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Poet, lyricist, and writer Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852) was born on Aungier Steet in Dublin City in 1779. He was born into a prosperous Catholic family and attended private school supplemented by private tutoring. In 1795, he entered Trinity College f…

Francis Beaufort was born in Navan Meath on May 27, 1774. He served in the British Navy for over 50 years rising to rear admiral and appointed as Hydrophager of the Navy. He is best remember for the Beaufort Scale which relates wind speed to observe…

Some 4,000 United Irishman gathered at the Hill of Tara in County Meath in late May of 1798. They camped on the hilltop with the intention of controlling the main Ulster to Dublin road and also likely occupied the site due to its cultural significan…

The Battle of Clontibret, part of the Nine Years' War began on May 25, 1595. It would prove to be a two-day rolling engagement between the Irish forces of Hugh O'Neill (1550 - 1616) and the English troops of Henry Bagenal (1556 - 1598) Bagenal an…

Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877 - 1946), suffragette, feminist, nationalist, and socialist was born in Kanturk Cork on 24 May 1877. On marrying her husband, Francis Skeffington, in 1903, they took each other's last names as a demonstration of equalit…

William Drennan (1754 - 1820) republican, polemicist, poet, and physician was born in Belfast on May 23, 1754. Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the American and French revolutions, he was one of the primary movers in the United Irishma…

1903 portrait of Lady Gregory by John Butler Yeats Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852 - 1932) was born in Galway on March 15, 1852. Despite being born into an Anglo Irish family, Lady Gregory would have a profound nationalist impact on Ireland. …

James Plunkett author of Strumpet City, one of the best books on Dublin was born on 21 May 1920 in the Hibernian metropolis. Strumpet City details the lives of common Dublin folk and their hero, James Larkin, and is a must-read for anybody that want…

On Christmas Eve 2020,  Jack Byrne reached out to see if we'd be interested in doing an episode on his upcoming book. We had only launched the podcast in October and were chuffed that anyone would actually ask to come on the Stew. Things have c…

Although there are likely many Turloughs in New York City, for those that are active in Gotham’s Irish arts scene, there is only one man who jumps to mind - Turlough McConnell. While cohost John Lee knew Turlough well, I had never had t…