Captain Charles Paget (1806-1845), nephew of the 1st Marquess of Anglessy. Also on board was young Leopold McClintock, the future explorer, whose sister was to become Captain Paget's second wife.

Descended from a Presbyterian minister whose son struck gold in banking and linen, the family lived at Straffan House on the banks of the Liffey during the 18th century, as well as nearby Lodge Park. A high-profile marriage to the Earl of Milltown’s daughter gave them a prominent position in Irish society. Family members include Joseph Henry, one of Ireland’s greatest art connoisseurs; Admiral Hastings Yelverton, First Lord of the Admiralty; and Commander Michael Henry of the Polaris submarine.

Highlighting subjects such as Ptolemy’s ancient map, the rabbit warren created by monks, St Fintan, Edmond Lauder (photographer), the artistic contributions of Harriet Kirkwood, the Easter Rising’s connections to Bob Monteith, the United Irishmen, James Joyce (author of Ulysses) and PJ McCall (ballad writer).

Dublin-born John Henry Foley was one of the most prolific sculptors in history. His works adorned public squares from London to Kolkata to Virginia, USA, while there are more statues by him in Ireland than any other sculptor. These include the Daniel O’Connell monument on O’Connell Street and the statues of Burke, Goldsmith and Grattan on College Green. He was personally selected by Queen Victoria to sculpt Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London.

Dismissed from the British Army after a court martial in 1823, Kane moved to Moyle, Kellistown, County Carlow, where he became one of Ireland’s principal cattle breeders. From 1865 until his death aged 97 in 1874, he lived at Rathmore Park, also in Carlow. Although he died unmarried, it seems that Colonel Bunbury did not die without issue: hence, the Kane Smith. Also into this colourful mix can be added Willie Wilde, brother of Oscar, and Vera, Countess of Rosslyn, as well as the late architect, Jeremy Williams.

Hugh Gough commanded in more battles than any other British soldier of the nineteenth century save for his fellow Irishman, the Duke of Wellington. This included his victories in the Opium War and the Anglo-Sikh Wars. His mother was a Bunbury.

In the 1830s, the 3rd Duke of Leinster began a lengthy restoration of his family’s ancient castle at Kilkea in County Kildare, giving it the shape that it has today. For the rest of the century, Kilkea would be home to the Marquess of Kildare. This era, which coincided with the Great Hunger, the Land Wars and the ever-louder call for Home Rule in Ireland, would end with the calamitous – and premature – deaths of the 5th Duke of Leinster and his beautiful wife, Hermione.

The Carlow-born pole vaulter came from a family rooted in pub and farming life. He won ten All-Ireland pole vault titles in the 1950s, broke multiple Irish records, and balanced athletic success with industrial work and family life, a legacy continued by descendants including actor Ella Lily Hyland.

The Brabazons came to prominence during the Tudor conquest of Ireland when Henry VIII dispatched the shrewd Sir William Brabazon to Ireland as Vice-Treasurer. He established the family at Killruddery and his grandson was created 1st Earl of Meath in 1627. Over the next 300 years, the family would consolidate their influence in Wicklow, Ireland and the wider world of the British Empire.

Benjamin Bunbury was one of the younger sons of Thomas Bunbury of Kill but the death in a horse fall of his older brother William propelled him into the deep end as he took over the running of Lisnavagh, as well as Moyle and Killerrig, on behalf of his young nephew. He earned himself a reputation as something of a diplomat during the 1798 Rebellion but narrowly avoided being murdered by the Finnegan gang shortly before his death at the age of 72 .

See here for more stories of County Monaghan   Located 8 miles north of Monaghan …

Turtle was commissioned to research, write and  produce the history of Maxol as a handsome coffee table. He also converted the history into an 11-part podcast series, which he narrated.

The Alexander family emigrated from Scotland to Ireland with the plantations of the early 17th century and prospered as merchants in Limavady, Londonderry and Dublin. The most successful family members was James Alexander, who made his fortune as a nabob of the East India Company in India in the 1770s and became the 1st Earl of Caledon. Other descendants include Field Marshal Alexander of Tunis, a Primate of All-Ireland and the milling Alexanders of Milford, County Carlow.

Tracing the Ringsend glassworks’ rise under hospitals-sweepstake backers, its sale and closure under Paul Coulson, speculative boom‑time land deals and Becbay’s collapse, and today’s Poolbeg West SDZ plan for 3,500 homes on the remediated port peninsula.

See here for more historical stories from Dublin    Ringsend has always been a place …

A veritable Irish desperado if ever there was one, Billy the Kid was born ‘Henry McCarty', the son of an Irish emigrant, and raised amid the ramshackle tenements of New York's Lower East Side before he headed off to the Wild West.

In August 2015, the Women’s Museum of Ireland sought suggestions for a new map to highlight sites around Dublin City connected to remarkable women from Irish history. Turtle pitched six women to the Irish Daily Mail whom he thought should make the cut:

Highlighting notable figures from Glenageary, including Marie Martin (founder of the Medical Missionaries of Mary), Sinéad O’Connor (renowned singer), and John Millington Synge (playwright).

The film ‘Albert Nobbs' is based on a story, first published in 1918, by the Irish author George Moore. In 1912, he abandoned Ireland in pursuit of unrequited love in London with one of the richest women in the world. An early critic of the dictatorial behaviour of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Moore was also one of the first writers to seriously address equal rights for women.

Ireland's largest outlying island is also one of its most magical.. If you've only got time to gaze out a moving windscreen, then a tour of the island shouldn't take more than an hour. But it is better suited to day-trippers, with numerous options for silencing the car engine and making further investigation.

Take a small chunk of desolate Spanish sierra, add a sprinkler system and what do you get? By 2003, Sotogrande was unarguably the most exclusive, up-market golfing resort in Europe.

Joe Biden was arguably the most ‘Irish' president to have occupied the White House. He enjoyed an especially successful visit to Ireland in 2023, his third since 2016. This is an ongoing exploration of his engineering forebears and his ancestral roots, including affiliated lines of the Scanlon, Blewitt, Finnegan, Arthur, Boyle and Roche families.

The name ‘Brava’, meaning wild or rugged, was coined by a Catalonian journalist a century ago but it did not look remotely perilous the day we bunny-hopped down the coast. For the most part, it was serene coves, fertile slopes, pebbly beaches and medieval turrets with occasional eruptions of seaside resorts in between. Perfect for sitting with sundowners, watching the glittering ocean slowly submerge into darkness for another night.

In 1956 the Academy Award-winning actress from Philadelphia achieved what many deemed a fairytale dream when she married Monaco’s Prince Rainier. There hadn’t been an Irish woman on a throne since Grace O’Malley who was not just Grace’s namesake but also came from Mayo. This is a short account of those Mayo roots back to Strong John Kelly and how the currach rowers of Clew Bay connect to two multi-Olympic medal winning cousins.

See here for more stories of County Carlow.     Built in 1830-31, the current …

During the Golden Age of the 1890s and early 20th century, Ireland’s tennis stars racked up nine Wimbledon titles (4 x men’s, 1 x ladies, 2 x men’s doubles and 2 x mixed double’s) as well as two Olympic Golds, the Australian Open, the US Open and, effectively, the Davis Cup. This is the story of some of those remarkable players.

The Irish Ballroom. Whether you were there for a Foxtrot or to get jiggy with Big …

Grafton Street, Ireland's main shopping boulevard, started as a small, medieval cattle track that wound alongside the east bank of the Stein, the river that now flows underground between St Stephen’s Green and Trinity College. This account tells the tale of five Georgian houses running from 96-100 Grafton Street, as well as the Turkish Baths and 5 Grafton Street, and who their occupants were, including Weir's and the company that inspired Bono's name. It also provides a detailed listing of occupants of all houses on Grafton Street, compiled by Belinda Evangelista in 2023.

Portrait interviews with 44 of Ireland's leading sportsmen and women, probing the question as to whether they were simply born to greatness or was it all about how much they trained and a certain degree of luck.

A county-by-county index to all the people interviewed for the Vanishing Ireland series.

In 1879, over a third of Lord Rathdonnell’s 18,923 acres lay in the province of Ulster: 2886 acres in County Tyrone, 2600 acres in County Fermanagh and 1006 acres in County Monaghan. Much of this estate was sold off in the wake of Wyndham’s Land Act of 1903.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Tyrone’s past.

Choose from topics on this page for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Monaghan's past. 

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

From the ‘Vanishing Ireland' archives, an interview with Denis ‘Denny' Galvin, a cattle farmer born in 1945, about the challenges of keeping his County Kerry farm in order in the early 21st century.

‘I have no control over how long I live, but when I’ve gone? Well, as the man used to say when we'd meet on a bank in a chase, “Cheerio till the other side!”’ My neighbour Bill Burgess was the second oldest man in Ireland when he died in 2007. He was also the oldest farmer.

 Looking at the townlands connections to Sir Walter de Ridelesford (or Riddlesford), Lord of Bray, as well as the Knights Templar, the Fratres Cruciferi of Castledermot and the displacement of the Mac Gormáin or O’Gorman family, and the Bull Ring.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Kerry’s past.

Tracing the reconstructed route of Slíghe Chualann from Dublin/Tallaght via west Wicklow to Tullow and Old Leighlin, interweaving scholarship with detailed local geography: meltwater channels, rivers, valleys, and present‑day roads and townlands.

See here for more stories of Lisnavagh and the Bunbury family     The Bunburys …

A lesser-known branch of the Bunbury tree is a Roman Catholic family of that name who lived in Ardnehue and Benekerry, near Johnstown, County Carlow, during the 18th and 19th century, from which outliers spread into Liverpool and Australia, and possibly Wisconsin and New Brunswick.

