Over 210,000 Irish enlisted in the British Army during World War I. Among them were doctors such as my grandfather who tended the wounded and saw the brutality of modern warfare up close. Waiting for the Wounded: “A British advance has just begun, and the surgeons of a Divisional Collecting Station near the Somme are awaiting the arrival of the first laden stretcher-bearers. … [Read more...] about My Grandfather’s War
History Archives
The Irish and World War I
One hundred years ago this summer, the story goes, a Daily Mail war correspondent named George Curnock followed British Expeditionary Forces as they made their way across the English Channel to aid the French in what most believed would be a brief skirmish with the Germans. In mid-August 1914, Curnock heard the Connaught Rangers singing a raucous tune as they marched through … [Read more...] about The Irish and World War I
How Guinness Saved Ireland
By Bryce Evans
June / July 2014
June / July 2014
At nearly one billion liters of Guinness sold per year, it has become one of the world’s most recognizable Irish brands. And though it is brewed in over 60 countries and available in more than 120, there is only one which owes its very survival as a sovereign state to the Black Stuff. Seventy years ago – February 1944 – and it is at last clear that the Allies are going to win … [Read more...] about How Guinness Saved Ireland
Salsa Verde: The Irish in Argentina
On the bicentennial of Combate de Montevideo, May, 1814, which won the River Plate and secured Argentina’s independence from Spain, Harry Dunleavy writes about the considerable contributions made by Irish people, such as Admiral William Brown, in the formation and development of the country. In the southeastern part of South America lies the wedge-shaped country of Argentina, … [Read more...] about Salsa Verde: The Irish in Argentina
Lovely Lola: The Countess Who Became the Vamp of the Mining Camps
By Rosemary Rogers
June / July 2014
June / July 2014
There was a time in the mid-19th century when all Europe raved about the Spanish dancer, Lola Montez, not realizing that she wasn’t Spanish and couldn’t dance. She wowed them in Paris, London, Berlin and St. Petersburg with her famous Spider Dance, a number that had Lola wearing a black mantilla, clicking castanets and shaking tarantulas out of her petticoats. When the hairy … [Read more...] about Lovely Lola: The Countess Who Became the Vamp of the Mining Camps