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New footage of JFK in Ireland is revealed in film archive

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The Irish Film Institute has released documentary film footage of President John F Kennedy’s historic trip to Ireland in June 1963.

The 27-minute film, produced by the Columban Fathers, is now available to be viewed online.

Producer Fr Gerry Smith was a missionary priest from Co Cavan who had studied filmmaking in the U.S. He had made several films about “the old country” before making the documentary chronicling the president’s visit. The film, titled 'President Kennedy in Ireland,' was meant to be shown at fundraising events for Irish-American audiences.

Kennedy, a Catholic and an Irish American, was the first U.S. president to visit an independent Ireland. The visit occurred just five months before the president’s tragic assassination in Dallas.

President Kennedy in Ireland.  Credit: Irish Film Institute

While several films were made of Kennedy’s trip to Ireland, the Columban Fathers documentary was the only professionally-made film shot in color.

Footage shows Kennedy visiting his ancestral home in Dunganstown, Co Wexford; excerpts from several public speeches; and sequences from his visits in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Limerick, all of which were attended by large crowds.

The entire documentary can be viewed online at http://ifiplayer.ie/president-kennedy-in-ireland/.


Who is your patron saint?

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The folks over at NameNerds compiled this handy list of saints’ feast days.

What patron saint’s feast day do you share your birthday with?

(Find your name by pressing control and F and searching for your name, the Irish version of your name or try for your last name.)

January

1 - Oisín, Comnait
2 - Ainfean, Scoithín
3 - Fintan
4 - Fionnait (Feenat), Mochuma
5 - ---------
6 - Muadhnait (Mona), Curnán, Tuilelath (Tallula), Osnait, Díoma
7 - Donnán, Eimhín (Evin), Sean (John)
8 - Fionán, Sárán, Cúach, Neachtan, Bron
9 - Faolán, Guaire, Suaibhseach
10 - Diarmaid (Dermot), Díomán, Tuaimmíne,
11 - Suibhne (Sweeney), Fáilbhe (Falvy), Anfudán,
12 - Conan, Laidgeann
13 - Aillil
14 - ---------
15 - Ide, Aithche, Breac, Darearca, Bláthmacc
16 - Mael Iosa, Dianach, Iarlugh, Líthghein
17 - Molaisse
18 - Aodhamair, Scoth, Bláth
19 - Fachtna, Suibhne (Sweeney), Faolán
20 - Fechín, Aonghas (Aengus), Aona, Sárán
21 - Fainche, Séighín, Brigid
22 - Lonan
23 - Lucan, Canice, Manchán
24 - Gúasacht
25 - --------
26 - Eirnín
27 - Flann, Lucan, Crón, Muirín, Nóe
28 - Meallán, Acobhrán, Cainnear, Eochaí, Bláth
29 - Bláth
30 - Ailbe, Énán
31 - Canice, Aobhnait, Lughaodh, Maolanaithe, Siollán, Adamnan

February

1 - Brigid
2 - Fionnach
3 - Caoilfhionn, Conna, Faoileann
4 - Loman
5 - Fínín (Fineen), Dufach, Liadhnán (Leannan), Ceara
6 - Macha, Mel, Ríofach
7 - Meallán, Loman, Lonan, Tressan
8 - Fiachra, Fáilbhe, Ceara
9 - Caíreach, Ríonach
10 - Dearlú, Siollán
11 - Fionán Gobnat Dubhán
12 - Siadhal, Fionán, Farannán, Lughaidh, Damhán
13 - Fionán, Cúachnait
14 - Manchín (Mannix), Manchán, Fínneachta
15 - Bearach
16 - Aengus
17 - ---------
18 - Aengus
19 - Feichín, Odhrán
20 - ---------
21 - ---------
22 - Feichín
23 - Eirnín
24 - ---------
25 - ---------
26 - Eithne, Becan, Aodhlugh
27 - Comgan
28 - Eirnín, Díocuill, Siollán

March

1 - Baodán
2 - Lughaidh, Conall, Cuan, Finnian, Sléibhín
3 - Conall, Fachtna
4 - -----
5 - Carthach
6 - Cairbre, Brigid, Odhrán, Muadhán
7 - -----
8 - Siadha, Beoaodh Mochonna
9 - Lughaidh, Proinnseas, Séadna
10 - Séadna, Fáilbhe, Kessog
11 - Aonghas
12 - Daghán
13 - Mochamhóg
14 - Caomhán
15 - ---------
16 - Fionán, Bairfhionn (Barrion), Abbán
17 - Patrick, Becan, Faoiltiarn, Tiarnach
18 - Maodhóg, Caomhán, Tommán
19 - Lachtín
20 - ---------
21 - Éanna
22 - Fáilbhe
23 - Mannix
24 - Lughaidh, Manchán, Mochta
25 - Caimín,
26 - Carthach, Garbhán
27 - Mochonna
28 - Cairneach
29 - Eithne
30 - Mochua, Tóla
31 - Faolán

April

1 - Ceallach (Kelly)
2 - Brónach
3 - ------
4 - Tiarnach, Corc
5 - Becan
6 - ------
7 - Sean / Senan / Seanach (John), Fionán, Ruisín, Ceallach
8 - Tiarnán, Cionnaola
9 - ---------
10 - Bercan
11 - Frossach
12 - Eirnín
13 - Riaghail
14 - Tassach
15 - Ruadhán (Rohan), Greallán, Molaisse
16 - Fáilbhe
17 - Donnán, Garbhán, Eochaidh, Lughaidh, Luachán
18 - Laisrean
19 - ------
20 - Donnán, Fáilbhe
21 - Bearach
22 - Ceallachán (Callahan), Tuama
23 - Rían (Ryan), Iobhar (Ivar)
24 - Éighneach
25 - MacCoille, Oilithír
26 - Becan, Donal, Cass
27 - Breacán
28 - Suibhne (Sweeney), Lúithearn, Coileán (Colin)
29 - Énán
30 - ---------

May

1 - Aodhlugh, Breacán, Díocuill
2 - Fiachra, Neachtán,
3 - Cairbre, Bairrfhionn (Barrion), Conlaodh
4 - ------
5 - Faolan
6 - ------
7 - Breacán (Brehan)
8 - Oran
9- Banbhán, Sanctán
10 - Comhghall, Cathal, Cúnla,
11 - Caoimhín (Kevin), Críodán, Laoire (Leary)
12 - Eirnín, Díoma, Oilithir
13 - Damhnait (Devnet), Abbán
14 - Carthach, Garbhán, Mochuda
15 - Muiríoch, Comán, Damhnait, Sárán
16 - Brendan, Oran, Caireach, Fionacha
17 - Finnén (Finian,) Críodán
18 - Bran, Breasal
19 - Richael
20 - ------
21 - Bairrfhionn (Barrion)
22 - Conall, , Baoithín, Luíseach
23 - Criofán, Faolchú
24 - Bercan, Séighín
25 - Dúnchadh
26 - Beccan
27 - Cillén
28 - Faolán, Eoghan, Maolóráin
29 - Briúnseach, Cumman
30 - -----
31 - Eoghan, Eirnín, Maolóráin

June

1 - Ronan, Laobhán
2 - ---------
3 - Caoimhín (Kevin), Maolmhuire
4 - Eirnín, Cassán
5 - Bearchán (Bercan),
6 - Iarfhlaith, Lonán, Faolán
7 - -----
8 - Braon, Murchú (Murphy)
9 - Colm, Amhalgaidh, Baoithín
10 - Bearach, Ainmire, Faircheallach (Farrelly), Feardomhnach
11 - Mactáil, Riaghail, Tochmura
12 - Giolla Easpaig (Gillespie) Tuammíne
13 - Damhnait (Davnit), Coireall, MacNisse
14 - ---------
15 - -----
16 - Séadna,Fursa
17 -Caomhán
18 - Ana, Ninnidh
19 - -----
20 - Cormac, Faolán
21 - Suibhne (Sweeney), Diarmaid (Dermot)
22 - Cronán, Suibhne (Sweeney)
23 - Faolán
24 - ---------
25 - -----
26 - -----
27 - ---------
28 - Eirnín, Cruimín
29 - -----
30 - Caolán (Kelan), Fáilbhe (Falvy)

July

1 - Eirnín,
2 - -----
3 - , Maolmhuire, Breacnait
4 - Fionnbharr (Finbar)
5 - Etain (Aideen)
6 - Blinne, Eithne
7 - Crón
8 - Cillén (Kilian), Tadhg (Teague),
9 - Garbhán (Garvan), Onchú
10 - Cuan
11 - Fáilbhe (Falvy), Lonán, Oliver Plunkett
12 - ---------
13 - Eirnín
14 - -----
15 - Rónán
16 - Scoth
17 - Craobhnait
18 - Fionntán, Fáilbhe, Ceallach,
19 - -----------
20 - Fáilbhe
21 - Curchach
22 - Oisín
23 - Cróinseach
24 - Deaglán (Declan), Comhghall (Cole), , Oilleóg
25 - Fionnbharr, Caolán, Fiachra, Neasán
26 - Tommán
27 - ---------
28 - ---------
29 - Caolán
30 - ------
31 - -----

August

1 - Fáilbhe (Falvy)
2 - Lonán, Feichín, Comgan
3 - Feidhlimid (Fidelma), Dairile
4 - Míonait, Molua
5 - Rathnait, Eirnín, Dúinseach
6 - Lughaidh, Cainnear, Mochua
7 - Cillén, Teimhnín
8 - Curchach, Dáire
9 - Feidhlimid, Laobhán, Naithí
10 - -----
11 - Attracta, Donnán
12 - Iomhar (Ivar), Bríd (Brigid), Laisrean
13 - Laisreán, Muiríoch (Murry), Íomhar
14 - Fachtna
15 - Mac Cáirthinn
16 - Lughán
17 - Beccán, Earnán Trimhnín
18 - Eirnín, Oran, Rónán, Daigh
19 - -----
20 - -----
21 - -----
22 - -----
23 - Eoghan, Giolla Easpaig (Gillespie)
24 - Faolán, Rodán
25 - ---------
26 - Faolán, Comhghall (Cole)
27 - ------
28 - Feidhlimid
29 - -----
30 - Fiachra, Muadhán
31 - Aidan, Aodh (Hugh),

September

1 - Fáilbhe (Falvy), Fiachra
2 - Maine
3 - MacNisse
4 - Comhghall, Fáilbhe
5 - Faithleann, Bricín
6 - MacCuillin, Sciath
7 - Ultan, Eláir
9 - Ciarán (Kieran), Fionnbharr (Finbar), Conall, Ceara, Darearca
10 - Fionnbharr (Finbar), Finnén (Finian, Odhrán (Oran)
11 - -----
12 - Ailbhe (Alby), Laisréan, Maclaisre, Molaisse
13 - Naomhán (Nevan), Daghán
14 - ---------
15 - -----
16 - Laisreán
17 - Feme, Brogan
18 - ------
19 - ---------
20 - ------
21 - ---------
22 - ------
23 - Adhamnán, Lonaing
24 - Ceallachán (Callahan)
25 - Caolán, Fionnbharr (Finbar), Iomchadh
26 - -----
27 - Finnén (Finian)
28 - Fiachra, Diarmaid (Dermot)
29 - Neasán, , Comhghall
30 - Faolán, Lughaidh, Bríd (Brigid), Daighre

October

1 - Glasán, Clothach
2 - Odhrán (Oran)
3 - Nuadha
4 - ---------
5 - ---------
6 - Lughaidh
7 - Comhghall (Cole), Ceallach
8 - Conúil, Corcrán (Corcoran)
9 - Dínertach
10 - Fiacc
11 - Loman, Cainneach (Canice/Kenneth ), Foirtchearn
12 - Fiachra, Faolán, Moibhí
13 - Comgan, Fionnseach
14 - -----
15 - Cuan 
16 - Caoimhín (Kevin), Eoghan, Riaghail
17 - -----
18 - -----
19 - Faolán
20 - MaolEoin
21 - Muna, Marcán, Tuda
22 - ---------
23 - Dalbhach
24 - Lonán
25 - Laisreán
26 - Odhrán (Oran), Béoán, Deirbhile (Dervila), Meallán
27 - Odhrán (Oran), Abán
28 - Suibhne (Sweeney), Abbán
29 - Cuan, Caolán, Cúrán
30 - Feidhlimid (Fidelma)
31 - Faolán

November

1 - Cairbre, Lonán
2 - Lughaidh, Caoimhe (Keeva), Earc
3 - Brughach
4 - -----
5 - Faolán
6 - ---------
7 - ---------
8 - Fionnchán
9 - Aodhnait, Beineón, Fionntán (), Sárnait
10 - Osnait, Aodhnait (Enat)
11 - Cairbre, Dubhán,
12 - Lonán, Eirnín
13 - Eirnín, Odharnait (Orna), Caillín, Faoileann
14 - Lorcan
15 - -----
16 - -------
17 - Aonghas (Aengas)
18 - Rónán, Beoeodh, Míonait
19 - -----
20 - Fraochán
21 - Garbhán (Garvan)
22 - Meadhbh (Maeve), Éimhín 
23 - -----
24 - -----
25 - Fionnchú
26 - -----
27 - -----
28 - -----
29 - -----
30 - Caoimhseach

December

1 - Nuadha, Neasán,
2 - Mainchín (Mannix)
3 - -----
4 - Bercan
5 - -----
6 - Cian, Beirchart, Neasán, Meallán
7 - Buite
8 - Fionán
9 - Feidhelm (Fidelma) Mughain Budoc
10 - Scannlach
11 - Eiltín
12 - Finnén (Finian), Dúinseach
13 - -----
14 - Eirnín
15 - Mughain
16 - Beoc
17 - Díochú, Díocuill
18 - lannán, Ríonach (Riona), Éimhín (Evin), Séanait
19 - Samhthann
20 - Eoghan, Fedhlimid (Felimy), Eoghanán
21 - -----
22 - Éimhín (Evin), Abban
23 - Eirnín, Rónán, Fedhlimid (Fidelma)
24 - Maolmhuire, Mochua
25 - ------
26 - Iarfhlaith (Iarla/Jarlath), Laisreán
27 - Fiach
28 - Feichín
29 - Maodhóg, Mainchín (Mannix),
30 - -----
31 - Éanna

*Originally published in 2013. 

Deadliest corner in Dublin: Church and North King Streets

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Dublin: Today, the corner of Church and North King Streets is relatively quiet. Only a ten-minute walk from the Liffey and the Four Courts, the biggest noise comes from the rush hour traffic twisting haphazardly north, south, east and west. But in 1916 and 1920 this was a scene of terror as Irish rebels took it to the British in their quest for freedom.

The terror of that period might be permanently forgotten if not for two lonely plaques hitched high up on walls as if they were afraid of being stolen, never mind read. The first plaque on the northwest corner of a deserted pub is dedicated to Kevin Barry, the IRA boy-soldier of myth and legend. It reads:

KEVIN BARRY

H Coy. 1st Batt, Dublin Brigade IRA

Was Taken Prisoner in This

Vicinity 20th Sept 1920

In Action Against the British

Forces in Defence of

The Irish Republic

For Which He Gave His Life

In Mountjoy Gaol 1st Nov 1920

The British — always clueless when it came to the Irish — hanged Barry on November 1, 1920, All Saints Day, a Holy Day of Obligation, guaranteeing him national sainthood in the eyes of the Irish. He would be the first of the “Forgotten Ten” — young men, some completely innocent — who were hanged by the British in the months leading up to the truce in July of 1921.

