Our decision-making was off says Fitzmaurice

the gaelic game

Kerry boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice says his side simply weren’t good enough in yesterday’s surprise defeat to Monaghan in Killarney.

The Munster champions were toppled by the Farney men on a 2-08 to 1-10 score-line and afterwards Fitzmaurice emphasised the importance of their next game against struggling Roscommon.

“Next weekend’s game is of huge importance now as Roscommon will be scrapping for points and we must make sure that we stay ahead of them now,” the three-time All-Ireland winner told the Irish Examiner afterwards.

“Having said that, we got to the semi-finals last year on 10 points having lost the first two games and while that’s still achievable, we will be taking it one game at a time.”

He added: “We are realistic enough in the group not to be panicking. But winning is a habit and the more games you win the better.

“There’s this kind of perception at times…

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#OTD in 1847 – Eyewitness report on The Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór) by James Mahoney in The Illustrated London News.

‘I started from Cork… for Skibbereen and saw little until we came to Clonakilty, where the coach stopped for breakfast; and here, for the first time, the horrors of the poverty became visible, in the vast number of famished poor, who flocked around the coach to beg alms: amongst them was a woman carrying in her arms the corpse of a fine child, and making the most distressing appeal to the passengers for aid to enable her to purchase a coffin and bury her dear little baby. This horrible spectacle induced me to make some inquiry about her, when I learned from the people of the hotel that each day brings dozens of such applicants into the town.

After leaving Clonakilty, each step that we took westward brought fresh evidence of the truth of the reports of the misery, as we either met a funeral or a coffin at every hundred yards, until we approached the country of the Shepperton Lakes. Here, the distress became more striking, from the decrease of numbers at the funerals, none having more than eight or ten attendants, and many only two or three.’

Friends of Ireland, please consider supporting this very important petition.

More food than was required to feed the Irish people during the period (1845-1850), was exported out of Irish ports under armed guard. This is not a petition of acrimony, discord or hate, this is a petition for Truth! Please sign with your family, and ask your friends and their families to consider. In Proud and Loving memory of our Forefathers, and the Truth that our Children Deserve.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

‘I started from Cork… for Skibbereen and saw little until we came to Clonakilty, where the coach stopped for breakfast; and here, for the first time, the horrors of the poverty became visible, in the vast number of famished poor, who flocked around the coach to beg alms: amongst them was a woman carrying in her arms the corpse of a fine child, and making the most distressing appeal to the passengers for aid to enable her to purchase a coffin and bury her dear little baby. This horrible spectacle induced me to make some inquiry about her, when I learned from the people of the hotel that each day brings dozens of such applicants into the town.

After leaving Clonakilty, each step that we took westward brought fresh evidence of the truth of the reports of the misery, as we either met a funeral or a coffin at every…

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#OTD in 1974 – Death of Róisín Madigan O’Reilly in Dingle, Co Kerry. At age 13, she became the youngest member of Cumann na mban.

Daughter to a German-born governess (E. Hessler) and an Irish Literature Lecturer, (E. O’Reilly) Madigan O’Reilly grew up speaking German, Irish and English and travelling sporadically to Potsdam to visit her mother’s affluent relations. Both her parents were staunch republicans. Her father wrote poems and articles for ‘An Claidheamh Soluis’ and, aged just 13, Madigan O’Reilly became the youngest member of Cumann na mban, accompanying her mother to meetings. Madigan O’Reilly contributed to the struggle for Independence by gifting her first typewriter to Winifred Carney.

Adversely affected by the violence and unrest in Ireland during the Easter Rising and in Germany during the First World War, Madigan O’Reilly withdrew into her studies at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art where she showed an aptitude for calligraphy, decorative lettering and illuminating. She took these traditional manuscript skills into unexpected territory such as bricolage and collage, often incorporating elements of her father’s poetry as visual elements. This unlikely application of traditional skills attracted the attention of the influential German publishing group Potsdam: Müller and Co. Verlag, who, in 1925, were completing a publication entitled Orientalisches Traumbuch von Mariette Lydis and wished to explore the possibility of a follow-up with an Irish bias. In 1925 Madigan O’Reilly met with Irmgard Kiepenheuer to discuss Irisches Traumbuch von Róisín O’Reilly during which time she was exposed to the inaugural performance of Kurt Schwitters’ work Ursonate, the influence of which can be detected in her later projects including Os Ard.

