History & Folklore

History teaches us the Conservative Party better watch out says Kieran Doyle I finally got Dr Martin O’Donoghue’s lecture on the 1918 general election, up on www.westcorkfm.ie  I’ve mentioned him a little while back as one of the keynote speakers of the inaugural ‘History Scoops’ talks in De Barras. Since […]

Kieran Doyle I find it incredulous that the new Junior Cycle now makes it possible to offer history as a choice subject, rather than core. Especially, as Ireland is enjoying a renaissance in history, particularly at local level. Those who believe this is the correct way to proceed are in danger […]

Engraved across the World War Two monument, in the Commonwealth cemetery in Bayeux, Normandy, are the Latin words, ‘NOS A GULIELMO VICTI VICTORIS PATRIAM LIBERAVIMUS.’ The translation reads: ‘We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land.’  The French ancestors of William, the conqueror of England […]

I’ve just finished reading a book about the Black and Tans in County Clare. What made this book so different to other books on that period, was that it was constructed around years of interviews with older people; about their recollections of the Black and Tans in Ireland, or the […]

By Kieran Doyle De Barra’s Folk Club is a renowned and revered place that has drawn many famous as well as up and coming musicians, comedians and even actors.  On Wednesday May 16, it made history by hosting history! The brainchild of Alan McCarthy and Jamie Murphy from the Michael […]

In 1972, British paratroopers stationed in Northern Ireland, opened fired on the Civil Rights marchers, murdering 14 civilians. Images of carnage that occurred that day in Derry on January 30, ‘72, were flashed around world, highlighting the apartheid system that existed in the north. Not only that, it was a […]