While it may seem incredible, in 1867 this Tipperary man Thomas Burke was one of two Irish rebels who were the last people sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering! While this brutal practice may be one of the most gruesome inventions of the medieval period it survived until 1870 before being struck off… Read more »
Tipperary, hanged drawn and quartered, hanging drawing and quartering, Patrick Doran, Thomas Burke
Ten things your ancestors were offered for christmas 1912 (including the Ipad of the day – the writing set.) 1. Somethings never change; Plum Pudding, Turkey and Crackers.
The Fenians are among the famous but also the most misunderstood organisations of modern Irish history. The common 19th century stereotype of a Fenian is that of a beastly peasant with a stick of dynamite. Unfortunately this still shapes modern opinions to a certain degree creating an inaccurate view that the Fenians were incoherent gun… Read more »
#1 Daniel O Connell Myth: Daniel O Connell, the great liberator, the man who lead the charge in achieving catholic emancipation in 1829 was a pacifist. Whatever his achievements O Connel’s pacifist credentials are a sham. While he appears to have believed it was the best strategy in Ireland he had no problem unleashing horrendous… Read more »
Among the thousands of visitors to Dublin in the 14th century the story of two English sailors Robert Godard and Robert Faber stands out above the rest. Having arrived in the busy trading port of medieval Dublin they would gain the unwanted record as being the only recorded survivors of a hanging in the city.… Read more »
Lea castle stands in remote spot on the head waters of the Barrow river, two miles east of Portarlington Co. Laois. These ruins once withstood numerous medieval sieges and witnessed some of the greatest events in Irish medieval history but today they are a skeletal reminder of this of long gone society. Destroyed over four… Read more »
Where corruption is concerned, Ireland has a poor record. Year in year out, there’s a new story about a politician on the take but rarely is anyone punished. Our medieval ancestors had a very different attitude; they were far more proactive if brutal when it came to punishing corruption in Dublin. In 1310 the city’s… Read more »
Everyone has heard of the Great fire of London in 1666 when vast swathes of the city were engulfed in an inferno. Such fires were common in medieval cities which were largely constructed of timber and houses were densely packed together. Here are five of the worst fires in medieval Dublin. 1192 This is the… Read more »
Medieval life has fascinated those interested in history for generations. Our curiosity is stimulated by a macabre interest in the harshness of daily life – the casual murder rate was twenty times higher than it is today, people died from curable diseases on a daily basis and you were old at forty. While this may… Read more »
In a remote valley, a mile east of the village of Annamoe in east Wicklow lies the long forgotten ruins of medieval Castlekevin. Camouflaged by undergrowth, this Norman castle and town was once the key Norman site in the region. The walls and earthworks of this ruin witnessed some of the most bloody events in… Read more »
Edward Bruce, Wicklow, Annamoe, Castlekevin, Christchurch, Glendalough, Glenmalure, Norman, O Byrne, O Toole
Ireland in the 14th century was a land torn apart by war. A vast stretch of territory including modern day Carlow, Kildare and Dublin were exposed to ever increasing raids from the Gaelic Irish O Byrnes, O Tooles and Mc Murroughs who had been marginalised into the Wicklow mountains after the Norman conquest of the… Read more »
As the government, the EU and the IMF plan to introduce water taxes in Ireland they are set to face widespread opposition from the public. This is by no means the first time such taxes have attempted to be introduced. In the 1990’s the government gave up similar attempts after widespread opposition. Resistance to such… Read more »
EU, IMF, Phil Hogan, Water tax
The Assassination of John Ellis is a story of murder and injustice, set in 19th century Ireland. In a country struggling to recover from the famine tenants despised landlords and their agents who had treated them brutally during the famine. When an agent John Ellis was assassinated in north Tipperary in 1857 almost everyone in… Read more »
john Ellis, Loughmore, William Cormack, Loughmoe, Tipperary, Daniel Cormack
This is Marko Zekov Popović. Popović was famous for being a member of the Member of the “Montenegrin National Committee”, Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer of Montenegro and author of the 1926 book “Where is Montenegro? The Martyrdom of a Small Nation”. A mover and shaker in the Balkans in the 1910’s oddly his cremated remains lie in… Read more »
Much is made of Dublin’s medieval history but what is left of that medieval city today? In this post I have gone in search of the remains of medieval Dublin in the modern city. Often the buildings and structures we associate with the medieval city are far more recent than we imagine. Dublin castle for… Read more »
Christchurch cathedral, Dublin Castle, St Audeons church, St Mary's Abbey, St Patricks cathedral
If you think US elections are bitter take a look at the 1913 Lockout, where Dublin employers accused trade unionist “Big Jim” Larkin of being the son of Phoenix park assassin James Carey. Background On the 26th August 1913 one of Ireland bitterest Trade Union disputes broke out in Dublin. The Lockout began when tram workers… Read more »
