Tag: Irish news

Northern Ireland’s Irish Language legislation becomes law after receiving Royal Assent

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The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 has officially become law in Northern Ireland after the bill received Royal Assent on Tuesday, December 6.

The Irish language now has official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time ever.

The bill will create a new office for an Irish language commissioner in Northern Ireland who will develop best practice standards for public authorities, alongside repealing the 1737 Act of Justice (Ireland) legislation which banned Irish from courts.

Conradh na Gaeilge, the democratic forum for the Irish-speaking community, has welcomed the news that the Irish language legislation promised in the New Decade New Approach has received Royal Assent and will officially become law.

The bill previously passed through the House of Lords and House of Commons, where it completed its legislative journey at the end of October.

In the absence of an Executive in Northern Ireland, the responsibility for implementing the legislation will now remain with the Secretary of State and the Northern Ireland Office, beginning with the setting up of the various offices and the appointment of an Irish language Commissioner. New powers added to the bill will allow the Secretary of State to implement all aspects of the legislation in full. 

Bill ➡️ Act

“Westminster Irish Language Legislation receives Royal Assent – Another historic staging post as the Westminster bill officially becomes law, but immediate implementation is paramount.” – @CnaG

Release in full: https://t.co/uJPztwYLkv pic.twitter.com/B2nk48pCFQ


— Conradh na Gaeilge (@CnaG) December 6, 2022

Paula Melvin, President of Conradh na Gaeilge, said on Tuesday: “The Irish language community has been fighting for these rights for decades and in that regard to see the Irish language be afforded official recognition here [in Northern Ireland] for the first time is indeed historic.

“We want to pay tribute to all of those activists and community pioneers who have been advocating for language rights down through the years. Today is but another historic staging post in this ongoing campaign for equality. 

“This Bill, however, is not our final destination. We have pushed hard on several important amendments to the legislation and we now turn our attention to both implementing and to strengthening the bill and bringing it up to international standards of language legislation in the future.

“But let’s be clear, we now immediately enter the implementation phase of this legislation. Painful experience with the British Government has taught us to take nothing for granted. Until we see this Bill fully enacted and indeed implemented in practice, we will continue to push ahead with the campaign.”

Conchúr Ó Muadaigh, Advocacy Manager with Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “Today’s milestone is testament to the 20,000 people who stood with us on the streets of Belfast in May and actively called on the British government to honour their word on bringing forward Irish language legislation.

“From today on, the Irish language will exist in law for the first time in a state which historically discriminated against the language and marginalised its community of speakers. The significance of this should not be lost on anyone.

“However, having legislation is one thing. The implementation of that legislation is another. In the absence of a functioning Executive, this bill gives concurrent powers to the Secretary of State to operationalise and implement the bill in its entirety. The British Government must exercise these powers without any delay. The Irish language community have waited long enough. The appointment of an Irish Language Commissioner is the first step in that process. The Irish language community will look upon the appointment of the Commissioner as a litmus test for the British Government. The Irish language community will wait in earnest to see how this legislation will bring the legitimate, long overdue change they require to facilitate them living their lives through Irish.”

Conradh na Gaeilge noted that commencement regulations signed by the Secretary of State will stipulate when each aspect of the legislation officially comes into effect.

Dr. Pádraig Ó Tiarnaigh, spokesperson for the An Dream Dearg campaign for Irish language rights, said on Tuesday: “Today is another historic day on our long-running campaign for language rights and equality here as the Westminster bill becomes a Language Act and officially becomes law.

“This significant and historic milestone stems from the pioneering work of the Shaws Road Gaeltacht over 50 years ago, where the seeds of the modern Irish language revival in the north were first planted. From those small beginnings, an Irish language community has flourished and grown. Today that community has succeeded in bringing legislative change for the Irish language here. That is historic. For years Irish speakers have challenged the state as the language was marginalised and ridiculed. Today we take another step forward on our journey towards comprehensive Irish language rights.

“But we also have to take stock of where we are on that journey. This Act is only another milestone, another staging-post. It does not deliver the change we need, nor the change we were promised. Tomorrow the work begins to ensure this Act is fully implemented without any delay, and the campaign to strengthen the legislation remains ongoing. We now hope to see the appointment of the first Irish Commissioner in the history of the northern state early in the New Year.

