From perfectly preserved bodies that are 2,500 years old to jewelry found in dumpsters! Amazing historical finds in Ireland.

Some of the world's most astounding archaeological discoveries have been found on our very shores. From jewelry to people, to ancient sites, here are some recent archaeological finds from in and around Ireland.

Clonycavan Man

Clonycavan Man (pictured above) was discovered in Meath in February of 2003 after his remains dropped off a peat-cutting machine. The Most interesting fact about him is that his hair appeared to have a sort of gel in it, which slicked his hair up into a mohawk. The ingredients of the “gel” were traced back to either France or Spain. Judging by the deep wounds in his skull, Clonycavan Man appears to have been brutally murdered, possibly by an ax approximately 2,300 years ago. Clonycavan Man has found a new home – on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

Old Croghan Man

Old Croghan Man was named for the location where he was found - Croghan Hill in Offaly. This man was 6’6", quite tall for his time period. He also had neatly manicured nails. Old Croghan’s body was preserved so finely that a murder investigation was launched when he was first found. As it transpired, he was brutally murdered, a fact deduced from his lack of head and lower body.

His stomach gave evidence of a wheat and buttermilk diet. He was found three months after Clonycavan Man was discovered and at a location about 25 miles away from where Clonycavan Man was found. He, too, is on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

Linn Duachaill

Linn Duachaill was a Viking settlement village in what is today Annagassan, County Louth. The village is presumed to have been a Viking winter base, one of only two in Ireland. After some testing by Dundalk’s County Museum, it was discovered that the site was, in fact, where the Vikings repaired their longships and launched inland raids.

Later, it became a trading site. It was founded in 841, which places it among the earliest settlements of Vikings in Ireland.

Bog butter

This batch of butter was dug up in Tullamore and is believed to be a staggering 5,000 years old. The “butter” was discovered by turf cutters who found it seven feet underground in what appeared to be a “keg” or “urn” type capsule. They cut it open with a spade and found the butter inside.

Presumably, the butter was buried as a form of refrigeration. Although ‘bog butter’ is a more common discovery around Ireland, the discovery in 2011 was remarkable for its size – 100 pounds! The substance was said to still have a “dairy smell,” though no one is positive what exactly the substance is.

4000-year-old necklace found

After two thieves robbed a shop in Strokestown, Co Roscommon, they discarded the necklace and other documents in a dumpster in Dublin. Police were lucky to find the precious artifact before the dumpster was emptied.

The necklace is believed to be 4,000 years old and to have belonged to an early king of Ireland. The necklace, called a lunala, was originally found in 1945 when it was dug up in Roscommon. It was given to the Strokestown shopkeeper where he kept it locked away in a safe until the robbery.

Ancient Latin Psalter

In 2006, a mechanical digger unearthed a 1,200-year-old manuscript in Faddan More near Riverstown in County Tipperary. The manuscript is comprised of 60 vellum pages and has covers made from animal skin.

It was found undisturbed and open to the Latin version of Psalm 83. The discovery was said to be of staggering impact and changed the understanding of how old Irish manuscripts were created.

Sacrificed king in Laois

A mummified body found in Laois became of special interest to archaeologists when it was discovered on the boundary of two ancient Irish kingdoms, thus suggesting that the body may have been that of a king.

The 3,000-year-old remains were found just moments before a local worker drove over it. In addition to its location, the body discovered had various cuts on it, suggesting a ritual sacrifice.

Mabel Bagenal, Ireland’s ‘Helen of Troy’

The remains of what is believed to be Ireland’s ‘Helen of Troy’ were discovered in Dungannon’s Castle Hill in County Tyrone. The evidence suggests that the body could be that of Mabel Bagenal, who died in 1596 and was the third wife of the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O’Neill.

Ornate details in her burial point to her having had a high social status during her life, one fitting for the wife of an Earl.

Burial ground in north Dublin

Scientists from Queens University conducted tests on the burial site in north Dublin and concluded that it was created in the seventh century AD. With this information, it was deduced that the site is from the pre-Viking era of Christian conversion.

“Zombie” Graveyard

This so-called “zombie” graveyard was discovered at a site overlooking Lough Key in Roscommon.

The skeletal remains found there were discovered to have large rocks placed in their mouths, possibly in hopes of preventing the souls raising up to terrorize the living.

* Originally published in 2011.

Looking for an Irish name for a little bundle of joy on the way or just inspired by the beauty of Irish names and their meanings. Here are 100 ideas for you! 

Here are today's 100 most popular Irish language baby names, with their meanings and pronunciations - 50 girl names and 50 boy names. See if yours made the cut, or peruse the list for some inspiration! 

Girls

1. Aoife (ee-fa)

This name means beautiful, radiant or joyful, and likely derives from the Gaelic word ‘aoibh’ meaning ‘beauty’ or ‘pleasure.’ In Irish mythology, Aoife is known as the greatest woman warrior in the world. She gave birth to the mythological hero Cuchulainn’s only son, Connlach, and was the daughter of a king of Connacht. Legend has it, her marriage was arranged by St. Patrick himself.

2. Caoimhe (kwee-va or kee-va)

From the Gaelic word "caomh," this name means gentle, beautiful or precious.

3. Saoirse (ser-sha)

This name means "freedom" or "liberty." It has strong patriotic overtones, and has only been in use since the 1920s.

4. Ciara (kee-ra)

The feminine form of Ciaran, this name comes from the Gaelic word "ciar," which means dark. It implies dark features, like hair or eyes. In history, St. Ciara was a distinguished figure who established a monastery in Co. Tipperary during the seventh century.

5. Niamh (neev or nee-iv)

Meaning radiance, luster or brightness. In Irish mythology, Niamh was the daughter of Manannan, god of the sea - she was known as ‘Niamh of the Golden Hair’ and was usually depicted riding on a white horse. She was the lover of poet-hero Oisin; together they lived in Tir-na-nOg, the land of eternal youth.

Read more:Irish baby first names that are super popular in the US

6. Roisin (ro-sheen)

This name means "little rose," and has been use in Ireland since the sixteenth century. When Irish patriotic poetry and song was outlawed in Ireland, Irish bands would disguise their nationalistic verses and love songs, and sing about Roisin Dubh ("Dark Rosaleen") as the poetic symbol for their country.

7. Cara

In Irish, Cara simply means "a friend."

8. Clodagh (cloda)

Named for the River Clodagh, or Clody River, which runs through Co. Tipperary and Co. Wexford. Like most Irish rivers, the name is associated with a female deity.

9. Aisling (ash-ling)

This name means "dream" or "vision" from the Gaelic word ‘aislinge’ and refers to an “aisling,” which is a poetic genre of Irish language poetry from the late 17th century. It only started being used as a first name in the 20th century. The poetic genre has been personified in Ireland as a beautiful woman in peril.

10. Eabha (ey-va)

This is the Irish form of Eve (Adam and Eve are Ádhamh agus Éabha in Irish). It means ‘life,’ but comes with all of the connotations of the name Eve, i.e. the mother of all the living.

11. Aoibhinn (ee-van or ay-veen)

This name means pleasant, beautiful sheen of radiant beauty. It was a common name for princesses among the royal families of Ireland that has been revived in recent years.

12. Aine (awn-ye)

This name comes from the noun aine, which means "radiance, splendor, brilliance." The name is connected to fruitfulness and prosperity. In Irish legend, Aine, the Queen of the Munster fairies, was one of the wives of Fionn MacCool.

13. Sadhbh (sive, sigh-v)

This name mean can either mean sweet and lovely, or wise.

14. Aoibheann (ay-veen)

This name means “of pleasant, beautiful sheen” or “radiant beauty.” It is often interpreted as a diminutive for the word Eve, or, “little Eve.”

15. Fiadh (fee-a)

Fiadh is an old Irish word meaning “wild,” in the sense of a wild animal. Comes from the word for "wildlife," fiadhúrla.

Read more: Irish names that are most mispronounced in America

16. Aoibhe (ey-va)

This comes from the Gaelic word “aoibh,” which means beauty.

17. Laoise (lee-sha)

This means "radiant girl," and is often Anglicized as Louisa. It also refers to light.

18. Eimear (ee-mur)

This name means "swift." In the Irish legend, Eimear was the wife of warrior legend Cuchulainn, and was said to have possessed the six gifts of womanhood, which are beauty, a gentle voice, sweet words, wisdom, needlework and chastity.

19. Orla

Also spelled Orlaith, this name means “golden princess” or “golden sovereign” in Irish. Both the sister and daughter of Brian Boru were named Orla.

20. Meabh (Maeve)

This name means “intoxicating.” In the Irish legend, Meabh was the warrior queen of Connacht.

21. Shauna

As the feminine form of the popular Irish boys’ name Sean, this name means “God is gracious.” The name can also mean “present.”

22. Shannon

This name means “wise river.” The Irish form is Sionainn and it has many spelling variations, but it comes from ‘sion’ (wise) and ‘abhainn’ (river).

23. Sinead (shin-ade)

This is the Irish form of the name “Jane” or “Jeannette,” and means “God is gracious.”

24. Grainne (grawn-ye)

From the Irish word “gran,” meaning grain or corn. In ancient Ireland, Grainne was the goddess of the grain or harvest. There is also a famous legendary Irish narrative, “The pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne,” which is about the love triangle between Fionn MacCool, princess Grainne and Fianna member Diarmuid O’Dyna.

25. Kayleigh (kay-lee)

This name means "slim and fair" or "slender," deriving from the Gaelic word for slender, which is ‘caol.’

26. Fiona

This name means fair, white, beautiful. It is the feminine form of Fionn.

27. Emer (eemer)

This name means "swift." In the Irish legend, Eimear was the wife of warrior legend Cuchulainn, and was said to have possessed the six gifts of womanhood, which are beauty, a gentle voice, sweet words, wisdom, needlework and chastity.

28. Siobhan (shiv-on)

Siobhan is another form of the name “Joan,” and means “God has been gracious” or “God’s grace.” It can also mean “full of charm.”

29. Ailbhe (alva)

This name is likely derived from the Gaelic word "albho" which means ‘white.’ In Irish legend, this was the name of a female warrior in the Fianna.

30. Mairead (mi-rade)

This is the Irish form of Margaret. It means “pearl.”

Read more: Top most popular Irish language baby names for girls

31. Cliodhna (clee-na)

This name comes from the word “clodhna,” meaning “shapely.” In some Irish myths, Cliodhna is the goddess of love and beauty. In some myths she is the Queen of the Banshees.

32. Imogen (imma-jen)

This name means “maiden” or “daughter” from the Gaelic word “inghean” It can also be translated as “innocent” or “blameless.”

33. Orlaith (orla)

This name means “golden princess” or “golden sovereign” in Irish. Both the sister and daughter of Brian Boru had this name.

34. Caragh (kara)

This name means “friend” and “beloved.”

35. Aoibh (eve)

The Irish variant of “eve,” this name means beautiful and radiant.

36. Blathnaid (blaw-nid)

In Irish, “blath” means flower or blossom. It is the Irish version of Florence, derived from the Latin word Florentia, which means blooming or blossoming.

37. Cadhla (ky-lah)

This name means beautiful, comely, and graceful.

38. Dearbhla (durv-la)

In Irish, ‘dearbh’ means truth, and ‘ail’ means loveliness or desire. This name implies “true desire.”

39. Bronagh (brona)

This name is rooted in the Irish word bronach, which means sad or sorrowful. Saint Bronagh is a venerated figure in Co. Down, where the name is popular.

40. Riona (ree-ona)

This comes from "rionach," and means "queenly."

41. Sorcha (sur-ka)

As the Gaelic form of the name Sarah or Sally, this name means “brightness” or “radiant.”

42. Nuala (noo-lah)

This is the diminutive of the name Fionnuala, which means “fair shoulder.” Sometimes used as an alternate for the name “Una,” which means lamb.

43. Eireann (erin)

This name means Ireland, as the genitive case of the word Eire. Commonly Anglicized as Erin.

44. Oonagh (Una)

This name means lamb, from the Gaelic word uan. Sometimes the name is translated as “unity,” from “una,” the Latin word for “one.”

