If you’re reading this and living in the United States and if you knew John B. Madden, born in Richmond County in the State of New York in 1910, who served as a sergeant in the United States army in World War II and who died in Indian River County in Florida in 1990, then […]
I expect time will prove me right when I say few religious occasions I witness will be laden with such historical resonance as the first profession of perpetual religious vows of a Knight of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta to occur in Ireland since the […]
Few churches can boast the beautiful rural setting enjoyed by St. Francis’ Church at Meelick on the western bank of the River Shannon. Similarly few may boast the same long and rich history of this church, which this year celebrates six hundred years in existence. Founded originally as a Franciscan friary, the last remaining Franciscan […]
Frustrated with a vigorous mind trapped within an aging body, the poet W.B. Yeats climbed to the top of his tower in County Galway, and, ‘under the day’s declining beam’ stared out over the surrounding countryside. From the height of his tower’s battlements the landscape resonated with images and memories from his and the region’s past, images he […]
Ivy now surrounds the remains of the tomb of Nicholas Hannon and his wife Rayneta Madden, that thick mature ivy that grows between the crevices and joints of ancient stonework and over time destroys its host. It is a sad sight now to see this tomb in such an advanced state of neglect. When built in […]
The traders who had the foresight to set up stall at the Cathedral gates must have made a fortune selling lilies in Galway this morning. Today the relics of the celebrated St. Anthony of Padua were brought to Galway Cathedral for veneration and the florists at the gate, mindful of the flower’s long association with […]
We’re just back from a brief break to mark our first wedding anniversary, spending two nights at Kilronan Castle, a restored neo-gothic style mansion, now in use as an hotel, on the shore of Lough Meelagh in North Roscommon in the heart of what was once the ancestral lands of the MacDermott Roe family. The […]
The Great October Horse Fair at Ballinasloe and its associated festival lasts for about a week, this year running from Saturday 28th September to Sunday 6th October. The photographs below were taken on the first Sunday and final Saturday of the Festival, two of its busiest days. I missed the show jumping on the first […]
It was with astonishment that I read the telephone message from my brother last night to the effect that a tornado had hit Clonfert but our parents were safe. Needless to say I was initially incredulous. Ireland is not known for its extremes of weather and a tornado of any sort is an exceptional occurrence, but as […]
It seems only fitting that when a man’s severed head is re-attached to his body and he is thereupon returned to life, the occasion should be marked in some small way. In the case of Cairbre Crom, the reputed sixth century ancestor of the O Kellys, Maddens, Egans, Kennys, Treacys, Larkins and many of the Gaelic […]