  There are innumerable Bunbury references at the brilliant Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland …

See here for further stories from County Carlow.   The de Riddlesford Link?   The …

The dramatic tale of the Stronge family from their arrival in Ireland on the eve of the siege of Derry through to the brutal murder of Sir Norman Stronge and his son James by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1981.

Following the descendants of Mathew Bunbury (1675-1733), fourth son of Benjamin Bunbury of Killerig, Co Carlow, from Tipperary and Kilkenny to Borneo and Australia, including the family of Field Marshal Lord Roberts and Henry Sadleir Prittie, 1st Baron Dunalley.

An unusual branch of the family, whose stars included Henry Bunbury (described by contemporary as ‘an agreeable oddity') and his son Thomas Charles Bunbury, who campaigned for Daniel O'Connell in the 1830s. 

 See here for more stories of County Carlow. St Erc?   The parish of Killerrig …

A chronological account of the bachelor Thomas Bunbury, eldest son of William Bunbury III of Lisnavagh and his wife Katherine (née Kane), taking in the tragic deaths of his father and sister, his time at Oxford, his connections to Bath and his role as an MP and magistrate in County Carlow on the eve of the Great Hunger.

Shortly after the First World War broke out, over 250 amateur Irish rugby players assembled on the pitch at Lansdowne Road as part of the IRFU’s new Volunteer Corps. The men were assigned to a ‘Pals’ battalion in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, created so that friends could serve together. Many joined D-Company, with which they sailed to fight the Ottoman Turks in Gallipoli in 1915. Some 70% of them were either killed or wounded within three weeks of their arrival.

Rose Shaw was governess to the Gledstanes of Fardross House in County Tyrone during the early 20th century. She spent much of her time walking in the Clogher Valley, on the border of Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone, photographing local people. This page showcases 11 of her wonderful photographs.

The gas attack that killed more Irishman than the Easter Rising, in the same week.

Following a family famous for the Mason-Dixie line, who made their mark as astronomers, canal engineers and wildlife artists, with cameos by intrepid emerald hunters in Colombia and Venezuela, plus the Red Lion Inn in Henley-on-Thames and links to the families of Bevan, Hare (Earl of Listowel), Pelham (Earl of Yarborough) and Rathdonnell (McClintock Bunbury).

The 2026 edition of Carloviana, the journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society was launched in the Seven Oaks in December 2026. I was asked to give the speech, and these words are filleted from that.

The stories of a man born without limbs who became an explorer, as well as the Czech engineer who invented the water-bike, the murder of a Hollywood director, the prince of Antwerp who made Carlow his home, the crazy doctor who blew up Carlow Castle and the mystery of one of the world’s biggest ancient monuments. Extracted from Past Tracks, with Irish translations by Jack O'Driscoll.

A line of descent from the McClintocks of Drumcar with links to the Curragh Mutiny, the Lonsdale who became Baron Armaghdale, the Tynan Hunt, the Stronge family, a scandalous elopement, the Land Commission that followed the Wyndham Act, and the death of a father and son who were both wartime pilots.

As of April 2025, I have an inventory of (extant or vanished) 3 ring forts, 1 square fort, 1 standing stone, 1 dolmen, 1 monastery, 1 castle, 1 Bronze Age settlement, 2 graveyards and a cross-inscribed pillar stone, all located in a small stretch of land running from the summit of Knocknagan to Haroldstown, drawing in a little bit of Tobinstown, Lisnavagh and the townland of Acaun  …. throw in an underground stream, the River Dereen and the mysterious shapes in Bowe's Grove, and the stage is set for yet more sleuthery. 

Richard Alexander Walker (1803-1881) was an attorney at the Court of Exchequer in 1825. His family had worked with Dublin’s Treasury since the 1740s and his uncles included a founding member of the Royal Irish Academy, a judge of the Queen's Bench in Ireland and the Ulster King of Arms. Richard’s descendants ran S. & R. C. Walker & Son, based at 86 Merrion Square, which merged with Matheson, Ormsby and Prentice in 1969.

An especially accomplished branch of the family, descended from Harry McClintock, Collector of Customs at Dundalk port and uncle of the first Lord Rathdonnell. Harry's son Leopold would find lasting fame as the man who discovered the fate of Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition, while another son Alfred became Master of the Rotunda. Leopold's children included a naval veteran of Gallipoli, a Royal irish Constable and a New Zealand emigrant, while his grandson was one of the great keepers of Irish language literature.  

Tracing a branch of the family who lived at Athlacca (midway between Adare and Kilmallock), County Limerick, and their connection to the Bolster, Gubbins, Hawkins and Blakeney families.

In 1924, Tex Austin’s International Rodeo laid on an ‘engrossing and astonishing’ spectacle at Wembley in London and later, Croke Park in Dublin. Hundreds of thousands flocked to see stars like Nowata Slim’ Richardson, Ruth Roche and Tom Kirnan perform in a feast of steer wrestling, bronk riding, trick riding and pony express races.

There are 67 confirmed round towers in Ireland, where at least a part survives, as well as 23 sites that are generally accepted to have ‘once’ been home to a round tower. Could their original purpose have been astronomical?

There is gold in Irish hills, as evidenced by recent finds on the Armagh-Monaghan border, Slieve Glah in County Cavan and the Sperrins Mountains of County Tyrone. Ireland’s rapport with gold actually began about 4,000 years ago when the Bell-Beaker people arrived in from Europe, heralding the so-called Bronze Age. 

The Ulster Blackwater is primarily located in Counties Armagh and Tyrone, Northern Ireland, but also forms a short section of the border with County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. Rising north of Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, it flows for approximately 85 km (50 miles) before discharging into Lough Neagh.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Armagh’s past

An exploration of the O’Neills of Kinnaird at Caledon in County Tyrone, tracing their descent from early Cenél nEógain kings through Conn Mór and Sir Phelim O’Neill, and charting the transfer of their Gaelic lordship, castle, and estates into Hamilton and Alexander hands after the Cromwellian and Restoration settlements.

The story of the Colleys is a rip-roaring account from the first  dastardly Tudor to come to Ireland on Thomas Cromwell's watch through to the sad finale for Corkagh, the Colley house near Clondalkin, County Dublin. Among those profiled are the Duke of Wellington, the novelist Elizabeth Bowen, the Titanic victim Eddie Colley and the ancestors of the actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes.

The story of the rough two‑wheeled strand vehicles, raced before the Duke of Ormonde in the 17th century, that later evolving into noddies, jingles and jaunting cars, exemplifying Dublin’s long, distinctive car‑driving culture.

Until 1812, Ringsend’s fishing community relied on hazardous crossings of the Dodder until successive bridges—repeatedly destroyed by floods—culminated in the 1812 granite elliptical-arch bridge, while an ambitious 1813 wooden portcullis bridge scheme across the estuary was proposed but abandoned amid navigational objections.

‘Some people have asked me over the years whether I'm bisexual. In fact, I am tri-sexual. The Army, the Navy and the Household Cavalry.’ So spake Brian Desmond Hurst, Ireland’s most prolific 20th century director. This account focuses on the Belfast man's experience at Gallipoli.

Turtle's comprehensive history of Dublin's inner city docklands (the Custom House Quays, the North Wall, East Wall, Westland Row & the South Quays, the Grand Canal Docks, South Lotts, Poolbeg and Ringsend), frequently updated.

Looking at the semi‑legendary story of the ship’s loss and miraculous return, tracing how the Ouzel Galley Society evolved into or alongside the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, and Kingston’s influential novel.

A sketch of the Pigeonhouse Harbour’s history as Dublin’s main packet‑boat station, later barracks and power‑station site, taking in the Green Patch—once a strategic tidal islet and work‑yard for the South Wall— and the famous chimenys and the modern Poolbeg port complex.

In late‑18th‑century Poolbeg, John Pidgeon turned a Ballast Office storehouse into “Pidgeon’s House”, a famed seafood tavern and landing‑point on the South Wall. After robbery, tragedy and the daughters’ emigration to Philadelphia, the site became a packet‑boat hotel, then Pigeonhouse Barracks, and today underlies ESB offices beneath the iconic Poolbeg chimneys.

See here for more historical stories from Dublin     Sometimes humanity doesn’t pat itself …

In 1800–01, Captain Bligh surveyed Dublin Harbour, advised on raising the South Wall seaward section, and crucially recommended construction of the North Bull Wall, whose eventual completion led to the creation of Bull Island.

Looking at notable figures and historical events associated with Sandymount, Dublin, including Nobel Laureates W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney, the Easter Rising, feminist activist Gretta Cousins, RTE icon Charlie Bird and cultural contributions like the Irish national anthem and local architecture.

See here for more stories from County Wicklow.   Much of the post-1798 folklore in …

A dynasty whose bloodlines interlink across multiple generations from their origins in the Huguenot stronghold of Portarlington, County Laois, to Wicklow, the Dublin Docklands, Meath and the distant lands of the USA and Australia. George Halpin, the ‘Founding Father’ of Irish lighthouses, constructed 53 lighthouses around the Irish coast, and did much to shape Dublin Bay and the Liffey. His nephew Captain Robert Halpin laid the Atlantic cable, while the article brings us to the present-day with the inventor, engineer and MacArthur fellow, Saul Griffith.

Return to County Dublin – Contents     In 1886, a year after the Ringsend …

Dublin would not have been possible without its bridges. It’s all too easy to forget that this is a city built upon rivers and bordered by a wild and tempestuous sea. They’ve been building bridges in Dublin at least since Norman times but the old bridges, made from wood and clay, invariably collapsed and washed away.

Tracing the roots of London Bridge on the Dodder to show how it reshaped access between Beggars Bush, Irishtown, Sandymount and the Pigeon House, with notes on the culverted Swan River.