45. Sile (shee-la)

This is the Irish form of the Latin name Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and implies ‘pure and musical.’

46. Muireann (mweer-in)

This name means "sea white, sea fair." In Irish mythology, this was the name of a 6th century mermaid caught by a fisherman in Lough Neagh. He brought her to St. Comghall, who baptized her, transforming her into a woman.

47. Nessa

This name can mean “rough” or “not gentle.” In Irish mythology, she was the powerful and ambitious mother of Conchobar (Conor) MacNessa, King of Ulster.

48. Fionnuala (fi-noola)

A variation of the name Finnguala, which means ‘fair shoulder’ or ‘white shoulder,’ from “fionn” meaning white and “guala” meaning shoulder.

49. Deirdre (deer-dra)

This name comes from the older Gaelic form “Derdriu.” The meaning is possibly derived from the Celtic word for woman. In Irish legend, Dierdre was the name of a tragic character who died of a broken heart after Conchobar, the King of Ulster, killed her lover Naoise.

50. Eithne (enya)

In Irish this name means “kernel of a nut or seed.” There were at least nine Saint Eithnes. It is also associated with the name Aidan, which means “little fire.”

Boys:

1. Conor

Usually translated as “lover of hounds.” It can also mean “high desire,” as derived from the Irish word “coachuhhar.” Conchobhar MacNessa was the king of Ulster; according to the legend, he was born on the same day as Christ.

2. Sean

Sean is the Irish cognate of the name John, and means “God is gracious.” It can also mean “wise, old.”

3. Oisin (uh-sheen or o-sheen)

Meaning “little deer.” In Irish mythology, Oisin was a poet-hero, son of legendary warrior Fionn MacCool and the goddess Sive. His mother was turned into a deer by the Dark Druid, and she raised him in the forest for seven years; when his father found him while hunting, he recognized the boy as his own son and gave him the name “little deer.”

4. Patrick

Patrick is the Anglicized form of the Irish name Padraig, from the latin Patricius which means “nobly born.” The patron Saint of Ireland.

5. Cian (kee-an)

This name means “ancient,” or “enduring.” In the Irish legend, Cian Mac Mael Muad was the son-in-law of Brian Boru, both of whom were killed in the Battle of Clontarf.

6. Liam

Liam means strong-willed warrior and protector. It is the short form of the Irish name Uilliam, which comes from the Frankish Willahelm. It is also the Irish cognate of the name William.

Read more: Irish baby name Liam top choice among American families

7. Darragh (darra)

Some translate Darragh into “fruitful” or “fertile,” and some translate the name into “dark oak” or “oak tree.” According to the Irish legend, Daire Mac Fiachna owned the Brown Bull of Cooley, and his refusal to sell it to Queen Maebh was part of the cause for the fight between Ulster and Connacht.

8. Cillian (kill-ee-an)

This name has several known meanings, including “war,” “strife,” and “bright-headed.” The word cille also means “associated with the church,” so the name is often associated with the word “church” or “monastery.”

9. Fionn (finn, fee-in or fyon)

meaning “fair-headed,” “white” or “clear.” Other translations include “small blonde soldier” and “handsome.” Fionn MacCool was a central character in Irish folklore and mythology - he was the leader of the warrior band “The Fianna.” Known for being brave, handsome, wise and generous.

10. Finn

Finn is the Anglicized version of Fionn. Meaning fair, blonde, or “small blonde soldier.”

11. Rian (ree-an)

This name means “little king” or “kingly.” Diminutive of the Irish word for “king,” which is “rí.”

12. Eoin (owen)

This name means “young.”

13. Oscar

Meaning “deer lover” or “friend of deer” as derived from the Gaelic “os” (deer) and “cara” (friend). In Irish mythology, Oscar was the son of the poet Oisin, and the grandson of the hero Finn MacCool.

14. Callum

The Gaelic form of the Latin “columba,” which means “dove.” It can also be translated as “the servant or disciple of Columba.”

15. Aidan

The Anglicized form of Gaelic “Aodhan,” which means “little fiery one.”

Read more: The most popular Irish language baby names for boys

16. Tadhg (tige)

This name means “poet” or “bard” in Irish. It was the name of an 11th century King of Connacht.

17. Cathal (ka-hal)

Meaning “strong in battle.” Derived from Gaelic “cath” (battle) and "val" (rule). It was the name of a 7th century Irish saint.

18. Shane

“Gift from God.” Anglicized form of Sean.

19. Senan (sennin)

This name means “little wise person,” “old” or “ancient.” Derived from Sean with a diminutive suffix.

20. Ronan

This is a very old name meaning “little seal,” derived from the diminutive form of “ron” (seal). There were twelve saints named Ronan as well as an ancient king of Leinster.

21. Eoghan (owen)

“Born of the yew tree.” Often associated with the Greek name “Eugenes.”

22. Rory

Meaning “red” or “rust colored.” Borne by Rory O’Connor, the last high king of Ireland, who reigned from 1166-1170.

23. Cormac

This name means “son of defilement,” from Gaelic “corb” (defilement) and “mac” (son). This was the name of a 3rd century king of Ireland. Some think it means “charioteer.”

24. Odhran (orin)

Means “little pale green one,” derived from the Irish “odhra” (pale green, sallow), plus a diminutive suffix.

25. Ciaran (kee-ran)

Meaning “little dark one.” Diminutive of Gaelic word “ciar,” which means black.

26. Dara

This name comes from "daire" and means “fruitful” or “fertile.” In the Irish legend, Daire Mac Fiachna, who owned the Brown Bull of Cooley, refused to sell the bull to Queen Maebh, which was thought to be the reason for the fight between Ulster and Connacht.

27. Shay

In Irish, Shay means hawk or hawk-like and noble.

28. Donnacha (done-acka)

This name means "brown-haired warrior." Derived from the Gaelic “donn” (brown) and “cath” (battle). Brian Boru’s son Donncha was a High King of Ireland until his death in 1064.

29. Killian

Derived from Gaelic “cille” and means “associated with the church.” Borne by several Irish saints.

30. Niall (nye-al or niel)

This name can either mean “champion, passionate, or vehement” from the Gaelic "niadh," or “cloud” from the Gaelic word "neall." Niall of the Nine Hostages was a 4th century king of Tara.

31. Ruairi (rory)

This name means “red-haired king,” from “ruadh” meaning red, as in the red colored hair of foxes.

32. Brian

This name means high, noble and strong. From Gaelic ‘brigh.’ The name has been incredibly widespread in Ireland, in honor of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland.

33. Oran

This name means white, light, or pale. Some believe it to mean sallow, pale green, or “little pale green one.”

34. Darren

Likely derives from the Gaelic name Darragh, meaning ‘little oak.’ The oak tree is a powerful symbol to the Celts, representing nobility, strength, vitality and wisdom.

35. Brandon

This name derives from the Irish “Bréanainn” which comes from the word “brenhin” meaning prince.

36. Craig

This popular name comes from the Gaelic word “carraig” which means rock or crag.

37. Colm (collum)

This is the Gaelic variation of the Latin “columba” meaning dove.

38. Padraig (paw-drig, patrick)

Gaelic form of the Latin “Patricius” meaning “nobly born.” Patron Saint of Ireland.

39. Donal

“Ruler of the world” is the implied definition of this name, from “domhan” (world) and “all” (mighty).

40. Diarmuid (deer-mid)

This name means “without enemy.” It has been the name of kings, heroes and saints. In Irish legend, Diarmuid was the lover of Grainne, and the most beloved member of the warrior band the Fianna. “Dermot” is the Anglicized version.

41. Lorcan

This name can mean either “silent” or “fierce.” Lorcan was the name of Brian Boru’s grandfather as well as two kings of Leinster. It was likely used as the nickname for a “brave warrior.”

42. Barry

Meaning “fair-haired,” this name is associated with Saint Finbar, the patron saint of Cork.

43. Collin

This name means cub or puppy from the Gaelic word “cailean.” It can also be used as a diminutive of the name Nicholas, which means victor or victorious people.

44. Brendan

At least 17 saints bear the name Brendan, but perhaps the most famous would be Saint Brendan the Navigator. One of the rumors about the Navigator is that he was the first European to set foot on American soil, a thousand years before Columbus. Anglicized form of the Irish Breandan, meaning prince.

45. Conan

From the word “con” meaning hound or wolf. Some say the meaning can also be “swift-footed warrior.” With the suffix “-an,” it means “little warrior.” According to Irish legend, Conan Maol (‘Bald Conan’) was part of the Fianna warrior band.

46. Caolan (keelin)

This name means "slender" from the Gaelic word "caol."

47. Aodhan (aidan)

As a diminutive form of “Aod” which means fire, this name implies the meaning "born of fire" or "fiery." Popularized by Saint Aidan of Iona.

48. Tiernan

This name means “little lord.” Tiernan O’Rourke was a 12th C. Irish king.

49. Daithi (da-hee)

This is an old Irish name that means “swiftness” or “nimbleness.” Daithi, the last Pagan king of Ireland who ruled from 405-426 AD, had 24 dons.

50. Fergal

This name comes from Fearghal, and means brave, courageous and valorous.

* Originally published in 2014.

Perhaps the most outstanding person to bear the name Feeney is renowned philanthropist Chuck Feeney. We look at the Irish meaning of the name, its origins and its history in Ireland.

Variants: Ó Fidhne, Ó Fighne. 

Born in 1931 in New Jersey, Charles (Chuck) Feeney was raised in a working-class area of Elizabeth during the Great Depression. He went on to make billions of dollars as one of the founders of Duty-Free Shopping (DFS).

Yet he lives a modest life with none of the luxuries associated with enormous wealth, due to the fact that he has donated most of his earnings to The Atlantic Philanthropies – a collective of foundations set up by Feeney himself.

Born to the son of an Irish immigrant from County Fermanagh, Chuck Feeney holds dual Irish-American citizenship, and as a young man served four years in United States Air Force before pursuing his business career.

In 1960, he founded DFS with Robert Miller, with the revolutionary idea of selling food and other goods to personnel on U.S. fleets abroad, without tax. By 1966, DFS had become a global retail giant, earning millions for both its founders and its retail partners all over the world, as well as introducing the idea of duty-free shopping to travel industry.

Read more: What Irish-American billionaire gave away his entire fortune?

While Forbes magazine estimated Feeney’s wealth to be some $1.3 billion by 1988, the truth was he was worth less than $5 million, having signed over his stake in DFS to a charitable foundation years previously. Feeney had anonymously set up The Atlantic Philanthropies in Bermuda to deliberately avoid disclosure rules surrounding U.S. foundations.

In the mid-1990s, DFS was to be sold to luxury goods giant, Louis Vuitton Moet-Hennessy group. The sale would put the value of foundation at $3.5 billion, but Feeney’s business partner initially rejected the sale. But when sale did go through, Feeney kept $26 million aside to distribute amongst 2,400 of its longest-serving staff.

Read more: He gave away $8 billion—Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies holds final meeting in Dublin

Despite his wealth, Feeney has always flown economy, does not own a house or a car and has said that he prefers to distribute his fortune to others while he is still alive. By 2010, The Atlantic Philanthropies was worth $2.2 billion and had already given out $5.4 billion in grants.

As well as his philanthropy, Feeney also took a humanitarian interest in Northern Ireland peace process, and made a large donation via his foundation to Irish American Partnership, as well as becoming a key member of Americans for a New Irish Agenda and began aiding Irish universities, most notably the University of Limerick.

In 2002, Atlantic Philanthropies stated that it intended to spend its endowment within next 15 years, highlighting Feeney’s philosophy as outlined in his letter to The Giving Pledge founders Bill Gates and Warren Buffett: “I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living – to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve human condition. More importantly, today’s needs are so great and varied that intelligent philanthropic support and positive interventions can have greater value and impact today than if they are delayed when needs are greater.”

In Ireland today, many Feeneys are concentrated in counties Sligo and Mayo; the name comes from Fiannaidhe, meaning ‘soldier’. The families are thought to have originated from a Connaught clan called Ui Fiachrac, and there are two town names in County Roscommon called Ballyfeeney, an Anglicized version of Baile Feeney, or the home of Feeneys.