Plaque to commemorate Kevin Barry.

Read more:The end of Kevin Barry — and the British in southern Ireland

If you cross Church Street and walk about 100 paces east on the north side of North King Street, you’ll come to a wall with a brand new plaque. There’s not a lot of the North King Street of 1916 left, but this plaque is close to where #27 once stood. I wrote about how my Aunt Kathleen was both a hostage and an eyewitness to atrocity when the British murdered 16 completely innocent civilian men. You can read Kathleen’s terrifying story here:

My aunt witnessed the 1916 King Street murder of innocent Irish civilians

The plaque is in both Irish and English and reads:

The North King Street Massacre

April 1916

On the night of Friday/Saturday 28th/29th April 1916,
during some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising,

sixteen innocent civilians, who were sheltering in their

homes, were brutally murdered by British crown forces.

They were:

Christopher Hickey (16) Thomas Hickey (38) Peter

Connolly (39) Peter Lawless (21) James McCarty (36)

James Finnegan (40) Patrick Hoey (25) Edward Dunne (39)

John Walsh (34) Michael Hughes (50) Michael Nunan (34)

George Ennis (51) Patrick Bealen (30) James Healy (44)

John Biernes (50) William O’Neill (16)

The tragic demise of Peter (Peadar) Joseph Lawless, James McCartney (note different spelling), James Finnigan and Patrick Hoey can be read in the witness statements regarding my aunt.

Plaque commemorating those who died in the North King Street Massacre.

Seán O’Casey in "Drums Under the Window" could have been writing about North King Street and its hapless victims:

I know, I know.
You signed no proclamation;
you invaded no building;
you pulled no trigger;
I know, I know.
But Ireland needed you all the same.

Many will die like that 
before Ireland can go free.
They must put up with it.
You will be unknown forever;
you died without a word of praise;
you will be buried without even a shadowy ceremony;
no bugle will call your name;
no gunshot will let loose 
brave echoes over your grave;
you will not be numbered among the accepted slain.

Beautiful words, but O’Casey was wrong — they are remembered. It’s there on that shiny new plaque. In time the shine will be replaced by a patina, but their names won’t fade, not while one Irishman or Irishwoman remembers their sacrifice.

* Dermot McEvoy is the author of the "The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising" and "Irish Miscellany" (Skyhorse Publishing). He may be reached at dermotmcevoy50@gmail.com. Follow him at www.dermotmcevoy.com. Follow The 13th Apostle on Facebook here.

The Swede and the Finn who fought at the GPO in the 1916 Rising

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On April 24, 1916 Patrick Pearse stood outside the General Post Office in Dublin and read a proclamation announcing the establishment of an Irish republic under a provisional government.

The Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army had taken up arms in an effort to secure a republic. While the vast majority of those who took part was Irish, there were two men who found themselves on the periphery of one of Ireland’s most monumental moments in history by accident.

The Volunteers had been infiltrated by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which had secretly fixed Easter Sunday as the date for the Rising. One of the most remarkable tales is that of two seamen who just happened to be in the capital when the Rising erupted. These two ‘Irish rebels’ were unusual because of where they were from – Sweden and Finland.

One of the men called out to Captain Liam Tannam, who was in charge of some of the ground floor windows at the General Post Office. He recalled the chance encounter:

“There were two strange looking men outside and I went to the window and I saw two obviously foreign men. Judging by the appearance of their faces I took them to be seamen. I asked what they wanted.

"The smaller of the two spoke. He said: 'I am from Sweden, my friend from Finland. We want to fight. May we come in?' I asked him why a Swede and Finn would want to fight against the British.

"I asked him how he had arrived. He said he had come in on a ship, they were part of a crew, that his friend, the Finn, had no English and that he would explain.

"So I said: 'Tell me why you want to come in here and fight against England.' He said: 'Finland, a small country, Russia eat her up.' Then he said: 'Sweden, another small country, Russia eat her up too. Russia with the British, therefore, we against.'

"I said: 'Can you fight. Do you know how to use a weapon?' He said: 'I can use a rifle. My friend - no. He can use what you shoot fowl with.' I said: 'A shotgun.'  

"I decided to admit them. I took them in and got the Swede a rifle, the Finn a shotgun. I put them at my own windows."

This is how two foreign strangers became a part of the Irish identity, written into history.  However, the Finn’s inexperience with firearms quickly began to show. Everyone stood too when an alarm was raised at the barricades. The crisis passed, but as the Finn stepped back from the window his shotgun banged off the floor and went off. The blast hit the ceiling and sent a shower of plaster down on the men manning the windows. One of the volunteers, Joe Plunkett, was unimpressed, and gave the Finn a piece of his mind.

Tannam continues: "The Finn looked at him [Plunkett], looked at me, at everyone. Joe said: 'Can you not talk, man?' The Swede spoke up and said: 'No. He has no English.' 'Who are you?', Joe said.  I intervened then and I explained to Joe. Joe looked at me and said: 'Amazing, but obviously that man there is a danger,' pointing to the Finn. 'We will have to get him another place out at the back of the Main Hall.'"

James Connolly said, “The man who fires a shot like that will himself be shot.” It was decided that the Finn should go back from the barricade to help with the filling of fruit tins with explosives and pieces of metal. The Swede insisted he accompany his friend. Both men stayed for the week, and were there until the surrender.

According to Liam Tannam, the Finn’s name was Tony Makapaltis, but that of the Swede was unrecorded. This incredible tale is among the many hidden secrets of what really happened during the 1916 rising.

This story is credited to witness Statements of Liam Tannam, Charles Donnelly and Robert Holland. You can read more about such tales at KnowThyPlace.

*Originallly published January 2014. 

The three greatest love letters to famous Irishmen

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Kitty Kiernan to Michael Collins

Kitty Kiernan was Michael Collins’s fiancée. They were set to be married before he was gunned down in Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork in 1922.

Even though she subsequently married, her last request was to be buried near to him.

In one of her last letters to Michael Collins, Kitty Kiernan wrote:

“l was terrified that you would take all kinds of risks and how I wished to be near you so that I could put my arms tightly around your neck and that nothing could happen to you. I wouldn't be a bit afraid when I'd be beside you, and if you were killed I'd be dying with you and that would be great and far better than if I were left alone behind. I'd be very much alone if you were gone. Nothing could change that, and all last week and this I've realized it and that's what makes it so hard.”

Kitty O’Shea on falling in love with Charles Stewart Parnell



Kitty O’Shea was the wife of an Irish Member of Parliament, Captain William O’Shea, when she met Parnell. They fell instantly in love, but he lost his political power when the affair was revealed. He died in her arms four months after they married at age 45.

After he died, Kitty O’Shea wrote her reminiscence of when she first knew she loved Charles Stewart Parnell. It was the autumn of the year 1880. They had met earlier that summer and carried on an affair even though she was married.

“On the platform for Eltham at Charing Cross (train station) stood Mr. Parnell. As our eyes met he turned and walked by my side. He did not speak. He helped me into the train and sat opposite me.

"I leant back and closed my eyes and could have slept but that the little flames deep down in Parnell’s eyes kept flickering before mine though they were closed.

"He took off his coat and tucked it round me but I would not open my eye to look at him. He crossed over and leaning over me to fold the coat more closely round my knees he whispered, “I love you” and I slipped my hand into his and I knew I was not afraid.”

Maud Gonne to William Butler Yeats


Maud Gonne was WB Yeats’s muse. He proposed to her four times, but she refused each one. Yet, she was his inspiration.

“....at a quarter to 11 last night I put on this body & thought strongly of you & desired to go to you.
We went somewhere in space I don’t know where - I was conscious of starlight & of hearing the sea below us. You had taken the form I think of a great serpent, but I am not quite sure. I only saw your face distinctly & as I looked into your eyes (as I did the day in Paris you asked me what I was thinking of) & your lips touched mine. We melted into one another till we formed only one being, a being greater than ourselves who felt all & knew all with double intensity - the clock striking 11 broke the spell & as we separated it felt as if life was being drawn away from me through my chest with almost physical pain.”

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Bog bodies are kings sacrificed by Celts, says expert

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An expert has stated that the latest bog body found in Ireland has proven that belief that the Celts ritually sacrificed their kings to the Gods.

The body also proves they underwent horrible deaths, if the times turned bad under their reign.

The latest Iron Age bog body dating back to at least 2,000 BC was discovered near Portlaoise in the Irish midlands by an alert bog worker and it bears the same hallmarks of ritual torture that two other famous bodies have.

Ned Kelly, keeper of antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland told the Irish Examiner that a clear pattern has emerged in each case.

"We do not think of these bog bodies in the same way as we do axes or implements that are found," he said. "You have to remember that these are individuals and it is absolutely essential to deal with their remains in a dignified manner. There would be no justification in taking these bodies unless we do so with respect and with the serious intent to tell their stories on their behalf.

"I am quite convinced we are dealing with an Iron Age male, one who was subjected to a ritual killing. There are cuts and marks on the body that indicate that this is somebody who was done to death."

The body is linked closely to two other major finds, the discoveries of Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man, also found in Irish bogs, both of whom were ritually sacrificed.

Human sacrifice was apparently a normal part of the Celtic rituals, especially of kings in hard times.

"The killings tend to be excessive,"  Kelly, said "in that more is done to the bodies than would be required to bring about their deaths. Bog bodies may have their throats cut, been stabbed in the heart and have other cut marks. However, it is absolutely not torture, but a form of ritual sacrifice."

"The king had great power but also great responsibility to ensure the prosperity of his people. Through his marriage on his inauguration to the goddess of the land, he was meant to guarantee her benevolence. He had to ensure the land was productive, so if the weather turned bad, or there was plague, cattle disease or losses in war, he was held personally responsible."

Another bog body was found in Croghan, Co. Offaly.

At 6’6", Old Croghan Man, who was killed between 362 BC and 175 BC, was a giant of a man. he bore every appearance of a nobleman from his well manicured soft hands to his diet, which was rich in meat.

Clonycavan Man was little more than 5 ft and used pine resin to keep his hair in place.

Kelly says Old Croghan Man died horribly, having holes cut in his upper arms through which a rope was pulled through in order to restrain him. He was  stabbed repeatedly and he had his nipples sliced before he was finally  cut in half.

Clonycavan Man was disemboweled and struck three times across the head with an axe and once across the body and also had his nipples cut.

Cutting the nipples was more than torture. The aim was to dethrone the king. "Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland," says Kelly. "Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship in this world or the next."

"By using a range of methods to kill the victim, the ancient Irish sacrificed to the goddess in all her forms. This manner of death is peculiar to the ritual killing of kings. It means that a king was being decommissioned."

"I think it is important we treat them with respect. They have come down to us with a story to tell and it is our duty to tell that story on their behalf. If we do that, it will give added meaning to their lives."

* Originally published in Dec 2013.

All the home you’ll ever need - breath it in and take it with you

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The sound of an afternoon shower, the clink of a stout box, a hornpipe spilling out of a bar or the lonesome sound of the wind through the trees -- all of these conjure Ireland and you carry them with you in memory.

There are too many of these sounds to talk about, but they're part of the repertoire of almost any Irish emigrant’s life.

That's because the great lessons of Irish life are first taught by nature. Within 30 minutes you can travel from any urban center to a landscape that still exists in ancient time.

Take a good walk along the Wild Atlantic coastline and you'll soon have trouble telling where the earth ends and sky begins. In Donegal the division does not seem to exist at all, because when the light falls the horizon can lose definition, letting the sea reflect and in a way become the sky.

Read more:Free video counseling service for the homesick Irish abroad launches today

That's probably how James Joyce's alter ego Stephen Daedalus found himself tipping headlong into eternity along Sandymount strand. It could happen to anyone there.

The first great lesson of that magnificent landscape is that you and everyone you know are just transitory ants crawling over eternal rocks. It teaches you some humility and perspective.

That landscape has shaped the character of the flinty and people who live on it. We're lucky for it.

Ireland is a communal society. It's more about the community more than the individual. It's a pragmatic approach to life that's been handed down from our history.

The threats from other people and other lands brought us closer into a fleece huddle, and so we prefer to know who our neighbors are and to speak to them when we're out on our daily errands to this day.

That doesn't mean we like them all, or agree with them all, or want to know them all at a deeper level. It's just an acknowledgement that we prefer community life to lonely individualism.

So if you want to escape other people's scrutiny, Ireland may not be the country for you.

Or at least, not at first.  Not until you get out into the countryside or down to the endless beaches where you can easily spend a long afternoon without encountering another soul.

There are few places left in Europe where you can be wholly alone in a giant preternatural landscape and then be back in the warm embrace of a cozy Irish pub before evening. Ireland offers you that choice and it does it with an ease that is almost lost elsewhere. We should treasure it.

Read more:From Dubai to Savannah - the best Irish pubs in the world

Irish people rarely tell you this, but they can miss the land with the same intensity that they miss certain people.

Looking out from the airplane window as those green fields come into view after a long absence, their hearts can lighten, more or less in the same way they do when they catch a glimpse of their parents waiting for them in the arrivals hall.

The magic is done before you notice. The landscape works its way into your imagination and you will carry it with you from London to Singapore.

On hot days in foreign nations you'll hear the rain falling at home, you'll think of coastal walks you often took and your insides will become a sort of portable terrarium.

No matter how far you travel or what you meet you'll never dig Ireland out of you, so why try? If you let it, the memory of that landscape can be one of the most centering influences in your life.

It can filter out all the nonsense you'll meet elsewhere. In America, for example, you are constantly told that things will get better tomorrow if you buy this, do this, eat this and stop eating that.

America believes in tomorrow because people will pay to dream. Finding fault is profitable.

But all that anxious chatter quickly loses its meaning when you stand on a Donegal shoreline. Here's something ancient and enduring to restore you to your senses.

Here's a seagull gliding on an upwind in search of a fish. Here's a wind so fresh it fills your lungs in great pailfuls. Here's a beach that hasn't changed since Cleopatra was a girl. Here you're close to the mystery of what happens.

Breathe it in, carry it with you.  It's all the home you'll ever need.

Read more:Frustrated with Ireland’s strict laws for foreign retirees? Here’s your chance to complain

German owner of Cork hotel hid in wine cellar for days after Lusitania sank (PHOTOS)

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In May 1915, after a German submarine torpedoed the RMS Lusitania killing nearly 1,200 civilians off of the coast of Queenstown, Co. Cork (now Cobh) a mob of angry Irish locals surrounded Queen’s Hotel (now Commodore Hotel). The rioters were calling for the hotel to be burned to the ground.

Inside, deep down in the wine cellar, hid Otto Humbert, the German-born owner of Queen’s Hotel. He was down there with his family for three days before protesters settled down, when he was able to flee on a ship to New York.

The cover to the 1912 pamphlet on the Queens Hotel.

Germany had declared the seas around the UK to be a “zone of war,” and they tried to justify their actions by saying the RMS Lusitania was carrying hundreds of tons of war munitions. They were in breach of international law, however, as the Lusitania was a non-military ship carrying civilians, and they had shot without warning. Though Humbert was not personally involved in what happened, his German nationality aroused much anger from those on shore, who had witnessed the horrible tragedy.