The practical skills gained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art enabled Madigan O’Reilly to take a post in what has subsequently become the Preservation and Conservation department at Trinity Library. She worked there from 1925 up until 1958, contributing to several major conservation projects including the re-binding of the Book of Aicill and the Brehon Laws. A recent review of the manuscripts in the archives reveal that she may have added some exquisitely forged illustrations to some of the more obscure fifteenth century manuscripts held in the archives.

In 1926, Madigan O’Reilly developed an original Irish translation of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate entitled Os Ardand tried to persuade those in charge at 2RN to allow it to be broadcast on the airwaves. Surviving correspondence reveals that though the idea was proposed to Máiréad Ní Ghrádaa for consideration, the landmark broadcast which Madigan O’Reilly had envisaged never came to pass.

In 1928, through mutual acquaintances at 2RN, Madigan O’Reilly met Edmund Madigan, a former civil servant radicalised during the uprising and reappointed to the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. In his new role he managed interval music and devised strategies for minimising interference on the frequency over which 2RN was broadcast. The two were married in 1930 and little is known of their marriage other than that they had no children; that Róisín insisted on keeping her father’s name as well as taking that of her new husband; and that Madigan died in 1950 and was buried with his treasured 3-valve radio set.

During the 1930s, Madigan O’Reilly and her husband accompanied her friend Máire Ní Chinnéide to the Blasket Islands, providing technical support to Ní Chinnéide’s intention to collect and record the stories of Peig Sayers.

Following her husband’s death, Madigan O’Reilly once again withdrew into her work, finally retiring to Dingle to keep sight of her beloved Blasket Islands and to complete work on Irisches Traumbuch von Róisín O’Reilly.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Daughter to a German-born governess (E. Hessler) and an Irish Literature Lecturer, (E. O’Reilly) Madigan O’Reilly grew up speaking German, Irish and English and travelling sporadically to Potsdam to visit her mother’s affluent relations. Both her parents were staunch republicans. Her father wrote poems and articles for ‘An Claidheamh Soluis’ and, aged just 13, Madigan O’Reilly became the youngest member of Cumann na mban, accompanying her mother to meetings. Madigan O’Reilly contributed to the struggle for Independence by gifting her first typewriter to Winifred Carney.

Adversely affected by the violence and unrest in Ireland during the Easter Rising and in Germany during the First World War, Madigan O’Reilly withdrew into her studies at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art where she showed an aptitude for calligraphy, decorative lettering and illuminating. She took these traditional manuscript skills into unexpected territory such as bricolage and collage, often incorporating elements of her father’s…

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#OTD in 1981 – The Stardust Ballroom in Artane, Dublin goes up in flames; forty-eight young people are killed and more than 100 are injured.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Forty-eight young people die in a fire at the Stardust club in Artane, Dublin. After sitting for 122 days and hearing evidence from three hundred and sixty-three witnesses, a government report found that the fire was ‘probably started deliberately,’ a finding long deemed contentious. The 2009 Report of Reopened Enquiry found that “on a prima facie basis:

(1) that neither the Tribunal nor the Committee have identified any evidence which can establish the cause of the fire;

(2) that the new and other evidence relied upon by the Committee at its highest merely establishes that the fire began in the roof space but does not establish its point of origin or cause.

Christy Moore was renowned for performing socially conscious songs that covered topics ranging from Travellers’ rights to the conflict in Northern Ireland. No stranger to controversy, Moore’s emotive ballads about the hunger strikes of 1981 had been banished…

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1921 – Two IRA volunteers, the Coffey brothers, are executed in their beds.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Volunteers James and Timothy Coffey were from Breaghna, Enniskeane, Co Cork, the eldest boys in the family of eight of farming parents James and Margaret Coffey.