Do you know any Feeneys? Make sure to send their name's history and origins along to them. 

Read more: The man who did more for the Irish than St. Patrick gives away $8 billion

* Originally published in July 2013 on Ireland of the Welcomes.

Tourism, transport, and homelessness statistics on the Irish population: interesting facts and figures about Ireland you need to know.

The Central Statistics of Ireland has released an in-depth report on the 2016 Irish census and we could spend all day reading up on the facts, figures and statistics of Irish life. Everything from the effects of tourism to homelessness in the country is covered in this one interesting document.

Main census facts and statistics about Ireland:

The population of the Republic of Ireland on April 26, 2016, was 4,761,865.

There were 1,218,370 families in the State on census night, which is a 51% increase since 1996.

The average number of children per family fell markedly between 1996 and 2006 before leveling off in 2011 and 2016.

The 535,475 non-Irish nationals living in Ireland in April 2016 came from 200 different nations.

Polish nationals were the largest group of 122,515 persons, followed by 103,113 UK nationals and 36,552 Lithuanians.

Just twelve nations account for 73.6% of the total non-Irish national population.

Read more: Where are the most Irish people in the US? Census reveals all

Interesting facts and figures about Ireland:

Drogheda in Co. Louth is not just one of the oldest towns in Ireland but it also remains the largest with a population of 40,956.

14,330 people moved to Dublin from another county in the year to April 2016.

26% of people who had moved in the year to April 2016 had relocated to another county.

In April 2016, 65.6% (1,229,966) of those commuting to work either drove or were passengers in a car.

However,  56,837 people cycled to work, an increase of 43% since 2011.

In 2015 in Ireland, 1,196 sets of twins were born, 31 sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets.

There were 22,626 marriages in 2016, including 1,056 same-sex marriages.  

Ireland’s total imported energy dependency was 69% in 1990 but was 85% in 2014.

Read more: Ancestry seekers beg Ireland to release 1926 census now instead of 2027

What is the age profile of Ireland?

The average age for Irish nationals increased by 1 year to 37.7 years between 2011 and 2016.

Ireland’s population has been getting steadily older since the 1980s. In Census 2016, 37.2% were aged 45 and over, compared with 34.4% in 2011 and 27.6% in 1986.

The 65 years and older age group saw the largest increase in population since 2011, rising by 102,174 to 637,567, a rise of 19.1%.

Where is Ireland living?

Almost 10% of the population of Ireland is living in accommodation with less than 1 room per person.

458,874 people aged 18 and older were living with their parents. This decreased to 23,571 from 25 years old onward.

There were 140,120 vacant houses in Ireland and 62,148  vacant holiday homes.

Tourism facts and figures about Ireland:

In 2016, 9.6 million overseas trips were made by non-residents to Ireland compared to 8.6 million trips in 2015, an increase of 10.9%.

The average length of stay in Ireland by all overseas travelers fell from 7.1 nights in 2015 to 6.9 nights in 2016.

Over 7.6 million outbound trips were undertaken by Irish residents in 2016.

The average length of stay on outbound trips was 7.4 nights, varying from 6.4 nights within the European Union, 12.7 nights in North America and 22.3 nights in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.

Irish residents took almost 9.3 million domestic trips in 2016. The average length of stay for domestic trips was 2.7 nights, resulting in a total of 25.4 million bed nights.

What is the main religion in Ireland?

Catholicism is still the largest religion in Ireland but the numbers are falling. Catholics made us78.3% of the population in April 2016, compared with 84.2% five years previously.

Persons born outside of Ireland comprised 12.0% of the country’s total Catholic population.

“No religion” came in second, increasing by 73.6% to 468, 421 people.

Read more: Belief in God drops sharply among Irish new census figures show

Facts and figures about homelessness in Ireland:

On census night there were 6,906 homeless people in Ireland, 1,846 of whom (27%) were under 18.

The Dublin region accounted for 73% of homeless people.

123 people were sleeping rough on census night. Of these, 102 were in Dublin.

Read more: Can you guess the ratio of Irish Americans to the number of Irish?

The average age of the homeless population was 31 years compared with 37 years for the general population.

You can read more on the census facts and figures from Ireland here.

What do you think is the most interesting fact or figure from the Irish census? Let us know in the comments section, below.

A ground-breaking recent genetic study revealed that the Viking invasions had a much bigger impact on Irish DNA than previously thought. How can you tell if you’re descended from Vikings? Here’s where to start your genealogy search.

Within the past year, it’s been confirmed that the Irish have far more Viking and Norman ancestry than we ever knew. A highly detailed new DNA map of Ireland released by the Royal College of Surgeons in late 2017, based upon the genetic information for 500 Irish men and women, showed that the Viking and Norman invasions of Ireland made a more striking impression on the DNA breakup of the country than previously thought.

Read more: Irish people have far more Viking DNA than was suspected

Around the same time, a comprehensive study was released by scientists from Trinity College Dublin which showed the discovery of 23 new genetic clusters in Ireland never before identified, confirming the belief that we may have far more Viking and Norman ancestry than previously evidenced.

Wondering if you have Viking roots? From your families surnames to the areas from whence they hailed, there are a few strong indicators.

Read More: Massive new study shows the influence of Vikings and Normans on Irish DNA

The history of the Vikings in Ireland

Given the long and tumultuous history of the Vikings in Ireland, the degree to which they have influenced Irish DNA doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

The Vikings from the Scandinavian countries began raiding Ireland just before 800 AD and continued for two centuries before Brian Boru defeated them at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. The Viking settlements of Ireland in those years would lay the foundations for many of today’s Irish cities and towns, like Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wexford, and Waterford.

Read More: Exploring Waterford's Viking past

“Plenty of clues already showed that Vikings had been to Ireland, including ruins, artifacts, and Norwegian family names… The [genetic] signatures that turned up in Ireland are most similar to those from the north and west coasts of Norway, where Vikings were most active,” Gianpiero Cavalleri of the Royal College of Surgeons study told National Geographic.

Viking Irish surnames

When the Vikings invaded Ireland, they eventually traded their traditional single-generation patronymic naming system in favor of Gaelic naming practices. When this took place a lot of new surnames emerged. Have one of these in your family tree? That’s a good indication you may have some Viking roots.

“Doyle is Ó Dubhghaill, from dubh,’“dark,’ and gall, ‘foreigner,’ a descriptive formula first used to describe the invading Vikings, and in particular to distinguish darker-haired Danes from fair-haired Norwegians. O’Loughlin and Higgins both stem directly from words meaning literally ‘Viking,’ Lochlann in Irish and Uigínn, an Irish version of the Norse Vikinger,” John Grenham wrote in an article for the Irish Times.

“McAuliff, son of Olaf; Groarke, Mag Ruairc, son of Hrothkekr; McBirney, son of Bjorn; Reynolds, Mac Raghnall, from the Norse first name Ragnall.”

Norse names that still survive in Ireland include Cotter, Dowdall, Dromgoole, Gould, Harold, Howard, Loughlin, Sweetman and Trant, according to DoChara.com.

Viking Settlements in Ireland

The first recorded Viking raid in Ireland occurred in 795 AD when the church on Lambeg Island in Dublin was plundered and burned. At the time, there were no true towns in Ireland but rather scattered communities near monasteries that served as ‘safe houses’ for valuables, food, and cattle. This made those locations prime targets for Viking raids.

As the Vikings continued their raids on Ireland during the ninth century they established settlements around the country, many of which still survive today.  One of the earliest Viking settlements established at the mouth of the Liffey survived to become what is now modern Dublin. In 914 AD, a fleet of ships established a base at Waterford, followed by a base at Cork. Somewhat later, an invasion along the Shannon estuary laid the foundation for Limerick. Wexford was another stronghold, with the region between Wexford, Waterford, and Kilkenny known as Ireland’s Viking Triangle.

Read More: Viking warriors and treasures are buried across Dublin

Place names in these regions were also influenced by the Vikings. The most obvious, of course, are Wexford and Waterford, with the “ford” stemming from “fjord.” The town of Howth comes from “hofuth,” Old Norse for “headlands.” Skerries comes from “skjcby,” meaning “a rock.” Ulster, Leinster, and Munster all share the ending “ster” which comes from Old Norse “stathir,” meaning “a place.”

If your ancestors hail from one of these areas, changes are you’ve got some Viking DNA.

Take a DNA test for Viking ancestry?

While you might think that the most conclusive way to find out if you descend from the Viking invaders and settlers is to take a DNA test, that isn’t the case just yet.

Most DNA tests will be able to tell you if you have any Scandinavian DNA, but to assume that means you’re descended from the Vikings who spent just over two centuries (not that much time in the grand scheme of things) invading Ireland would be quite a leap of logic.

However, the genetic map and study results emerging out of Ireland in the past year offer the promise of greater specificity, with the first revealing 10 previously unknown genetic clusters and the second a whopping 23.

Read More: Newly found Viking artifact suggests Cork is Ireland's oldest Viking settlement

Of even greater importance, according to the researchers, the ability to link genetic information to geographic origins will enable medical researchers to design studies that consider how and why a group of people may be affected by certain genetic diseases.

“It’s not good enough just to know you’re Irish; it could be useful for the researcher to know that your DNA has been influenced by a unique genetic subgroup from one part of Ulster,” researchers on the Royal College of Surgeons told National Geographic. This also holds the promise of more successful matches between organ donors and recipients.

Read More: First genetic map of the people of Ireland

Do you think you might have Viking DNA? Do you have any Viking stories passed down in your family? Tell us in the comment section.

From dinner to dessert to the special Irish bread in hot cross buns, a traditional Irish Easter is full of great recipes and fantastic Easter food. 

Apart from Christmas and St. Patrick's Day, Easter is the most important religious holiday in Ireland's calendar with traditional Irish dinner, blessings, recipes, greetings and even bread. The works! 

Preparation for Easter Sunday in Ireland starts at the beginning of Lent and culminates with a gathering of family and friends and everyone's favorite food, usually chocolates or whatever other vice was given up for the Lenten period, is eaten.

Although many of the older traditions remain in place, some of them have not. Here's a look at some of the Easter traditions in Ireland, past and present. 

How is Easter celebrated in Ireland? 

Before Easter

Clean house thoroughly inside and out - whitewash applied.

Get new clothes.

On Good Friday

Fast - this is the most serious day of fasting from the Lenten calendar. Some devoutly Catholic will not eat until midday and even then will only have a piece of bread and three sips of water, honoring the Holy Trinity.

Cut your hair to prevent headaches during the year and trim your fingers and toenails.

Take off your shoes when entering a Church.

Remain quiet from noon until 3 pm.

Visit holy wells and graveyards. All water from holy wells has curative properties on Good Friday.

Plant a few crop seeds to bring a blessing to all your crops.

A child born on Good Friday and baptized on Easter Sunday will have the gift of healing. It was thought that boys born and baptized on these days should enter the ministry. Those who die on Good Friday go straight to heaven.                    

Chicken's eggs laid on Good Friday are marked with a cross. Each member of the household eats one Easter Sunday. And chicks hatched on Good Friday will be healthy.

Easter Saturday

You must have holy water blessed. Drink three sips of the water for good luck and sprinkle everything for good luck.

Bring the cinders from the fire to be blessed.

During Lent, Catholics would abstain from any red meat eating only fish. On Easter Saturday a tradition developed of having a mock funeral for a herring.

Easter Sunday

Gather your family and go to a hilltop to see the sunrise. Catholics believed that this is the Savior rising from his grave.

Alternatively, view the reflection of the sun in a bucket of water and then move it so the sun appears to dance.

Celebrate with eggs as a signifier of life. Either color them or give them as gifts.

Have a Cludog / Cluideog. This is a ritual where children collect the eggs and cook them with other food in a structure at the edge of the farm. Essentially it's roasted eggs.

Merrymakers dressed in brightly colored rags would go from place to place singing and dancing and demanding the eggs of Easter.

Have a feast with your family. Traditionally, leek soup and roast lamb was served.

Have a cake dance. The best dancer gets the prize of a cake.

What are the Irish Easter traditions in your house? Let us know in the comments section, below. 