Read more:Playing 'Yankee Doodle' on the church bells in Cobh, County Cork

A New York Times article dated May 30th 1915 had the headline, “Forced From Own Hotel” and subheadline, “German-British Subject, Antagonized by Lusitania Survivors, Coming Here”

The article reads: “Otto Humbert, owner of the Queen’s Hotel, Queenstown, a naturalised British subject of German birth, sailed from Liverpool today for New York.

The beautiful old Queens Hotel.

“A number of the Lusitania survivors were taken to Mr. Humbert’s hotel upon their arrival at Queenstown. His origin aroused antagonism and he became the target of bitter criticism on the part of some of the survivors and their friends. His behavior has been above suspicion, but his presence in the hotel, where military and naval officers make their headquarters, caused protests. Consequently Mr. Humbert decided to leave.”

The hotel opened in 1854 and had several owners before it was passed on to the Humberts. Otto Humbert was the hotel’s most notable proprietor, as he took over during WWI; he put focus on attracting the lucrative passenger line traffic that frequented Cork Harbor, which the hotel directly faces. Humbert had electricity and phones installed in the hotel as well as an attractive, American style bar on the ground floor. In the back, he had stables for dogs and a garage installed for vehicles of the guests. In its day, the hotel had an “upper class” clientele.

Today, the beautiful and stately Commodore Hotel doesn’t seem to be a far cry from what it once was, as the structure and interior has been carefully preserved.

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An old pamphlet for the hotel from 1912, shortly after Humbert took over, reads: “This charming First-class Hotel is splendidly situated opposite the Promenade (where a Band plays during the Summer) and two minutes from the Landing Stage and Railway Station, with a fine view of the famous Harbour. The magnificent newly-built Cathedral is also only a few minutes’ walk. The Hotel - which is now under new management - has been entirely re-furnished and re-decorated, and telephone and electric lights have been installed throughout...As a new feature a lounge and American bar have been added. Also the sanitary arrangements have been entirely renewed, which leaves the department in a most perfect condition.”

Read more:Why do we care about the Titanic more than the Lusitania?

The pamphlet also contains a key with international telegraph codes for visitors to use while making reservations. For example, a telegraph saying “Tomorrow Belab Pass Matin” means “reserve two single bedrooms for one night, arriving between 8 am and noon.”

The American Bar.

While the Humberts hid in the wine cellar, Lusitania survivors were being brought ashore. An English woman who was in Queenstown on a holiday commandeered the hotel and transformed it into a temporary hospital to accommodate the survivors. Her husband was away fighting the war in India at the time. Today, the Commodore Hotel has a copy of the letter she wrote to her husband, detailing all that she did to help the survivors.

Ironically, in the 1912 pamphlet, the hotel advertises itself as a perfect “health resort,” especially for the winter time. It says that while many visitors are just passing through, a prolonged stay “would afford them both pleasure and health.”

Pages from the pamphlet describing the heatlh resort.

“The climate is remarkably mild and equable, and, at the same time fairly dry and tonic, and is especially suitable as a winter and spring residence for persons with delicate chests, to sufferers from chronic catarrhal throat affection, and to convalescents from acute diseases,” it says. “It is particularly appropriate as a seaside resort to persons requiring a soothing and sedative atmosphere.” The advertisement compares the temperatures to those at Torquay, a noted winter health resort in the south of England.

Along with the natural and climatic advantages of being built on the southern slope of a hill facing the harbor, the poetic pamphlet boasts “the most varied and motley sights to be seen anywhere in northern Europe,” referring to the beach: “merchant seamen from every port of the world congregate here; military and man of war sailors are ever present, pleasure seeking yachtsmen, pilots and fishers mix with the melancholy groups of emigrants, or the irrepressible vendors of impossible wares.”

The resting place of many who died in the Lusitania tragedy is located in the Old Church Cemetery just five minutes from the Commodore Hotel.

The hotel is bursting at the seams with history and stories; if you pay a visit to Cobh, consider the Commodore if you want to feel as though you’ve stepped back in time. You’ll notice that in its core, not all that much has changed since Otto Humbert took refuge in the wine cellar.

Beautiful old dressing rooms.


Lost interviews reveal Kennedy clan secrets of matriarch Rose

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Interviews with matriarch Rose Kennedy, recorded by her memoir ghostwriter in the early 1970s, feature details of life in the Massachusetts dynasty which until now were never revealed. From her daughter’s lobotomy, to banning crying and how she weighed her children every week the new tapes show life in the Kennedy clan according to Rose.

In 1974 Rose’s memoir, "Times to Remember", ghost-written by Robert Coughlan, was released. The author recorded over 40 hours of interviews with Rose but until now they have not been made public. After Coughlan’s death in 1992 his widow gave the tapes to Kennedy historian Laurence Leamer whose Broadway play “Rose” was based on their contents.

Rose Kennedy photographed with her son JFK.

Leamer has previously authored four books on the Kennedy dynasty. In an interview with People.com the historian shared some of the interesting and strange topics discussed during the 40 hours of interviews.

He said, “She's been ignored by history. Yet she's the only person who's lived the whole story - the only one who could speak with honesty and depth about everything that happened.”

Wife of Ambassador Joe Kennedy Sr and mother of President John F. Kennedy, Senators Robert F. and Ted Kennedy and Second World War hero Joe Kennedy Jr, Rose was the woman who stood behind five great men.

Rose died in 1995 at the age of 104. Sadly during her life, four of her nine children died untimely deaths. Her eldest Joe Jnr in WWII, John and Robert were assassinated and Kathleen died in a plane crash. In the interviews she spoke about how the family dealt with the great loss by banishing depression.

She said, “It would be selfish and demoralizing to focus on our tragedies. When the children come home, we try not to talk about [them]. There was a saying after Jack died, for the grandchildren, no crying in the house. If you cry, you'll be sent back to wherever you come from. I insisted that.”

Famously there a superstition that the Kennedy family is cursed, as they have suffered such great losses and tragedy. However she saw it more stoically.

She said, “We met presidents and dukes, kings and queens. We had money, talent and relationships with one another; we boasted of good looks. I'm not surprised when some tragedy came ... It was too perfect to last.”

She also commented on the Kennedy’s famously good summers in Hyannis Port, in Cape Cod, sailing and attending balls in London.

During the interviews the matriarch also discussed how she becomes obsessive about tracking her children’s weight and how they children had “tummy trouble” and could not eat certain foods like ice cream. She also admitted to physically punishing them with a ruler or a coat hanger when they misbehaved at the dinner table.

Rose discussed her daughter Rosemary’s 1941 lobotomy with her ghostwriter. Rosemary, the Kennedy’s third-eldest child, was born in 1918. She was born with cognitive disabilities and never progressed beyond the intellectual level of a fourth grader. In her teenage years she became prone to outburst. At the age of 23 her father, Joe, secretly took her to get a lobotomy. She was incapacitated for the rest of her life.

When asked about the tragedy during the interviews Rose only said, “Rosemary's mind is gone completely. That was due to an accident, which I don't really discuss.”

Her marriage with Joe Snr was described as “calculated.” She was the daughter of the Boston Mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and her groom a successful stockbroker. However, during their 55 years of marriage was rumored to have had affairs with famous Hollywood stars such as Gloria Swanson and Marlene Dietrich. During the interview she never made reference to the affairs. However, she did say that she warned her daughter-in-laws to ignore any rumors about their husbands.

Leamer’s version of it is that Rose “was as ambitious as Joe and in a sense even more so because she lived through her children.”

Read more:The sad and dreadful life of Rosemary Kennedy revealed

How to research your Irish genealogy using the Library of Congress

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Starting your research on Irish genealogy can be a daunting task. Where do I start? Where are the best places to look? What kind of information can lead me on the path to my ancestors?

The list of possible places where you could find information on your family is long but luckily, the Library of Congress (the research library that officially serves the United States Congress) has put together this small but useful referencing guide to help you get out of the blocks and begin researching Irish genealogy and local Irish history.

Although the library admit that it is far from a comprehensive list, and as you get further into your research you may need to look to more specific resources, the guide acts as a great starter aid to get you over that intimidating first hurdle: working up the courage to start.

Not only can the aid be used within the Library of Congress but any other large library is likely to hold the same content as listed below.

The Library of Congress will help you fill out your family tree. Image: Getty images.

Here are some of the Library’s suggestions:

1. Handbooks

Although some of them are now quite dated, there have been a number of handbooks published that aim to guide you through the genealogy research process. The LOC recommends “Pocket guide to Irish genealogy” (1991) by Brian Mitchell or “Irish family history” (1990) by Marilyn Yurdan among others.

2. Pedigrees and family histories

These resources focus on certain Irish lines and on certain families which means that unless your family was extremely well-off or a part of the gentry, you are unlikely to find information on your particular family here.

Some recommendations:

  • “The Irish and Anglo-Irish landed gentry when Cromwell came to Ireland” (1884) by John O’Hare.
  • “The Palatine families of Ireland” by Henry Z. Jones.

3. Bibliographies

If you’re looking to cast out your net very far at the start, these resources will be useful. Many of them list further resources for research purposes.

Some recommendations:

  • “Bibliography of Irish family history” (1982) by Edward MacLysaght
  • “A guide to Irish bibliographical material: a bibliography of Irish bibliographies and sources of information” (1980) by Alan R. Eager.

4. Local history

The Library of Congress contains many histories of Irish localities that may contain name and family information. One given example is the collection of letters written by John O’Donovan as he completed the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland between 1834 and 1841. The letters contain information on the people O’Donovan met with as he mapped the country and information on the names he came across during this research.

5. Biographical information

Here you'll find not only published works on the more famous and influential Irish families but collections of the names of judges, architects and those who moved to different countries during certain periods.

Some recommendations:

  • “Irish families in Australia and New Zealand, 1788-1978” by Hubert William Coffey and Marjorie Jean Morgan
  • “A biographical dictionary of architects in Ireland, 1600-1720” by Rolf Loeber

6. Land, Property and other records

Looking through land records is a great way to find out more information on where your family lived and at what time. Listed in many of these records is the amount of land the family owned and in what specific area. It may also use alternate spellings of both place and family names so they can be difficult resources to work your way through accurately but worth the time and effort.

Some recommendations:

  • “A census of Ireland, circa 1659; with supplementary material from the poll money ordinances (1660-1661). Irish Manuscripts Commission.
  • “The Tithe applotment books”.

7. Maps, atlases and gazetteers

Looking through older maps may be useful if you are having difficulty establishing the home place of your family. Place names have changed over time, have changed spelling, or may have been anglicized but if you can trace the place name through time it will tell you the correct spelling to look for when you are looking for your family in certain older documents.

Some recommendations:

  • “A new genealogical atlas of Ireland” from Brian Mitchell
  • “Philip's 19th century county atlas of Ireland” with original consulting index and edited with a new introduction by John D. Blackwell & Laurie C.C. Stanley Blackwell.
1799 Carey Map of Ireland. Image: WikiCommons.

 

8. Names: Geographical

As with maps, these resources will help you to weave through the maze that is Irish topography.

Some recommendations:

  • “Ainm: bulletin of the Ulster Place-Name Society. -- Vol. 1” (1986).
  • “A dictionary of Irish place-names” (1986) by Adrian Room.

9. Names: Personal

By finding out more about your own family name and its origins and various spellings you can hope to open up new doors in your research and other routes for you to take until you find the right path.

Some recommendations:

  • “Irish surnames and their possible locations for family history research” (1984) by James McClelland
  • “Special report on surnames in Ireland. Together with Varieties and synonymes of surnames and Christian names in Ireland” by Robert E. Matheson.

10. Periodicals

There have been many journals dedicated to investigating links to Ireland and tracing Irish heritage, some of which are still being published.

Some recommendations:

  • “Journal of the Irish Family History Society.”
  • “Irish Family Links” from the Irish Genealogical Association.

11. Religions

Parish registers are a goldmine for the genealogical researcher. You can look through records of different religions and churches as well as registers for graveyards.

Some recommendations:

  • “Guide to Irish Quaker records, 1654-1860” (1967) by Olive C. Goodbody
  • “A guide to Irish parish registers” (1988) by Brian Mitchell.

12. Wills

If one member of your family left a will in the past, it may outline other members of the family and their relation to them.

Some recommendations:

  • “Registry of Deeds (Ireland). Abstracts of wills,” edited by P. Beryl Eustace
  • “Irish genealogical guides : a guide to copies & abstracts of Irish wills” by Wallace Clare.

13. Emigration

Pinpoint the exact time your family left Ireland with these useful resources on Irish emigration.

Some recommendations:

  • “Irish passenger lists, 1847-1871 : lists of passengers sailing from Londonderry to America on ships of the J. & J. Cooke Line and the McCorkell Line,” compiled under the direction of Brian Mitchell.
  • “The Famine immigrants : lists of Irish immigrants arriving at the port of New York, 1846-1851.” Ira A. Glazier, editor; Michael Tepper, associate editor.
Irish emigrants disembarking at Ellis Island, New York. Image: Getty Images.

14. Irish in America

So you know what date your family left Ireland and you know where in the US they are all currently living, but what happened in the interim? Trace the journey of your Irish family in America to the present day with this list of resources on Irish Americans.

Some recommendations:

  • “The Irish in America : immigration, land, probate, administration, birth, marriage, and burial records of the Irish in America in and about the eighteenth century,” edited by Michael J. O'Brien
  • “Irish settlers on the American frontier” by Michael C. O’Laughlin.

If you wish delve further into the Library of Congress’ resources, you can view the full list here.

Do you have any other recommendations from your own experience? Let us know in the comment section.

Raise a glass to Robert Emmet, the Irish rebel leader executed 213 years ago

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This week would be an appropriate time of year to raise a glass to Robert Emmet, especially if you happened to be in Dublin’s Brazen Head Pub.

After his failed uprising in 1803, Emmet was executed on September 20 following a one-day trial the day before on a charge of high treason against the king.

As charges went in the Ireland of the day, this was definitely one to avoid if you aspired to old age.

No appeal or plea for mercy was allowed.

As courtroom epics go, the trial was both a farce and an epic.

The latter because it gave to the world Robert Emmet’s speech from the dock, a classic of courtroom testimony that inspires to this day.

Emmet, so the story goes, had organized his doomed rebellion in the Brazen Head, Dublin’s oldest pub with a license dating to 1666 and the existence of a public house on the site going back, by one estimate, to 1198.

So by 1803, the Brazen Head was a Dublin fixture, and a tired and tested place to plot rebellion.

The Brazen Head Pub in Dublin.

The Emmet-led Rising was a disaster from an Irish point of view.

But the young patriot would win in another way - even though the prosecution was able to buy off his main defense lawyer, though not the lawyer assisting.

The fix was in.

The verdict was certain.

The punishment was but hours away.

But before the rope, Emmet bestowed to the world his speech.

There are different versions in print.

The best known concludes thus:

Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance, asperse them.

“Let them and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, and my memory in oblivion, until other times and other men can do justice to my character.

"When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.”

The following day, today’s date, Emmet was hanged in Thomas Street.

He was beheaded after dying on the scaffold.

Justice at that time was keen on gruesome emphasis.

Nobody claimed Emmet’s remains which were interred by authorities, their precise whereabouts unknown to this day.

