Features

The Irish passport is one of the most powerful in the world, according to the latest calculations by the Henley Passport Index. Henley studied data from the International Air Transport Association to see how freely a citizen was able to travel using the passport of their country.

Horror descended on the southern Irish fishing village of Baltimore during the summer of 1631, when locals were attacked and kidnapped by pirates. The residents of the village, near Cork, were then sold into slavery in northern Africa.

The Wexford Martyrs  were a small group of Catholic rebels who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, which declared Elizabeth I of England to be the head of the Church. They were found guilty of treason for aiding the escape of James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass, who had supported the …

Author Colm Wallace tells the chilling story of William O’Shea, who was the only Waterford man to be hanged in an independent Ireland. By February 1943 William O’Shea had been married to his wife Maureen for three years, although he was aged just 24 and she was 21. At this …

Frederick Edward Maning was born in Ireland but rose to prominence as one of the early settlers in New Zealand. He won the trust of the native Maori people and helped them negotiate with the British, who were colonising the country in the mid-19th century. He published two books,  Old …

More than a million people fled Ireland in the wake of the Great Hunger in the 1840s, but few had to abandon an area as beautiful as the fairy tale estate Henry Ford’s ancestors left behind. Of course, the lowly Ford family didn’t own the idyllic paradise known as the …

Thomas John Barnardo was an Irish doctor who set up the world famous Barnardo’s charity providing help and care for homeless children across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. He began the charity in 1866 and it has since grown into a multi-million pound project providing more than 900 services …

Thomas Meagher was a leading Irish nationalist who took part in the 1848 Young Irelander Rebellion and brought the tricolour flag of greeen, white and orange to Ireland from France. He was sentenced to penal servitude for his part in the rebellion but escaped to the United States where he …

Oliver Plunkett was  Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland in the years after Oliver Cromwell had ravaged the country and the public practice of the Catholic  faith was outlawed. He was executed in 1681 due to the ‘Popish Plot’ that had nothing to do with him. His execution …

Paul Boyton was a world famous adventurer and showman, known as ‘The Fearless Frogman’. He specialised in daring stunts and challenges across water  and set up the United States Life-Saving Service, a forerunner of today’s Coastguards. He also developed a water sports park that became the forerunner of the Luna …