* Originally published in 2013.

Winston Churchill ordered bombing thrice, first in 1920 against the IRA. Ireland began its fatal slide into civil war aided and abetted by the Secretary of State for War and Air.

As Secretary of State for War and Air from 1919 to 1921, and then as Colonial Secretary in 1921 and 1922, Winston Churchill ordered the use of aerial bombing on three occasions, first in 1920 against the IRA.

Appalled by Sinn Fein’s rise, Churchill suggested bombs away on July 1, 1920 to his minions at the War Office. He said that if many Sinn Feiners were drilling, with or without arms, and could be located and identified from the air they should be aerial bombed--civilians be damned.

Read more: Winston Churchill ordered Black and Tans into Ireland 

“I see no objection from a military point of view, and subject of course to the discretion of the Irish (Free State) government and of the authorities on the spot, to airplanes being dispatched with definite orders in each particular case to disperse them by machine-gun fire or bombs, using of course no more force than is necessary to scatter and stampede them.”

Churchill also helped start the Irish Civil War in 1922 when 200 anti-treaty forces occupied the Four Courts building and despite every effort by Michael Collins, head of the Free State Army, they refused to come out peacefully.

The British led by Churchill, pressed Collins very hard to begin an assault. Collins refused, seeking instead a change to the treaty that would allow the Republican side to water down the Oath of Allegiance.

The British point blank refused. They demanded Collins use the artillery they had sent to begin the siege.  If he didn't Churchill warned, the British would come back and take Ireland by force. Collins had no recourse and the attack began on June 28, 1922. Ireland began its fatal slide into civil war aided and abetted by Winston Churchill.

Read more: Eamon De Valera - the Irish Machiavelli who destroyed Michael Collins

The Grand Old Lady of Stephen’s Green as Shelbourne Hotel is affectionately known has been witness to many key events in the trajectory of modern Irish history.

From its inception in 1824 to recent times, the life of ‘Shel’ has run concurrently with the life of Dublin and even Ireland. Indeed, some of the most legendary and famous people from all walks of life have passed through its doors or stayed there. During 1916 Irish Rising hotel was garrisoned by the British army. Later in 1922, it was garrisoned by the army of new Free State. The Shelbourne is also the historic location of the drafting of first Constitution of Ireland.

More recently, the hotel became an enclave where many of Ireland’s famous literary and musical greats socialized. Regulars included Ireland’s famous tenor Count John McCormack, musical composer Seán Ó Riada, poets Patrick Kavanagh and Seamus Heaney, and playwright Brendan Behan, among others. In fact, The Chieftains, one of Ireland’s most famous musical groups was formed after Seán Ó Riada suggested a name to musician Paddy Moloney in Shelbourne’s Horseshoe Bar.

The original structure consisted of four brick houses and was bought by Martin Burke in 1824. Burke, a Tipperary man, leased three houses, numbers 27, 28, and 29 in St. Stephen’s Green considered the most illustrious location of the city “to woo genteel custom who wanted solid, comfortable and serviceable accommodation at a fashionable address”.

The hotel originally was simply called Burke’s, but its owner decided it needed a grander title. Burke chose the name after second Earl of Shelburne taking artistic license and adding an o to word so that his new establishment was now spelled Shelbourne.

By 1866 after it changed hands to new owners Messrs. Jury, Cotton and Goodman Shelbourne was re-built by Irish Victorian architect John McCurdy. The new edifice took 10 months to complete and was considered as majestic and grand as any of great hotels in London or Paris. In style exterior architecture is Renaissance. The walls are red brick and principal exteriors are of Portland stone. At entrance porch there overhangs a glass canopy. The entire façade is crossbanded with stucco painted cream.

Four granite pedestals hold life-sized bronze figures of Egyptian princesses and two Nubian slave girls, holding torches and standing as guards in front of the hotel. These icons of Shelbourne were known by Dublin wags at the time as last four virgins in Dublin. The interior decoration was in the fashionable Victorian style and set off by sumptuous wall hangings and oriental rugs.

From the beginning, Shelbourne’s policy for guests focused on good quality and a high standard of service. In these early years of history of the hotel, and right through to 1957, Shelbourne was the fashionable venue of wealthy and gentry classes. In 1824 English novelist and satirist William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) whose best-known novel was Vanity Fair wrote about the hotel in his work Irish Sketch Book:

“Presently car stops before an extremely big red house, in that extremely large square, Stephen’s Green… The hotel to which I had been directed is a respectable old edifice…”

The novelist George Moore (1852-1933) gives us an insight into the hotel as an elegant social venue for high society of Dublin in years leading up to Great War. The Shelbourne plays an active role in Moore’s narrative where the character of Mrs. Barton uses private rooms of the hotel to entertain eligible young men as prospective husbands for her daughter. Although Moore’s work is fictional it did reflect life at the time.

By 1904, a General Manager George Olden was appointed. During Olden’s tenure installation of a lift and telephone augmented prestige of hotel. The hotel’s staff many of whom were European was regarded as most highly trained in culinary skills and hospitality. Not surprisingly hotel’s success grew. The cream of Dublin’s society came in their droves between 1906 and 1913, arriving by car or even by tram. These included the arrival of several international visitors from America, Japan, and even Australia.

In 1922 after War of Independence committee appointed to draft new Irish Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) met in a sitting-room in number 122 of Shelbourne hotel. The room, now known as Constitution Suite, overlooks St Stephen’s Green and is hotel’s most famous banqueting room. Here under the chairmanship of Michael Collins Irish Constitution was drafted, thus, Irish Free State became effective.

From mid 1950s and with addition of a new ballroom, Shelbourne continued to attract high profile guests. The hotel was renowned for her relationship with wealthy and famous clientele. Indeed hotel’s guest list around this time reads like who’s who of an A-list Hollywood party: James Cagney, Maureen O’Hara, John Wayne, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rock Hudson, Burl Ives, Orsen Welles, Robert Taylor and Rita Hayworth.

By 1960s after yet another change of hands, Shelbourne became a favorite with one of Europe’s most esteemed couples, Princess Grace of Monaco and her husband Prince Ranier. The Grimaldis were particularly fond of view of St. Stephen’s Green from room 270, and this became their usual room. In fact, room was known thereafter as Princess Grace Suite.

John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline first came to Shelbourne in 1958. They stayed in Tonga Suite which was named after Queen Salute of Tonga. Just a few months prior to his assassination Kennedy returned to Shelbourne as president of United States on an official visit.

The present head concierge of Shelbourne Denis O’Brien describes how Oliver Hardy, robustly built American actor and comedian got stuck in a chair. When staff managed to dislodge his ample frame from chair they found that Hardy’s trousers were ripped. Of course, within a short time, resourceful staff had them repaired. Another time American actor James Cagney danced on piano. Then there was the incident of Peter O’ Toole bathing in champagne.

The Shelbourne has also been subject to two historical treatises. The first was published in 1951 by writer Elizabeth Bowen. Entitled simply The Shelbourne Hotel, Bowen’s book chronicles hotel’s history from its foundation until World War II. The other history of the hotel is more recent. Michael O’Sullivan and Bernardine O’Neill co-authored The Shelbourne and its People, (1999). The writers drew on hotel’s archives to chart their insightful history. O’Sullivan is also curator of Shelbourne’s new museum which is a repository of historical artifacts, letters, menus, and other items. These beautifully displayed and meticulously chosen objects are a delight to view. More importantly, they are valuable for their significance as a catalog of the sociological history of the hotel and indeed of Ireland.

* Originally published in July 2013 on Ireland of the Welcomes.

Growing up in a family pub in Athlone, Coyle’s was open 363 days a year, all apart from Christmas and Good Friday, but that didn’t stop “real drinkers” having a pint, or getting caught.

Good Friday, this year, will be a momentous occasion in Ireland- for pubs will be open.

When I was growing up my father owned a bar on the corner of Pearse Street and Connolly Street, in Athlone. This town is in the very center of Ireland, on the beautiful River Shannon. We lived above the pub.

Our bar was open 363 days of the year. It only closed on Christmas Day and Good Friday. Serious drinkers (of whom they were many) were determined to have their pints of Guinness on Good Fridays. They would try to coax publicans to let them into their premises. Most did.

We HATED Good Friday for it was the day that our pub was painted and cleaned properly. As my father had nine children – we had to do all this work.

My brother, Michael, remembers, “One Good Friday, Daddy, Patrick and I were painting the bar when three regular customers knocked on the side door, looking for drink. Daddy let them in - on the understanding that they would be quiet. Every 30 minutes one of us would go inside the counter to fill three pints of Guinness for the three boyos. After a while, and just after I had served them a refill, Catherine Barnes knocked on the side door to announce that the guards had just raided Gaffey’s pub next door. Daddy immediately bundled the three lads out, leaving three full pints of Guinness on the counter.

After about ten minutes, I was sent over to Catherine's little sweet shop, across the road, to get an update. She told me that the guards had gone back to the barracks, which was just across the road.

Read more: Holy Week brings back Good Friday memories of the traditions in Ireland

Meanwhile our three erstwhile customers were hiding in Catherine’s shop. One of them asked me if I could bring over the three pints. Naively I went over and asked Daddy if we could do this. He just burst out laughing at the notion of me carrying a tray of pints across Connolly Street, on a Good Friday, in full view of anyone looking out the front window of the guards’ barracks!”

My brother Patrick remembers the following, “My abiding memory of Good Friday is that I got the job of cleaning the ceiling in the bar before painting it. It was covered in a thick layer of brown tar - a material substance of some interest to pharmacology research. I’ve no doubt it could have been a precursor for chemical weapons.  Big men, of farming stock, stood shoulder to shoulder drinking large bottles of stout and chain smoked plain cigarettes (Sweet Afton, Gold Flake, Woodbines, Players and Craven A). We were under no illusions as to the origin of this elicit liquor – collateral smoke damage.  It was so thick and water insoluble that you’d need many cloths to work your way through the area above the main bar.”

Every Good Friday my sister Mary and I, had to clean the Venetian blinds on the windows in the lounge. The dirt was caked in and needed lots of boiling water to remove it. It was very hard work and we hated it. We swore we’d never ever have Venetians blinds in our houses when we grew up, and we never did!

Sheelagh remembers having to take every ornament, bottle and glass down from every shelf in the bar. She had to clean them all and they were filthy dirty. (Years later when her children asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she always replied, “Nothing I have to lift up and dust under!”) Now that bars will be open on Good Friday – when will family-owned public houses be cleaning and painting?

My father’s customers were what I considered to be ‘old’ men. They came in every day and sat for hours over their pints of Guinness. They weren’t the kind who thrived on drama or high emotions. Indeed a few of them spent their whole day between the bookies and the bar.  Some were what could be referred to as ‘married bachelors.

The guards raided many pubs every Good Friday and took the offenders to court. When the accounts of these court cases were published in the local paper the men would be referred to, ever after, as ‘Found Ons’.

 My brother remembers one such raid. The guards found a few people having a drink in a bar. The guard asked one of the men for his name and he replied 'Gene Autry'. The guard then asked the woman standing beside him for her name and she replied 'Mrs. Autry'. All of this made for amusing reading when these court case was reported in the press.

Read more: In Ireland, we grew up with a God of fear, not a God of love

The diary of JFK Jr. and Caroline Kennedy’s nanny, as well as letters sent by Caroline to the English-born nanny, are set for auction.

The diary of Maud Shaw, the White House nanny who cared for the children of JFK and Jackie Kennedy for seven years, is to be put up for auction, alongside letters sent by a young Caroline Kennedy to her nanny while she was overseas.

Malta-born Englishwoman Shaw began working for the Kennedys just days before Caroline was born in 1957, tasked with breaking the news of their father's death to the children in 1963.

Read more: Jackie Kennedy's private life revealed by her Irish-born assistant

According to Michael Powell, writing for The Washington Post in 1999, the nanny was asked to tell Caroline, then almost 6, and Jack Jr., aged 3, about their father’s death by their maternal grandmother.

“Your father has gone to look after Patrick,” she is believed to have said to JFK Jr., referring to their younger brother Patrick who had died at two days old just a few months before.