Read more:Ireland's top oldest and most charming pubs (PHOTOS)

Irish Ambassador to the United States, Anne Anderson, speaking at the rededication of the Emmet statue.

Emmet is a role model for not a few aspiring attorneys, not least Irish American ones.

And he is formally remembered on American soil by means of a statue in a small park in Washington, D.C. which was rededicated earlier this year.

The Emmet statue was commissioned by the Smithsonian, funded by a group of Irish Americans, completed in 1916 by Irish sculptor Jerome Connor, and installed in the Smithsonian’s U.S. National Museum.

President Woodrow Wilson, no friend of the rebellious Irish of his own time, spoke at the dedication ceremony.

On the 50th anniversary of that first dedication, in April 1966, the Smithsonian loaned the Emmet statue to a small National Park Service site near the Embassy of Ireland.

It was duly rededicated.

The then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, John McCormack, presided over the ceremony, and remarks were made by, among others, the Secretary of the Smithsonian and the Ambassador of Ireland.

None less than President Lyndon Johnson conveyed his admiration for Emmet in a message that was read at the event.

The rededication event back in the spring of this year, the second such, saw today’s Irish Ambassador to the United States, Anne Anderson, presiding over a ceremony at the park site, which is at Massachusetts Avenue and 24th Street.

A long way for sure from the Brazen Head.

But only a short distance from the embassy of a nation that has well taken its place among the others of the earth.

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This story first appeared in the Irish Echo. For more great articles, visit their website here

“Supported by her exiled children in America”: John Devoy and Irish America in 1916

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This is the address by former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross this summer.

Author’s note: In preparing these remarks, I am deeply indebted to the scholarship of author, Terry Golway, and his outstanding book, "Irish Rebel" – from which I will be quoting liberally.

PROLOGUE: WHY AM I HERE?

The Irish Republic is a precious thing won by the sacrifices of Irish people, yourselves alone.

The Irish Republic flag, flown at the GPO, in 1916.

And so it is a very humbling privilege to be asked, as an American, to share some reflections on your achievement of nationhood in this centenary year...

I grew up one of six children in a family where Irish music was played in our home year 'round – not just on St. Patrick's Day.

In high school, those songs developed within me a keen interest in Irish history and events.

I devoured every book on Irish history I could get my hands on.

Started playing Irish music in a band.

As a college student, I volunteered on the Presidential campaign of Senator Gary Hart– the current U.S. Peace envoy to Northern Ireland.

As a Presidential candidate, Hart was the first to issue a statement calling for the creation of a U.S. peace envoy and All-Party talks...

I was the young person who wrote that statement which Senator Hart courageously put forward in 1983.

A position which then became accepted Democratic Party policy by all subsequent candidates running for my Party's nomination – including Governor Bill Clinton...

As an elected member of the Baltimore City Council in the early nineties, I led the effort to pass the MacBride Principles in my city – like so many cities across America.

As Mayor I hosted visiting groups of local officials from the North as part of the healing process of returning to local self-governance.

As Governor of Maryland, I received a joint visit from First Minister Peter Robinson, and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to our State capital of Annapolis.

We discussed new, more modern ways of governing and delivering results for all citizens – regardless of race or creed.

Irish music remains a passion of mine.

I know every word to, "A Nation Once Again.”

And, most times... I can even get the chords right...

Let us begin.

EASTER 1916

A rising.

The Rising.

The Proclamation of an Irish Republic.

Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

The calling of a People.

Irishmen and Irishwomen...

Every person is needed, each can make a difference.

With your kind permission, today I would like to focus on just one phrase of that historic revolutionary document – your document.

It is the phrase that reads, "supported by her exiled children in America."

Why is it there?

INTRODUCTION

He was called by Padraig Pearse, "the greatest Fenian of them all."

Padraig Pearse.

When he died, The Times of London said, he was, "the most bitter and persistent, as well as the most dangerous enemy of the country which Ireland has produced since Wolfe Tone."

American citizen.

Irish native.

Veteran of the French Foreign Legion.

Rebel convict.

Exile.

Newspaper writer and editor.

Unrelenting Fenian.

His greatness was not the flash of a shooting star.

Not the heroic entrance and youthful death of Celtic warrior death of Celtic legends.

His place in Glasnevin cemetery was not earned by the courage of a battlefield death.

Or the courage of facing a British firing squad.

John Devoy – "the greatest Fenian of them all" – lived a long life.

His courage was the lonely courage of the long fight.

"The excellence of the long accomplishment." 

The birth of an Irish Republic.

Read more on the 1916 Easter Rising centenary

PRELUDE

Sometimes.

    When we think of history.

           We imagine iconic snapshots in time.

                   Old photos of isolated events and singular people.

                             Heroes rise above the continuum of time...

But biography – it is said – is the only true history.

And most of our lives are lived as threads, woven over the course of many days, into the tapestry of a future we can only imagine...

John Devoy's biography is an Irish thread like no other.

It is a thread that connects the Irish diaspora from Europe, to America, to Australia.

A thread that connects the struggle for Irish independence from the founding of the Fenian movement in 1858 through all of the events – and hard-learned lessons on both sides of the Atlantic – which culminate in Easter 1916.

Names like James Stephens, Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Davitt, John Boyle O'Reilly, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Tom Clarke, Roger Casement, Padraig Pearse, and James Connolly were real people to him.

Not mere photos...

He shook their hands.

Worked with them.

Suffered with them.

Shared their deepest confidences and fears.

Grieved their deaths.

Looked after their widows.

UPBRINGING

His father was a farmer who would be involved tangentially in the Young Ireland movement of 1848.

His mother's great uncle, and John's namesake, had fought for Ireland in the rebellion of 1798 – a sporadic, rolling, and bloody uprising that claimed twice as many lives as were lost in the entire American Revolution.

John Devoy, himself, is born in 1842. 

He is the third of eight children born to William and Elizabeth Devoy near the village of Kill, in County Kildaire.

Ireland is on the eve of experiencing the worst Famine ever to hit Western Europe.

Victims of the Irish Famine.

By the time he is five years old, starvation has cut Ireland's population by a quarter.

"Black '47."

Almost 2 million desperate people will emigrate.

Another million will die of hunger in hovels and ditches by the sides of the roads – their mouths often stained green by the grass of their last desperate attempts to eat...

His father is lucky. Lands a job as a clerk at a brewery. Moves the family to Dublin.

John's oldest brother dies of cholera during those famine years.

The other seven children survive.

John is a smart boy. A sensitive boy. A boy that a teacher might call, "proud" – without intending it as a compliment.

He is stubborn.

Doesn't take well to the controlling atmosphere of school.

He takes even less well to a overbearing English schoolmaster.

His first blow for independence is struck at this physically bullying classroom authority.

John Devoy is expelled – and not for the last time.

His mother dies when he is sixteen.

A TRANS-ATLANTIC IRISH MOVEMENT

A month before her death – in another part of Dublin – a single-minded, self-centered, and aging veteran of the aborted 1848 rebellion gathers some friends together in a private room.

James Stephens.

As author, Terry Golway, writes, "There James Stephens and his comrades swear an oath pledging to bring about an independent Irish Republic. The group becomes known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood...

Shortly thereafter – on the other side of the Atlantic – an Irish immigrant in New York named John O'Mahoney establishes an American counterpart to the IRB.

O'Mahoney is a prosperous Catholic and an Irish-language scholar... he calls his American-based organization, the Fenian Brotherhood, after the legendary warriors called the Fianna,...the rubric, Fenian, sticks...

The Stephens-O'Mahoney alliance is a redefining moment in the long history of Irish national struggle...

From now on, British and Irish alike must to contend with a third party – the United States – the world's ascendant nation with its millions of exiled Irish ready, willing, and increasingly able..." 

It is O'Mahoney in 1861 who conceives and executes the public relations stunt of the trans-Atlantic funeral of obscure Fenian, Terrence Bellows MacManus.

Thousands turn-out – in America and in Ireland – to pay patriotic tribute to a man so little known in life.

Young Devoy would remember this.

In early 1861, at the age of eighteen, Devoy and a friend take the Fenian oath. 

That oath – to the establishment of an Irish Republic – will define his life.

His father catches wind.

Forbids John from any further involvement.

Headstrong as ever, and in search of military experience, young John Devoy resolves to emigrate...

In March 1861, he runs away from home.

Enlists in the French Foreign Legion.

Serves an uneventful year in Algeria.

Returns to Ireland, in 1862.

Reports back to Stephens.

And finds himself immidiatley drawn into the central planning for an imminent Fenian rising.

The plan has three parts...

First, recruit the nation's young men into an underground fighting force.

Second, recruit overseas where the American Civil War was making veterans and a potential officer's corps out of thousands of immigrant Irish that it doesn't kill on the battlefield.

Third, infiltrate and recruit from the 26,000 British soldiers garrisoned in Ireland – two-thirds of whom were Irish born.

It is to this final task Devoy is assigned. 

THE IRISH IN AMERICA'S CIVIL WAR

Meanwhile in America, in September of 1862,  the Irish Brigade of the Union Army distinguishes itself in the bloodiest single day of the Civil War – the Battle of Antietam.

Amid the cheers of their Anglo-American comrades in arms, the Irish Brigade charges three times across an open field.

They loose two-thirds of their men.

But the Union victory at Antietam, Maryland gives Lincoln the credibility he needs to issue the Emancipation Proclamation – effectively declaring an end to slavery in the United States.

The Irish Brigade, fighting in the American Civil War.

The War drags on. The casualties mount.  They are especially high for the Irish Brigade.

In early July 1863, the Irish Brigade distinguishes itself once again in the decisive Battle of Gettysburg.

And then, just one week later, Irish America horrifies its new countrymen when the largest and deadliest race riots in U.S. history erupt in New York City.

Incensed by a war-time draft that allows the wealthiest of Americans to buy their way out of active service, Irish mobs turn their wrath on the homes of the wealthy, and the lives of any black men they can get their hands on.

Lincoln puts down the riots with troops and cannon.

A thousand people die.

In November 1863, the same month Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address, "America's Irish rebels – including many Union officers on leave – assemble in convention in Chicago to prepare for the coming battle across the Atlantic."

"In the spring of 1864, James Stepehens crosses the Atlantic to visit War-torn America."

"Tours Union encampments." 

Read more:Abraham Lincoln’s Irish Brigade letter

He hears the popular Irish Nationalist song, "The Minstrel Boy," being sung around the Irish campfires of the United States Army.

"The Minstrel Boy to the war has gone, in the ranks of death you will find him?

His father's sword he has girded on and his wild harp flung behind hm..."

Stephens returns to Ireland in high spirits. He estimates 100,000 well-trained Irish-Americans are now sworn and ready to fight for Irish freedom...

Stephens determines the rising will take place the following year.

THE FENIAN RISING OF 1867

The Irish Republican Brotherhood organizes now with a renewed vigor. They train recruits in musketry.

By spring of 1865, "couriers from New York start bringing a steady supply of cash to fund IRB efforts in Ireland..."

"British intelligence notes the sudden appearance in Ireland of men wearing felt hats and square-toed shoes – fashions that marked the men as Americans..." 

O'Mahoney tells the Fenian Convention gathered in Cinncinatti, Ohio they are "already at war with the oligarchs of England."

In April of 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox.

The American Civil War is over.

Queen Victoria – well aware of British diplomatic coziness with the Confederacy – writes confidentially to one of her ministers.

She fears the Irish of the victorious Union Army will now turn their haughty wrath toward England.

Fenian fever is on the rise.

But the British are not distracted nor are they unaware.

They have very effectively infiltrated the Fenians with paid informers – both in Ireland and in America.

The British government decides it can no longer afford to watch and wait.

On September 14, 1865, they raid the offices of The Irish People – the IRB's newspaper – arresting everyone in the offices.

Warrants are also issued for the arrests of dozens of Fenians including one John Devoy of Naas.

Devoy begins to carry a revolver.

The arrests continue.

Stephens promotes Devoy – at the age of 23 – to be the chief organizer of the British Army in Ireland.

"Be prudent now," Stephens tells him. "You owe me this to justify the appointment of so young a man to so responsible a post."

On November 11, 1865, James Stephens is himself arrested.

In less than two weeks "a rescue party that included Devoy and an IRB operative on the inside named, John Breslin, set him free in a dramatic and attention-grabbing rescue." 

But Devoy's well-planned rescue does not embolden Stephen's timetable – the rising of 1865 will now be postponed.

Devoy is not happy.

He has skillfully organized 1,600 Irish-born soldiers within the British garrison in Dublin.

Formed them carefully into small cells.

Loyal, true, and faithful men like, John Boyle O'Reilly.

The Fenians inside the army fear betrayal.

They are anxious for an open fight.

Military men, they demand a definite decision – one way or the other.

As 1866 begins, the British increase their counter-pressure.

They order mass transfers of the army garrisoned in Ireland.

Suspend Habeas Corpus.

Over just two days, they arrest 150 Irish-American Civil War officers --  in Dublin alone – who had come over for the coming fight.

Between indefinite postponement, imminent arrest, and premature uprising, the options for Stephens are grim. 

A war council is called.

Devoy votes for immediate action. 

But the majority present vote with Stephens to postpone.

On February 22, 1866 – as Devoy shares the decision made with several British Army Fenians at a public house on James Street – detectives enter the pub.

As his uniformed co-conspirators slip out the back, the detectives burst into the meeting room.

Devoy reaches for his revolver but is overwhelmed.

He is arrested.

Taken to Kilmainham Gaol.

Photographed...

John Devoy, in 1866.

John Devoy's role in his first rebellion is over.

But it's lessons were still unfolding.

"A LAND ACROSS THE WAVE"

Devoy is sentenced to 15 years of prison.

He is behind bars when the badly-infiltrated Fenian uprising in Ireland is crushed – in its infancy – in March of  1867.

Most of the would-be leaders who had remained free, are now rounded up before a single shot is fired.

Sporadic fighting in the southwest and outside of Dublin is immediately put down.

A group of Irish-American Civil War veterans cross the Atlantic in the good ship, "Erin's Hope", only to find the uprising has already fizzled out.

Erin is hopeless.

Meanwhile as word of the failure spreads to America, the well-armed Fenian movement there is down but not out. 

Two separate factions decided to strike a blow for Irish freedom by embarking on one of the more bizarre chapters in U.S. military history – the Fenian invasion of Canada.

DEEP IN CANADIAN WOODS THEY MET

Having purchased surplus arms – knowingly – from U.S. arsenals, Irish-America feels they have received a "wink and a nod" from President Johnson's Adminstration to mess with the Confederate-loving English. 

A one thousand mile Fenian front is quickly extended from Chicago to Albany with thousands of veteran Irish-American troops representing 22 different states.

The uprising in Ireland has failed, but Irish America decides to fight nonetheless.

There is a joke common, today, in Irish-American circles:

That the first order of business at every meeting of the St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee is,..."the split." [attribute joke to Behan]

And so it was with Irish Americans in 1866.

In April of that year – as John Devoy sat in prison – one of two factions of the Fenian Army of the United States takes Indian Island, a small bit of Canada off the Eastport Coast.

In May, another faction crosses the Niagra River, and takes Fort Erie.

Planting the American and Fenian flags, they claim the land on behalf of the Irish Republic in exile.