“To all those who walked this path with us, today belongs to you. For all those willing to continue the work we have started, let us walk that path together. Ar aghaidh linn le chéile.”

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Acht……. INNIU 🔥

Tá an Bille anois ina Acht oifigiúil 🚨

⭐️ The Irish Language Legislation has TODAY received Royal Assent and officially becomes law!

🅾️ 6.12.2022 – Lá eile iontach stairiúil. 🅾️

Now, @chhcalling @SteveBakerHW, let’s get it implemented 🫵 pic.twitter.com/jqHenH5onv


— An Dream Dearg 🅾️🦸🏽‍♀️🦸🏻‍♂️ (@dreamdearg) December 6, 2022



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On This Day: Irish satirist Jonathan Swift born in Dublin in 1667

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Jonathan Swift, the Irish writer behind “Gulliver’s Travels,” was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667. Here is a look at his life.

It just so happens that I live around 10 miles from a place called Lilliput. This brings to mind a fantasy of four parts regarding one Lemuel Gulliver, written by perhaps the greatest Irish writer of them all, published in 1726. “Gulliver’s Travels” is the most famous work of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) and is a satire on both human nature and the “traveler’s tales” that were then in vogue. 

Born in Dublin on 30 November 1667, Swift was the son of English parents. His father, a lawyer, died before Jonathan’s birth and his childhood was partly spent in the care of a nurse, his paternal uncles, and, most likely, in the absence of both parents. Some parts of his life appeared like satire, which is entirely appropriate for a man who became a leading satirist himself, forever poking fun with the tools of irony, humor, exaggeration, and ridicule. Swift admitted himself that he’d written his most famous work to “vex the world”, which it probably did.

This article was originally published in Ireland of the Welcomes magazine. Subscribe now!

Swift started his education at Kilkenny Grammar before entering what was then Ireland’s only university, Trinity College Dublin, continuing his studies in Latin and Greek and adding Hebrew, and deepening his knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy.

After four years, he graduated with the degree of BA ex speciali gratia – a term that Swift later glossed to imply that he had been a poor student, but which most likely did not have the negative connotations Swift would later mischievously suggest. It is certain, though, that Swift was not an outstanding undergraduate, and having left Trinity College in 1686 he was perplexed as to a choice of career. Despite the help of his uncles, Swift had no easy entry into a profession such as would enable him to retain the status of gentleman, so important in his age.

Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the Protestants William and Mary took the throne off the Catholic-leaning James II, and the subsequent disorder in Ireland, Swift headed for England and relative safety.

Family connections assisted him in starting a career as secretary to the esteemed diplomat and essayist Sir William Temple, who was resident in Farnham, Surrey. Now aged 22, Swift quickly set about acquainting himself with the big, wide world and it was here that he first met Esther Johnson, then aged just eight years old. Johnson was the daughter of Temple’s housekeeper and went on to become a mix of pupil, friend, and possible lover to Swift. 

While sources vary over the status of their relationship, Esther was eventually immortalized in verse tributes, most notably “Journal to Stella,” and was undoubtedly important to Swift. Debates about the nature of their relationship continue to rage with some scholars believing the two were secretly married as early as 1716 and others denying all possibility of a romantic relationship between the two.

In 1694, Swift switched careers and trained to become a protestant clergyman, serving in parishes in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim. After Temple’s death, Swift was given the vicarage of Laracor, a town in Co Meath. Swift hoped to eventually rise through the ranks of the church to become a bishop or even an archbishop. However, his outspoken nature had earned him enemies which stunted promotion. The scandal over his private life did him no favors either when during a 1708 visit to London he first met Esther Vanhomrigh. This second Esther was seven years younger than Esther Johnson and after returning with him to Ireland became Swift’s lover and correspondent for over ten years. She was eventually cast aside for Johnson and went on to die a broken-hearted woman later that same year. Despite the scandal, Swift did indeed climb the ranks and in 1713 he was appointed Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

This article was originally published in Ireland of the Welcomes magazine. Subscribe now!

