John A Costello This weekend marks the 76th anniversary of the declaration of the Irish Republic on Easter Monday. All of this of course had come about by the intervention of John A Costello. When he died in 1976 this momentous moment in Irish history was widely recalled. The Irish Press newspaper reported: John A. Costello lived one of the fullest political lives of this century. While a student he shared in the hopes a...

Margaret Skinnider and the fight for Irish Freedom In the fight for Irish independence women played a prominent role from the 1916 rising through to the War of Independence (1919-21). Amongst them was Margaret Skinnider, who fought under Commdt. Michael Mallin and Countess Markievicz in the College of Surgeons in 1916 and was wounded twice. She later fought in the War of Independence. Here the Irish Examiner reports on t...

Edward Whelan and Canadian history Long before JFK or Joe Biden made their mark on politics, a man from county Mayo was making his on the political world of Canada in the middle of the nineteenth century. Despite playing a prominent role as a member of the House of Assembly which he was elected to at age 21, Whelan was all but forgotten about in Ireland and Mayo. That was until recently and a recent article in the Weste...

The lost village in Wicklow An advertisement in the Irish Independent in January 1937asking for tenders announced to the world the intention of the ESB to commence work at Poulaphouca in county Wicklow. The tender noted: THE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY BOARD invites Tenders for the civil construction work of the _hydroelectrical development on the River Liffey at Poulaphuca, Co. Wicklow. The -work is divided into three sections: ...

The Good Friday Agreement Twenty-seven years ago this week Ireland, and indeed the world, looked on anxiously to see whether the latest phase of talks in Northern Ireland would see a positive conclusion. The news on Good Friday 1998 that an agreement had been reached was received with widespread approval and the beginning of sustained peace in Ireland. The final days of the negotiations had been fraught and the interventio...

Monsignor Horan and the airport at Knock The exploits of the Mayo priest, Fr James Horan from the 1950s to the 19803 in developing an international ariport in county Mayo are the stuff of legend. In what was a busy life, Horan succeeded where membrs of the public doubted that he would succeed. Undobutedly, today, the success of Monsignor Horan is still felt in Mayo, despite the changing social and economic papers. The Ev...

A Mayo man in Kenya Irishmen and women have always found themselves in the most unusual of places across the world. Scattered by famine and economic hardship, the Irish resilience helped them pave new lives on all continents. Involvement in the empire also brought the Irish to exotic locations. Take for example this report in the Ballina Herald of December 1949 which reported on the return of one native of the county fro...

The Farmers March, 1966 The great farmers march of 1966 was a significant moment in the history of Irish agriculture in the mid 20th Century. Coming as it did in the year of the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising, farmers across Ireland rose in opposition to the Department of Agriculture and its then Minister, Charles Haughey and walked for days to Dublin to protest. Amongst the many treasure throves which the INA holds is...

Another Irish Olympian- John Pius Boland The first modern Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896 and perhaps not widely known is that an Irishman enjoyed success. His name was John Pius Boland and in 1960 the Irish Press looked back on Boland’s exploits comparing them with the then recent success of Ronnie Delaney in Melbourne in 1956. Boland was also a politician and played an important role in Irish political life in...

Ireland’s greatest? Martin Sheridan from Mayo Who was the greatest Irish athlete is a question that is often asked. We have had our fair share of Olympic gold medallists and even those who never claimed that ultimate prize could be considered amongst the country’s greatest. What about the exploits of Martin Sheridan of Bohola in county Mayo? Can he be considered for the title? In 1934 the Kerry Reporter newspaper rep...