The stories of a Victoria Cross winning drummer boy, a world heavyweight boxing champ, a deadly hurricane, the Earls of Athlone, Count John McCormack, and a brilliant bandmaster who performed at the inauguration of six US presidents. Extracted from Past Tracks. Irish translation included.

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 From Glacial Origins and Tuatha de Danaan Names to …

Thought to be the inspiration behind Oscar Wilde’s famous ‘Bunbury’, Jack Bunbury was a remarkable oarsman who won many trophies for Eton and Oxford. He also enjoyed acting, not least during his service with the Royal Scots Greys in the 1870s. His life spiralled when he was caught up in the Land Wars, after which he moved to England. The death of his only son, aged 11, in 1892 was followed by his own premature demise a year later. This account also looks at his wife Myra, of the famous Watson hunting dynasty, and her second husband, Baron Max de Tuyll.

The contents page for Turtle's book ‘1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity and Savagery' (Gill Books, 2016).

See here for more stories of 1847   On 3 December 1847, Placide Cappeau, a …

Foreword   Introduction   1 – The Time Before the Normans   Charting the emergence …

An Efficacious Spa   For over 200 years, Castleconnell was celebrated across Ireland for its …

See here for more stories from County Limerick. The First Lady’s Cousins   Richard Nixon …

See here for more stories from County Carlow     Genesis at Crosskeys   The …

See here for more stories of County Carlow     The Doyne family claimed descent from …

The beautiful Mary Josephine Coughlin, known as ‘Mae’, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1897, the daughter of Michael Coughlin and Bridget Gorman of County Cork, Ireland. Al learned his craft fighting against Irish‑American dock and street gangs in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago.

Fighter pilots in World War One were the football celebrities of their day, their actions eagerly followed by millions of people in their homelands. The top three air aces in the war were Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock, James McCudden and George ‘McIrish’ McElroy. All three were destined to die in the war. A rather lesser known fact is that all three had strong Irish connections. Mannock was born in Ireland to a mother from Cork. McCudden’s father was born in Carlow and McElroy was the son of a Roscommon schoolteacher.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Wexford’s past.

The outbreak of the English Civil War played havoc with the head of the Bunbury family when he was stripped of his title and lands for supporting the Royalist cause during Cromwell's dictatorship, and then hurled in gaol while his house was burned down.

The story of the Dublin-based tailor who created the uniform for Cromwell's New Model Army; the ‘redcoat’ would become one of the most emblematic sights of the British Empire.

‘Earn a shilling a day and live upon sixpence’. That was the motto of a remarkable entrepreneur from Italy whose energy, perseverance, punctuality and good humour made him the transport king of Ireland in the 1820s and 1830s. A friend of Daniel O’Connell, he became Mayor of Clonmel in 1845.

See here for more stories from Ireland’s Forgotten Past  The 103-Ton Dolmen   Just outside …

The contents page for Turtle's best-selling book Ireland’s Forgotten Past, published by Thames & Hudson.

Replete with episodes of brilliance, ingenuity, serendipity and success, this sweeping story tells Maxol’s fascinating story from the formative years of the McMullan family through the drama of global wars, oil crises, political conflict and economic hardship to its present-day responses to climate change, Covid 19 and technological advance.

A 97-year-old shopkeeper from Cork shared his family's history and experiences, from how his grandfather rose to become the captain of the Cork Fire Brigade to his own school days, including creative teaching methods and community support during the Great Depression. He discusses his father's news agency business, which he took over after his father's death in 1956, and reflects on the importance of maintaining community spirit. 

The saga of a family who flee Scotland with the downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots, and make their fortune in Ireland through private banking and a useful cousin that happens to own a handful of iron mines in Sweden. Covering events such as the 1798 Rising and Robert Emmet’s Rebellion, the story ends in tragedy with the death in war of the last three Finlay sons of Corkagh House, County Dublin.

Hungarian-born Dody Meer and her husband Captain John O’Shaughnessy did much to make this pub a landmark institution of the Shannon region during the late 20th century, a legacy their son is determined to continue.

The text version of Turtle's collaboration with Waterways Ireland in which he explores Ireland’s natural rivers and lakes, as well as the man-made canals that criss-cross the island. This starts with the geology and archaeological legacy of Ireland's waterways and how, the Blackwaters aside, almost every Irish river is named for a goddess of the mythical Tuatha de Danaan. I then delve into the spiritual aspects of the waterways with the onset of Christianity.

In 1534, Silken Thomas FitzGerald flung down his Sword of State and renounced his allegiance to Henry VIII. This was the opening gambit of a rebellion in which FitzGerald attempted to capture Dublin Castle, only to be executed in London, along with five of his uncles, on what was possibly the blackest day in the long, epic history of the FitzGerald family.

Within 30 years of their arrival in Ireland, the Normans had built a network of castles along the River Barrow and were making moves to do the same up the River Shannon. At their peak, they would establish motte and bailey fortresses as far north as Clones and Lough Erne.

The family who prospered on the Ballyknockan granite quarries in County Wicklow, several branches of which relocated to County Kildare where they became one of the best-known equestrian dynasties in Ireland during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

A working document about the townland south of Lisnavagh and east of Haroldstown, including Tobinstown School and the old pub.

  Return to County Laois – Contents   The Dunnes, anciently known as O’Doinn, were …

See here for more stories of County Kildare.   The Bog of Moods   Mouds …

In 1813, 13-year-old William McClintock Bunbury joined HMS Ajax as a first-class volunteer, participating in his first sea battle the following year. Over the next two decades he would rise through the naval ranks and travel astonishing distances across the southern hemisphere. Most of this was on board HMS Samarang, a sister ship of HMS Beagle, and Charles Darwin was never far away. Meanwhile, as William IV succeeded George IV, and slavery is abolished, there is pile up of family tragedy in store … 

In the 18th century, Captain James Cook mapped vast areas of the Pacific, including the full coasts of New Zealand and eastern Australia, disproving the myth of a large southern continent and greatly expanding European geographic knowledge.

The author of ten novels and over 100 short stories, Elizabeth Bowen was one of the most remarkable writers of her generation. She was also my grandmother's first cousin and, arguably, best friend. I once found her CBE in my sock drawer and my mother inherited her typewriter. This is an account of her life, and her many loves, which I add to as new reflections strike me.

Thoughts on a photochrom photo of the County Wicklow valley, taken by the Detroit Publishing Company in the late 1890s.

An interview with one of the greatest oarsmen of currachs and Galway hookers to emerge in the 20th century, as well as his remarkable Connemara background and expeditions to Huddersfield and Jersey.

Return to Contents for The Irish Pub Books   Bell, Stanley, ‘The Story of Sir …

Hailing from Cambrai in French Picardy, the Lefroy family arrived in England as refugees during the French Wars of Religion. Having prospered as silk merchants in Canterbury, two branches emerged. The Irish branch included Tom Lefroy, famed as the love interest of Jane Austen, before he became Chief Justice of Ireland. The English branch were based at Ashe in Hampshire where they were again closely affiliated with Jane Austen's family. Among the family were the first Lady Rathdonnell and the surveyor Sir John Lefroy.      

The story of the Finn family who have lived in the townland o f Drummin, near St. Mullins, Co. Carlow, since at least the 18th century. William Finn served with the United Irishmen in 1798, while his son John, a farmer, assisted the Poor Law Commissioners in the 1830s. John's son Pat was a forester who worked with Arthur McMurrough Kavanagh of Borris House, as well as a master of the divining rod. This history also encompasses local families such as Murphy, Keefe, Ryan Doyle, Rorke, Walsh, O’Neill, Phelan, Gladney and Corcoran.

From ‘The Centenary of Naas Racecourse (1924-2024) – Nursery of Champions’ by Turtle Bunbury.   …

At least 6,000 races have been run at Naas since 1924. Each competing horse has four components – the jockey, the trainer, the owner and the horse itself, with all its past and future history. As such, the selection of stories told in this book is but a microcosm of all that has passed. I hope it helps to showcase the way in which this magical racecourse has evolved since its founding fathers came together.

Between 2020 and 2023, National Hunt horses that ran at Naas also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the King George VI Chase, the Aintree Grand National, the Cheltenham Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the Cheltenham Triumph Hurdle and the Queen Mother Champion Chase, twice. On the Flat, they also scooped the Epsom Derby, the Epsom Oaks, the English 2,000 Guineas, the English 1,000 Guineas, the Melbourne Cup and four Breeders’ Cups.

Traceing Yakub Beg’s rise from a Kokandi commander on the Syr Darya frontier to ruler of Yettishar in Kashgar, set against Russia’s 19th‑century advance into Central Asia and the Aral region. It links these events to George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman at the Charge, where Yakub appears as a resistance leader raiding Fort Raim and Ak-Mechet.

Charting the rise of Speaker Conolly, an innkeeper’s son from Donegal who became the most powerful man of his generation. His magnificent Palladian residence at Castletown House, Celbridge, is one of the Irish nation’s greatest treasures. Also looking at connections to the disastrous 1798 Rebellion, the beautiful Lennox sisters, the Charlston Blockade and the Irish Georgian Society.

An account of the family who lived at Browne's Hill outside Carlow from 1763 through until the 1950s, including the Browne Clayton Column (modelled on Pompey’s Pillar in Egypt) in Wexford, and a more recent connection to the last days of the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.

Over three centuries after Oliver Goldsmith wrote The Deserted Village, our small communities are once again facing a bleak future, with populations falling, pubs and post offices closing and long-held traditions fading away. An article Turtle wrote for The Irish Times Magazine in 2008.