In 1704, the publication of his satires “Battle of the Books” and “A Tale of a Tub” saw Swift back his late patron in the quarrel between Ancients and Modern. The quarrel was a fervent literary dispute raging in both England and France as to whether classical literature (ancient Greece and Rome) was impeccable or whether it could be challenged by modern works. The debate had been started by Temple years before after he argued against the modern position in his essay “On Ancient and Modern Learning” and was subsequently picked up by Swift and his circle of writer friends, often called the Scriblerus Club.

Swift’s visits to London were mostly political but he also took advantage of the opportunities afforded to him through travel and explored many friendships, both literary and noble. Swift supported the Whigs (today’s Liberals) initially but switched to the Tories because of his loyalty to the English Church. 

His friendship with Robert Harley was pivotal in this switch, which was confirmed in 1710 when Harley returned to power, firstly as Chancellor of the Exchequer and then as Lord High Treasurer. Swift was recruited as Editor of The Examiner, the official mouthpiece of the Tories. 

Swift’s “Four Last Years of the Queen” set out the intrigue and campaigning of that period. At the time, the Tories wanted to keep the establishment secure and bring war with France to an end and so Swift’s “On the Conduct of the Allies” supported this aim, whilst also lambasting the Whigs. 

The death of Queen Anne, in 1714, disappointed Swift and the members of the Scriblerus Club, presumably because they’d lost patronage and favor. Swift returned to the Deanery of St Patrick’s Cathedral, in Dublin, and largely remained there until his death, where he fought strongly for Irish liberties, which were being denied by the then Whig government. Swift’s “The Drapier’s Letters” formed the most famous part of this pro-Irish activity. Swift focused on the English government’s restrictions on Irish trade, e.g. in respect of wool and cattle. His vigorous campaigning on Irish issues, plus his charitable efforts for the poor of Dublin, revived his reputation and he became something of a modern-day celebrity.

It was during his 1726 visit to London that Swift published “Gulliver’s Travels,” his best and most famous satirical work which is split over four parts. The book was an immediate success and has remained so ever since. Although published in London, much of the book was written at Woodbrook House in Co Laois. 

Completing “Gulliver’s Travels” seemed to release Swift’s energies for the light verse that followed, having previously only employed this particular talent for the amusement of the ladies. Poetry of this genre included “The Grand Question Debated” (1729) and “Verses on His Own Death. “Swift particularly liked “On Poetry; a Rhapsody,” which he rated his best verse satire. 

Swift died on 19 October 1745, aged 77. He was buried at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, where he’s oft referred to as “Dean Swift” due to his having been Dean between 1713 and his death.

Taken from the July / August 2020 issue of Ireland of the Welcomes magazine. Subscribe today!



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JFK’s final Thanksgiving wish – “let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals”

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On November 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed this Thanksgiving proclamation which asked God “to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice, and understanding among all men and nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist.” 

Tragically, Kennedy was assassinated just 18 days later in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, making his plea to the United States people to come together all the more poignant.

Today, while political and social division remains, JFK’s words resonate as strongly today as they did at the height of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

President Kennedy’s proclamation begins “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving.”

Kennedy then enumerates what our forefathers gave thanks for – their safety, their fields, their children. He ends by noting “the love which bound them together.”

In the proclamation, Kennedy quotes George Washington, who in his inaugural call for a thanksgiving, asked the citizens of the new republic to beseech God “to pardon our national and other transgressions.”

The President was referring to the Bay of Pigs invasion, after the first “military advisers” had arrived in Vietnam, and only two months after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in which members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered four African American girls. 

As Elliot Ackerman wrote in the New York Times “Maybe I’m overanalyzing Kennedy’s proclamation. Perhaps it was just a few paragraphs drafted by a staff member. Yet it reads as if it wasn’t. It reads as if Kennedy was asking the country to do one last thing: Take a break from divisions. It reads as if Kennedy could foresee the fractious decade ahead as if he knew the cost of the division was blood.”

The President pleads: “Let us, therefore, proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings–let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals–and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.”

This is President John F Kennedy’s Thanksgiving Proclamation 3560 in full:

Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the faith which united them with their God.

So too when the colonies achieved their independence, our first President in the first year of his first Administration proclaimed November 26, 1789, as “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God” and called upon the people of the new republic to “beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions… to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue . . . and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.”

And so too, in the midst of America’s tragic civil war, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day to renew our gratitude for America’s “fruitful fields,” for our “national strength and vigor,” and for all our “singular deliverances and blessings.”

