by Paul Gorry | Jul 6, 2020 | 1798, Baltinglass, Derrynamuck, George Smyth Sculptor, Glen of Imaal, Local History, Michael Dwyer, Sam McAllister, Stratford-on-Slaney, Wicklow |
At the age of 116, Sam McAllister is the oldest resident of Baltinglass. He has stood at the centre of Main Street since his unveiling on 8 May 1904. He has become a symbol of Baltinglass and even a minor place-name. People often meet ‘at McAllister’. Pop-up...
by Paul Gorry | May 19, 2020 | Accredited Genealogists Ireland, AGI, Baltinglass, Coronavirus, GAS, Genealogy, National Archives Ireland, Professional Genealogists, Record Repositories, Registry of Deeds |
I haven’t been in a record repository for over two months. That hasn’t happened to me since the mid-1980s, when I took six months off to supervise a parish register indexing project. Even then I managed the odd trip to Dublin to feed my habit. Right now I’m...
by Paul Gorry | Jan 10, 2020 | Baltinglass, Books, Genealogy, Local History, Stratford Family, Weavers' Square |
I sometimes think that I’m more familiar with people who lived in Baltinglass in the past than those who live here now. I mean people who were here in the nineteenth century in particular. It’s not that I communicate with their spirits or anything like that! I...
by Paul Gorry | Jul 22, 2019 | Baltinglass, Graveyards, Rathvilly, West Wicklow Historical Society |
I’ve been haunting St. Mary’s churchyard in Rathvilly on and off for the past few weeks. It’s surrounded almost entirely by houses, with the road to Tullow completing the circle, so it’s hard not to be seen. I’m sure people were wondering about the strange man...
by Paul Gorry | Apr 23, 2019 | Aldborough, Ancestral Lines, Baltinglass, Dennis Family, Descent, Fortgranite, Mountneill, Ralph Fiennes, Stratford Family, Stratford-on-Slaney, Winston Churchill |
A week ago I attended a marathon of an event. It lasted from 10.30am to sometime about 9pm, long after I had left. It was absorbing. It was full of surprises, good and bad. It was a glimpse into the past, and it said a lot about the present Irish economy. For...
by Paul Gorry | Aug 24, 2018 | Baltinglass, Family History, Local History, West Wicklow Historical Society |
The recent intense and prolonged heatwave experienced by Ireland reminded me of a short newspaper article I came across a few years ago. I included it in my contribution to the Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society, No. 6 (2011), ‘Miscellaneous...