At least 79 of the 1,517 passengers and crew who died when Titanic sank were born in Ireland. Built in Belfast, the Irish connections of the White Star liner were many and varied.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Antrim’s past

Within hours of Titanic’s sinking, the blame game had begun. The immediate and obvious villain was …

The Night of the Big Wind was the most devastating storm in recorded Irish history. The hurricane of 6-7 January 1839 made more people homeless in a single night than all the sorry decades of eviction that followed – a hurricane so powerful that the Atlantic waves are said to have broken over the top of the Cliffs of Moher.

An inspiring tale of migration and achievement, Michael McNamara from County Clare arrived in Australia in 1864, paving the way for his daughter Sarah to become the First Lady of Australia as the wife of Prime Minister Jim Scullin.

Looking at key figures associated with the area including St Patrick, Oliver Cromwell, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Kirkpatrick, plus the Cistercian monks, the Jelletts of Coolmine House, the Wine Merchant's School and a wolf hunt in the Great Scaldwood.

In 1847 the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma raised $170 for Irish famine relief. Their empathy was stirred by a similar experience during the early 1830s when between 1500 and 4,000 died Choctaw on the infamous ‘Trail of Tears’. This story explores the fate of the Choctaw and the two Irish-American brothers who helped them cross the Mississippi, and also looks at donations from the Muscogee, Cherokee and Mississauga people.

See here for more tales of the Irish Diaspora.     Denver, Colorado   Denver …

The stories of the inventor of the torpedo, a global prima donna, a telephone pioneer, the short-lived Republic of Connacht, the inglorious Races of Castlebar, the rise and fall of the Earls of Lucan, and a gentleman who went to the gallows.

Edward Pomeroy Colley – a beloved uncle of my grandmother and the writer Elizabeth Bowen – had the lousy distinction of being the only person on Titanic to drown on their birthday. Prior to this, he was also a remarkable surveyor in British Columbia, Canada, and something of a favourite at Dublin Castle.

Also known as ‘The Angel of the Delta’ and ‘The Bread Woman,’ Margaret Haughery of Leitrim was one of the most astounding characters to emerge from the Deep South during the long 19th century. Her role in helping orphans was immense because New Orleans had an awful lot of orphans, especially after the children of Irish immigrants flooded into the city following the Great Hunger.

The etymology (ie: origin) for the names of the streets, bridges, docks and other landmarks of Dublin. This is mainly focused on the docklands area as it is based on work I did for my 2008 book, ‘Dublin Docklands – An Urban Voyage’, which was commissioned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority

‘I, an Irishman by extraction, was born in the Scottish capital after two separate lines of Irish wanderers came together under one roof’. So remarked the creator of Sherlock Holmes. His mother was Mary Foley from Lismore with strong roots in Kilkenny; his father Charles Doyle had paternal roots in Dublin and Wexford. One of Arthur's uncles was director of the National Gallery of Ireland and married into a Dublin a family by name of Sherlock …

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Longford’s past.

Snapshots of Bagenalstown’s history, highlighting figures like Walter Bagenal, Beauchamp Bagenal, Father Albert Bibby, and John Moore, as well as McGrath's Tea, Sallie Young and a remarkable project to duplicate Versailles

The origins of the family, with their connection to the Baron de St. Pierre and Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, plus other links to Saint Boniface, the Barons Malpas, the de Boneberrys &c.

William Marshal was the most powerful Anglo-Norman lord to come to Ireland. A jousting champion, die-hard crusader and pre-Machiavellian tactician, he survived the turbulent courts of four Plantagenet Kings to become Regent of England, Lord of Leinster and the richest man in the British Isles by his death in 1219. As successor to Strongbow and Aoife, he did more to establish Anglo-Norman control in Leinster than any other man. He was also an enthusiast for roast rabbit and sautéed mushrooms…

  “Fide et Fortitude” (By fidelity and fortitude)   The story of the Barton family …

Erskine Childers is famed for steering the yacht Asgard into Howth in 1914, delivering 900 German rifles to the Irish Volunteers. Less well known is his work as as aerial observer for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War One, where he served over the North Sea, in Gallipoli, and Palestine. His last wartime role was advising the RAF on a Berlin air raid. An opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he was executed by the Irish Free State in 1922.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

An alternative history that covers 13,000 years in 36 stories that are often left out of history books. Among the characters profiled are a pair of ill- fated prehistoric chieftains, a psychopathic Viking, a gallant Norman knight, a dazzling English traitor, an ingenious tailor, an outstanding war-horse and a brothel queen.

With thanks to her daughter Auriole. In wild abandon, rhododendrons grow. Syringa’s fragrance lingers on …

Looking at the American Invasion Tour’ of 1888, the Tailteann Games of 1924-32 and the Thunder and Lightning Final of 1939.

AP: Assistant Priest. CC: Curate. PP: Parish Priest Parish Priests Years Native of Born Ordained …

Kenesary Kasymov led a 19th-century Kazakh rebellion against Russian colonial rule, seeking to restore Kazakh sovereignty and traditional governance. Despite his brutal tactics, he became a national hero post-independence. A 1837 manifesto attributed to him also appeals for autonomy, shaping Kazakhstan’s modern identity. Also here is the tale of Eset Kotibarov's rebellion in the Emba region.

Surveying the clash of two mighty oceans, this South African home takes inspiration from nature at its most elemental.

The story of an independent spirit from County Waterford who was kicked out of Oxford for partying too noisily, and found himself painting the horrors of the Anglo-Zulu War while serving with the the 24th Foot in the time of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, plus the back-story of the Whitelocke and Lloyd families.

Atty worries that times had gone ‘nearly too good'. ‘People get everything so handy! In my young day, no one could fall out with anyone because you didn't know the minute or the hour or the day you might have to turn to that person. But now, every one is gone independent, even the poor people, us poor people, and we hardly know who lives next door.'

See here for more stories of Dublin’s Docklands. *****   Connection: Grand Canal Street This …

Tracing a line of the Becher family of County Cork, Ireland, that descend from Phane Becher (c.1546-1592), including the Venerable John Richard Hedges Becher (1861-1946), Archdeacon of Ossory & Leighlin, John Hedges Becher (1888-1967) who worked on railways in India and Captain Edward Overington Becher (1896-1931), a decorated WWI officer, who died young.

The story of Tom Kettle, a nationalist MP and college professor who fought and died for Ireland and the cause of European civilization during World War I. Emmet Dalton, a decorated soldier and later founder of Ardmore Studios, was by Kettle’s side when he fell at the Somme and was also present at Michael Collins’s death—connecting him to two defining moments in Irish history.

Alick – or Alexander – McClintock was the second son of  ‘Bumper Jack' M'Clintock, of Drumcar, M.P., and his wife Patience (née Foster). In 1831, while serving as Rector of Newtownbarry (now Bunclody) in County Wexford, he became deeply embroiled in the Tithe Wars when 12 people were killed during what became known as the Battle of the Pound. 

Click here for further tales of Dublin City and County Dublin, including Kilbarrack, Harmonstown, Sutton, …

An epic saga that follows the descendants of an opportunist farmer who became the principal baker to Oliver Cromwell’s troops in Ireland through to a murder in 1917. We meet one of Dean Swift’s greatest foes, families such as Bligh, Fownes and Bunbury, and a host of literary greats including Percy and Mary Shelley, Thomas Moore, John Wesley and Patrick Bronte.

Following the fortunes of a family who arrived in Ireland with Cromwell’s army and scooped up estates in Cavan and Kildare, as well as the Earldom of Leitrim. Nat Clements, one of the great architects of Georgian Ireland, built the Irish President’s residence in Phoenix Park. Also looking at a branch of the family who emigrated to Massachusetts, where they became embroiled in the Salem Witch Trials.

See here for more stories of 1847.   Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) …

Sir Jonah Barrington's list of which members voted for and against the Union in 1799 and 1800, and what induced them to change their minds.

An account of the origins of the McCarthy family, and various branches thereof, plus the miscellaneous and colourful MacCarthy exiles living in France during the 18th century, with reference to the branches at Carrignavar, Gortroe and Spring House.

  The King’s Confessor   Perhaps the most remarkable baby born at The Rectory in Edgeworthstown was Henry …

An account of one of the most notorious agrarian secret societies to emerge in the Irish countryside in the Georgian age, who remerged during the war against tithes, arguably the most reviled tax of the early 19th century.

Henry Bunbury was grandfather of the Benjamin Bunbury who first acquired the land in County Carlow, Ireland. Henry succeeded as head of the family in 1601 and was knighted two years later by the new king, James I. He appears to have been of Calvinist persuasion in religion, encouraged by his second wife Martha, but his first cousin Sir Arthur Aston was a prominent Catholic mercenary and his children would chose opposing sides in the Civil War.

Benjamin Disraeli (c. 1766-1814), reputedly an uncle of the British prime minister, made a fortune as a lottery agent during the reign of George III. He prospered after his lottery office at 105 Grafton Street sold the winning ticket for a prize worth £30,000 in 1795. In his will, he left £3,000 for the establishment of a non-denominational school “for the education of the poor of Rathvilly” in his adopted county of Carlow. 

When Benjamin Bunbury of Kilfeacle, County Tipperary, died in 1765, his estate passed to his …

With 22 townlands covering almost 10,000 acres, the parish of Rathvilly has a history that stretches back to earliest times. In this talk, Turtle provides an overview of this rich tapestry, documenting everything from dolmens and ringforts to the 1980s band In Tua Nua.

An account of a County Kildare Archaeological Society excursion to the Rathvilly area, detailing visits to Rathvilly Moat; St. Patrick-related sites; the Holy Stone and early crosses; Haroldstown Dolmen; St. Finnian’s Monastery at Aghold; Rathgall (Ring of the Rath) with its Druid Circle; and sites like Rathglass with Ogham stones, Aghade dolmen, and the Ring Stone of Ardristan. Talks were given by experts including Goddard Orpen.