Much time has passed since the first colonists came to rocky shores and dark forests of an unknown continent, much time since President Washington led a young people into the experience of nationhood, much time since President Lincoln saw the American nation through the ordeal of fraternal war–and in these years our population, our plenty and our power have all grown apace. Today we are a nation of nearly two hundred million souls, stretching from coast to coast, on into the Pacific and north toward the Arctic, a nation enjoying the fruits of an ever-expanding agriculture and industry and achieving standards of living unknown in previous history. We give our humble thanks for this.

Yet, as our power has grown, so has our peril. Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers–for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.

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Let us, therefore, proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings–let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals–and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of the Congress approved December 26, 1941, 55 Stat. 862 (5 U.S.C. 87b), designating the fourth Thursday of November in each year as Thanksgiving Day, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 28, 1963, as a day of national thanksgiving.

On that day let us gather in sanctuaries dedicated to worship and in homes blessed by family affection to express our gratitude for the glorious gifts of God; and let us earnestly and humbly pray that He will continue to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice, and understanding among all men and nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-eighth.



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Irish Indian fighter writes of scalping, big braves and butchery

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The incredible correspondence from Wicklow man, Thomas Mangan Jr, who fought in the US Civil War.

I recently came across the remarkable letters of Sergeant Thomas Mangan, which are here transcribed for the first time. The 22-year-old Dubliner was a recent emigrant from Ireland, who within a year of arriving in his new home found himself in the midst of the savage and brutal struggle for control of the Western Plains.

Written from an isolated military post in Colorado Territory in 1866 and 1867, Thomas’s letters traveled over 4,000 miles before arriving in their ultimate destination– inner city Dublin. There they were read by his widowed mother, who learned about the gory realities of this savage fight to the death, including scalping and other forms of mutilation.

The letters also discuss life on the frontier, as well as Thomas’s experiences with his family since emigration, and his future plans for himself and his mother.

Thomas Mangan and Sarah Connolly were married in Castlekevin, Co. Wicklow on 3rd February 1834. From there the couple moved to Dublin, where their son Thomas Jr. was born in 1845; he was baptized in the Church of St. Andrew in Westland Row on 8th December that year. Thomas Senior died in 1857, leaving Sarah raise their young son alone.

Thomas Jr. started his working life in Dublin at the age of 13, helping his mother to run the household. By the mid-1860s mother and son were living at 14 Wood Street in the heart of the city. Thomas appears to have been working on nearby York Street at this time, earning 5 shillings a week, while Sarah was employed in a nearby business. Then in the spring of 1865 Thomas decided to try his luck in the United States.

He made his way to Chicago, where his maternal uncle Edward (Ned) Connolly lived. However he soon grew disillusioned with the support he got from his family in America, and after only 8 months– on 2nd January 1866– he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 21.

His papers describe him as 5 feet 8 inches in height, with a fair complexion, gray eyes and brown hair. His occupation was listed as clerk.

It would be months before he had an opportunity to write back to his mother in Ireland. When he did so, he was a soldier at Fort Sedgwick in Colorado Territory– an isolated post surrounded by large numbers of hostile Native Americans.

Fort Sedgwick Colorado Territory

Sunday 2nd December 1866

Dear Mother,

after a long absence I take up my pen to write to you I would have wrote to you months before this only I was away on detached duty and I never could get the chance to do it then. This is not an easy place for a man to write that is knocked around and to let you know the reason we were knocked around is the Indians played hell here all summer [?] and is expected to be worse they have killed over 100 men of our regiment alone besides men of other regts. and citizens they attack these trains passing over the plains here to California & Salt Lake and other places they attack those trains then take their stock and all, kills the men and scalps them. They likes to scalp well they carry those scalps they take on a cord or string round their body, thats an honour they think as much as a soldier thinks of medals on his breast and a great deal more. When they take a good lot of scalps any of them above others they make him a chief or warrior of them, a big brave they call him, so they like to scape well then. I received that newspaper you had sent me and the other thing all right. I sent fifty dollars to Larry to send to you about 2 months ago and I don’t know whether he sent it to you or not. He sent me a letter about 3 weeks ago, a blank sheet of paper in the envelope a powerful lot of news indeed, I told him to send me a couple of stamps to write to you and after a long absence he sent me one. Indeed I wrote t[w]o letters to him after I sent the money would be in the express office when he get[s] that letter and after 2 months absence he sends me a blank sheet of writing paper with one stamp, never letting me know one word about it one way or the other. I sent it back to him the same way.

~~~~~

Dear Mother,

I must say he is very ungrateful. I even wrote to the man he is working for to know was he with him. The reason I followed it up so much is for you to get the money. All I say is I hope he has sent you the money or will against Christmas, it will be £6 or £7 pounds of English money.