In the early hours of Monday 14 February 1921, the soldiers of the Essex Regiment and Black and Tans were escorted by two masked civilians, who were members of the ‘Anti-Sinn Féin Society’, to the home of the Coffey brothers. They were led directly to the room where 24-year-old James and 23-year-old Timothy were sleeping. James was no. 66 and Timothy no. 67 on a ‘black list’ (number; name; address; ‘SF activities’; and ‘whether on the run’) of 168 IRA volunteers from Upton to Dunmanway, which had been compiled by the Essex Regiment in the Bandon and Dunmanway Barracks from information supplied by both Catholic and Protestant informers.

The two brothers were ordered out of their beds and hastily got dressed before being led…

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The St Mary’s medieval parish church, Cahir Co Tipperary

Pilgrimage In Medieval Ireland

Each year thousands of tourist come to to the town of Cahir in Co Tipperary  primarily to see the wonderful castle.

Cahir Castle

The town has many other amazing historic sites including  St Mary’s Priory and St Mary’s parish church.

St Mary’s  church  is  tucked away at the bottom of Chapel Street just off the town square. The church sits at the centre of a large historic graveyard, entered through an imposing gateway with large limestone built pillars.

Entrance to St Mary’s church and graveyard in Cahir

The  church is a multi-period building, rectangular in shape. The  change and nave are divided by a chancel arch. This was the medieval church for the town and  the reformation   the building was used as a place of worship by the established church  and continued as such until 1820 (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 133). Interestingly Catholic  worship also continued here too and the…

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8 Reasons to Love Historic Manchester

The Historic England Blog

Famed for its industrial output, pioneering political movements and musical exports, Manchester’s rich heritage is of national importance, recognised worldwide.

Here we celebrate 8 places that tell the story of Manchester’s history.

1. Manchester was commended by a US President

Abraham Lincoln Statue, Manchester, via Wiki commons

You may wonder how a 4ft tall statue of ‘Honest Abe’ Lincoln found its way to Brazzenoze Street in central Manchester. The origins of the statue go back to the 19^th century, when Manchester was one of the biggest cotton producers in the world. During the 1860s, the city elected to boycott cotton that was coming in from the Southern States, in protest of slave labour. The decision was made despite the effect that would clearly have on the local economy. President Abraham Lincoln wrote to the people of Manchester, commending their stance, he wrote ‘It is indeed an energetic and…

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Captain Lynch, Parachute Regiment: a Fianna Fáil connection?

The Treason Felony Blog

Did Taoiseach Jack Lynch have a nephew who was a Captain in the Paras in Belfast in 1972? I came across this by accident. It’s on the front page of Republican News of 28th May 1972 (see below).

There, on the right hand side, is a little insert which simply states that: “The people of New Lodge may be shocked to learn that the Officer in Charge of the Paratroopers on this district is Captain Lynch, from Waterford, a nephew of the Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch.” I can’t immediately locate any more information that sheds any light on this. Given the circumstances (a month after Widgery and four months after Bloody Sunday), if true, was it a PR stunt by the British Army and (or) an attempt to influence the attitude of the Irish government?

Anyone with further information might stick a comment below? Is this a mistake…

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#OTD in 1922 – An Garda Síochána – Guardians of the Peace of Ireland – is founded.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Prior to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921, Ireland was policed by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Dublin Metropolitan Police. Needless to say, due to their loyalty to the old British regime and their association with the Auxilliaries and Black and Tans, the RIC was totally unacceptable to the vast majority of Irish people it was therefore a necessity to form a new policing agency with which to replace it.

The Metropolitan Police in the meantime were to carry on as they were. The inaugural meeting of a committee responsible for the foundation of a new police force took place in January 1922 at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin. The chairman, was Michael Staines a member of the supreme council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a veteran of the Easter Rising of 1916 in which he served as Quartermaster General in the GPO. He was…

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