Articles tagged ‘History’
The old Galway town walls
By Seán | September 5th, 2007 |
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In today’s expanding Ireland where ancient sites are regularly paved over in the name of progress it’s nice to see some glaring exceptions.
In Galway, anyone building over a known historical site must both accept responsibility for maintaining the site and allow viewing access to the public. One of the more overt instances of this [...]
The Old Shamrock Bar
By Seán | August 27th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
I love this old pub on Connacht Street here in Athlone. There’s something so poignant about its dereliction. Vacant shopfronts like this are fading fast - Athlone is a growing metropolis. Across the street from the old Shamrock Bar is a brand-new shopping/apartment complex.
An Viking apology 1,000 years in the making
By Seán | August 16th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
So a great big viking ship sailed into Dublin harbour yesterday.
6 weeks at sea and a bunch of salty Danes rowed up to Irish shores for the first time in centuries. Their ship was a replica of one built in Glendalough, Wicklow (Ireland) in 1042 AD. Rather than leap from the ship and begin [...]
On being Irish
By Seán | July 30th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I was reading a newspaper article in the Westmeath Independent the other week that stated, “More than one in seven of Athlone population is now non-Irish.”
In the article it delineated the major groups of foreign nationals and stated that there were 91 “Americans” (although I’m sure the paper meant “United States citizens” and didn’t mean [...]
Roscommon IRA statue
By Seán | July 25th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Some time ago I wrote a post on Athlone’s IRA Statue. In my limited experience such a thing is quite rare, certainly at the centre of a major town like Athlone. Well, I was driving north through County Roscommon recently and came across the statue you see there to your left. I simply had to [...]
Ireland - A Novel
By Seán | February 18th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
This novel was reccommended to me when I began talking to a friend stateside about Eamonn Kelly’s book.
“Ireland: A Novel” is an epic tale of young Irishman’s coming of age and his fascination with a mysterious seanchai (seanchai is Irish for “storyteller”). The novel is peppered with enjoyable narratives as related first-hand from the seanchai [...]
7,000 B.C. - still romantic Ireland
By Seán | February 13th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
That’s right: 7,000 B.C. That’s before pre-history, folks. Apparently the findings from a dig in Abbeylara, County Longford has revealed a settlement of people long before humans were known to be settlers.
Among what they found at the Lough Kinale dig were a frequently used hearthstone which seems to have been the centre of the [...]
Ireland’s Master Storyteller
By Seán | January 29th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Seanchai is Irish for “storyteller” or “old talker” to get closer to the actual meaning. In Ireland, a seanchai wasn’t just something someone did, it was something someone was. Eamonn Kelly was perhaps the last authentic seanchai.
Known in Ireland as “the seanchai” in the 1950s and 1960s for his RTE broadcasted stories, Eamon Kelly brought [...]
The original Claddagh
By Seán | January 8th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
You’ve seen the design, it’s an icon of Ireland herself: The Claddagh Ring.
The origin of the ring’s design has various stories, but its production can be traced to Thomas Dillon’s jewelers in Galway. There is a one-room exhibit on the history of the ring set up inside the shop and numerous examples of the ring [...]
St Stephen’s Day in Ireland
By Seán | December 26th, 2006 | Add a Comment »
I’m not aware that this day has any particular designation in the states other than “the day after Christmas,” or “the second biggest shopping day of the year.” I know the Canadians go into the street and hit people or something (”boxing” day, isn’t it?). Ireland is still a Catholic country and so here in [...]