~~~~~

Dear Mother,

I would like you to find out on the quay what is an American dollar worth there for I am sorry I didn’t put the 50 dollars in a latter and sent it to you for a man in our Compy. sent 100 dollars in a letter home to London, England and it went all wright and moreover I could send you money far oftener– they would change it on the quay for you I should think as well as London, now don’t forget to let me know in your next letter.

~~~~~

Dear Mother,

I remember by your last letter that you wanted to know is there any people out here or is there any winter. Well I will tell you there is a little town 4 miles from the post with about 40 people that is all, they call it a town it has about 4 or 5 log buildings and for the winter, I need not tell. [illegible- For?] 3 or 4 hours one night last week it snowed it was more than [illegible] high the snow. The stage or mail coach drove into the river [illegible] road it was coming down so heavy the driver could not see [illegible- over the?] horses heads and three people was nearly killed, the 4 horses [illegible]. So you many guess the winter that is here by that.

~~~~~

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Dear Mother,

if you have got the money I would like to send me the Dublin Nation newspaper every week to read by giving them my name and address. It would come to me, they would send it themselves from their office for to me for about 4s the price for six months.

~~~~~

Dear Mother,

when I am paid I will send you some money also for some newspapers. A few dollars here is nothing to lay out and to send it home it would look something, it would give you as much reading for a year as you would wish besides having home news. When I get a letter from you I will send you some money for to give for papers. Its greenbacks I will send you when I hear from you about them in your letter by you seeing at the exchange office this side of the Custom House on Eden Quay.

~~~~~

Dear Mother,

I have in 11 months of my time to-day and against you get this I will have close on one year, so I intend to forward myself in reading, writing and so forth for the next 2 years. I am going on very well as you will see, the last letter I wrote to you I was only Corpl. but now I am a Sergeant so you must know that I am conducting myself well or a man won’t be raising in the army.

I must conclude with wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

No more at present from your affection son Thomas Mangan.

Direct for Sergt. Thomas Mangan Co. E 3rd Batt. 18th U.S. Inftry.

