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Actor, Ray McAnally was born in Buncrana, Donegal on the 30th of Mar, 1926. He was the winner of 4 BAFTA awards for his work in both film and television. Playing Patrick Brown father of Christy Brown in the Award Winning My Left Foot Ray McAnall…

Note the racist depiction of Irish men with simian features - an ugly feature of many 19th century American publications On Sunday, June 11th, 1837, a shoving match transformed into a full-scale sectarian riot in Boston between Irish American Cat…

Sarah Grand, author, women's rights advocate, and suffragettist was born Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke on the 10th of June 1854 at Donaghadee, Co. Down. On the death of her father in 1861, her mother moved the family to Yorkshire. While at fin…

Muriel Murphy MacSwiney, nationalist and left wing activist was born into a wealthy Irish brewing family in Cobh, Cork on the 8th of June 1892. Muriel had an uncomfortable relationship with her family's wealth and conservatism. Have you listened …

Kevin O'Higgins, Irish revolutionary, politician, and Irish Minister of Justice and External Affairs was born in Stradbally, Laois on the 7th of June 1892. Following service in the Irish War of Independence, O'Higgins sided with the pro-treaty forc…

Julia O'Faolain novelist, short story writer, and memoirist was born in London on the 6th of June 1932 to acclaimed short story writer Sean O'Faolain and children's book author Eileen Gould O'Faolain. O'Faolain was raised and educated in Dublin whe…

During the 1640s and 1650s, a brutal war was waged across Ireland between Irish Catholics, British Royalists, British Parliamentarians, and Scottish Covenanters. This time of conflict was marked by extraordinary brutality and shifting alliances whic…

Cloughleagh Castle More than a decade of war raged across Ireland from 1641 - 1653. the Irish historian, Padraig Lenihan estimates that 20% of the Irish population perished in this conflict - some 200 thousand of the 1 million estimated to inhabit…

John Flanagan, the three-time Olympic Hammer champion athlete, was born on 9 January 1873 at Kilbreedy,  Limerick. He emigrated to America in 1896 where he joined the New York City Police Department. While in New York he rose to fame in athlet…

Dany La Rue (1927 -2008) was born Daniel Patrick Carroll on 26 July 1927 in Cork. He is best remembered as a theatrical artist who performed both in and out of drag. Here he is performing in 1976 in The Good Old Days, a BBC TV series which recreate…