“Patrick was so lonely in heaven. He didn’t know anybody there. Now he has the best friend anybody could have.”

JFK’s young son is said to have asked Shaw if his father had taken his big plane with him, to which she answered, “Yes,” while the young boy still wondered when he would come back.

Writing herself of the experience of telling Caroline of John F. Kennedy’s death in her memoir “White House Nannie,” Shaw said, "I sat on the edge of [Caroline]’s bed [that night] and felt tears well up in my eyes. Caroline looked up at me.”

“‘What’s the matter, Miss Shaw? Why are you crying?’ I took her in my arms. ‘I can’t help crying, Caroline, because I have some very sad news.’”

“Then I told her. It was a dreadful time for us both. Eventually, she fell asleep while I sat on the bed, still patting her. At last, I tiptoed from the room, leaving the door open just a crack, as always.”

Having spent many years caring for children around the world, Shaw spent seven years with the Kennedy family until retiring and returning to England in 1965.

In the diary of her time in the White House, the English nanny noted developments in the two children, taking down their heights and changes in their personality, showing pride when a doctor tells Caroline has “above average intelligence.”

Read more: Poverty-stricken Irish emigrant reveals how she came to work for Jackie Kennedy

“I nursed the children from the cradle and came to love them just as if they had been my own,” Shaw wrote.

“Happily they repaid me with their own love and affection.”

This love and affection can easily be seen in the postcards and letters sent by Caroline Kennedy to her nanny which will also be up for auction with the diary.

“Thank you so much for The Finding Out Treasury. It is so good. I read about how Smallpox Vaccination was invented. It was very interesting. I didn’t have time to read anything else as I was busy opening presents. John loves his book too. Thank you again. I MISS YOU!” one letter written from Antigua in the West Indies states.

“I miss you. We are in Mexico now. It is beautiful!” reads another.

Read more: 55 years after his death, John F. Kennedy speaks from the grave

The Fine Autographs and Artifacts from RR Auction is currently underway and concludes on April 11, 2018.

Enjoy the Easter weekend celebrations full of good food, chocolate and loved ones including lots of silly jokes and giggled.

Happy Easter! We hope you're enjoying all the great food and chocolate today and that the Easter egg hunts are going well. While Christmas may be known for its Christmas cracker jokes, Easter has some great ones, too. Here are some of the best that are sure to keep your kids laughing today. 

1. What do you get if you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?

Hot cross bunnies!

2. How does the Easter Bunny stay fit?

EGG-xercise and HARE-robics!

3. What's the difference between a counterfeit dollar bill and a crazy rabbit?

One is bad money, the other is a mad bunny!

4. Why did the Easter egg hide?

He was a little chicken!

5. Knock knock

Who's there?
Esther
Esther who?
Esther Bunny!

Read more: Why Easter is such an important holiday to the Irish

6. Why shouldn’t you tell an Easter egg a joke?

It might crack up!

7. How did the Easter Bunny rate the Easter parade?

Eggscellent

8. What do you call a rabbit that tells good jokes?

A funny bunny!

9. What’s the best way to send a letter to the Easter Bunny?

Hare mail!

10. How does the Easter Bunny travel?

By hare plane!

Source: Activity Village.

* Originally published in 2013.

The key facts to help you understand the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland

Editor's note: Dermot McEvoy is the author of "The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising." This passage is taken from his latest book “Irish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ireland.” This chapter is entitled “Can’t tell the rebels without a scorecard?”

In Ireland there will always be a throwaway reference to some (failed) moment in Irish history: “Sure Pearse and the lads didn’t have a chance in the GPO, did they?”

You can admit your ignorance, nod your head with false sagacity, or know that “Pearse and the lads” in question were involved in the Easter Rising of 1916, where they were brutally crushed by the British forces.

So here are some historical figures and moments that every (or would-be) Irishman (or woman) should have in their rebel vocabulary:

The Patriots:

Theobald Wolfe Tone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet - this group of “modern” Irish revolutionaries were from the landed Protestant gentry and were members of the United Irishmen who fought the British with only pikes in the Uprising of 1798.

They were annihilated by British infantry at the Battle of Vinegar Hill in Wexford, a moment in Irish history eerily brought to life by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. In his haunting poem “Requiem for the Croppies” he recalls how the rebels of 1798—the “croppies” because of their short, cropped hair—moved swiftly in rebellion:

“The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley...

No kitchens on the run, no striking camp...

We moved quick and sudden in our own country.”

In defeat they were forgotten until their graves were marked when:

“…in August... the barley grew up out of our grave.”

The sacrifice of the United Irishmen was to inspire Irish patriots for nearly two hundred years:

Padraig Pearse -

The “President” of Irish Republic, the existence of which he declared on the steps of the General Post Office (GPO) on Easter Monday 1916. Under his command, the occupying rebels held out for nearly a week before surrendering. He was executed on May 3, 1916, by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol.

James Connolly -

Irish socialist labor leader, founder and commandant general of the Irish Citizen Army who was severely wounded in the leg in the GPO. His injuries were so severe that the British shot him in a chair at Kilmainham on May 12, 1916.

Thomas Clarke -

The cagey old Fenian and the real force behind the Easter Rising. His nurturing of such young rebels as Seán MacDiarmada, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Pearse would change the course of Irish history. Naturalized in Brooklyn while in exile, he was the only American citizen to be executed by the British, as a result of the skirmish, on May 3, 1916.

The Countess Markievicz –

Co-commander of St. Stephen’s Green in 1916 and the first woman to ever hold a cabinet ministry. Read more about Markievicz in Chapter 7, “Ferocious Fenian Women.”

Éamon de Valera -

The senior commandant of the Easter Rising who was not shot because of his natural born American citizenship. He would be for the next fifty years either Taoiseach (prime minister) or President of the Republic of Ireland. He died in 1973 at the age of 92.

Michael Collins -

The legendary IRA leader and the father of the modern Irish state. During de Valera’s absence in America during the War of Independence, he systematically created an intelligence network that targeted British agents and spies. On the morning of November 21, 1920, his personal assassination squad eliminated most of the British Secret Service in Dublin.

Just over twelve months later he signed the Treaty that created what is today the Republic of Ireland. He died in an ambush on August 22, 1922, at the age of 31.

Sir Roger Casement -

The last of the sixteen rebels executed for their participation in the Easter Rising. Casement’s job during the Rising was to land rifles in County Kerry, which turned into an outright disaster. Captured by the British he was brought to London to stand trial.

During the trial, his notorious “Black Diaries” were leaked to suppress calls for his exoneration by such notables as George Bernard Shaw and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The diaries—still controversial to this day—allegedly revealed Casement’s homosexual romps on two continents.

He was hanged by the British on August 3, 1916, in Pentonville Prison in London. W.B. Yeats wrote a poem about him with the haunting refrain: “The ghost of Roger Casement/Is beating on the door.”

Kevin Barry -

An 18-year-old medical student and IRA volunteer, he was captured in northside Dublin in an ambush that went awry in October 1920. Despite cries for mercy, he was hanged in Mountjoy Prison on November 1, 1920, All Saints Day. One of Ireland’s most popular rebel songs was written in his honor:

“Another martyr for old Ireland,

Another murder for the crown,

Whose brutal laws may kill the Irish,

But can't keep their spirit down.

Lads like Barry are no cowards.

From the foe they will not fly.

Lads like Barry will free Ireland,

For her sake they'll live and die.”

The 1916 Executions

The frenzy to execute the leaders of the Easter Rising began on May 3 and continued until May 12.

“I am going to ensure,” said General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, general officer commanding-in-chief of the British forces in Ireland, “that there will be no treason whispered for 100 years.” Ignorantly, he began the process that would drive Britain out of most of Ireland for the first time in 700 years.

W.B. Yeats in his poem, “Easter 1916” remembered the sacrifice of those who rose up and were executed for their efforts:

“I write it out in a verse—

MacDonagh and MacBride

And Connolly and Pearse

Now and in time to be,

Wherever green is worn,

Are changed, changed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.”

Besides the aforementioned Pearse, Clarke, Connolly and Casement, the honor roll of martyrs executed by the British in May 1916 include:

Thomas MacDonagh -

 Poet, author, school teacher, he was the commandant in charge of Jacobs Biscuit Factory, another skirmish location. He was a close friend and associate of Pádraig Pearse and taught at Pearse’s school, St. Enda’s in Rathfarnham. He was married to Muriel Gifford, Grace Gifford’s sister. Executed by firing squad, Kilmainham Gaol, May 3, 1916.

Joseph Mary Plunkett -

One of the most mysterious leaders, he served as the movement’s foreign minister, traveling to Germany trying to drum up support for the coming insurrection. At the time of the Rising, he was dying of tuberculosis of the neck glands. Michael Collins was his personal bodyguard and aide-de-camp.

Hours before his execution he married his fiancée, Grace Gifford, in the Catholic chapel at Kilmainham. Immediately after the wedding he was taken out and shot on the morning of May 4, 1916. (See more on Grace Gifford Plunkett in Chapter 7, “Ferocious Fenian Women.”)

Edward (Ned) Daly -

Commandant of the Four Courts. A member of the fiercely Fenian Daly family of Limerick. Brother of Kathleen Clarke and brother-in-law of Tom Clarke. Executed at Kilmainham, May 4, 1916.

Michael O’Hanrahan -

Vice commandant to Thomas McDonagh at Jacobs. Executed at Kilmainham on May 4, 1916.

William (Willie) Pearse -

The younger brother of Pádraig Pearse, which was the main reason he was executed. Although he held the rank of captain in the Irish Volunteers, he was not part of the senior leadership. He was a talented sculptor and his work can be viewed at the Pearse Museum in Rathfarnham, St. Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, and St. Stephen’s Green. Executed at Kilmainham on May 4, 1916

John (Seán) MacBride -

Was on his way to his brother’s wedding reception when he ran into the revolution and decided to take part, fighting at Jacobs. Husband of Maud Gonne and father of Seán MacBride, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974. His hatred of the British led him to go as far as South Africa to fight against them in the Boer War. Although he was a romantic rival for Maud Gonne with William Butler Yeats, Yeats remembered him in “Easter 1916” as “A drunken, vainglorious lout…Yet I number him in the song.”

Éamonn Ceannt -

Co-founder of the Irish Volunteers, he commanded the South Dublin Union during the Rising. Executed at Kilmainham on Mary 8, 1916.

Con Colbert -

Commanded the rebels at the Marrowbone Lane distillery, not far from the Guinness Brewery. Executed at Kilmainham on May 8, 1916.

Seán Heuston -

A railroad worker, Heuston commanded the Mendicity Institute on the Liffey, holding off the British for several days. The nearby Heuston Railroad Station, where Seán worked, is named in his honor. Executed at Kilmainham on May 8, 1916.

Michael Mallin - chief of staff of Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army, he commanded, along with the Countess Markievicz, St. Stephen’s Green and the College of Surgeons during the Rising. Executed at Kilmainham on May 8, 1916.

Thomas Kent - along with Roger Casement, he was the only rebel not to be executed at Kilmainham. Executed at Cork Detention Barracks on May 9, 1916.

Seán MacDiarmada (John McDermott) -

Next to Tom Clarke, he may have been the most influential man behind the Rising. He was a master organizer and people were drawn to the movement because of his charismatic character. A former Belfast barman, he was stricken with polio in 1912. Executed at Kilmainham on May 12, 1916.

Yeats remembered the executed rebels in his poem, “Sixteen Dead Men”:

“O but we talked at large before

The sixteen men were shot,

But who can talk of give and take,

What should be and what not

While those dead men are loitering there

To stir the boiling pot?”

The Events:

The War of Independence - the name given to the struggle for Irish independence during the years 1916-1921.

GPO -

The General Post Office, O’Connell Street, Dublin, where the Easter Uprising began on Monday, April 24, 1916. It is the most important building in Irish history and is still functioning as an active post office.

Kilmainham Gaol -

This 18th-century prison fortress is located on the south side of Dublin. In the weeks following the Easter Rising fourteen leaders were executed here by firing squad. There is a riveting, albeit disturbing, tour of the prison and the breaker’s yard where the rebels were executed and should be on every tourist’s must-do list.