Fort Sedgwick Col. Ter.

~~~~~

Give my best respects to Mrs. Nolan, let me know how is her health, is her stock going on well. I hope both her and her business is for they could not go on better than I would wish, indeed I think I will see her yet in Ship Street and have a glass of cordial with her. Give my respects also to Mrs. Smyth & Eliza I hope they are going on well too as to Humphry I suppose he is in the country now if not he is any how in O’Briens with James and likewise to Mrs. Hart and husband and to all enquiring old friends let me know about James Routledge, James Daniel, Johnny Wichkam and all the boys. Tell Johnny Wickham to tell James Daniel I was asking for him I would like to hear from him, indeed enclosed is my directions for him to write to me. Tell Johnny Wickham to tell James Daniel to come to you for my directions if he gets them fro you let me know and if he is going to write and when to me.

I remember in your last letter of you saying that Mr. Sullivan was going to write to me I never heard from him any, tell him I was asking for him if he call’d and give him my respects.

This remarkable letter combines descriptions of the savage fighting taking place during the Plains Indian Wars with thoughts of family, friends and business back in Dublin. It is difficult to imagine a sharper juxtaposition. Thomas does not spare his mother the gory details regarding what happened to those who fell at the hands of the Native Americans. It would not be long before he was proved right regarding the worsening situation. Less than three weeks after he had written to Dublin, the United States was rocked by the crushing defeat inflicted on their forces by a combined Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force near Fort Phil Kearney. An entire detachment of 81 men was wiped out in what became known as the Fetterman Fight, the worst defeat government forces experienced until Custer’s Last Stand a decade later. Fully 25% of the men who died there were Irish-born (you can read about each of them here).

Thomas’s next letter exhibits the absolute shock which that defeat had caused. In it he describes attempts to hunt down some of the Indians responsible, and he asks his mother to tell the tale of the horrors at home in Dublin. He also makes strong efforts to dissuade his mother from following him to America, encouraging her to stay at home instead and recounting his own poor experiences with their family already there. Instead, Thomas hoped to himself return to Dublin one day, perhaps to set up a business.

Fort Sedgwick Co. Ter.

Sunday Feb. 3rd 1867

Dear Mother,

I received your kind and welcome letter about 2 weeks ago. I would have wrote to you long before this only I was away on duty so I could not write till I got back. You told me you wish to come out to the States and you wish to know what I think of it and Laurance. I wrote to him twice about it and I got no answer from him, but my opinion is for you to stop at home for no matter how humble a home is home is sweet. Your sister may say a great lot of things in her letters to you, something like Ned and his family to me. When I was home I believed all they said then for I was foolish then. I have known it well since, I did not know the want of a home before I seen the way I was treated. I went off an enlisted, if you can out here and they treated you bad what would do. In the first place how can you tell what kind of a man her husband is, it is very well to think he is a nice man by seeing him on your own floor in your own home, remember the old saying, if you want to know what I am come live with me. After I being 8 months or about with Ned I was only 3 days idle thats when I came there from home without working. I came to Neds on Sunday and went to work a Wednesday dear Mother and after 8 months when I left I paid her every cent I owed. Mrs. Kirwan turned and told somebody I owed her for three days when I landed board, you do not think on any account of coming out here at least while I am in the army. Stay at home and do not fret about Mrs. Nolan giving up for you shall never want a cent while I can get it. I am going to send you all my pay and live well and if you have anything over its all right. Every time I am paid I shall send you my money home. I intend to save £70 while I am in the army this 3 years. I shall send it all to you so if you have any over you can keep it against I am out of my time, I may go home and put up in a little bussiness for soldiering here is far worse than in England. A man never goes to church, I never seen a clergyman this last year and two months, if a man is discharged here and cannot get work what would he do in this part of the country about military posts. The few citizens when they are idle they have to pay £2 10s a week for board and only gets two meals a day for that, 1s for the washing of a shirt. If a man goes to the States he may not get work either. A soldier here is put down as a loafer, you may thing a soldier bad at home but here he is taught less than a dog if I may say it.

~~~~~

Dear Mother,

I am thinking when my time is up if I had a little money saved I could do well some place at home where I would not be known. I have a Cockney chap a comrade from London he is saving all his money and sending it home to his mother against he is done with the army here. Me and him enlisted the one day. I think he is doing a very good thing indeed. I suppose you read in the papers at home or heard of the fearful massacre of some of our soldiers here at Fort Phil Kearney. There was 90 men and 4 officers killed by the Indians. The[y] fought them 7 hours 5000 Indians there was. Our First Lieutenant were killed amongst the officers. When they were dead the[y] cut their breasts open took out there hearts and put them in their mouths, pulled out their eyes, cut off their ears, fingers, toes and noses and then scalped them, burned some of the wounded after doing all that. In fact I could not describe it to you. Just now as I write the Compy. of cavalry is coming into the Fort after being 15 days in the snow after them. They went out about 3 weeks ago the same and they had a little skirmish with them. They killed about 40 Indians and our Cavly. lost 1 man whom the Indians shot with their arrow knocking him off his horse and left to froze on the ground frozed to death, found dead in the snow next morning. When he was knocked off his horse the horse ran away and left the poor fellow to die. There was two more wounded not badly. There was 27 frozed of them, 3 of them since has lost both feet. The boy was frozed was Irish only 16 years of age. We are all armed here to the teeth. Every Cavlry. man had a 7 shooter carbine and 6 shooter revolver. There was never a man escaped of the 94, I forgot to tell you to tell the tale, not one, all butchered. I got a letter from my aunt McGurk yesterday I wrote to her to-day against you get this letter I will have money on the water to you.

I must conclude, give my best respected to Mrs. Nolan and Mrs. Smith.

No more at present from your affectionate,

Son Thomas Mangan.

Direct Sergt. Thomas Mangan Compy. E 36th U.S. Inftry.