Northern Ireland’s literary legacy is celebrated through landmarks, libraries, and writers who drew inspiration from its landscape. From Seamus Heaney’s Bellaghy and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia trail to Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and Jonathan Swift, the region’s creative heritage runs deep. Sites like Mussenden Temple, Robinson Library, and Belfast’s Linen Hall preserve this tradition, while fFestivals, exhibitions, and literary trails invite visitors to explore the stories, poetry, and imagination that continue to shape Northern Ireland’s cultural identity.

It’s not often that a funeral director buys everyone a drink, but this undertaker had his reasons … The story of a giant from County Derry, a household name in 18th century London, the ongoing fate of his valuable corpse and the important role his DNA has played in identifying the “gigantism gene”.

The pub and the pen have always gone hand in hand, especially in Dublin. That’s why the city is so celebrated for its playwrights and poets and authors from Jonathan Swift to Oscar Wilde to Flann O'Brien to Sally Rooney. That's why Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature, with an annual Book Festival; why three of the bridges that span the Liffey are named for writers; why it offers one of the richest literary prizes in the world; why Dublin was home to all four Irish-born winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature and why it has connections to all six of Ireland's Booker Prize winners. This story explores the pub side of things.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Derry / Londonderry’s past.

In 1847, Brigham Young lead the Mormon exodus to the promised land of the Salt Lake Valley while the Mormon Battalion embarked upon the longest military march in US history. This story also looks at Sam Brannan, founder of the California Star newspaper, and the early days of San Francisco, the California Gold Rush, baseball and roadometres.

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The story of a branch of the family that came of age after the relief of Derry in the Williamite Wars of the 1690s, only for inconceivable tragedy to come in the form of a triple homicide on the eve of the Second World War. With a brief account of the McFarland family who bought the house outside Carrigans, County Donegal, in 1954.

Regarding a court action taken in 1901 one by Henry Parker, forester at Lisnavagh, and his wife Rachel against a neighbour Joseph Byrne who appears to have attempted to molest Mrs Parker.

Exploring the rich history of Guinness, the world-renowned stout brewed in Dublin. It traces the origins of the brewery founded in 1759 and highlights its evolution into a global icon. It also delves into the brewery’s impact on Dublin’s identity, its innovative brewing processes, and the philanthropic legacy of the Guinness family.

By 1890, Chicago had the third highest population of Irish emigrants in the USA. The city's heroes include Butch O'Hare, Captain Francis O'Neill, Richard Daley, Mother Jones and the men who built the I&M Canal. In the fall of 2024, Ireland House will open in the Chicago to house the Consulate General of Ireland and representatives from Ireland’s economic and trade promotion agencies. This page includes what is surely the most comprehensive list of Chicago-linked Irish-Americans online, thanks to Belinda Evangelista.

In 2025, Willie won the Breeders Cup and the Aintree Grand National. In 2024, he became the first Irish-based trainer to win the UK Jumps Trainers Championship since Vincent O'Brien in 1954, as well as the first trainer in history to score 100 wins at the Cheltenham Festival. He's been in the saddle since he could toddle. This is an interview from 2010, when he was already an equestrian superstar.

Extracted from ‘The Centenary of Naas Racecourse (1924-2024) – Nursery of Champions’ by Turtle Bunbury. …

  See here for more stories of County Carlow.   It was my great pleasure …

An account of the amateur architect and barrister who built a gunpowder mills for the Irish Volunteers in Clondalkin, County Dublin, in 1782, only for the mills to explode dramatically five years later.

We may not have the climate to grow our own vines, but the Irish have done a colossal amount to develop the wine trade and spread those succulent grape juices across this world from France to California to Australia and New Zealand.

A consideration of a work edited by Ann Saddlemeyer and published by Oxford University Press in 2011. An abbreviated version of this article appeared in the Irish Daily Mail in April 2011. The letters underline how Yeats was a lot weirder than most people think.

The stories of the poet laureate who asked Paddy Kavanagh to be a spy, a 1,200 year old Round Tower, a gentleman farmer who drove across Dublin’s Ha’penny Bridge, a plethora or writers and boxers, and a devastating explosion at a gunpowder mill. Extracted from Past Tracks, with Irish translations by Jack O'Driscoll.

The rise, fall and rise of the Ponsonby family during the 18th century when one became Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, their rivalry with the Boyle family, and the intermediary role played by the Cavendish family, Dukes of Devonshire.

Extracted from: ‘Angus or Forfarshire, the land and its people, descriptive and historical’ by Alexander Johnston Warden.

National Geographic Traveller (UK) marked Northern Ireland's progressive capital on its prestigious Cool List 2024. “Belfast's heart beats fervidly with music, it is in our DNA”, says Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody.  Awarded prestigious UNESCO City of Music status, as well as the Turner Prize, 2021, the port city remains firmly on the up.

St Columba’s College in Dublin is named for the feisty Donegal missionary best known who brought Christianity to Pictish Scotland, but who are the houses at the school named for? The story behind Iona, Stackallan, Beresford, Clonard, Holly Park, Glen, Gwynne, Tibradden and Killmashogue.

  See here for more stories of Dublin’s Docklands. ***** ‘Now I walk back again. …

  See here for more stories of Dublin City.  See here for more Notes on …

The two austere, six-storey, cut-stone mini-skyscrapers of Bolands Flour Mills at Grand Canal Docks appear to have been built in the 1830s by Thomas Pim, an enterprising Quaker. In 1873 he sold them to Patrick Boland, owner of the nearby Bolands Bakery. By 1911, 202,779 barrels of flour were being ground annually by 40 milling stones, making it one of the largest mills in Ireland.

Return to contents of Dublin Docklands – An Urban Voyage   *****   All activity …

  Return to County Dublin – Contents   When ships first arrived through the sea …

During the 18th and 19th century, some of the lands at Lisnavagh and Tobinstown in County Carlow were rented by the Germaines, a family of Huguenot extraction who are said to have built several houses on the land. A rather unsettling story claims that, following the Tithe Wars, Philip Germaine was evicted and his property razed to make way for the new house at Lisnavagh … could this be so?

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The story of the author of the critically acclaimed ‘Castle Rackrent’, a comic masterpiece, and her inventive father, and how Maria came to the aid of the people of Longford during the Great Hunger.

Showcasing works by Dionysios Tsokos, Ford Madox Brown, Pavel Fedotov, Richard Airey, Antoine Wiertz, Charles Lees, David MacDonald, Friedrich Nerly, Thomas Websiter, John Everett Millais, Thomas Couture and others.

The monastery at Ardmore is attributed to Saint Declan, a member of the Déisi, who is credited with converting his tribe to the Christian faith several decades before St Patrick’s mission began proselyting in 431 AD.

In 1735, Thomas Bunbury of Kill married Catherine Campbell of Drumsna, Annaduff, Co. Leitrim. Her family were closely related to the great naval dynasty of Rowley, the Virginia tobacco merchant family of Martin, and to Sophia, Lady de Clifford, sometime Governess to the Princess of Wales. The broader family included Viscount Clifden, the Earl of Shannon, Sir John Conroy and Edmond Sexton Pery, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

The tragic tale of the deeply-troubled daughter of James Joyce, Ireland’s most famous writer, and her unrequited love for Samuel Beckett.

John McClintock, who inherited Drumcar House, County Louth, in 1855, launched a series of mostly unsuccessful campaigns to represent County Louth at Westminster. He served just one term from 1857-9, but he caught the eye of Benjamin Disraeli and was created Baron Rathdonnell in 1868. This story follows his life and times, his links to the Bunbury family, and his marriage to Anne Lefroy.

A prominent player in Irish politics during the last years of the Parliament in Dublin, aided by his kinship with John Foster, the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and his opposition to the Act of Union, the Brexit of its day. Following the tragic death of his first wife Jane (née Bunbury) in 1801, he married a sister of the 2nd Earl of Clancarty, one of the power houses of European politics after Napoleon’s defeat.

The Rathvilly Heritage Interest Group hosted its inaugural Rambling Night at Lawlor’s of Rathvilly on Sunday 17 November 2024. It was an immensely entertaining evening, attended by scores of people from Rathvilly parish as well as many others. The night combined history, in the form of two lectures, with several hours of first rate music performed by a variety of musicians from across the county.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Highlighting figures like St. Cuthbert, Jim Gavin, and Archbishop John Joseph Lynch, as well as landmarks such as Balgaddy, Kishoge, Ballyowen Castle, and Grange Castle, alongside archaeological findings and local traditions.

James Butler (1942–2020) was a distinguished Kilkenny farmer and family historian who managed his ancestral farm at Scatorish and Burnchurch, descended from the Butlers of Dunboyne. Renowned for his quiet humour, deep knowledge, and generosity, he farmed in Tanzania in the 1960s, later becoming an agriculturalist, a leader of the Ormonde Military History Society, and chairman of the Butler Society.

The Knights Templar have captivated people’s imagination ever since the Order was founded in 1119. One of the most powerful forces in Europe for almost 200 years, their initial purpose was to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. In Ireland, they had manors and banking preceptories across Leinster, as well as anchorage for ships from Waterford Harbour to Galway City to the north-west coast. Their fall was astoundingly dramatic.

Looking at the man who was handed arguably the biggest hospital pass in history – the role of Adolf Hitler's successor.

William Henry Leicester Stanhope, 11th Earl of Harrington (1922-2009) was second-in-command to my grandfather, Major the Lord Rathdonnell, aka Bill Rathdonnell, during the Second World War. They served with the 15 / 19 Hussars in northern Europe in the wake of the Battle of the Bulge. In October 2005, I took a train to Limerick and interviewed him about his wartime experience.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Musings on the Carlow townland. Does anyone have any information on the Tankard family, sometimes Tancred, of County Carlow?