And so,... "deep in Canadian woods [they] met from one bright Island flown." 

In such fighting as there was, the flat-footed Canadians got the worst of it.

President Johnson eventually sends the Union Army – led by none less than Ulysses S. Grant and Union General George Meade – to secure the border and put an end to the Fenian invasion.

They arrest former Union Generals – now Fenian Generals – O'Neill and Sweeney.

The Fenian Army of America surrenders its arms and dissipates.

A small band would try again in 1870, but meet with even worse results...

For the white Anglo-Saxon ascendancy of the United States, the Irish in America have now added a propensity for senseless fighting, to the stereotype of a propensity for senseless drinking.

Devoy would ponder the ignominious impact of these events in prison.

He would also happen to be the beneficiary of another group of Fenians, a group he had never met – The Manchester Martyrs.

GOD SAVE IRELAND

In 1867, a group of 30–40 well-armed Fenians intercept and attack a horse-drawn police van transporting two arrested leaders of the Brotherhood, Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy.

One of the jail guards is accidentally shot and killed in the rescue.

Kelly and Deasy are never captured again.

But three of the Fenians in the rescue party are captured.

Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien are summarily tried and hanged.

They will become known to history as, "The Manchester Martyrs."

"God Save Ireland" becomes, overnight, the anthem of the Irish Republic in waiting.

Unrequited Irish songs are powerful things.

So, too, are Irish martyrs.

Cascading events – in reaction to the Machester executions – turn British public opinion in favor of amnesty for Irish political political prisoners like Devoy.

The Fenian threat is a chapter the British government wants to put behind it.

Better to export Fenians than execute them.

Although "by the end of 1870, the Irish-American movement was in shambles..,"

Ironically, it is the British government who now revive it "when a ship of the Cunnard line – called 'the Cuba' – sails into New York harbor in 1871" carrying five Irish exiles.

Among the five, are Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa and John Devoy.

HARD-EARNED LESSSONS LEARNED

While O'Donovan Rossa had spent his time in prison being angry, Devoy spent his time thinking about the next time.

Thinking about the hard-earned lessons learned – on both sides of the Atlantic.

What were those Lessons?

#1. Political circles must be grown wide; but revolutionary circles must be held close.

#2. When the time is ripe, delay becomes an enemy.

#3. Co-opting Irish members of British Army is a security risk, and a fool's errand.

#4. England must be distracted for any revolution in Ireland to have a chance.

#5. Untethered rage turns use of force into a farce.

#6. American support – political, military, financial – must be skillfully built and constantly directed.

#7. Small things done well make bigger things possible.

It is the application of these lessons learned  – over the many years to come – that will provide the framework for Easter 1916 and the birth of an Irish Republic.

IRISH AMERICA IN 1871

When Devoy, O'Donovan Rossa and the rest of the "Cuba Five" walk down the gang plank in 1871, they walk into the open arms of a rising Irish American community in New York City.

The Cuba Five.

An Irish-American population that is large, growing, politically fractured, and in many ways, culturally and morally lost.

As a people, the Irish in America are still far from acting like a people.

Irish gangs, Irish prosititutes, and Irish crime, are widespread. The New York Police Department's arrest wagons are popularly renamed, "Paddy Wagons" – and it isn't because of the people driving them.

Sixty percent of those arrested on any given night in New York are now Irish. 

The Civil War is over but the American economy is about to fall into one of the most prolonged recessions of its young history.

When the economic panic of 1873 hits, immigrants, Irish immigrants in particular, are blamed... (sound familiar?) for pulling America down with their weak morals, large families, strange looks, and weird religion.

But as Irish America approaches the early 20th Century, Irish American political power is on the rise.

So much so in fact, that President Grant invites the Cuba Five to the White House for a ceremonial handshake and audience.  Devoy would later recall that President Grant shook his hand "like it was a water pump."

The Irish now run some of the nation’s largest cities, lead some of its most-prominent trade unions, are among the country’s most-celebrated athletes.

The Famine generation is fading.

A new generation is rising.

It is to this rising Irish America that Devoy will speak.

It is to this rising Irish America that Devoy will become not only a guiding light.

But, beneath that light, a constantly guiding revolutionary hand.

LIVING IN AMERICA

For John Devoy takes the idea of America at its word.

He intends to live American freedoms to their fullest – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association. 

Freedom to work for Irish Freedom.

Devoy is literate and well-read, but he is first and foremost a man of action, not words.

A man of relentless planning and organizing.

A man who many times will "stoop down, and with broken tools, build up what others have torn apart."  

He is determined – not merely to avoid past mistakes, but to act more boldy for the future.

He remembers how Stephens' indecision and lack of organizational discipline led to the Fenian debacle.

It will be different next time – tightly organized, well-disciplined, decisive.

And there will be a next time.

When he lands in America in 1871, he gets a glimpse of the parading and preening of the two competing Irish American factions in New York.

He sees how their factional jealousies reduce the cause they share to little more than comic opera.

Devoy sets out to change all of that – there will be no more blarney, no more posturing among the conspirators.

He joins Clan na Gael in 1872 and quickly rises to become one of its core leaders.

Read more:My great-grandfather, Ireland’s forgotten Fenian, led secret missions for 1916

Once a Fenian, always a Fenian.

Sensing the need for a small victory done well, he reads a letter aloud to Clan na Gael from a forgotten Fenian prisoner in Freemantle, Australia. He persuades Clan na Gael to put in motion a global plan for the rescue of these Fenian prisoners.

The Catalpa.

He commissions a Connecticut whaling ship called, "The Catalpha," to effectuate the rescue. 

Uses his old IRB friend, John Breslin – the same John Breslin of the Stephens' jail break rescue – to work the plan on the ground In Australia.

When the prisoners are sprung, the IRB cuts a cable line from Australia as a pre-arranged signal to Devoy.

Unlike the Fenian rising, or the Canadian invasions, the rescue plan is a success!

When the Catalpha is fired on by an intercepting British ship, she hoists the Stars and Stripes.

The British back off. 

News quickly spreads.

The Irish diaspora cheers.

In Boston, tri-color waving throngs welcome the Fenian prisoners.

In Dublin, torchlight parades are held...

In 1877, Devoy becomes part of a seven-person international Directory of the Irish Republican Bortherhood.

The formalize an arrangement.

The IRB in Ireland shall call the shots in Ireland.

The IRB in America shall call the shots in the United States.

The execution of the Molly Maguires.

That same year --1877-- the largest mass execution in U.S. history takes place with the sham trials and subsequent convictions of the Molly Maguires– a secret Labor agitation group in the coal mining regions of Pennsylvania.

All of those hanged are Irish.

More and more Irish Americans are finding the Labor movement in the United States a more compelling and immediate cause than Irish freedom.

Devoy is a friend of Labor in the U.S., but he still has the bandwidth for land agitation in Ireland.

He befriends Michael Davitt. Puts his pen and his organizational abilities fully behind the Land League.

He embraces Parnell and enters into his deepest confidence.

A confidence he would never betray.

A confidence which allows Devoy to deal directly and very explicitly with Parnell's deputy about gun shipments to Ireland.

Charles Stewart Parnell.

Publicly, Parnell disavows the use of of force, and warns of the need to restrain "the men of the hills."

In violation of his parole terms, Devoy travels under a false name to Ireland. 

He brings Davitt and Parnell together in what will become known as "the New Departure," and the Land War.

Devoy founds and funds the American Land League – a bit of a spin-off from Clan na Gael – to marshal  Irish American support for Land Reform.

Despite splits and feuds in America, Devoy is relentless as he shifts and tacks.

And then – just as it appears real change is the wind in Ireland – Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa goes rogue from America.

Regardless of Devoy's objections, Rossa commences a brutal dynamite campaign on the English mainland.

From 1881-1885 dynamite bombs explode at random locations all across England – military barracks, police stations, jails, train stations, the London Underground, London Bridge, the House of Commons Chambers, Westminster Hall.

Many innocent civilians are killed.

Devoy castigates the uncontrolled rage of O'Donovan Rossa's dynamite campaign.

One headline in Devoy's Gaelic American newspaper says of Rossa: "More Stupid Anger than Wit."

Whatever the kaboom, Devoy feels the terrorizing loss of innocent lives is hurting the movement – especially in America.

The campaign also costs the movement a fair number of good men – including a recently naturalized U.S. Citizen of Irish birth named, Thomas J. Clarke.

Clarke is arrested for his part in a failed mainland plot in1884, and is sent away for many years to an English prison.

In the midst of this ill-conceived bombing campaign, Parnell is imprisoned.

Charged with conspiring with violent men in Ireland and in Irish America.

Parnell survives the trial only to be brought brought down by a personal scandal.

Still Devoy does not give up.

Crisis emerges in the Balkans in 1876. 

Devoy sees the prospect of war with Russia as a new difficulty for England.

He leads a delegation to discuss Ireland's struggle with the Russian Ambassador to the United States.

The meeting does not go well.

Devoy and his colleagues are dismissed by the Russian Ambassador as romantic radicals without any real popular support.

Devoy is stung by the slight, as well as by the truth within it.

He organizes the Irish in America into a more cohesive political force in the United States.

Every official gathering of the Irish in A merica must be bigger and better than the last.

The Fenian Ram.

He and Clan na Gael invest in the development of an under-water ship, a submarine. It is dubbed, "The Fenian Ram."  Their vessel will become the forerunner of today's U.S. Navy Submarine Force.

Time goes on, reputation increases. His ability does not decline.

After every bitter failure and bitter split, he rebuilds and carries on.

The body of organizational accomplishments would have exhausted a whole host of men.

None of these things happen by themselves.

All of these things require discipline, skill, dexterity, and relentlessness – not to mention a keen awareness of applicable laws on both sides of the Atlantic, and on both sides of a U.S. declaration of war.

By 1895 Devoy has now lived longer in America than he did in Ireland.

There would be public faces and public movements. They would be flexible enough to include politicians, clergy, and labor.

The public movements would avoid narrow specifics – they would use phrases like "self-government" rather than "Republic" – and they would get behind causes with mass appeal like land reform.

BUT,... the direction of the wide public circle would always be subject to the discipline of the smaller revolutionary circle.

AND this is exactly how the IRB will operate in the lead-up to the Rising.

CELTIC REVIVAL

By the year 1900, it is the season of politicians and poets once again in Ireland's ongoing story.

Indeed, the cycles of Ireland's political progress have become like seasons to Devoy's long memory.

John Redmond's parliamentary party and a new push for home rule.

William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, and John Synge.

An Irish cultural renaissance.

In America, Irish Tenor, John McCormack, stirs the coals of Irish American sentimentality.

Romantic Ireland appears not to be dead after all.

But John Devoy is not a sentimental man.

He has never stopped writing, working, organizing.

He corresponds with an astonishing array of people.

Despite splits and feuds, he has once again reunited  Clan na Gael.

It is now firmly under Devoy's control.

When Tom Clarke is released from prison in the year of 1900, he returns to America.

Devoy gives him a job working at Devoy's "Gaelic American" newspaper.

Helps Clarke re-enter civilian life.

Reconnects his energies to the cause they share.

They work side by side for the next ten years.

Clarke and Devoy develop a trust no ocean can separate.

The two men sense the time is coming fast to apply the hard-earned lessons they have learned.

In 1911 – at Devoy's urging – Thomas Clarke sells his little farm outside of New York, and returns to Ireland.

Clarke becomes the center of a tight circle of the IRB in Ireland.

Together, Devoy and Clarke become the critcal links of the small, revolutionary, trans-Atlantic conspiracy that will burst forth with the Easter Rising in just five year's time.

The promise of Home Rule brings about an opposite reaction in the North of Ireland.

Loyalist leaders in Ulster vow to use military force to prevent it.

The Ulster Volunteers are quickly armed with guns they purchase from Germany.

In response, The Irish Volunteers are formed.

It's command ranks are filled by men of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

In 1912, Clarke writes to Devoy, addressing him as "Uncle."

"...It is worth living in Ireland these times," Clarke writes. "There is an awakening... [the] slow, silent prodding and the open preaching is at last showing results."

In the wake of the Transit Worker's strike of 1913, yet another armed force – The Irish Citizen Army – is formed under the leadership of labor organizer, James Connolly, a man well-known to Devoy from his time spent organizing in America.

In 1914, a gun shipment at Howth, Dubin supplies the Irish Volunteers with needed arms.

When British troops try to intercept the guns at Bachelors Walk, a crowd gathers, melee breaks out, several Irish civilians are shot and killed.

"The British Army didn't try to disarm the Ulster Volunteers."

The public is outraged.

The table for Easter 1916 is now set.

EASTER 1916

As the world lurches toward the opening shots of the First World War, John Devoy and Thomas Clarke are moving toward one more try at Revolution.

The lessons learned will now be applied.

With its entry into World War I, England's difficulty becomes Ireland's opportunity. England is too distracted to properly deal with rumors of a rising.

Pearse has now traveled to America to visit with Devoy.

Roger Casement and John Devoy.

So too, has Roger Casement.

A year or so later, Plunket travels to New York to brief Devoy on the military planning for a rebellion in Dublin, at Easter 1916.

There will be a conventional military discipline to this Irish rising – uniforms and a command structure – and it will be tethered to the most noble traditions of Irish nationhood.

Plunket tells him the operation suffers from a lack of sufficient number of arms.

But this time there will be no delay, no indecision.

Once the clock starts ticking down, the plan will proceed whether every piece falls into place or not.

The determined men at the center of this tight circle are playing a longer game than the first engagement.

Devoy sends a message Roger Casement urging him to abandon his not-so-clandestine efforts at recruiting a new Irish brigade from among British Army POW's in Germany.

Devoy warns Casement his activities are a security risk to the larger operation.

He doesn't need his help or his blundering.

Devoy becomes a near weekly visitor to the German Consulate in New York. He eventually secures their commitment to secretly ship arms to Ireland for the Easter rising.

In 1915 – borrowing a page from another trans-Atlantic Fenian funeral of a century before – Devoy sends the dead body of his friend, and one time nemesis, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa back to Ireland for a funeral of far-reaching political importance.

The graveside oration of Padraic Pearse.

The graveside oration of Padraic Pearse announces a new generation of leadership. And ties the coming action to the very survival of Irish language and culture.

With Devoy in charge in America, there will be no half-cocked Yankee incursions or expeditions. The Irish in Ireland will fight this fight. And her exiled children in America will support.

A lifetime of small things done well have now made a bigger thing possible. 

That bigger that happens on Easter Monday, 1916 when several hundred soldiers of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen army seize strategic locations across Dublin.

Pearse Proclaims the establishment of an Irish Republic.

The lead signatory of that Revolutonary document is John Devoy's friend, Thomas Clarke.

Thomas Clarke.

After the taking of the GPO and other locations across Dublin – but before the news of the rising can be reported through the media of the day – John Devoy receives a coded telegram message from Ireland.

It reads simply: "Tom's operation a success."

AFTERMATH

The Easter Rising is, of course, eventually put down.

The leaders are taken to Kilmainham Gaol, court martialed, and shot in the stone breakers yard by British firing squads.

Public opinion turns.

"They don't execute German prisoners."

People discover the poetry of Pearse, the mysticism of Plunket, the bravery of Connolly, the loyalty of Clarke.

On the eve of his death, Clarke tells his wife: "I'm glad it's a soldier's death I am getting. I have had enough of imprisonment."