Fort Sedwick [sic.] Colorado Territory.

~~~~~

I wish to tell you we are the 36th now under the new organisation in the U.S. Army there is no more 2nd or 3rd Batts. every Batt. is a Regt. in itself now so leaves us the 36th Regt.

Thomas’s reference to soldiering in England and finding a place in Ireland where he ‘would not be known’ raises the possibility that he might have served briefly in the British Army. A few weeks after writing this second letter, on 23rd May 1867, the young Dubliner was carrying his company’s mail from Pole Creek Station to his unit on the Spring Creek in Dakota Territory when he was set upon by a group of Cheyenne. His body was found three days later near Lodge Pole Creek by his comrades.

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Thomas ultimately met the same fate he had described in such detail in his letters home to Dublin. His death had knock on consequences that he would not have wanted, as his mother emigrated to Omaha, Nebraska in order to pursue her pension claim. It would seem she lived out her final days in the United States. Stories like those of Thomas Mangan are rarely told. His service in the ruthless suppression of the Native Americans raises interesting questions regarding remembrance, some of which were explored in this previous post. Whatever the circumstances which led him to his ultimate demise, one has to feel for the young Dubliner’s premature end. His last letters reveal his hopes and dreams for a future that never came to pass.

* Punctuation and grammatical formatting has been added to the original letter for ease of reading. None of my work on pensions would be possible without the exceptional effort currently taking place in the National Archives to digitize this material and make it available online via Fold3. A team from NARA supported by volunteers are consistently adding to this treasure trove of historical information. To learn more about their work you can watch a video by clicking here:

* Damian Shiels is an archaeologist and historian who runs the IrishAmericanCivilWar.com website, where this article first appeared. His book ‘The Irish in the American Civil War’ was published by The History Press in 2013 and is available here.

* Originally published in 2013, updated in Nov 2022.

*Originally published in August 2015.





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Irish American family’s desperate plea for information regarding woman’s death in NYC

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Claire McKenna, a 26-year-old Irish American woman, was found dead in Queens, New York on October 14, police have confirmed.

McKenna’s family is offering a reward of $35,000 for “information leading to an arrest and conviction concerning the death of Claire McKenna,” according to posters circulating in Queens as well as on social media.

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Claire McKenna’s family is offering a reward for information relating to her death in Queens, New York.

The poster states: “On Tuesday morning, October 11, 2022, at 3:11 am, the McKenna family received a text from their beloved daughter Claire requesting ‘help’ and advising them that her battery on her cell phone was dying.

“On Wednesday morning, October 12, 2022, at approximately 4:30 a.m. (over 24 hours after the text was sent by Claire), a man, fully covered with a mask and dark clothes, was captured on videotape pushing Claire’s body in a dolly and was caught dumping her body in a bush located at 94th Avenue and 214th Street, Queens, New York.

“Claire was five feet, five inches tall, weighed 115 pounds and was 26 years old. Other than the video which captured the man pushing Claire for five blocks, other evidence was recovered at the scene.

“The McKenna family are requesting assistance from the public with any information that may lead to the identification and apprehension of the man observed pushing Claire’s body in the dolly.

“If you have any information regarding this case, please contact Michael G. Santangelo, Esq at 914 – 391 – 1823 or email him at mgsesq [@] msn.com.”

As of Tuesday evening, Santangelo has yet to respond to IrishCentral’s request for comment.

A spokesperson for the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information told IrishCentral in a statement on Tuesday: “On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, at approximately 0927 hours, police responded to a 911 call of an aided individual at 94 Avenue and 214 Street, within the confines of the 105 Precinct. 

“Upon arrival, officers observed a 26-year-old female unconscious and unresponsive, partially clothed lying face down on the pavement near a bush at the location. 

“EMS responded and pronounced the aided female deceased on scene. 

“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death and the investigation remains ongoing.”

The spokesperson confirmed that the deceased was identified as 26-year-old Claire McKenna of Queens, New York.

A funeral for McKenna was held in Astoria, Queens on October 15, according to post from her family members on social media.

The circulation of the posters in recent days coincided with a month’s mind mass that was held for McKenna at Kilkerley Church in her father’s native Co Louth this past weekend.

