Ireland’s greatest? Martin Sheridan from Mayo Who was the greatest Irish athlete is a question that is often asked. We have had our fair share of Olympic gold medallists and even those who never claimed that ultimate prize could be considered amongst the country’s greatest. What about the exploits of Martin Sheridan of Bohola in county Mayo? Can he be considered for the title? In 1934 the Kerry Reporter newspaper rep...

Strikes in the 1920s and the Irish Radical Newspapers Post Independent Ireland, in the early 1920s, was in many ways dominated by strikes and industrial action as workers clamoured for basis and proper working rights. The era saw the rise of trade unionism and others who sought to fight for and protect the worker. All across Ireland local branches sprung up fighting for the rights of various workers and professions. One...

Eddie Jordan The death was announced today of Eddie Jordan, an icon of Irish sport and Irish motorsport executive, broadcaster, racing driver, and businessman. From 1991 to 2005, Jordan served as founder and team principal of Jordan in Formula One. Born in 1948, Jordan was a well known figure in Irish sport since the early 1970s. Here we look back through the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive for some early reports on hi...

Michael Dwyer Michael Dwyer was a prominent figure in the 1798 Rebellion and became known for his guerilla warfare tactics in the Wicklow Mountains afterwards. There he evade capture for a number of years. Dwyer who was born in Immal, Wicklow in 1772 served as captain of the Ballymanus Corps in 1798 and fought alongside General Joseph Holt at significant battles such as Arklow and Vinegar Hill. After the rebel defeat th...

The de Freyne evictions, 1902 This week and celebrate St Patricks Day new titles were added to the Irish Newspaper Archive. These titles include Roscommon Champion 1944 – 2010; the Roscommon Journal 1828 – 1927; the Roscommon Messenger 1849 – 1935; the Strokestown Democrat 1913-1948, and the Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette 1822 – 1882. Such a focus on one Irish county allows readers to pour into the past in such det...

Ireland and the American Civil War In the course of his speech during the visit of Michael Martin, Taoiseach to the White House today, US President Donal Trump made reference to the Irish who fought in the American Civil War in the 1860s. Fleeing Ireland from the Great Famine in the 1840s thousands of irish settled in some of the USA’s biggest cities. When the War broke out in 1861 more than 200,000 Irishmen joined bo...

Have you ever heard the story of how an Austrian empress came to land in a county Kildare field in the late 1870s? Born in 1837 Elizabeth, but better known as ‘Sissi’ or ‘Sisi’, was the daughter of the duke of Bavaria and married the Austrian emperor, Franz Joseph. In the spring of 1880 ‘Sisi’ and her entourage were staying at Summerhill House in county Meath when during a hunt with the Meath Hunt, by accident, the...

Carton House for sale In the aftermath of Irish Independence many of Ireland’s great houses went into decline, dereliction and ruin. There are numerous reasons for this and although many survived the revolutionary period, their days were numbered. In the late 1940s the sale of Carton House in Maynooth signalled the end of the FitzGeralds in Kildare, a connection which had stretched all the way back to the 1180s. Today...

Elizabeth O’Farrell Saturday 8 March is international Womens Day. A day to celebrate all of the wonderful achievements of women, whether those close to you or those who have shaped society in the past or present. Thinking of influential names of Irish women of the past a number of names come to mind. But today I was wondering about Elizabeth O’Farrell, the nurse who accompanied Patrick Pearse in 1916 to the surrender wi...

Thomas Russell: the man from god knows where ‘Into our townland on a night of snow rode a man from god knows where’ are the opening ballad about the United Irish leader, Thomas Russell. Leader of the United Irishman in Ulster, friend of Wolfe Tome and Robert Emmett, Russell was executed in Downpatrick jail in October 1803. This sketch from the United Irishman newspapers weekly column, ‘The man of the week’ in...