Glasnevin Cemetery -

Located on the north side of Dublin minutes from the City Centre, this is the final resting place of many a famous Irishman from Parnell to Brendan Behan. It is, however, the place where most of Ireland’s revolutionaries are planted, including Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera. You can visit the grave of Sir Roger Casement and Kevin Barry and visit the appropriately named Republican Plot where the likes of Cathal Brugha, Harry Boland, John Devoy and Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa are interred. It was at Rossa’s grave in August 1915 that Patrick Pearse made his famous speech, proclaiming, “The fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead.”

IRB versus IRA - everyone knows what the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is, but many are confused about what the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was. The IRB was formed in 1859 in New York City by John O’Mahony and its members were known as “Fenians,” because they were followers of the ancient Celtic warrior, Finn. It was a highly secretive organization, dedicated to freeing Ireland from British rule by force. Many of its members participated in the Rising of ’67 and spent time in prison. (They also invaded Canada twice from the U.S.) In the 1880s another branch called “The Invincibles” terrorized the British both in Ireland and England. Almost all the hierarchy of the Easter Rising were members of the IRB and its last head was Michael Collins. It effectively died with Collins in 1922.

Bloody Sunday -

There are three “Bloody Sundays” in modern Irish history. The first one occurred in 1913 when police charged striking workers in O’Connell Street; the second in 1920 when Michael Collins’s agents assassinated fourteen agents of the British Secret Service in Dublin and the British retaliated by firing into the crowd at a football match in Croke Park, killing another fourteen; the last occurred in 1972 when the British army, unprovoked, murdered fourteen civil rights protesters in Derry.

The Treaty -

The Treaty is the name given to the piece of paper Michael Collins signed on December 6, 1921, creating the Irish Free State, which eventually evolved into the Republic of Ireland in 1949.

Civil War - the conflict between pro- (Collins) and anti- (de Valera) Treaty forces in 1922-23. It left scars that have only disappeared in the last few years.

Béal na mBláth -

The area of County Cork where Michael Collins was gunned down. In Irish, it means “the mouth or the gap of the flowers.” Brendan Behan’s mother, Kathleen, always called Collins her “laughing boy” and Behan wrote his most famous poem, “The Laughing Boy,” about Collins’s death:

“It was on an August morning, all in the morning hours,

I went to take the warming air all in the month of flowers,

And there I saw a maiden and heard her mournful cry,

Oh, what will mend my broken heart, I've lost my Laughing Boy.”

The Twelve Apostles - the nickname given to Michael Collins’s personal assassination Squad, famous for shooting most of the British Secret Service in Dublin on Bloody Sunday 1920. Members included:

Vinny Byrne, who started out in Jacob’s Biscuit Factory in 1916 at the age of 15 and by 1922 was a commandant-colonel in the Free State Army. Vinny was an extremely active member of the Squad and responsible for the slayings on Bloody Sunday at 38 Upper Mount Street. In old age he described for a joint BBC/RTE history of Ireland what happened that day: “I put the two of them up against the wall. May the Lord have mercy on your souls. I plugged the two of them.”

Mick O’Donnell and Paddy Daly were two of the leaders of the Squad. Daly, from Parnell Street, went on to be a general under Michael Collins during the Irish Civil War.

Charlie Dalton wrote a wonderful reminiscence of the War of Independence called With the Dublin Brigade, in which he describes the utter terror he experienced on Bloody Sunday.

The scope of the Bloody Sunday operation was so huge that the members of the Squad could not handle it by themselves. So members of the Dublin brigade were brought in to supplement them. One of these members was Seán Lemass, who shot British agents in Baggot Street. Lemass went on to serve in de Valera’s cabinet and was responsible for the establishment of both Aer Lingus and Ardmore Studios before he became Taoiseach in 1959. He was the first Taoiseach to travel to the North, trying to find common ground between the two governments of Ireland. He has, perhaps, the greatest quote about his short time in the Squad: “Firing squads don’t have reunions!”

--

Dermot McEvoy was born in Dublin in 1950 and immigrated to New York City four years later. He is a graduate of Hunter College and has worked in the publishing industry for his whole career. He is the author of "The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising," "Terrible Angel," "Our Lady of Greenwich Village," and "The Little Green Book of Irish Wisdom." He lives in Greenwich Village, New York.

It is 64 years since Great Blasket Island, off the coast of Kerry, was evacuated. Born in 1920, Mike Carney was the oldest living islander. He left in 1937 to seek a better life in Dublin and joined millions who emigrated to America. He died at age 94 in 2015. Here he describes the event that “broke the will” of the islanders.

My younger brother Seán died on 9 January 1947, at age of just twenty-four. His death signaled the end for the island. Seán got sick just before Christmas in 1946. There was very bad weather on the island with gale-force winds and high waves. He was sick for only a couple of weeks. I got a note in Dublin from my sister Cáit that Seán had flu. But, in reality, he had something much more serious: meningitis.

The weather worsened and they could not get him to the mainland to see the doctor, and the doctor could not get to the island to see him. The battery-operated telephone provided by the government was not working at the time – again. It had been out for about a week. Seán had a really bad headache. He thought his head would blow off! Cáit put a heated sack of flour on his head to try to ward off his temperature, but it did no good. He started to vomit too.

After being sick for over two weeks, Seán’s condition got worse. Then one day, Cáit found him dead in bed in our house. Since there was no priest, she whispered an Act of Contrition in his ear in case he was still alive. Then she had to tell my father. It was devastating.

Read more: Live the Irish dream: Property on Ireland’s stunning Great Blasket Island for auction

When I arrived home, Seán’s body was still in our house on the island, poor man. He could not be buried in a small graveyard on the island because it was not blessed. And there was no coffin on the island anyway. We needed to get his body to the mainland. Three young, strong and brave islanders fought fierce ocean to go and fetch a coffin from the mainland. They were the best boatman on the island at the time. The conditions were such that they could easily have drowned. Their great courage was very much appreciated by my family.

After landing in Dunquin, they got a coffin from Dingle but they could not get it back across to the island. The water was just too rough and weight of coffin made navigating a naomhóg back to island too much of a risk. We had to take the coffin from Dunquin to Dingle so it could be brought to the island by lifeboat. When we got to the island, poor Seán, I couldn’t look at him. He was lying dead on the bed in my father’s bedroom. Everybody was crying. We put Seán in the coffin and nailed lid shut. There was no wake; there was no time. The lifeboat was waiting.

We then went back to Dingle on the lifeboat with Seán’s body in the coffin. The waves were still high and it was a very rough ride, and my father came with us, poor man. It was a heartbreaking thing.

When we got to Dingle, medical people said they had to determine the cause of death. My father told them to write down that government killed him. He was very angry and so was I. We felt that government should have installed a better radio system or provided a motorboat – anything to improve the safety of people living on the island. This was just kind of situation we warned could happen.

The funeral and burial were held very next day, four days after Seán died. I was a pallbearer. Seán was buried next to our mother in old cemetery next to the church. It was all so sad.Our family doctor, Dr. Patrick Scully was there but, of course, there was nothing he could do. Dr. Eilís O’Sullivan, Kerry County Medical Officer at the time, had to examine the body and make a finding on the cause of death. It took a couple of hours but her finding was that Seán died from meningitis. Then we had to take body another 12 miles back to Dunquin where Seán was to be buried. We left the coffin in St Gobnet’s Church overnight and that evening we said the rosary for him.

The time had come to tell my father about my emigration plans. I knew that it would mean even more sorrow for him, but I really could not put it off anymore. The time to depart for America was getting close.  America was open for immigration and jobs there were plentiful. In them days, you could leave one job and start another next day. So it all came together, circumstances and opportunity.

Read more: When the Blasket Islanders were evacuated to mainland in 1953

After Seán’s burial, we took a taxi to my aunt Joan Shea’s house over in Coumeenole. During journey by taxi, I told my father that I had written to my Uncle Tom about emigrating to America. I said that I wanted to give my brothers and sisters chance to go to America too. I think my father had seen it coming. He said, ‘Mike, I don’t blame you. You do whatever you think is right. And, whatever you say and whatever you do, make sure you do it right.’ I suppose it was his standard farewell advice. He was highly intelligent in how to lead you and encourage you to do the right thing.

I was exhausted from the whole terrible ordeal. I stayed in Dingle that night and went back to Dublin following day. I slept soundly all way back on the train. My father stayed in Coumeenole with Sheas for a couple of days and waited for the weather to calm down; then it was back to island for him.

That was the toughest winter they remembered having on the island. And my brother’s death was the toughest thing that had happened on the island for as far back as people remembered. It all seemed so senseless. The islanders came to the conclusion that it was no place for them to live. Essentially, Seán’s death and circumstances broke the will of islanders to continue living on the island. It was time to move on.

Families were very close back then and took care of their own. People were dedicated to their families; it was a commitment within them. My last two brothers to leave island were Martin and Tom. Martin had spent time in England, but came home for a time to help out. He then emigrated to America at age of twenty-one. A short while later, Tom, who had stayed on the island to help my father tend his sheep, also emigrated to America.

At about that time, Cáit then asked my father to move to her house in Muiríoch. My father really had no choice since he was in his late sixties and was too old to function alone on the island. He reluctantly agreed and moved in with Cáit. It was crowded in Cáit’s small house since she eventually had five children of her own. So my father built a one-room addition for himself. He had sold his flock of sheep and invested some of the money in a new addition.

In end, my father wasn’t sorry to leave island either. He was glad to put his feet on the ground. He just packed up everything, left family home and moved to the mainland. He was the last member of our family to leave the island. The evacuation was still months away. For sentimental reasons, he would visit the island for a month or so during summer with Cáit’s husband and their son Seán.

An extract from From Great Blasket to America, The Last Memoir of an Islander by Michael Carney and Gerald Hayes. It is available for sale on www.collinspress.ie

* Originally published in July 2013 in Ireland of the Welcomes.

For Sale: An Irish tavern in Scariff, Co. Clare, full of childhood memories, Irish history, and echoes of traditional Irish music royalty.  

The Green Fields of France, Danny Boy, The Fields of Athenry and Spancil Hill – these are just some of the songs which made up the soundtrack to my childhood.

Sure, everyone has heard these ballads, whether in Carnegie Hall or McSorley’s Old Ale House, but I was fortunate enough to hear them live in my own home for the best part of my early years.

I grew up in The Merriman Tavern, Scariff, Co Clare, Ireland; a centuries-old stone building so steeped in history that it pains me to see it going up for sale.

Originally a grain mill, in the mid 1900’s my grandfather Sean O’Beirne (who ran a grocery shop next door with my grandmother Kay) had the initiative, to turn the beautiful structure into the first secondary school in the region.

Then President Eamon De Valera (who was born in New York in 1882) made his first speech in the area from what would become my parent’s bedroom window, as when the school was relocated, my father, Aidan O’Beirne (together with my mother Sile) transformed the premises again – the upstairs into a large, quirky and antique-filled home and the ground floor into one of the most important music venues of its time.

Decades ahead of the posse, my Dad used his hands to create the unique interior and his love of traditional music to find some of the most talented voices and musicians in the country. So consequently, throughout my childhood I thought nothing of watching the Chieftains, Christy Moore, or Clannad warming up for a gig, drawing pictures for Enya, giggling with Brendan Grace as he arrived dressed as his alter-ego, Bottler or singing along with Dubliners or the Fureys (who played their first ever gig at the Tavern).

Read More: Irish musician Finbar Furey - always the heart

Most weekends were spent watching the performances from a secret vantage point overhead and the following day, helping my mother serve her famous fry-ups to the band members who usually stayed overnight.

Anyone who was anyone in the Irish music business began or enriched their early careers in my father’s bar, but sadly as they became more famous and commanded bigger audiences, fewer wanted to travel to our little town in Clare and so in the early 90’s my parents shut up shop and moved to London.

Read more: US woman swaps life in sunny San Diego for dream cosy cottage in Donegal

A decade later, my parents returned as my Dad had dreams of restoring the Tavern to its former glory but the scene wasn’t the same, so they transformed the building again - this time into a restaurant. However, without the music, my father’s heart wasn’t really in it and he struggled to find the enthusiasm to keep it going.

