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The recent passing of Andy Forde prompted the scribe to reflect on the commercial life of Abbey Street in bygone decades.  Andy of course had a lovely grocer shop and deli in the centre of the [...]

Recently this columnist wrote an account of the businesses in Abbey Street and Joe Langan of the Men’s Shed in Ballina spoke to me about it and he offered to give me a fuller account of the many [...]

Dr Crowley was a Medical Officer in Ballycastle for 33 years and is buried in Doonfeeney cemetery with the remains of his son, Finbar, who died at the age of three and a half years.  Dr. Crowley [...]

He was born in Lehid,  Ardea on the Kenmare Peninsula in South Kerry in 1879.   He attended De La Salle College in Waterford and qualified as a teacher studying from 1899 to 1901.  He undertook a [...]

Oatlands House was built in 1859 by Charles Downing a Justice of the Peace who bought the O Dowda Estate in 1854 after it was declared bankrupt under the Encumbered Estates Act of 1849.  Downing [...]

The world of Irish Country Music was under a deep shadow this week at the passing of Big Tom McBride. The Mainliners and he played together from 1963 to 1975 and when they broke up in May 1975 [...]

Last October’s Late Late with Ryan Tubridy must have brought back memories for many of the country and Irish days that are now making another comeback. Who better to personify those days than Big [...]

By 2030 the turf machines will no longer harvest turf or peat to burn in power generating plants so the news tells us. Turf was important during the war the Turf Board was established as a semi [...]

A special decade of commemoration has been organised by government.  It is a decade of centenaries that is there to remember the historic events that influenced Ireland from 1912 to 1923 and it [...]

Dalton was born in America in the State of Massachusetts in March 1898 to Irish American Parents and he was raised in Dublin from 1900 where the family lived in Drumcondra and he attended the O’ [...]