There is a message written on the wall of the row home on Moore Street into which the 1916 leaders were forced to retreat by the end of the fight.

It is a message to a future that existed at the time only in the imaginations of unreasonable Irishmen and Irishwomen.

It is believed to be Clarke's handwriting.

It reads – "We had to evacuate the GPO. The boys put up a grand fight, and that fight will save the soul of Ireland."

And indeed it did.

CONCLUSION

Devoy and his colleagues of the Rising, were formidable people – something not often said of Irish American leaders before his arrival in the United States.

For all he had seen, touched, and accomplished, John Devoy would live out the final years of his long life regretting that he had not come back to Ireland – to fight and die with Tom Clarke and the others.

But only Devoy could do what needed to be done in Irish America.

De Valera (center) and Devoy (seated below), in 1920.

That work would continue through the all the sad twists and turns of the struggle that followed.

In "the parting of the ways" that followed the War of Independence, Devoy would side with IRB man, Michael Collins.

He would become a trusted resource and confidant to W.T. Cosgrave...

To appreciate the life of John Devoy is to understand the unity of perseverance and generosity.

Of courage and sensitivity.

Of a broken heart and an unbroken will.

Yes, he was a hard-headed revolutionary, and a bare knuckled in-fighter. But there was a very sensitive and generous side to Devoy as well.

Taking care of Tom Clarke's widow, making sure Clarke's son received the medical care he needed in the U.S.  The siblings, nephews, niece's in need,... bringing "home the Fenian prisoners from dying in foreign nations." Paying for Roger Casement's legal defense.

The young fiancé he never returned to marry but never forgot. The fiancé who became an old widow by the time Devoy – the life-long bachelor – sought her out in 1925. The two would correspond with each other, lovingly, in the final years of their lives.

When she died in 1928, he died a few months later...

Unbroken will, relentless work, "giving without counting the cost,…fighting and not heeding the wounds." 

In his time, Devoy became a voice and channel for thousands of Irish-Americans who had left Ireland in the late 19th Century determined to never forget.

People like Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy who left this starving land in 1847 for Boston, and whose great grandson, John F. Kennedy, would return to visit Ireland as President of the United States.

The activism and passion of Devoy, and other Irish Americans of a century and half ago, laid the groundwork for the trans-Atlantic activism of successive generations of Irish Americans.

Those who passed the MacBride Principles for Human Rights in Northern Ireland in cities and states all across America in the 1980's and 1990's.

Those who brought the United States into playing a vital role in All-Party peace talks in our own times.

An on-going process that may yet bring about the ideals so clearly proclaimed in Easter 1916...

EPILOGUE

John Devoy's funeral, in 1928.

As a bright connecting thread of Irish and Irish American history, there is a song that rivals the long life of John Devoy

It was written in the early 1800's by Thomas Moore as a tribute to friends he knew who died in 1798 and Emmet's rebellion.

The song grew in popularity.

Was transported on the tongues of immigrants to the United State's.

Was sung on both sides of the American Civil War.

That song... is, "The Minstrel Boy." 

Even today most of us here know the lyrics by heart:

"...One sword at least thy rights shall guard

One faithful harp shall praise thee..."

When John Devoy died in 1928, they brought his body back to Ireland.

He was a given a funeral with full State honors.

Thousands turned out to pay tribute.

As his Tri-color draped casket was led to the Republican plot at Glasnevin cemetery, I would like to believe at least one person remembered a third, but now mostly forgotten, verse to "The Minstrel Boy." 

A verse that was added during the American Civil War by an unknown author.

It goes like this:

       "The Minstrel Boy will return we pray

        When we hear the news we all will cheer it,

        The minstrel boy will return one day,

        Torn perhaps in body, not in spirit.

        Then may he play on his harp in peace,

        In a world such as heaven intended,

        For all the bitterness of man must cease,

        And ev'ry battle must be ended."

Read more: Deadliest corner in Dublin: Church and North King Streets

Where are all the Irish Americans going? Census shows population in decline

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When you work for an Irish American publication, there are a few figures you have committed to memory: the global Irish diaspora is 70 million worldwide; the population of Ireland is 6.2 million; there are 36.9 million Americans of Irish descent.

Those were the numbers to know when I first started writing for IrishCentral’s sister publication Irish America magazine back in 2010. Since then, the global Irish diaspora (which is, granted, a more abstract approximation) has stayed the same, and the population of Ireland has increased to 6.4 million. The number of Irish Americans, however, has dropped – down to 32.7 million, according to the Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey.

Irish and Scots-Irish demographic info in the 2009 American Community Survey

That’s a decrease of 4.2 million in a span of six years. According to the 2009 American Community survey, there were 36.9 million Americans of Irish heritage. When the results of the 2010 US Census were released, that figure dropped by over two million, to 34.7 million Irish Americans. It has since decreased by an additional two million. If the Irish American population continues to decline at this rate, it could conceivably dip below the 30 million mark by the time the 2020 Census comes around.

When you look at the Scots-Irish (sometimes referred to as Scotch-Irish) population (which the Census Bureau only began calculating in 1990), there’s another – albeit less dramatic – recent downward slope: from 3.6 million in 2009 to 2.98 million in 2015.

Irish and Scots-Irish demographic info in the 2015 American Community Survey

So, what’s going on?

As it turns out, this is an ongoing trend – one the Pew Research Center took note of and examined last year.

The report, titled "The Fading of the Green," noted: “The ranks of Americans who trace their ancestry back to Ireland – long one of the most prominent subgroups in American society – are slowly declining.”

If you look further back in time, as the Pew study did, the decline is even more pronounced:

“Two decades ago, in 1990, 38.6 million Americans (15.5% of the total population) claimed Irish ancestry, and 5.6 million (2.3%) identified as Scotch-Irish.”

Read More: Where have all the Scots-Irish gone? Numbers way down 

They concluded that this decline is due to two key factors: an ageing Irish American population, and a shift in immigration trends: “Both ancestral groups are older than the U.S. population as a whole. In 2013, the median age of those claiming Irish ancestry was 39, and 51 for those of Scotch-Irish ancestry, versus a median age of 37 for the entire population. Nor are the Irish immigrating to the U.S. in anything close to the numbers they used to: in fiscal 2013, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics, just 1,626 Irish-born people obtained legal permanent residency.”

A Pew Research Center graph of the declining Irish and Scotch Irish populations in the US.

However, there are a few more speculative possibilities that could account for the apparently decline in the population of Americans of Irish and Scotch-Irish descent.

Because the Census is based on voluntary information, it’s conceivable that as more generations of Irish Americans are born, they feel less connected to – or perhaps aren’t even aware of – their Irish roots.  

Or, as a Philly Voice article on the Pew Study pointed out, it could also be due to a limited response bias. The Census only allows participants to select up to two ethnic ancestries. So, if as happens all the time in the great melting pot of the US, someone’s ancestors came from Ireland but also Sweden, Italy, Argentina and the Philippines, they would be forced to select just two of those ancestries to record.

What do you think is causing the apparent decline in the Irish and Scotch-Irish populations in the US? Would you like to see the Census let participants list more than two ethnic ancestries? Share your thoughts in the comment section, below.

Guess the only state in the US where an Irish last name ranks in the top 3

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It may not come as much of a surprise, but the Irish stalwart of Massachusetts is the only state in the US where you will find an Irish entry among the top three most popular last names.

According to Ancesrty.com, Sullivan is the third most common last name in the state, ranking just behind Smith and Johnson, which are first and second respectively in no fewer than 22 states (not including states where their rankings switch but both names still appear).

In total, Smith takes the number one spot in 38 states!

Across the country, Smith, along with Johnson, Miller, Jones, Williams, and Anderson make up the most popular last names, but there are certain differences between the various regions, especially in the southwest portion of the country where we see the influence of large Latino populations.

Read more: Top 100 Irish last names explained

Throughout states such as Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona, the top three results begin to show some variety from Smith and Johnson in the form of last names like Garcia, Hernandez, Martinez, and Chavez.

You will also be more likely to find an Anderson than a Brown on the west coast but vice versa on the east coast.

Hawaii is the only one that completely breaks away from the trend, however, with Lee, Wong and Kim coming in the top three spots.

Sullivan, or Ó Súilleabháin, is one of the most popular names in Ireland but is especially common in counties Cork, Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford.

It means "Descendant of the hawk/dark eyed one," while its coat of arms motto reads: “The steady hand to victory.”

Read more: Remembering the heroic Sullivan brothers among “America’s Greatest Generation”

You can find more of the Sullivan/O’Sullivan name here:

H/T: Ancestry.com

Top baby names in Ireland for 2015 - some Irish names make a comeback

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For the fifth year in row, Emily was the most popular female baby name in Ireland in 2015.

Emily finished the year ahead of Emma, Ava, Sophie and Amelia – rounding out the top five – and is again number one among girls’ baby names. Emily has ruled the roost without interruption since 2010.

Jack, again, took the crown on the male list as it has for the past eight years. Apart from slight changes in the order, the top five male baby names in 2015 – Jack, James, Daniel, Conor and Sean – are exactly as they have been since 2007. Only one new name has even made even the top 100 boys’ list. As it happens, four out of five of the top five male names have remained in the top five since 1998, almost two whole decades.

George has leapt in popularity both last year and this year, probably thanks to England’s Prince George who probably has won some fans in Ireland based on the the number of new-born baby boys sharing his name. George rose from 103rd to 90th.

Ollie also continues to stride up the table, rising most in popularity of all the names on the list. Ollie moved from 87th in 2014 to 66th place in 2015.

On the girls’ side, Annabelle, Mila and Rosie were three new names to make the top 100, with Mila being the highest climbing name on either list, rising from 142nd place in 2014 to 88th place in 2015.

Read more: Most popular Irish baby first names in the United States

Out of the 4,487 different girls’ names registered are some more unusual ones, including Paris, Nelly, Dakota, Kim, Pixie and Sabina.

On the male list, which saw 3,475 different boys’ names registered, we may be able to detect the influence of One Direction given the popularity of Zayn among other outsider choices including Barra, Pauric, Gus, Romeo and Otis.

Interestingly, the statistics recently published by the Irish Central Statistics Office compare the names chosen by parents who both stated they were Irish nationals, compared to parents who claimed another nationality.

Jack also remained the popular choice for a boy among UK parents, while Noah was the most popular choice for Europeans from countries other than Ireland or the UK. Muhammed was the most popular choice for boys whose parents came from outside Europe.

Isla and Chloe were the top picks for girls' names among UK parents while Chloe, Emma and Julia were popular with other European parents. In 2015, Fatima was the name of choice for baby girls born in Ireland to parents not from Europe.

The recent data also compared the top names of 2015 to those in 1965 when John and Mary reigned supreme.

Of this year’s top five boys’ names, only James appeared in the 1965 top five while none of 2015’s top girls’ picks were in 1965’s top monikers. In 1965, Mary, Margaret, Catherine, Anne and Ann came top of the pile, of which, Mary was the only name to even make the top 100 in 2015.

Read more: Top 100 Irish last names explained

The complete top five lists for 2015 were:

Boys

1. Jack

2. James

3. Daniel

4. Conor

5. Sean

Girls

1. Emily

2. Emma

3. Ava

4. Sophie

5. Amelia

H/T: CSO


149 years later, Civil War letters in attic reveal a famine Irish immigrant’s life (PHOTOS)

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If Ellen Alden’s daughter Jillian hadn’t asked to see a photo of her in elementary school, who knows whether the letters of her great-great-grandfather Florence Burke would ever have emerged.

But she did, and it was thanks to this question, asked on an otherwise ordinary day three years ago, that Ellen made the discovery of a lifetime, one with wide-ranging reverberations for herself and her family and for our larger understanding of what it meant to be an Irish immigrant fighting in the American Civil War.

Among a number of cardboard boxes Ellen’s parents had left at her home in Andover, MA before moving to Hawaii, there was an old leather box. Inside the box there was a note that read, “In memory of my dear Husband Michael J Burke, the keepsakes of his father,” three tintype photographs, and a carefully folded stack of hand-written letters.

The 19 letters were all from Florence Burke, her Irish great-great-grandfather on her father’s side, who had died fighting for the Union Army in the Civil War. Coincidentally enough, they were all addressed to “Ellen,” his wife and Alden’s namesake and great-great-grandmother. Florence or Flor is a widely used male name in parts of County Cork.

Florence Burke in his Union Army uniform. Courtesy of Ellen Alden.

They cataloged his time fighting with the army – from his departure, which caused great upset in his family, to his first days on the battlefield, to his waning optimism as he realized the war would continue longer than he anticipated and the possibility that he would never return home became more and more real. A later letter, written as he prepared to go into battle, reveals his own premonition that he will not live and the letter’s tone reflects that. General Grant inspects the troops before the battle and Flor knows a deadly fight looms ahead.

An excerpt, from another letter written on March 4, 1964, exemplifies the poignant emotion that runs throughout Florence’s correspondence.

“In earnest I have commenced the life of a soldier. We were forced to march quick time eighteen miles to a place called James City (In Virginia --ed) where we bivouacked at night in an open lot. It is there that I slept under the stars, wondering if you or the boys were looking up at the same brilliant sky.”

“On my arrival to camp I found a letter from you containing your well-known features and that of the children. Mingled tears of joy and sadness welled up to my eyes. Joy at seeing through the medium of a picture the features of those I hold so near and dear to my heart, but sadness to think they were not true nature itself that they might speak to cheer my drooping spirits. But thanks be to God the sight of them, though mute, shall even be a beacon to urge me on to duty.”

“Florence was writing to his wife and children at home in West Springfield, Mass,” Ellen explains. “I researched his life for a year and discovered he was from County Cork and fled the Potato Famine in 1848 at just 19 years old. He came over on a boat, lived in the rough Five Points area of New York for a little, and then, when he had a family to take care of, he worked as a tenant farmer in West Springfield until signing up with the Union Army.

Florence at age 19 (right), his brother (middle) and an unidentified friend or relative, photographed in New York. Courtesy of Ellen Alden.

“He enlisted as a ‘substitute’ for a wealthy man in exchange for a portion of farmland for his family. He made the ultimate sacrifice but benefited his wife and children and the next generations of Burkes.”

Ellen knew she needed to honor Florence, do something big and meaningful with the letters.

“The story is interesting because we all know the Irish struggled to gain respect and to survive here, and some made unbelievable sacrifices,” she told IrishCentral. “My great, great grandfather Florence Burke was one of these people, and I was fortunate enough to find a piece of my past, a window into life in the time of the great emigration.”

But rather than simply creating a timeline of his life story, she wanted to create a vehicle for all the rich biographical and emotional details the letters revealed about Florence and his family, one that would be able to reach a lot of people.

Courtesy of Ellen Alden.

Three years later (one for extensive research in the US and Ireland; one for writing and one for editing), Ellen has published “Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke: An Irish Immigrant Story”, an historical fiction novel that weaves Florence’s letter and the facts she discovered about his and Ellen’s lives, into a detailed telling of their journeys from Ireland to America, Florence’s ultimate sacrifice for his family, and Ellen’s incredible strength as she held the family and home together during Florence’s absence and following his death.

For the research phase, she started where most people interested in their predecessors do – talking with her parents and scouring Ancestry.com’s database. Then, as soon as their three kids were done with school for the year, Ellen and her husband Michael took them to Ireland so that she could see Florence’s home county of Cork.