The Grand Canal is the southernmost of the two canals that connect Dublin to the River Shannon in the west of Ireland. Its main line runs for 132 km (82 miles), and takes in 43 locks, five of which are double locks. How the Grand Canal come about, and why did it took so long to complete?

Consistently ranked among the world’s top resorts, Ballyfin’s history reaches back to an age when the O’More chieftains dominated the surrounding lands. Its story encompasses multiple families – Crosbie, Pole, Coote and Wellesley – with Iron Dukes, bounders and heiresses in the mix, as well as its tenure as a Patrician school and its remarkable restoration in the present century. In 2024, it was voted the No. 1 Resort in Ireland & UK by Travel + Leisure Readers.

Started on the eve of the French Revolution, the Royal Canal is Ireland’s longest manmade waterway running for 145 km (90 miles) from Dublin to the River Shannon. Here Turtle tells the colourful story of its founders Long John Binns and William Cope, and looks at why it took almost 30 years to finish the project.

See here for more stories of County Laois.    On Saturday 27 September 2025, Seamus …

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Offaly.

The story of a remarkable Irishman, born without arms or legs, who became an explorer and member of parliament, as well as a huntsman, sailor, photographer and father of seven. 

In 2001, I was lucky enough to spend a week as a guest of this 93-year-old grande dame, collector, philanthropist at Casa Leon, her wonderful home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Evelyn and her late husband Joe Lambert were icons of Dallas and Venice in the 1960s and 1970s.

  Contents – Waterways Through Time   The Ulster Canal is Ireland’s third longest canal …

The Crosbie family descended from a once powerful Catholic dynasty whose influence waned during the religious troubles of the 17th century. Its best known members include Sir Edward Crosbie, executed for treason after the 1798 Rebellion, and his younger brother, Richard Crosbie, who became a household name across Britain and Ireland after his pioneering journey in a hot air balloon from Ranelagh to Clontarf in the summer of 1785.

See also Raheny, Bayside and other Dublin areas here.   A Viking Longphort   Did …

‘The Glorious Madness’ explores the lives of some of these people – including nationalists, nuns, artists, sportsmen, poets, aristocrats, nurses, clergymen and film directors – whose lives coincided with one of the most brutal conflicts our world has ever known.

John Condon, an Irish soldier from Waterford, was long believed to be the youngest Allied casualty of World War I, allegedly dying at age 14. A century later, research based on birth and census records showed he was actually about 18 when killed at Ypres. His grave remains controversial due to possible misidentification.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Fermanagh’s past.

Michael Clarke, Admiral of the Lough Erne Yacht Club, recounts his early sailing experiences, including seeing D-Day ships as a boy and circumnavigating Ireland in 1961. He also highlights Lough Erne's yachting tradition, tracing its roots to the early 1800s and the influence of naval officers. He describes the club's progressive admission of women members in 1895 and its role during WWII as a base for RAF Catalina flying boats.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Sligo’s past.

Tracing the earliest evidence of humans in Ireland, focusing on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic discoveries, including butchered bear and reindeer bones—highlighting survival skills, diet, tools, settlements, and cultural practices before the Neolithic arrival transformed Ireland’s landscape and way of life.

See here for more stories from Waterways Through Time     Vincent Delany, the maritime …

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Westmeath’s past.

It was not the first time the German bombers had struck. The previous summer, when the nurses first arrived at Vertekop, there had been three air raids. This was one was so much worse. Seventeen bombs fell on the Red Cross hospital that morning. When the dust settled, two nurses and four orderlies lay dead. For Nurse Annie Rebecca Colhoun, Macedonia had been an extraordinary contrast to her Irish childhood.

  The Origins Of The Moffatt Family   Family lore holds that the Moffatt clan …

Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-65), the son of George II, was in disgrace after he led his army to inglorious defeat at the battle of Fontenoy. And then, like a football manager whose luck changes, he destroyed the Scots at Culloden. His brutal treatment of the Scots after the battle would go down in infamy, but he was lionised by the establishment prior to his premature death aged 44.

Birr’s Cumberland Column, erected in 1747 to honour the Duke of Cumberland’s Culloden triumph, was once crowned with a Roman-style statue and is Ireland’s oldest pillar. Parsons and Chearnley dreamed of Gothic grandeur, but only the column stands.

The Black Pig’s Dyke is an ancient Irish earthwork composed of banks, ditches, and timber palisades, stretching across several counties. While once believed to serve as a defensive frontier for Ulster, new research suggests ritual or symbolic purposes were more likely. Recent excavations and radiocarbon dating reveal both Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age construction phases, highlighting its complex history and continued significance in Irish archaeology and folklore.

I’m still not quite sure where all the water comes from. Because it kind of feels like you’re already at the top of the Comeragh Mountains when you’re standing by the falls. And yet somehow there’s enough water pumping to keep the main waterfall flowing day and night, as well as a handful of smaller cascades stage left and right.

Gartlan’s is a traditional grocery bar, nicknamed the Hypermarket by its regulars. It has hardly changed since Paul’s grandfather George Gartlan first opened it in 1911. ‘Well, we’ve dusted it once or twice’, admits Paul.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

An epic and sweeping saga of Stone Age genius, Normans warriors, Georgia gentlemen and noble revolutionaries in the Wicklow Mountains, homing in on the Ryves, Pennefather and O'Flynn families.

The story of a Calvinist Protestant (or Huguenot) dynasty from France who relocated to Ireland in the 17th century. Louis Chaigneau, a wealthy Dublin wine and property merchant, built Corkagh House in Dublin, as well as properties in Gowran, County Kilkenny. Also looking at connections to Wolfe Tone, the actress Peg Woffington and a well-connected army agent.

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Stratford-on-Slaney’s history features King Brandubh’s victory at Dún Bolg, the celebrated actress Romola Tynte, and Thomas Donohoe, pioneer of Brazilian football. St John’s Church served local tradition, while the Aldborough Papers document the Stratford family’s political affairs. Corporal Thomas Devine’s death at the Somme highlights the village’s wider historical connections.

One of the last of the great Victorian Gin Palaces that once flourished in the industrial cities of Britain, this landmark establishment originally serviced the six stagecoaches and various jaunting cars passing daily from Belfast to Lisburn.

Highlights include Edward Breslin (hotelier and influential citizen), Father O’Flanagan (inventor and priest), Joshua Pim (Wimbledon champion), Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (fifth president of Ireland), and Jim Hand (Arctic explorer).

This branch of the family descend from Alexander McClintock (1746-1796) of Newtown, County Louth, whose son Samuel succeeded to the Perry family home of Perrymount, also known as Seskinore, in County Tyrone. The story culminates in a sad episode in the 1930s, as well as the demolition of Seskinore.

The Céide Fields reveal the world of Ireland’s earliest Neolithic farmers, who used porcellanite tools to clear land, built stone-walled fields, and grew emmer wheat and barley on the Atlantic coast 5000 years ago.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Mayo’s past.

Dún Laoghaire’s vibrant history features everything from its ancient origins, archaeological finds, convict transport stories, and inventive residents, to notable cultural and musical figures like Sarah Purser, Herbert Brenon, Kevin McClory, and The Boomtown Rats.

Powerscourt House is one of the most famous Georgian houses in Ireland. Built in the 1740s, it was devastated by fire in 1974 but subsequently rebuilt. The estate takes its name from the de la Poer family who built a castle here in Norman times. In 1608, the property came to the possession of Sir Richard Wingfield, a prominent general in the English army. This story of their descendants included one of Lord Byron’s closest friend, a man who hosted George IV to dinner and Sarah, Duchess of York. The Slazengers of Powerscourt are closely related to the present Viscount.

See here for more stories of County Wicklow   The Black Castle   In 1176, …

The rise and fall of one of rural Ireland’s most unsung heroes, who fought with the Royal Munster Fusiliers in WWI, advocated Irish land reform and labour rights. He co-founded the Irish Land and Labour Association and All-for-Ireland League, helped pass landmark housing acts, and endured personal tragedy during and after the war.

A son of the 4th Viscount Powerscourt, described by his Catholic contemporary as a ‘gentleman … incapable of offering insult to hie fellow-parishioners of the Catholic persuasion.'

The celebrated British novelist was deeply influenced by personal turmoil, travels, and complex relationships—especially with Ireland and its people. Greene’s formative visits to Achill Island inspired some of his greatest works, while his tumultuous love affair with Catherine Walston shaped “The End of the Affair.”

I’ve always been obsessed by the past. That’s the legacy of having a good history teacher. If your teacher just drenched you with dates and dates, the chances are you grew up thinking history was the dullest subject ever invented. I struck lucky and had several good teachers. But it was family history that caught my attention most and, well, specifically my family

The Drummer’s Kitchen   60 Rosemount Avenue, Haromonstown, was the childhood home of U2’s co-founder …

Michelle Obama’s forefathers include Charles Shields, a slave-owner of Irish descent, who lived in the very same county in Georgia State where the fictional Scarlet O’Hara’s family lived in ‘Gone With The Wind'. This is the remarkable story of how Charles Shields and a slave girl called Melvina became ancestors of the first African-American to become First Lady of the United States.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Cavan’s past

Turtle ponders the fate of the Irish pub on the launch of his 2008 book. The story was accompanied by a six page photographic spread of James Fennell's wonderful photos in Cara, the Aer Lingus flight magazine, which is one reason why if ever Turtle was feeling glum in those weeks, all he had to do was look up in the sky and wait for an airplane to appear.

Published by Thames & Hudson in 2008, ‘The Irish Pub' was one of the best-selling books in Ireland over Christmas 2008. It examines forty old style pubs from the cities of Belfast and Dublin to the isolated crossroads of rural Ireland, and asks the question, what will be the fate of the Irish pub in the 21st century? The book featured prominently in a broadcast on BBC World with reviews in National Geographic, The Australian, The Guardian, The Irish Times and elsewhere.