Then tragically, just before his 69th birthday in 2015, my Dad suddenly passed away – leaving us bereft and shocked as we tried to come to terms with our loss.

The Merriman Tavern will always be connected with my father and while my mother doesn’t have the heart or the will to carry on the business, my siblings and I have our own lives to lead and quite frankly, couldn’t even begin to fill my father’s shoes, so it is with heavy hearts that we admit that the property must be sold.

But deep down we know it’s ripe for someone else to take up the reins and reinvent it once again – as a music venue, restaurant or even a teenage hang-out – the options are endless, particularly as a new holiday village has opened up close by with the potential of a wider customer base.

Read More: American family saves their ancestors' pub in Ireland

The property, including my grandparent’s house (which my parents ran as a guest house) and former grocery store (which is currently being run as a fast-food restaurant and has a sitting tenant) will be sold, either separately or as a package.

Putting any family home on the market is a wrench, but saying goodbye to this one, which is so full of memories, is going to be very tough.

But it has to be done and the sooner we roll up our sleeves and get on with it, the sooner someone else will be able to give it a new lease of life.

For more information contact arlene@arleneharris.org

It takes less than a minute to recite the names of the forty children killed in the six-day Easter Rising - but this is the first time in one hundred years that it has been possible to do so.

Hard to believe that in Dublin city center as we know it now - between the North Circular and South Circular roads - from Heuston station to the Custom house, 500 people lost their lives in that seminal week in our history a century ago.

Even today there is still not a full - and accurate list of all those who died In the historic foundation of our state.

The majority of casualties were civilians - not surprising given that over 20,000 rifle carrying combatants battled it out in the warren of streets, lanes, alleyways of a busting city center - where over 75% of the population of Dublin lived at the time.

Where the ILAC [shopping mall, in Dublin’s northside city center] stands now , in 1916 there were nearly 20 narrow, teeming streets , a bustling , smelly bazaar of abattoirs, pubs, second-hand clothes shops, third-hand furniture stores, vegetable stalls, bakeries, and butchers .

Hardly surprising also that children who owned the streets of Dublin as their playground -that the wide open welcoming spaces were a liberation from the cramped one roomed conditions many of them lived in with their large families.

School was out that Easter week, so were the rebels, British soldiers and the bemused population of a dull grey and poor city.

Out the children poured on that glorious Easter Monday morning as 300 rebels marched from Liberty hall, proudly past Wynn’s hotel , right turn into Sackville street (even then many people called it O'Connell street) where, as the Angelus bell peeled from the nearby Pro-Cathedral, it signaled the start of the revolution . The most exciting day in Dublin in a lifetime.

As Connolly said to Pearse as they headed to the front door of the GPO - "did we ever think we'd live to see this day ?”

But the sound of breaking glass, shouts , screams, roars, and confusion was a magnet to the children, by weeks end six of them would lie dead within 500 yards of the GPO - 34 of them within a few miles.

Within two hours the iron clattering sound of galloping horses hooves on cobblestones echoed as the British Lancers, from the Linenhall barracks in nearby Bolton street, charged headlong towards the GPO followed closely by barefooted waifs as they skittered, tore, and careered with their steel wheeled homemade boxcars towards the excitement.

Sparks flew from their boxcars as they belted towards the excitement - after all a few scraps of wood, paper, coal, or stale bread was a daily treasure trove for poverty stricken families.

Imagine the excitement as the confusion and fighting was breached by the crashing collapse of the front window of Nobletts sweet shop, in North Earl street - suddenly a lifetime of longing for an Easter egg - or even the taste of sweet chocolate was within reach. And in they poured for the sole gorge of their lives - grabbing bonbons, jellies, liquorice and even the " hammer '' used to break up the shiny slabs of Cleeves creamy toffee, as the bewildered shopkeeper could only look on in shock.

I have no doubt that some of the children shot and killed that week fell with the first sweet taste of chocolate in their young mouths.

Nor were all the children from the tenements of Dublin, at least ten of the forty who died violently were from well off background. The family of William Lionel Sweny, in Lincoln Place, no doubt used their valuable and rare telephone - Dublin 1199 - to search for their missing 14-year-old, to no avail.

From nearby North Cumberland John Kirwan went missing on Easter Monday. His distraught mother Annie pleaded on the front page of the Evening Herald nearly a month later on May 20 under the heading “this boy is lost” for information about her 15-year-old son last seen on Easter Monday afternoon, 100 yards from the GPO. He had laid, unrecognizable on a mortuary slab in Jervis street Hospital for a month. His mother only identifying him by the lucky coin in his pocket he had got for his confirmation.

Each child has a story, a family an unfulfilled life - they deserve to be remembered. They are part of our history. One of the surprising results of the project to name, reclaim and remember the children I have been engaged in for the past three years is being able to bring together relatives of the same child, who had never met before .

The project is ongoing, but it is driven by the poetic words of songwriter Declan O'Rouke who has proclaimed in his moving song on the children – “Nor Pearse, nor Clarke, MacDonagh, or the Connolly we knew, would rest were they remembered on a pedestal alone. Are they not the fathers of our nation proud and free? And our sister and our brothers then, the Children of '16.”

* Children of the Rising: The untold story of the young lives lost during Easter 1916 by Joe Duffy is published by Hachette Ireland and is available from online retailers and as an ebook.

* Originally published in February 2016.

"Backlash" politics began 50 years ago, with Robert Kennedy and the death of Martin Luther King Jr... We are still dealing with it today.

Fifty years ago, on the day before St. Patrick’s Day, Robert F. Kennedy announced that he was running for the presidency of the United States.

“I do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies,” said Kennedy, who four years earlier had been elected U.S. senator from New York.

Kennedy made his presidential announcement in the same room in the Senate building where his brother, Jack, had announced his own run for the White House in 1960.

“I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can.”

In less than a month, on April 4, 1968, Bobby Kennedy made another speech, this one in Indianapolis, revealing to a shocked crowd that Martin Luther King had been assassinated in Memphis.  For a brief period it seemed Bobby was the only one who could bring a deeply divided America together.

“He connected black struggle with the struggle of Irish Americans,” The New Republic noted recently, “suggesting that if America could elect an Irish Catholic president, it would elect a black president within 40 years.”

By June, of course, Bobby himself would be dead.

And so began one of the most tumultuous eras in American history, one which we mark the 50th anniversary of this year. Anytime we feel the current political and social climate is positively insane, we would be wise to recall the events of 1968.

Assassinations, riots, war, protests.

In American Pastoral, his beautiful, chaotic novel about how these events tore apart the seemingly perfect marriage of an Irish American beauty queen and a Jewish American striver, Philip Roth refers to 1968 as the high-water mark of “the indigenous America berserk.”

And Irish Americans -- from Bobby Kennedy to blue collar workers - -were central players.

On the national stage, two Irish Americans -- Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy -- began the year as political outsiders, challenging the Vietnam War policy of President Lyndon Johnson, who would eventually shock the world by not even running for re-election.

But out in the working class ethnic neighborhoods of New York and Boston and Chicago an anger was bubbling.

Consider a small moment from Chris Mathews' recent book Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.

Kennedy was campaigning in Manhattan. “From above," Mathews writes, “a construction worker yelled down at him from the girder of a new building: ‘Hey, Bobby, don’t forget about the Irish and the Italians.’”

There was a feeling among many Irish Americans that they and their immigrant ancestors had played by the rules, had bought into the whole idea of the American Dream. And yet, it seemed the press and politicians were only paying attention to the rule-breakers out there, the hippies and the protesters.

Even criminals and rioters, it seemed, were being treated sympathetically, because some argued they had been driven to a life of crime by poverty and other factors.

This came to be known as “backlash” politics.  It was ugly and, in some ways, it convinced generations of Irish Americans to forget how their own ancestors had been vilified as violent troublemakers.

Just five months after Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, it was Richard Nixon who skillfully figured out how to tap into this anger, and move into the White House.

The real shocking outsider was rabble-rouser George Wallace, who won big not only in the former confederate South, but did surprisingly well in the ethnic North.

“Urban Catholic precincts also gave Wallace fair support in northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut and Boston,” Kevin Phillips noted in his book The Emerging Republican Majority.

It began 50 years ago. We are still dealing with it today.

(Tom Deignan is a contributing writer for the new book Nine Irish Lives: The Fighters, Thinkers, and Artists Who Helped Build America (Algonquin). Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com.)

Easter is a major holiday in Ireland, second only to Christmas, for a host of reasons, some of which are religious and some historical.

Socially, it's a high-water mark of the year, arriving just as the spring is really being felt throughout the Irish countryside and summer fashions start to make a first tentative appearance.

Religiously, of course, it's a time of solemn reflection and renewal, and even the least religious Irish person will acknowledge that the story of Christ's death and resurrection still holds an enduring power that speaks strongly to the Irish experience, whether you're a believer or not.

Read More: Celebrating a traditional Irish Easter - blessings, greetings, recipes

It's because the theme of renewal after deprivation or great suffering is a story the Irish understand in their bones. It was by no accident that the rebel leader Patrick Pearse chose Easter as the ideal time to declare the Irish Republic. After centuries of British oppression, Pearse wanted the nation to experience the promised renewal of Easter in a way that paralleled the resurrection.

At first the Irish scoffed at Pearse's presumption, then they took up his flag and fought for his vision.

So Easter in Ireland is both a secular and religious holiday, celebrating the foundational promise of Christianity and the birth of Irish independence, and inextricably binding the two together, in ways that most often illuminate each other.

Read More: The unfathomable mystery of Easter Rising hero Padraig Pearse

Nowadays Irish many people still follow the centuries-old practice of ambitious spring cleaning attempts around the Easter holidays, a gesture that's as powerfully symbolic as it is practical.

In the countryside, wall's get whitewashed and halls get swept clean, and the first flowers of spring are placed in vases. After the deprivations of Lent, when Catholics fast and forgo, the dreamed of Easter Sunday feast often has a festival atmosphere, with relatives visiting and elaborate meals being prepared in the kitchen.

Irish children especially love Easter for the selection of chocolate Easter Eggs - a reward for giving up candy for Lent - that go on sale nationwide.

It's the first major indulgence since Christmas and a nice prelude to your First Holy Communion, if you're making it in the same year.

Ireland is not a Mediterranean country but there's a kind of spiritual quickening that arrives around Easter Sunday that would be familiar to anyone who has grown up in warmer climates.

Windows are opened, table cloths set, wine flows freely and bread is baked. All that renewal after the scarcity of winter is a signal to the world (and oneself) that winter has ended.

Read More: Holy week brings back memories of Easter traditions in Ireland long ago

There are few countries in the world who understand the occasional need for a new beginning like Ireland. If you've never experienced Easter there, we strongly recommend it.

Few places shrug off the winter doldrums as completely as Ireland does, or hang out the Easter flags with as much pride and optimism. After a quick visit, we promise you'll feel as dramatically renewed yourself.

* Originally published in 2013.

From American citizenship of one of the signatories of the Irish proclamation for Independence to the old-fashioned different time zones in the United Kingdom. Surprising facts about the Easter Rising you may not know.

Thomas Clarke

1. Five of the seven signatories of the Irish proclamation had visited America, but only one was an American citizen. Thomas Clarke had lived in America for years before returning to Ireland. His American citizenship did not save him from execution.

Original proclamations of Easter 1916

2. There are 30 original copies of the Proclamation of Easter 1916. One sold for $1 million in 2006. In New York, the American Irish Historical Society houses one. The Proclamation was published in two parts and contained different point sizes as the printer did not have enough fonts.

Who decided would be executed on 1916

3. General John Maxwell, supreme commander in Dublin, decided who would be executed.

On May 2 secret military courts sentenced Patrick Pearse, Thomas Clarke, and Thomas MacDonagh to death. Thirteen more would follow. British Prime Minister Asquith warned Maxwell the killings could rebound on the British, but Maxwell ignored him. One woman was sentenced to death, Countess Markievicz, but her sentence was never carried out. Roger Casement was hanged in August 1916 in London, the last to be killed.