It was there, in a tiny two-pubs-one-church town called Ballinhassig that she met local historian John L. O’Sullivan, who gave her a clearer image of what leaving famine-era Ireland would have meant for her great-great-grandfather. He also served as one of her earliest readers, receiving drafts in the mail and sending pages back with his thoughts and suggestions scrawled in the margins. Her parents were also valuable resources – her mother’s a research librarian and her father taught Irish studies courses.

Ballinhassig historian John L. O'Sullivan and Ellen Alden. Courtesy of Ellen Alden.

Over the course of her writing, she developed even more pride in Florence and Ellen, in their sacrifice and resilience.

“I have so much respect for them,” she told IrishCentral. “He took a gamble, going to the war so that his family could have land and become citizens of the town, and he died for it. But when you look at the future generations, you can see it paid off. His son’s children all became professionals – they went to good schools like Brown and Boston University. They went to law school, they became judges, dentists, worked for the government.

“He wasn’t fighting for glory or for a cause, he just wanted his family to do better. And to see that from the first-person perspective, where he’s talking about praying for the other side too, about only killing people so that he could survive, it’s amazing.

“This is the story of millions of Irish immigrants and immigrants from around the world – it’s a story of survival. I just feel blessed to know what he felt and thought, and to be able to share that with other people.”

Ellen with her daughter, Jillian, at Florence's memorial in West Springfield, which they finally found and visited last Memorial Day.

Indeed, an estimated 150,000 Irish fought with the Union in the Civil War; 25,000 on the Confederate side, making them one of the most important immigrant groups in the conflict.

Ellen’s hope for the book, she told IrishCentral, is that it will appeal to a range of readers, from Irish Americans and Civil War buffs, to readers who love history and strong female characters. She is also in talks with local high schools, offering the book as a supplement to their US history curriculum.

“Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke” is available for purchase via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and in celebration of the launch party, which takes place in Andover Bookstore today, Ellen has shared three of Florence’s letters with IrishCentral.

The letters of Florence Burke to his wife, Ellen Burke.

Letter #4 Brandy Station, Va. Feb. 12 1864

Courtesy of Ellen Alden.

My Dear Wife I take pleasure in informing you of my safe arrival hear hoping this letter will find you well and healthy as it leaves me at preseant I inlisted for the company that Mitchel is in But when I came here they sent me to Company A,37 mass Vol I am very sorry I did not get your letter till I came out hear It followed me and I did not get it till yesterday my Dear Wife I would have given one hundred dollars to have come home for a little while so I could see you before I left you must keep a good heart and not fret any I hope soon to see you

Again I thought we would stay longer in Long Island then we did I am sorry to have troubled you so much about my furlough you must be shure when you settle with mr. Day that you get a new [deed] and have it all first rate and get a lawyear to have it all First Rate so thair will be no mistake about it I am sorry that I am not at home to see to it but you must do the best you can [T]he boat that I came on broke her ingine so we had to go back to new york and then we got another boat for Alexixandra (can’t read) and came by Fort Monrow Some of the boys got drunk and had a fight on the boat so they tied them up the cook was tied up for selling the Liequre to them for one dollar a glass they whare tied up by the hand to the [rigging] so that their feet did not touch the deack I have not tasted any Liequre since I left and I don’t intend to till I come home let me know how the boys are getting a long and if they obay you tell Jerry and Mike to be good boys and I will send them something next pay day you must make yourself as comfortable as you can and anything you nead you can get it let me know how Father and Mother get along I herd she fell and hurt her self let me know how Dan Sheehan and family are getting along and is their baby well I wish you would get your forattrate [spelling, can’t read-portrait] taken and the babbys and send them to me is Cornelius Kelehar well James is well also Jacob Unger give my love to all my friends and write soon when you write direct to Florence Burke Company A. 37 Regiment Mass voluntears Washington DC

No more at present this from your affectionate husband

Florence Burke

Save this so you will know where to direct.

Letter#10 Camp of 37th Mass March 13th 1864

My Dear Wife,

I just received yours of the 9th last night and was glad to hear from you as I always am, but as I enjoy tip top health you must not fret a bit about me nor blame anyone but myself for my being here away from you, for no one enticed me to enlist-nor should I have enlisted but to avoid the draft which I felt shure would take place and gobble me up and I be compelled to go from home and get no pay for it, but as I now see the draft is not likely to take place I am sorry I was in such a hurry for I might have been at home with you but it is now to late to cry for spilled milk and we must both keep up good courage and all yet be well, if you will be the worse of for you are the main dependence for yourself and children so for god sake keep up good courage until we meet again for I feel and trust in god we shall live to see each other in good health, you don’t let me know anything that is going on at home you did not tell me whither you sold the hay or if you calculate to sell it or what you are going to do and whither you have paid up for the place which if you have not I wish you would do as soon as you can and when you get what is really necessarily should be done I wish you would try and get a girl to help you do your work and do what running around you want done so you wont have to walk around much and distress your back, my Dear Wife it for you and the children that I am worrying day and night, I wish you would let me know in your next if you have got the State Aid yet and how much you got, I have got so much clothing it will be impossible for me to carry them with me on a march and I shall try to send them home for the summer and get them again in the Fall but if I can’t send them home I shall have to throw them away, I wish you would write to me every Sunday and let me know the truth about your health and the children, you can do just as you have a mind to about answering johns letter please your self about it and it will please me, I am going on guard tonight for the first time and it is getting late I must close as I can’t find anything more to write about this time give my love to Mary Tobin Mr. Sheehan the Begleys families and all the neighbors with the largest share for yourself and the children so good bye for this time. Your True Husband,

Florence burke

Letter # 14 Camp of the 37th Mass April 19th 1864

Courtesy of Ellen Alden.

My Dear wife

For god sakes do end my misery, do write and let me know the reason you have so long delayed to write me, have I in any way, either by word, deed or action, given you cause to neglect me in this manner, if I have for God sake let me know how, and in what way, and when, that I may try and prove to you that I am innocent of any such intention, since leaving house I have tried to das as near right as I know how and to behave myself in such a manner that my wife or family need have any occasion to blush with shame or anger for the conduct of myself, have I written anything to you to make you angry or feel bad, if I have I have done it not with the intention of causing any gad feelings but only wrote what I have warn to warn you to be on your guard against all scandalous reports, for almost every one in the army are hearing something bad about home, but you know me well enough to know that whatever I may hear I would not believe or pay any attention to, but only wish you to be on the sharp lookout that any of your bad neighbors may have no occasion to speak ill of you, Gen Grant, reviewed our corps yesterday and this morning we have orders that all letters must stop for thirty days and I think it to bad for you to keep me so long out of a letter for I am in low spirits to go into battle without hearing from you and the children for so long but if I had a letter every week as I should have had I should not feel so bad going into battle which we all expect to do before many days pass, as this may be the last letter you may ever get from me I hope Dear Ellen that you will try to take good care of yourself and the children and may the good god watch over you and them and if I [am] doomed to fall on the field of battle and we destined to never meet again on earth may we be so prepared that we may meet in heaven, and after I am gone you may sometime think of me and feel that you have done wrong in keeping me in so much trouble and anxiety of mind as you have for the last month, but Dear Ellen I hope the good God may forgive you as I do, as long as I can’t hear anything from home and I write so often and as I do I know I know you hear often form me and you know what I want you need not do anything about the cellar except put up a post and nail up some plank which will do till I get home if I have the luck to do I sent my likeness and yours and the childrens except yours and the babies which I meant to keep I sent them in fear anything might happen to me but as I have heard nothing from you since I sent them I fear they are all lost and if you have not got them go to Col Parsons and try and find out about the money but if you had written to me before I might have looked out for it before I went into battle but it is to late for me to do anything and you must be on the lookout for your self till you hear from me again, if I live to see a year from the 3rd of next September I expect to be home with the regiment their time being out at that time and one of my tent mates wrote to Gov Andrew and made answer that the recruits time would end with the regiment, I wrote for some money and some stamps but I have got neither so you can keep them till you hear form me again for if you send them now they will get lost I sent you all the money I got but eighty cents and borrowed twenty cents and with the dollar I got the picture taken so I am left without a cent to buy tobacco with. Dear Ellen, this may be the last good bye you may ever hear form me but trust in God and all may yet be well, receive my love and this in kindness

From you husband Florence Burke

Farewell Dear Ellen perhaps forever but hope not

A man was caught trying to desert by one of my tent mates last Friday while was on picket

And one excerpt from his final letter after that:

June 16th 1864

“Dearest Ellen, all I want you to do is keep good courage and mind the children and keep them in school. That is the wish of an absent father to his family. My love to you and the children. Good night.”

* Originally published in June 2016.

Robert F. Kennedy believed JFK was killed because of him

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Robert F. Kennedy had his own suspicions regarding the assassination of his brother, President John F Kennedy, in 1963, and may have felt partly responsible.  He also uttered the prophetic words “I knew they’d get one of us, I thought it would be me.” President Kennedy’s 99th birthday is today, May 29th.

Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney General at the time, had spent the morning of November 22, 1963, at a Justice Department conference on fighting against organized crime and had invited U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau and an aide, back to his home, Hickory Hill in McLean, Va., for a private lunch. 

In an interview, Morgenthau recalled that at 1:45 pm, Bobby got the call. Kennedy’s wife Ethel called over to him, and told him FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was on the line. Kennedy raced over to the phone and heard the devastating news.

“Jack’s been shot in Dallas,” said Kennedy. “It may be fatal.”

According to the Boston Globe, several documents released over the past two decades have revealed what Bobby Kennedy was going through following his brother’s assassination.

Morgenthau believed Bobby Kennedy was haunted by doubt and questions for the rest of his life. “Was there something I could have done to prevent it? Was there something I did to encourage it? Was I to blame?”

Harris Wofford, JFK’s civil rights adviser in the White House and a former senator from Pennsylvania, knew Robert F Kennedy intimately.

“I think he carried a lot of potential guilt,” he said.

Credit:Library of Congress

Bobby Kennedy even had reason to believe he may have been the ultimate target.

The Boston Globe reported: “Walking the grounds of Hickory Hill just an hour after receiving confirmation of his brother’s death, Bobby confided in an aide something truly unsettling. That aide, Edwin Guthman, would later recount it in his book “We Band of Brothers.” ‘I thought they would get one of us,” Bobby said, adding, “I thought it would be me.’”

“In the five years between his brother’s murder and his own assassination in 1968, Bobby Kennedy voiced public support for the findings of the Warren Commission, namely that a pathetic, attention-seeking gunman had alone been responsible for the murder of President Kennedy. Privately, though, Bobby was dismissive of the commission, seeing it, in the words of his former press secretary, as a public relations tool aimed at placating a rattled populace.” 

Although there is no indication that Robert Kennedy found evidence to prove a wider conspiracy, his actions after hearing the news of the assassination, show that he focused his attention on “three areas of suspicion”: Cuba, the Mafia and the CIA. In the hours and days immediately following his Jack’s death, Bobby called a Secret Service agent to make sure there was a priest at his brother’s side, called Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to arrange transport for him to Dallas, called family members, and took a call from John McCone, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

McCone arrived from CIA headquarters to Bobby’s estate. Robert Kennedy would later tell historian and aide Arthur Schlesinger that he asked McCone if the CIA “had killed my brother, and I asked him in a way that he couldn’t lie to me, and they hadn’t.” 

According to Schlesinger’s biography, “Robert Kennedy and His Times,” although McCone would come to believe there had been two shooters involved in the assassination, he didn’t think the CIA was in any way involved.

“But McCone almost certainly didn’t know the whole truth,” the Globe writes. “In the wake of the Bay of Pigs, the botched attempted invasion of Cuba orchestrated by the CIA, JFK had forced out the agency’s founding director, Allen Dulles, and replaced him with McCone, an outsider. At the same time, the president put his brother in charge of trying to ride herd on the powerful and unwieldy intelligence agency while also overseeing the administration’s interdepartmental Cuba team. The attorney general often began his days with meetings at CIA headquarters in Langley.”

David Talbot, an investigative journalist and author of the book “Brothers,” says that Robert became “JFK’s principal emissary to the dark side of American power.” Meaning that Bobby knew more about the “underbelly of the CIA, especially in relation to Cuba” than did McCone.

Robert Kennedy would call Julius Draznin, a Chicago lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board. 

The Globe reports: “Bobby knew Draznin had impeccable mob sources, so he asked him to do some digging to determine if there had been any Mafia involvement in the assassination. ‘I called him back in a couple of days,’ Draznin later told Evan Thomas, author of “Robert Kennedy: His Life.” ‘There was nothing.’”

As chief counsel of the Senate Rackets Committee in the 1950s, Robert Kennedy had interrogated leading gangsters, including Jimmy Hoffa, who became his chief nemeses during the hearings, and exposed the connections between the mob and American labor unions.

“Bobby had been unrelenting in his war against these mob and labor leaders, ignoring the admonition of his father to choose less violence-prone targets and dismissing the underworld threats against his own life. Instead, Bobby had doubled down, even persuading his brother Jack, then a senator, to join the cause…

“After Jack became president and he attorney general, Bobby wasted little time in leveraging the full force of the Justice Department to try to crush these corrupt characters. Now, as he strode around Hickory Hill, reeling from the news of the assassination, Bobby couldn’t help but wonder if one of them had been behind it.”

According to a Teamster middle-manager turned FBI informant, a year earlier Hoffa had said: “I’ve got to do something about that son of a bitch Bobby Kennedy. He’s got to go.” 

However, Walter Sheridan, who had been Robert Kennedy’s aide-de-camp in the mob war since the Rackets Committee, told Bobby that he was unable to find any evidence lining Hoffa to the assassination.

Around the time of the assassination, mob leader and Hoffa associate Carlos Marcello was on trial in New Orleans. It was the second deportation for the mafia leader, the culmination of a three-year effort by Robert Kennedy’s team to get him out of the country. 

Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante Jr was a “former big-time Havana casino owner who lost millions when Castro took over Cuba,” who shared a lawyer with Hoffa — Frank Ragano. Ragano,in his book “Mob Lawyer” wrote how Hoffa had instructed him in the summer of 1963 to tell Trafficante and Marcello that it was time to kill the president. Ragano says he though Hoffa was only venting and delivered the message “jokingly” but “the mobsters seemed to take it much more seriously.”

Marcello would be acquitted in New Orleans the same day the president was killed.

“While serving time later in life, he was caught on a federal wiretap confessing to an FBI informant that he’d had JFK killed, according to FBI files released under the JFK Records Act of 1992.Trafficante is also alleged to have made a deathbed confession of his involvement to his lawyer, expressing regret that maybe the gun should have been pointed at Bobby.”

Historian David Kaiser, the author of “The Road to Dallas,” said in an nterview that he believed Marcello, Trafficante, and possibly Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who shared a mistress with JFK, were likely at the behest of Hoffa, all involved in putting in motion the assassination of the president.

The Globe reports: “It hadn’t taken long on Nov. 22 for speculation to focus on the possible involvement of Fidel Castro given the Kennedy administration’s repeated attempts to oust or assassinate the Communist leader. That speculation only intensified after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, whose record of pro-Castro agitation quickly came to light. Yet it’s intriguing that Bobby’s suspicion of possible Cuban involvement seemed to focus squarely on the anti-Castro crowd….” 