In 2009, the Irish Examiner published these remarks by Turtle on the latest figures from the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI ). The story was picked up by RTE1's Morning Ireland and prompted a radio interview, hosted by Tom McGurk on 4FM, in which Turtle appeared alongside Padraig Cribben, chief executive of the VFI.

In 2010, Billy Quinn, Declan Moore and Nigel Malcolm of the Moore Group in Galway created a stir with their hops-free Viking ale. Billy Quinn discovered the recipe while reading an article from 1859 that told of a brew known as Beoir Lochlannach, or the ale of the Scandinavians.

Any day now, the seven largest cities in America are going to be destroyed by …

In 1961, the Marquess of Kildare – later the 8th Duke of Leinster – sold Kilkea Castle, his ancestral home in County Kildare, to the Land Commission. There then followed a succession of fascinating owners including an engineer who built most of Northern Ireland’s aeroplane runways, a veteran of the French resistance and the wife of Agent Zigzag, an extraordinary British double agent – as the castle evolved into a health farm and hotel. The castle hotel is now owned and run by Jay Cashman.

‘I’m all my life trying to improve the land, God help me’, says Eamonn. ‘All my life digging for gold, but I’ve not found it yet.' The recollections of a cattle farmer and horse breeder from Farravaun, Glann, Oughterard, County Galway, from the Vanishing Ireland archives.

Snapshots from the history of Cork, from the Kingdom of Desmond, established in 1118 by Tadgh MacCarthy, to the city’s rise as a trade hub, the impact of the Wars of the Roses, and notable events like the Battle of the Starlings and the Great Hunger, emphasising Cork’s maritime significance.

Dr Seuss books have is sold over 700 million copies worldwide, making him one of the best-selling children’s authors of all time. None of it would have happened if he hadn't met Mike McClintock on Madison Avenue that day. This also looks at his friendship with the Budd family of Ireland.

An inordinate number of curious, brilliant and dreadful events took place during 1847. It was a year of immense discord that paved the way for so much migration, conquest and turmoil that the planet is still recovering. And yet there was progress and harmony too, played out on pianos and banjos, on broadsheets and telegraphs, as our ever-shrinking world learned more about itself than it had ever known before.

  See here for more stories of 1847   *****   Elphin, County Roscommon, Ireland …

Tracing the lineage and history of the family, particularly focusing on Henry Windsor Villiers Stuart and his ancestors. The article details significant events, marriages, and titles within the family, highlighting their influence in Irish history, particularly in County Waterford, from the 13th century to the Victorian Age.

During the pivotal World War II battles at El Alamein, the fate of the Mediterranean depended not only on military might, but on something far scarcer: oil. As Rommel’s Afrika Korps fought the British Eighth Army under Montgomery, neither side realized that vast reserves of oil were hidden deep beneath their feet.

The stories of the Earls of Clancarty (who liked UFOs, dancing girls and redrawing the map of Europe), as well as a prominent Australian photographer, a Hollywood star from the 1930s, the battle of Aughrim and one of Europe's oldest fairs. Extracted from Past Tracks, with Irish translations by Jack O'Driscoll.

Lola Montez was one of the most famous dancers in Europe in the 1840s. Her love affair with the King of Bavaria brought him crashing down before she embarked upon a new life running a literary and social salon in California. This tale follows the rise and fall of this tempestuous Irish woman, charting her romance with Franz Liszt and her encounters with Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow and Alexandre Dumas. 

Looking at the life of an Irish clerical family whose best known members include John Disney, sometime Mayor of Galway, and Catherine Disney (1800-1853), a love interest of mathematician and astronomer Sir William Rowan Hamilton. 

An inventory of the McClintock pages on this website.

Blacksmith, Sheep Shearer, Hackney Driver & Drummer … Denis was as alert and erudite as any man I’ve ever met.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Galway’s past.

Prior to the 1840s, giving birth to a child, or having a limb amputated, or a bullet extracted, or tooth removed, all had one thing in common. Profound levels of pain. To the immense good fortune of future generations, humanity worked out how to rectify or substantially reduce such agony with the creation of two anaesthetics that swept across the world in 1847, chloroform and ether.

Choose from these topics for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Louth’s past.

Founded by the Worshipful Company of Drapers in 1818, the Derry town gained considerable notoriety in the 1840s as a place with a curious drug problem.

The expression ‘Bob’s Your Uncle’ derives from when Arthur Balfour was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland by his uncle Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister. This account looks at the Boyle, Ponsonby, Foster, Parnell and O'Connell families.

Empress Maria (1847-1928), mother of the doomed Tsar Nicholas II, had perhaps one of the saddest lives any royal has ever had.

  Return to Contents – 1847   The Victoria ‘Gothic’ Crown from 1847 is considered …

Winifred Letts published a series of remarkable war poems during the First World War, in which she worked as a physiotherapist and nurse. The Dublin-based author also wrote poems for the Cuala Press, published children's books and penned a play staged by the Abbey Theatre.

A look at some key figures and events associated with Maynooth and its college. It highlights Richard Talbot’s role as Viceroy under James II, the establishment of Maynooth College, George Barrington’s criminal exploits, Empress Sisi’s visit to the college, and Theobald Mathew’s temperance movement, along with Joe Biden’s ancestor and the beautiful soul that was Marianne Faithfull.

Highlighting key historical events in Portrush, including Magnus Barefoot’s Viking battle, the visit of Brazilian Emperor Pedro II, Joseph Kennedy’s visit with JFK, and Rebecca Rice’s philanthropy, as well as the town’s cultural heritage and significance as a seaside resort.

John was the oldest known son of Alexander McClintock and his wife Agnes (née Stinson / Maclean). The ancestor of the McClintocks of Drumcar, Lisnavagh, Seskinore and Red Hall, he was 21 years old when his father died. His wife Jenet was the daughter of John Lowry, a prosperous Scottish landowner who settled in County Tyrone. Also looking at links to Donegal townlands of Trentaghmucklaugh, Leck and Trensallagh.

Featuring accounts of Ellen, Countess of Desart; Mick Jagger; Hubert and Peggy Butler (of Butler Gallery fame); Lionel of Antwerp & the Statutes of Kilkenny; Jonathan Swift, George Berkeley & Kilkenny College; Martin Renehan – White House Doorman; and the tragic fate of Petronella, servant to Alice Kyteler, burned at the stage by wicked Bishop Ledred. With Irish translations by Jack O’Driscoll.

Looking at notable figures from Ardee, Ireland, including Sir George Grierson, a linguistic scholar known for his Linguistic Survey of India, Beatrice Hill-Lowe, the first Irishwoman to win an Olympic medal, and Éamonn Ceannt, a key leader in the Easter Rising.

The story of a family from Staffordshire in England who prospered in Ireland in the wake of King William's victory at the Boyne, marrying the heiress of wealthy Power family and acquiring the titles of the Earl of Tyrone and Marquess of Waterford. Also told here is the story of Lord William Beresford and Edmund O'Toole, who won Victoria Crosses after an especially close call during the Anglo-Zulu War.

When Robbie McMahon sings “Spancil Hill”, it all falls into place. There have been so many versions of this powerful ballad that it becomes easy to forget who was there first. He revels in his role as guardian to the ballad. ‘How many times have I sung it? Well, it must be getting close to ten thousands times?’

See here for more tales from the Vanishing Ireland archive. See here for more tales …

See here for more tales from the Vanishing Ireland archive.   See here for further …

See here for more tales from the Vanishing Ireland archive.   See here for more …

The story of Betty Scott, who started work at Lisnavagh as a parlourmaid in 1941 and was the housekeeper from 1959 throughout my young life until she retired in 2007. Without Betty's influence, the Vanishing Ireland project would never have happened.

  See here for more stories of County Kilkenny.   Origins and Landscape   ‘Gabhrán, …

Chipped enamel lampshades hang low over a counter, salvaged from Gaynor’s shoe shop, now capped by three discreetly assertive tap banks. Shelves are stuffed with Sunlight soaps, Jeyes flats and other ‘where are they now’ household names. ‘I don’t deliberately go out and try to buy stuff’, insists Johnny Barron, the owner of this fine Wexford pub. ‘It’s just whatever comes to me’.

  See here for full contents of Sporting Legends of Ireland   *****   The …

See here for more tales from County Kilkenny.   *****   The Artist   Mildred …

Our aim was to create a book about 44 of Ireland’s greatest living sporting icons. We started by gathering the names of 100 potential legends from sporting enthusiasts across Ireland. We wanted a book that was not simply about GAA or rugby or horse-racing but representative of a broader spectrum of sports generally. This is the introduction.

This book is dedicated to our godchildren: Isabella Rose Nolan, Ted Johnson, Jessica Slingsby, Arthur Johnson, Alice Boyle, John Onions, Charlie Raben, Fonzy Ware, Bay Bunbury, Michaela Raben and Jack Rogers.

Return to contents of Sporting Legends of Ireland   *****   ‘Brilliant- the articles are …

While it would be remiss of me to leave out the word ‘Google’, or indeed the fantastic archival resources of The Irish Times and The Times, the following manuscripts were also invaluable in compiling the book.

Opened by Éamon de Valera in 1963, the bridge is named after General Seán MacMahon who served alongside Dev at Bolands Mill in the Easter Rising, being responsible for securing Westland Row Train Station.

George Johnstone Stoney, FRS, eldest brother of the brilliant Bindon Blood Stoney, was one of the most eminent physicists and astronomers of his day – and one whose ideas and conceptions were far ahead of his time.

  See here for more stories of Dublin’s Docklands   *****    Walking the Docklands …

The Hibernian Marine School in Dublin was where seafarers’ sons were educated for about one hundred years between the 1770s and 1872.