A young Michael Collins

4. Michael Collins was in the GPO but played a smaller role than might have been expected. Just 26, he was an aide to Joseph Mary Plunkett, who was dying of consumption at the time. Collins at first thought the Rising was a failure, but when he returned from internment in Wales he realized he was wrong as a new spirit of solidarity with the Easter Rising was spreading.

A Swede and a Finn at the GPO

5. A Swede and a Finn fought with the Irish in the GPO. They were crewmen on a foreign ship and felt solidarity with the Irish.

A 1916 participant who remembered the men stated he saw the two trying to enter the GPO. “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."

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

A Hollywood star

6. Famed Hollywood actor fought for British.

Did you know that one of the British officers who took the surrender of Padraig Pearse went on to become a famous Hollywood actor, who numbered among his five wives the even more famous Hedy Lamarr?

Major John Lowe is present in one of the most famous and commonly reproduced photographs taken during the Rising – the moment of Pearse’s surrender as captured on Saturday, April 29. The picture shows the Commander of Dublin Forces in Ireland, Brig Gen WHM Lowe, (Maj Lowe’s father) facing a clearly un-humbled Pearse, who is offering his surrender. On Pearse’s right is Elizabeth O’Farrell (a nurse with Cumann na mBan), who carried the subsequent surrender dispatches to rebel commandants. On the left of the photo, to Brig Gen Lowe’s right, is his aide-de-camp and son, Major John Lowe.

Pearse subsequently surrendered unconditionally, and Major Lowe escorted him to Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). John Lowe’s army service didn’t end in Ireland; he served in Gallipoli, Egypt, and the Somme before being taken prisoner by the Germans in 1918. When the war ended, Lowe tried his hand at acting in the German film industry – thereby starting down a career path which would eventually lead him to change his name in order to keep his acting career quiet from his disapproving father. So John Lowe became John Loder, eventually moving to Hollywood, CA where he gained fame in movies, on stage and TV.

The world's first-ever radio broadcast

7. The rebels were responsible for the world’s first-ever radio broadcast.

In 1916 wireless communication was in its infancy and, in general, signals were targeted to particular receiving stations. The idea that a signal might be just broadcast into the atmosphere in the hopes that someone might pick it up was a fairly radical one. On Easter Monday, however, rebel leader Joseph Mary Plunkett sent seven men from the GPO across O’Connell Street to occupy the Dublin Wireless School of Telegraphy. The school had been shut down and sealed by the authorities at the start of the war, and the equipment was dismantled. By Tuesday morning, however, the rebels managed to get a damaged transmitter working, and they began to send out messages in Morse code:

“Irish Republic declared in Dublin today. Irish troops have captured city and are in full possession. Enemy cannot move in city. The whole country rising.”

From then until the building had to be abandoned under machine-gun and sniper fire the next day, the message was broadcast at regular intervals. This is widely accepted as being the world’s first radio broadcast and, although it was indeed intercepted by several receivers, the rebels never knew if their message was being picked up because they couldn’t get any receiving equipment to work.

Read more: A guide to the historical figures and moments of the 1916 Easter Rising

Dublin v London 1916 time zones

8. Dublin and London were in different time zones in 1916?

From 1880 until 1916, Ireland and Britain maintained different time zones – Britain, of course, followed Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but Ireland followed Dublin Mean Time (DMT), which was precisely 25 minutes behind GMT. The Statute's (Definition of Time) Act, 1880, which legally defined the difference between GMT and DMT, was superseded by the Time (Ireland) Act, 1916, which was “An Act to assimilate the time adopted for use in Ireland to that adopted for use in Great Britain.” In other words, DMT was abolished. This change came into effect on October 1, 1916. However, the Rising began four months earlier on April 24, at approximately 12 o’clock – Dublin Mean Time. Therefore, when modern commemorations of 1916 begin at midday outside the GPO, they’re actually 25 minutes early.

First shot fired in County Laois

9. The first shot fired in the Easter Rising was actually in County Laois.

Did you know that the first shot of the rebellion was fired in Laois? Unsurprisingly, the first shot of the Rising has more than one claimant. One claim that has many supporters is that the first shots came from the Volunteers of Laois, who destroyed a section of railway track at a place called Colt Wood on the night of April 23 – the day before the Rising began in Dublin.

A monument to the event was erected near Colt Wood in 1996, in an area called Clonadadoran on the N8 highway between Portlaoise and Abbeyleix. The monument bears three plaques: a copy of the Proclamation; a picture of a derailed train; and a dedication which names the Volunteers and reads: “On Easter Sunday night, 23rd April, 1916, acting under the direct orders of Patrick Pearse, the Laois Volunteers participated in the demolition of a section of the Abbeyleix-Portlaoise railway line at a location near here.

The purpose of this exercise was to prevent British military reinforcements from reaching Dublin via Waterford after the Rising had started. This demolition was followed by the firing of the first shot of the 1916 Rising.”

Other activities engaged in by the Laois Volunteers included an attempted similar demolition of the Carlow-Kildare railway line and a raid on the Wolfhill Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks.

Thomas Clarke's name amiss? 

10. Why did Thomas Clarke's name appear first on the proclamation?

It remains one of the biggest mysteries around the Proclamation as it seemed to indicate he was of higher rank than Pearse. It has never been answered satisfactorily.

* Facts six to nine are excerpted from "Things You Did Not Know About Easter 1916" by Mick O'Farrell. To purchase this excellent book, go here.

Read more: 50 facts about the Easter Rising (PHOTOS)

* Originally published in May 2016.

As the 1916 Rising kicked off in Dublin on April 24 my grandfather and many British military officers were enjoying the horse races in Fairyhouse.

Fairyhouse, County Meath: Back on April 24 1916 the British establishment showed up here on Easter Monday for the horse racing highlight of the year in Ireland, the Irish Grand National.

Like most Irish events of the time, it was a pale version of the British Grand National horse race, the greatest race on the racing calendar.

Contemporary accounts reflect a grand old time, the British military officers in particular, on break from the First World War, were in fine humor enjoying the spectacle of the day.

It was a day known for the height of fashion as the Dublin ladies tried to catch the eye of the dashing military officers. The weather that long ago day was spring-like.

Read more: Ten little-known facts about Easter Monday 1916 and the Rising

History records that All Sorts won the big race, trained by Richard Cleary, but the names would soon be forgotten.

Looking around Fairyhouse on Easter Monday 2013 it is hard to imagine that the place has changed that much. Sure there are modern buildings now but the layout of the racecourse which lies among windswept hills some 20 miles or so from Dublin is still the same. To the south are the Dublin Mountains, covered in snow this week after Ireland’s cold spell. To the north and south and east are the rolling hills and lush green fields of Meath.

The track itself is a natural amphitheater but very exposed to the elements. The whipping wind on Monday last kept many spectators quartered inside.

Also at the track, that day in 1916 was Joseph Devins, a shopkeeper, my then 33-year-old maternal grandfather who had traveled up from Clare for the day on what must have been an unusual day out for him.

At around 11 am that day in the center of Dublin, 1,200 men, far fewer than expected because of a countermanding order wrongly sent, showed up in front of the GPO, made a left turn and changed the course of Irish history. A man called Patrick Pearse read a proclamation. A revolution began.

Read more: 40 children died in the Rising some with the taste of chocolate in their mouths

Out at Fairyhouse mounted messengers soon arrived hotfoot with the startling news that an uprising was underway.

There was consternation at the track. All public transportation was suspended as the military commandeered all forms of transport. My grandfather was unable to find any way to get to the station to catch his train home.

Back home in Ennis, County Clare, my grandmother, Jane Devins, soon began fretting as the shock news of an uprising reached them.

It is family lore that it took Joseph a full week, walking all the way, to get back to Clare and safety and that my grandmother fainted when he walked in the door as she had given him all up for dead.

He had survived. I thought of him on Monday and what it must have been like at Fairyhouse on that day in 1916. In 2013 a gallant mare, a 50/1 outsider called Liberty Counsel, shocked the punters and won the race. I liked that she had the name of liberty — somehow it fit the mood and the events of that famous day long ago.

Read more: A terrible beauty, terrifically told - reflections on the 1916 Proclamation

* Originally published in 2013.

Do you know how Hollywood, California, got its name? Its start has its beginning right back in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. 

The Wicklow Gap is one of only two passes through the spectacular Wicklow mountains and, nestled in heart of it, is a lovely little village called Hollywood.

There are two theories on how it got its name. One theory points to the lush holly trees widespread in the area. Another suggests it was originally Holy Wood after St Kevin passed through in the 6th century on his way to found the monastic city in nearby Glendalough.

Evidence suggests the area has been settled since 1192. Today, with a population of about 100, it’s a quiet spot but not without a touch of glamour.

Hollywood, County Wicklow, is near one of Ireland’s prime locations for filmmaking and the village has played host to a number of film stars. For example, during the making of Neil Jordan’s film "Michael Collins" (1995), Liam Neeson became a familiar figure in the village.

Read more: How an Irish priest transported his parish from County Wexford to Wexford, Iowa

Neeson, who played Collins, was in awe of the place. Although most of the film was shot in Dublin, the famous scene at Béal na mBláth, where Collins was murdered in an ambush on August 22, 1922, was filmed in Corrigan’s Glen which is located just a few hundred yards from the village.

American screen idol Meryl Streep was also enthralled by the charm of the village. The actress visited when she was starring in "Dancing at Lughnasa" (1998).

Read more: How many places named Belfast are there in the US?

How did Hollywood, California, get its name? 

But by far the biggest connection Hollywood, County Wicklow, has to the film industry is that local legend holds that it was a Mathew Guirke from the village who founded the other, slightly better-known, Hollywood in California.

Mathew Guirke’s great nephew Jim Guirke was, until his death a few years ago, a postmaster and shopkeeper in the village. With his help, local history buffs have traced the story of the Wicklow blacksmith who founded Hollywood, California.

Mathew Guirke was born in Hollywood, Wicklow, in 1826. His parents John and Anne Guirke rented a house in Knockroe in the village, as well as lands in the nearby areas of Rathattin and Dragoonhill. Mathew was one of six children.

The Guirkes, like many Irish farming families at the time, would have struggled to make a living. And when the Great Famine struck in 1847, they began to wonder if there was a better life for them somewhere else.

By 1850, they had made their decision and saved enough money to pay passage for the entire family onboard a vessel named "Ellen" bound for New York. Mathew was 24 at the time.

Once in America, Mathew set out on an odyssey that took him around that vast country. He started out in March, a year after he arrived, traveling to Charleston in South Carolina where he placed a notice in Boston Globe, seeking information on his uncle Timothy Guirke, a blacksmith also from Hollywood, County Wicklow.

Mathew trained as a blacksmith, but he would soon learn many more skills. At various times his occupation is listed as horse-breeder, horseman, and real estate agent. Records of next decade or so of Mathew’s life are scant, but at some point, he traveled from Charleston to California. He established himself in an area near Los Angeles where he built a cabin.

We can assume he was doing well for himself because he also bought a small race track and started a small community.

Clearly, Mathew never forgot tiny village he came from; he named his new homestead Hollywood.

Mathew’s travels didn’t end, however. In 1865, there are records of him in the Californian town of Sonora. From there he went to Virginia City in Nevada and then onto Helena in the newly formed territory of Montana.

He headed south-west through the town of Bozeman and continued to an area that is at present part of Yellowstone National Park. Mathew started a business there.

In August 1871, at a remote site near where Boiling River empties into Gardiner River, he opened McGuirke’s Medicinal Springs which he was later forced to close because it fell within boundaries of newly established Yellowstone National Park.

Eventually, Mathew was awarded $1,000 by US government as compensation for loss of his enterprise.

By now though, years of hard labor and exhaustive travels in rough terrain had taken their toll and his health was declining. Mathew Guirke died of chronic bronchitis on October 13, 1901, at age of 75. He is buried Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the hamlet he founded in California was growing. In 1903 it became a municipality and later merged with the city of Los Angeles. In 1911, attracted by the quality of light in California, various film moguls moved their studios to the area. And rest, as they say, is history.

Want to read more about the link between Irish place names and American place names?  IrishCentral has plenty of stories on the history between them here.