A Very Occasional Blog
I’m a genealogist by profession, and a Fellow of the Accredited Genealogists Ireland,(AGI) I also dabble in local history and the history of Irish golfers, and I’m always writing something!
A Slideshow of Recent Posts
Gordon Bennett!
Gordon Bennett !!! This photograph was taken on Wednesday 1 July 1903 in South Main Street, Naas, Co. Kildare. What was happening was the weighing of the cars for the 4th Gordon Bennett Cup Race, the first to be held outside of France. The race took place the...
Rex Ingram, the Irishman who put the Valentino into Romance
It’s now exactly a hundred years since the name Valentino was first noticed by cinema audiences and became synonymous with romance. On 6 March 1921 the silent motion picture The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had its first public showing at the Lyric Theatre in New...
Tragedy in Kilmurry
It is impossible to imagine the mental state of John Jackson during his meeting with Dr. Dockeray 150 years ago this very day. John’s mind may have been in turmoil; it may have been numbed by grief. Whether Dr. Dockeray visited his farm in Kilmurry or John travelled...
The Remarkable Margaret Falley
Margaret Dickson Falley’s publication, Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research, is remarkable, yet the vast majority of people now pursuing Irish genealogical research have never heard of it. The most remarkable thing about Falley’s two-volume work is that it was...
Irish Golf in 1920
The story of armed conflict often dominates and clouds our perception of the past. When we read about a time of war it seems as if nothing but war was happening: as if normal life was suspended while shooting and killing were all pervasive. The Great War of...
Talbotstown Church – something of a West Wicklow gem
St. Brigid’s Church, Talbotstown, has a really beautiful backdrop, with the twin mountains of Keadeen and Carrig dominating the view. The small car park beside the church is one of the best vantage points for admiring those mountains and for seeing Finn McCool and...
The Eleven (or so) Daughters of John and Martha Stratford
There must have been much rejoicing when John and Martha Stratford’s eighth child arrived in the mid-1730s, about a decade into their marriage. According to Martha’s second cousin, Pole Cosby, that eighth child, Edward, was their first son. It is said that John and...
Reviving a Tradition
It’s not that far from home, but I had my first visit to Kilmore Quay, on the south coast of Wexford, just the other day. Apart from the combined feel of fishing village and seaside resort, the most striking thing about Kilmore Quay was the number of thatched houses...
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