“…Bobby knew how furious many members of the exile community had become with the Kennedys, based on the administration’s failure to go all out in the effort to topple Castro. The Kennedy brothers had refused to launch a full-scale military invasion of the island nation, and by 1963 had even begun authorizing some back-channel efforts toward compromise with both Castro and his Soviet benefactors. This, Bobby knew, would be viewed as intolerable by the most hard-line Cuban exiles.”

The Boston Globe writes: “As Bobby’s post-assassination suspicions appeared to bounce from Cuba to the Mafia to the CIA, he surely had to confront the reality that the lines separating all three had become increasingly blurry…”

 “…There was actually a long secret alliance between the country’s covert intelligence agency and the underworld. In fact, it was older than the CIA itself.”

Recently released files have that Marcello, Trafficante, Giancana, were all involved, at varying levels, in the CIA-Mafia plots to get Castro. 

So why wouldn’t the conspirators have simply gone after Robert Kennedy instead of JFK?

“It is all a matter of speculation, but there could have been a very practical explanation for a more circuitous path. If Bobby had been assassinated, historians point out, his brother could have been expected to marshal every ounce of his prodigious federal power to exact revenge on the murderers and their benefactors. And because the victim would not just be the country’s crusading attorney general but also the president’s brother, the public would have surely given Jack Kennedy a blank check of support for a crackdown on whatever dark forces he determined were responsible,” the Globe argues.

Rex Bradford, a curator of a vast digitized archive of nearly 1 million documents maintained by the Mary Ferrell Foundation, says that many of the recently released documents “strengthen the hypothesis that ‘hard-line intelligence people, hard-liners on Cuba’ were somehow involved in the assassination, with ‘mob people tied into that same milieu.’”

Following JFK’s assassination, Robert Kennedy stayed in his position as attorney general for a little while longer but his head and heart were no longer in the job.

In 1968, Kennedy would become the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. On June 5, 1968, after scoring a major victory in winning the California primary, he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian. He died the following day.

62 years ago the last man was executed in Ireland

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On April 20 1954 Michael Manning, a 25-year-old man from Limerick, became the 29th and last person to be executed in Ireland.

By 1964 the death penalty was abolished for all cases apart from the murder of police, diplomates and prison officers. It was abolished by statute for the remaining offenses in 1990 and was expunged from the Constitution of Ireland by referendum in 2001.

The Limerick man, the last man executed at the hands of the states, was found guilty of the rape and murder of Catherine Cooper (65) who worked at Barrington’s Hospital, in the city. The crime took place in February 1953. He was found by police having left a distinctive hat at the scene of the crime.

He had been married just the year before the crime and his only child was born just weeks before his execution.

Manning blamed his actions on “too much drink.” The statement in police files describes Manning movements on the day of the crime. November 18 1953. It lists the pubs that served him drink and recounts how he had been refused by the barmaid at the Munster Fair Tavern.

His trial opened on February 15, 1954, and lasted only three days. The trial was widely attended and hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse.

The defense team had claimed insanity and claimed the charges should be dropped to manslaughter as Manning had not planned the attack ahead of time. However, the prosecution said that Manning had changed his routine to give himself more time to commit the crime. While there was a history of mental health issues in his family the judge sided with the prosecution and told the jury to discard the argument, as he claimed the fact that Manning has shoved clods of grass into the victim’s mouth to stop her screaming showed he was aware of the crime he was committing.

After just three hours of deliberation he was sentenced to death despite the fact that the victim’s family had petitioned to court to show him mercy. When he was found guilty he is said to have “paled visibly.”

Manning was the first person to be condemned to death since 1948.

Read more:Easter Rising leader executed in 1916 - Joseph Mary Plunkett

The Limerick man wrote a letter to the Government begging for a reprieve.

He wrote:

“I ask the Minister for Justice to show his mercy upon me as it is so near to Easter and Good Friday and it is our Holy Mother’s year. I am not afraid to die as I am fully prepared to go before my God, but it is on behalf of my wife as she is so young and so near the birth of our baby.

“Instead of one life being taken there could be three as it would be a big shock to my wife if the execution will be carried out on the date mentioned [April 20]. So I would be grateful to you if you showed your mercy toward my wife and me.”

After Mass and Holy Communion on the Sunday before his execution, Manning played handball with other inmates. They noted that he seemed completely normal.

A fellow inmate of Manning's recalled later,

“Friends of mine who worked with me, I was serving my time at the time, went up to visit him on the Sunday before he was hanged. And they went to mass and holy communion together and they played a game of handball that day. He couldn't have been more normal.”

He was then taken from his cell at Mountjoy prison and hanged by Alert Pierrepoint. The hang house remains today in the grounds of Mountjoy. The execution was carried out by Albert Pierrepoint, who had travelled from Britain where he was one of three Senior Executioners. Pierrepoint executed at least 400 people in his career as a hangman – 13 of those in Mountjoy.

Manning’s body was buried in an unmarked grave in Mountjoy prison as was the custom for executed prisoners.

After his death his widow wrote a letter to the Governor of Mountjoy thanking him for the kindness he showed her husband. The letter read

“We really adored each other and will until I join him in heaven someday. I can assure you sir that Micheal [sic] is also praying for you all and he will return his thanks to you in another way.”

After the execution of Manning it was common that death sentences be commuted by the Irish government. In 1851 the right to commute a death sentence became restricted to the President only.

Ireland had previously considered abolishing the punishment from the constitution and an early draft of the constitution included a provision to ban it. Before Manning’s execution questions had been raised over the death of William Gambom who was the second-last person to be put to death. He was a casual laborer who had killed his friend after getting into a drunken fight. When Gambom read in the newspaper that his friend had died he handed himself in to the police. Despite the fact that it was a clear-cut case of manslaughter he was condemned to death.

It was argued that he had been sentenced to death due to his social standing and had he been a richer man his sentence would have been lower.

In 1964 the criminal justice act abolished the death sentence however it was only entirely squashed by a referendum in 2001. Ireland was the last country in Europe to constitutionally forbid the use of capital punishment.

While the EU has abolished execution it still takes place elsewhere in the world. The top five locations where the most executions take place are the United States, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China.

H/T: Limerick Leader / Shane Raymond.

50 Irish railroad workers lie buried in a mass grave in Illinois

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In the mid-to-late 1800s, as many Irish fled their famine-stricken home country, thousands came to America to labor on the railroad systems that would connect the states as nothing had before.

Sadly, many of these men – and some women – would lose their lives along the tracks where they set down the rails, due to the grueling labor, the often rough work conditions and the rapid spread of diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Worse still, a great number of these workers were denied any sort of formal burial, their bodies simply left behind or put in a mass grave with other workers.

Perhaps the best-known instance of an Irish railroad workers mass grave can be found in Duffy's Cut, PA, which first made headlines 12 years ago when brothers Doctors Frank and William Watson began their investigation into the deaths of the Irish immigrants, spurred on by a file of evidence left by their grandfather. After years of research and testing, they were able to confirm that while some of the 57 Irish immigrants, most from County Derry, died from cholera, others were murdered, possibly by locals who believed they were responsible for spreading the disease.

Remains at Duffy's Cut.

Less well known are two mass graves of fifty Irish people who worked on the Illinois Central Railroad in Funks Grove, IL, a small village 12 miles south of Bloomington.

The grave site's unusual because the workers were buried in the local cemetery instead of by the tracks, all thanks to the kindness of one family, the Funks.

The family came to the area in 1824, when brothers Isaac and Abaslom Funk arrived there after leaving their family’s Ohio farm. Half a year later they were joined by their sister, Dorothy (Funk) Stubblefield and her husband, Robert, who set down roots in the area. The family chose the location of the church and cemetery in 1830, and in 1864-65 they built a new church building out of white pine shipped from the east coast. They maintained the church and the cemetery themselves until 1891.

Funks Grove Church. Image: The Funks Grove Maple Syrup Company

Read More: The impact of the Irish on the American railroad system

So how did the fifty Irish men come to be buried in the Funk family plot, in two mass graves?

In the 1850s, central Illinois was flooded with thousands of rail workers, who labored to build over 2,700 miles of track in the state in just 10 years.

In an article on the Irish rail laborers of Central Illinois, Mike Matejka explains, “Famine-ravaged Irish families became the key foundation for pre-Civil War railroad and canal building in America. 75 cents to $1.50 a day was the standard wage rate, minus room, board and other expenses.” The Irish were the largest ethnic group listed in the payroll records for the Illinois Central railroad.

A cholera outbreak, sadly an all too common occurrence in the railroad labor camps, led to dozens of deaths among the workers, and the Funk family, the founders of Funk’s Grove, offered to let them be buried in their cemetery plot.

Matejka explains the significance of this gesture given the social climate of the place and time:

“The Funk family broke social barriers of the times in allowing Irish burials in their cemetery. Bloomington did not have a Catholic Church until 1853 and a cemetery until 1856. The reigning mayor, Franklin Pierce, was a "Know-Nothing," frequently attacking the growing Irish community on Bloomington's west side. Perhaps the Funk's Grove cemetery was a sanctuary for the growing Irish community, until they were able to establish their own burial spot, outside city limits, in 1856.”

While the exact fate of the Irish immigrants buried at Funk’s Grove remains unknown (local papers did not carry reports of any of the men’s deaths at the time,) Matejka does quote L. Jane Canfield, a Funk's Grove native, who remembered what her grandmother, Emily Jane Van Ness Wilcox, told her:

“She talked about how the young Irish men, some were fourteen or fifteen years old, who worked on the railroad in the early 1850s had migrated to the U.S. because of the famine in Ireland. They worked hard and lived in primitive conditions along the building site of the railroad. In the summer of 1853, many men, both young and old, came down with cholera and a large number of them died in a few days. Fear of the spreading disease, they were buried in a mass grave west of the Funk's Grove church.”

The cross dedication on April 28, 2000. Image: BMWE.org

The presence of the graves endured in local memory. A Celtic cross monument was erected on April 28, 2000, following donations totaling $20,000 from Irish heritage groups, local unions and a few generous individuals to commemorate the Irish immigrants buried at Funk’s Grove. It reads:

"This Celtic cross honors the memory of more than fifty souls buried here in the early 1850s. These immigrants from Ireland were driven from the land of their birth by famine and disease. They arrived sick and penniless, and took hard and dangerous jobs building the Chicago & Alton Railroad. Known but to God, they rest here in individual anonymity – far from the old homes of their heirs – yet forever short of the new homes of their hopes. Their sacrifices opened interior Illinois and made it possible to develop the riches of the land we share today."

Do you know any stories or historical information of the Irish immigrants who built railroads in the US? Share them in the comment section, below.  

* Originally published in May 2016. 

The man behind the world’s favorite pint - Arthur Guinness

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September is proving to be a good month for remembering Irish icons, with U2 celebrating their 40th anniversary this weekend, quickly followed by the birthday of the creator of Ireland’s greatest alcoholic export: Guinness.

On September 28, we will celebrate story of the man behind the perfect pint, Sir Arthur Guinness.

Born into the aristocratic Guinness family, Arthur’s exact place of birth is unknown but is believed to have been in Co. Kildare, either in his mother's home at Read homestead at Ardclough County Kildare, or near Celbridge where his parents lived around the time of his birth. His exact year of birth is also unknown but the Guinness estate have estimated it to be 1725, making this his 291st birthday.

Fortunate Guinness came into £100 when he was in his 30s on the death of the Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Arthur Price, for whom his father acted as a land steward. It is also rumored that Guinness’s father was partial to brewing beer and did so for the other workers on Price’s estate. In 1752, Guinness received the inheritance money, establishing a lease on his first brewery in Leixlip three years later. He had immediate success and in 1756 he bought a long lease of an adjacent site as an investment property.

As his success continued, Guinness set his sights on the country's capital Dublin, coming across a dilapidated brewery he felt he could develop in the south west area of the city center known as St. James's Gate Brewery. It was here that history was made.

We can never know if Arthur Guinness was confident enough in his brewing skills to predict his own incredible success but nonetheless, he signed a 9,000 year lease on the brewery for £45 a year. It is around this very spot that the Guinness world still revolves almost 300 years later. Although Guinness also now brews in different places, St. James Gate will always be home to the black stuff, or at least until 10,759 AD, when the lease eventually comes to a close.

Read more:Top ten facts about Guinness

Although Guinness had concentrated on brewing both ales and porter for most of his life ,it was in the late 18th century that he gave up on aleas and concentrated on creating the perfect porter. Pouring all his energy into his new brew, the result was his now legendary Guinness Stout, first produced in 1799, and its fame quickly spread throughout England and Ireland.

In the hundreds of years that followed, his stout has traveled all over the world, being brewed in 49 different countries and requiring millions of liters of water every day to keep it going. Such is its success in the US, it's estimated that one pint is poured every seven seconds. That’s an awful lot of Guinness!

Not only was Arthur Guinness a great businessman, and a great beer brewer, but he also had a notion that he was going to do his bit to help save Irish society. He was a firm believer that liquor, especially gin, was destroying the lower classes in Ireland in the 1750s and he believed that everybody, no matter how much they were worth, should have access to a high quality beer and a healthier form of alcohol. As such, he greatly supported the reduction of tax on beer, leading him to support Irish politician Henry Grattan, who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century throughout the 1780s and 90s.

Many of us may not agree with the rest of his politics, however. According to The Economist, Guinness was accused of being British spy in the lead up to the 1798 Wolfetone Rebellion, and was a staunch opponent to Irish nationalism. His descendants continued the tradition and even donated £10,000 (worth about $1.4 million today) to the Ulster Volunteer Force, the paramilitary force established in opposition to the Irish Volunteers in the early 20th century.

Living on through the Arthur Guinness Fund today, Arthur is rumored to have been an all-round good guy, often donating to charities, working to ensure better healthcare for the poor, and even publically supporting Catholic emancipation in 1793, despite coming from an upper-class Protestant family.

Such was his dedication to ensuring a good standard of living for all, even cats have appeared on the books for their work in the Guinness breweries, awarded an extra treat out of the profits for keeping away mice. Well after Guinness’s death in 1803, his employees received benefits such as health insurance, subsidized meals, pensions, higher wages, and more, that were unparalleled in the country throughout the 19th and 20th century.

Read more:Brewing insights from the creators inside Guinness’ St James’s Gate (VIDEO)

It seems there was nothing Guinness turned his hand to that he didn’t excel at, as he and his wife, Olivia Whitmore, who he married in in St. Mary's Church, Dublin in 1761, had an extremely fruitful marriage. In all, poor Whitmore gave birth to 21 children, ten of whom survived until adulthood.

The only known portrait of Arthur Guinness.

Despite his growing fame, and willingness to play an important role in his society, Guinness would not have been one to post too many selfies on social media if he was alive and well today. Maybe he was just too busy brewing so much beer, or having so many kids, but the brewer was famously photo shy--portrait shy as it was then--and only one known portrait exists of the master brewer today.

Just four years after finalizing his piece de resistance, Guinness died in 1803, aged 78, leaving his business to be continued by three sons: Arthur II, Benjamin and William. By this stage, it is estimated that the company was already producing approximately 809,000 gallons of beer a year, with sales growing by 10 percent a year under the management of Edward Guinness.

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