See here for more stories of Dublin’s Docklands. *****   Samuel Cutler & Sons   …

The Grand Canal Docks, opened in 1796, were Dublin’s largest docks, linked to rivers Shannon and Barrow. Key figures include Éamon de Valera (1916 Easter Rising), U2 (formed nearby), Paddy O’Connell (football manager), Samuel Beckett and Aeneas Coffey (whiskey innovator). Historic sites include Boland’s Mill and Google Docks.

The  Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, the Marker Hotel and the fabulous Cracked Glass work of the Martha Schwartz Studio have converted Dublin's old gasworks into one of Europe's most iconic public spaces.

  See here for more stories of Dublin Docklands.   One of the last great …

  See here for more stories from the Easter Rising. See here for more stories …

See here for more stories from Dublin Docklands – An Urban Voyage.     Bridges …

The 16-story Google Docks (formerly Montevetro) on Barrow Street in Dublin's Docklands stands on the site of a distillery where a whiskey revolution commenced almost 200 years ago. Between 1826 and 1835, the Dock Distillery was leased to Aeneas Coffey (1780-1850), inventor of the game-changing, two-column Coffey Patent Still, which enabled a massive increase in whiskey production.

Return to contents of Dublin Docklands – An Urban Voyage *****   For many years, …

See here for more stories of Dublin.   Coal Island   There is a wonderful …

Strolling along Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the south-side of Dublin’s Docklands, this huge salmon pink wrought iron yoke was a pioneering piece of engineering genius.

Two of my favourite Vanishing Ireland characters, a docker and an engineer from inner city Dublin who, after this interview was published in 2009, escorted me on a grand tour of the Dublin Docklands that we filmed for RTE’s Nationwide.

In 1821, when the new king commenced an 18-day visit to Ireland, the scandal-mongers of London homed in on the new leading light in His Majesty’s bedchamber – Elizabeth, Lady Conyngham, the chatelaine of Slane Castle, County Meath.

114 Irishmen rode out with the Light Brigade in their famous charge. Indeed, a third of the ‘British' soldiers who fought in the Crimean War are reckoned to have been Irish, including 7,000 who died. This article looks at the charge, and those manifold Irish connections.  

Arguably Ireland’s most prominent Huguenot family in the Georgian Age, the La Touche family descend from David La Touche, a refugee from the Loire Valley who served at the Battle of the Boyne and went on to found the bank of La Touche & Sons. His descendants were to be instrumental in the evolution of Ireland’s banking institutions over the 18th century, and spearheaded educational reform in the 19th. The Harristown branch included John “The Master” La Touche, a fanatical evangelist, and his daughter, Rose, whose tragic romance with artist John Ruskin resulted in her untimely death at the age of 25.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  Return to contents of Sporting Legends of Ireland.   ‘A broken nose is painful …

The story of Joseph Malone, agent at Lisnavagh in the early Victorian era, and the Malones of nearby Rathmore.

The origins of Rathvilly School in Birmingham, of which the 2nd Lord Rathdonnell was a trustee.

The O’Callaghan family were traditionally headquartered in castles at Clonmeen and Dromaneen, as well as many smaller strongholds. After the 1641 Rising, they lost much of their power and lands. In the 18th century, Cornelius O’Callaghan usefully converted to the Church of Ireland and managed to reclaim some of the former O’Callaghan territory. Both the Banteer and Bannagh branches would appear to descend from Cornelius.

  Return to Contents of 1847   Athens, Greece, Sunday 4 April 1847.   On …

A chronology of events, mostly related to Egypt, some of which may have had a long term influence or impact on the evolution of Christianity in Ireland and, therefore, Europe.

From the time of the Anglo-Normans through until the end of the seventeenth century, a large swathe of land running east of Carlow town in Ireland was held by the Wall family. Much of this property was subsequently subsumed into the estates of the Bunbury and Burton family. The area has been home to humanity since ancient times – Johnstown, one of the Bunbury’s principal houses, is only a mile or so from the Browne’s Hill dolmen and boasted its own bullaun stone.

The post-war years were dominated by Vincent O’Brien who saddled three Grand National winners, as well as Cottage Rake (who won three consecutive Gold Cups) and Gold Cup winner Knock Hard. All five of those horses honed their craft at Naas.

‘We all have to face whatever is coming for us. We don’t know why we’re alive and we won’t find out until we’re dead.' So said Paddy Delaney, a wonderfully full-spirited soul who I befriended during the Big Freeze of 2012. ‘It's the same as driving a car – keep inside the white line and do the best you can.’

Founded on the eve of the First World War, Mrs Lawlors Naas-based enterprise was reckoned to be the largest catering firm in Ireland by 1937. From the Dublin Horse Show to the Naas Races to the Grand Prix or the Eucharistic Congress, her tents were invariably to be found serving up to the crowds.

Bringing the story onwards as Naas Racecourse evolves in the face of the Great Depression, the Betting Tax and the outbreak of the Second World War.

  From ‘The Centenary of Naas Racecourse (1924-2024) – Nursery of Champions’ by Turtle Bunbury. …

William was the great-grandson of the first Bunbury to settle in Ireland. He married the heiress  Katherine Kane, shortly before he was elected MP for Carlow in Grattan's Parliament. He was planning to build a new house at Lisnavagh when he was tragically killed in a horse accident in 1778. After his death, his widow took the family to live in Bath until their eldest son, Thomas, was old enough to return. William's posthumous daughter Jane would produce the future heir of Lisnavagh …

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  See: County May- Choose a Topic   Jack Judge   Jack Judge, the songwriter …

A cast that includes the extraordinary Dutch SOE operative Door de Graaf,  the homeopathic surgeon Dr Drysdale, the German novelist Wilhelm Christoph von Polenz, a bailiff of Clithero, a pioneer of the Arts and Craft movement (John Gorges Robinson), the directors of Craven Bank and my great-grandmother's family.

Exploring the history and immense physical labor of navvies who built Ireland’s and Britain’s canals and infrastructure, with insights from expert Ultan Cowley, who highlights their skills, strength, migration patterns, and legacy in shaping the waterways.

  Contents – The Glorious Madness – Tales of the Irish & the First World …

By the time you combine all the Irish or half-Irish who served in the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and US armies during World War One, there was probably more than quarter of a million soldiers. As to the number of Irish-born died, 36,000 seems to be the increasingly accepted figure. My book a collection is not a definitive book of Irish involvement in the war. It is simply a collection of Great War stories with an Irish twist

Contents – The Glorious Madness – Tales of the Irish & the First World War  …

Contents – The Glorious Madness – Tales of the Irish & the First World War  …

  Contents: The Glorious Madness – The Irish and the First World War.   Ireland …

The story of Jack Judge and Harry Williams, the composers and authors of “It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary”, one of the most popular marching songs among British soldiers at the front and in training during the Great War.

A detailed history of Carlow Castle from its construction by the Normans over 800 years ago through to the present day, co-starring Prince Lionel of Antwerp and the extraordinary doctor who accidentally blew most of the building apart in 1814.

Stephen Roche, Ireland’s most successful cyclist, won the 1987 Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and World Championships, achieving the rare Triple Crown. This interview took place in 2010, when he was running a hotel in southern France. His cycling legacy was continued by his son Nicolas Roche.

The story of the 7.2km navigation designed to connect the boggy coal fields of Drumglass at Coalisland, County Tyrone, to Dublin City via Lough Neagh, the Bann and the Newry Canal.

Click here for more tales of County Wicklow.   “Inservi Deo et Laetare” (Serve God …

Mike McGrath treats architecture like a cryptic crossword and cannot rest until he has sorted it out. His impulsive nature is strongly reflected in the creation of his own home, Siyalima, which he built in 1993. 

The impressively versatile Turtle Bunbury is known for his sensitively written, well-observed Vanishing Ireland series of books and his appearance on RTE’s Genealogy Roadshow. He has an eye for irony and pathos and a fluid attractive writing style …

“Bunbury writes with the flair of a story teller, the detail of an historian, and the empathy of a friend. He brings people to life with their environmental and genetic influences explained, allowing us to easily place ourselves in the shoes of others … In rapid fire he introduces the Rising’s contributors in eminently readable fashion …” and other reviews.

The story of Illinois steamboat pioneer Thomas Gray from Offaly, and his connection to the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford, and to Isadora Duncan, the famous American dancer and pioneer of modern dance.

How the debacle of the Mesopotamian Campaign in World War One shaped the Irish Revolution's most successful guerrilla commander.

Following the trail of a family well known in the Rathvilly area of County Carlow as funeral directors, garage mechanics and community stalwarts.

The stories of one of Ireland's most successful presidents, the origin of the town ‘Font', a pioneer of showbiz in Chicago, the engineering ancestors of Joe Biden, a leading opponent of slavery and a strike by schoolboys seeking an end to corporal punishment and Wednesday's off. Extracted from Past Tracks 2021, with Irish translations by Jack O'Driscoll.

An approximate chronology of historical places that I have visited over the decades, dull reading except for the most nerdly.

The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1230) aimed to destroy the Cathars in southern France. Laurac-le-Grand was a key Cathar stronghold, defended by Aymeric de Montréal and his sister Lady Guiraude de Laurac. Hugh de Lacy, the exiled Earl of Ulster, joined the crusade, and briefly became the lord of Laurac.

Looking at the life of the first of the family to truly settle in County Carlow, where he acquired Killerrig, Lisnavagh and Tobinstown, as well as his connections to the Dukes of Ormonde, Philip Wharton and some lousy days for a Quaker sheep-farmer by name of Thomas Cooper. 

Irish links to Albany since the late 17th century. This page includes what is surely the most comprehensive list of Albany-linked Irish-Americans online, thanks to Belinda Evangelista.