The Kilkerley Emmets GAA club in Co Louth, where McKenna’s father was a former player, offered its “deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences” to the McKenna family upon Claire’s death. 

“We cannot comprehend the pain you have experienced since Claire’s untimely passing,” the club said on social media, “and you have all been in our thoughts and prayers and we will continue to remember you and your beautiful daughter Claire in our prayers.”





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Hundreds march in Dublin to mark 10th anniversary of Savita Halappanavar’s death

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Hundreds of people marched through Dublin City Centre on Saturday afternoon to mark the tenth anniversary of Savita Halappanavar’s death, with activists pledging to launch a campaign for a permanent memorial. 

Halappanavar died on October 28, 2012, at Galway University Hospital after suffering a septic miscarriage for which she was denied an abortion.

Halappanavar, a dentist, and her husband Praveen, an engineer, both natives of India, were living in Galway at the time of her tragic death. 

Saturday’s march began at the Garden of Remembrance on the north side of Dublin at 1 p.m. before proceeding to City Hall on Dame Street, where a number of speakers addressed the crowd. 

The marchers stopped for a minute’s silence at the Repeal mural in Temple Bar en route to City Hall, while they also passed a small group of protesters campaigning for women’s rights in Iran as they marched down O’Connell Street. Both groups applauded each other. 

Tarini Beeruka, a 21-year-old Indian student who came to Ireland a year ago, told the Irish Times that it meant a lot to him to be able to march in memory of Halappanavar. 

“When Savita died, I was very young,” Beeruke told the Irish Times during the march. “I saw the news in India that somebody from India had died in another country because she was not able to get an abortion.” 

“That was the first time I had heard about Ireland. It was the first time I had heard about an Indian woman dying.

“I was there in India, seeing her die, and now to be here to support and remember her really means a lot to me. I came to Ireland just this year, so when the news came out that there was going to be a march for Savita, I had to come.” 

Abortion activist Ailbhe Smyth was among those to speak at Saturday’s march and called for reform to Ireland’s current abortion laws. 

“I am marching today to honor the memory of Savita Halappanavar whose needless, deeply sad death was the spark that ignited a massive movement for change leading to a momentous leap forward for reproductive rights and for equality in Ireland,” Smyth said. 

“We are proud of what we achieved, but there is a great deal more work to be done to ensure that everyone who needs abortion can do so.”

Smyth also called for the provision of comprehensive primary care and hospital services to help women who need an abortion. 

“Without the provision of widely accessible services, an abortion law is not worth the paper it’s drafted on.” 

Speaking at the Garden of Remembrance before the march began, Orla O’Connor of the National Women’s Movement called for an end to the three-day waiting period before a woman can get an abortion and the abolition of the 12-week limit, which allows women to get an abortion during the first 84 days of their pregnancy. 

There were also calls during Saturday’s march to create a permanent memorial to Halappanavar. 

Halappanavar, 31, was 17 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. She was told she was miscarrying after being admitted to hospital with back pain on October 21 and asked doctors to terminate her pregnancy on several occasions over the next two days. 

She delivered a female fetus on October 24 and was transferred to intensive care after developing sepsis. She died four days later on October 28 from septic shock. 

Her death is seen as one of the key factors in reviving the Repeal the 8th movement, which advocated for the repeal of Ireland’s 8th Amendment, which gave an unborn child equal rights to those of the mother. 

The amendment was repealed in 2018 following a landslide referendum victory. 

Eilís Mulroy, a spokesperson for Pro Life Campaign, said in a statement that it was “unfair and disingenuous” to use the Halappanavar’s anniversary to push for an expansion of Ireland’s abortion law. Mulroy said Halappanavar’s death was “not caused by the Eighth Amendment as campaigners for abortion have incessantly claimed”. 

“Mismanaged sepsis was the cause of Savita’s death, as backed up by several independent reports, and not the denial of an abortion.

“Ten years on from her death, it is highly inappropriate for campaigners and pro-abortion politicians to continue leaning on myths and mistruths to push for a radical expansion of Ireland’s already extreme abortion law.”





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Searching for my ancestors in Butte, Montana’s famous Irish mining town

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In the latter half of the 19th century, thousands of Irishmen made their way to Butte, Montana, in the U.S.A’s isolated far north-West, searching for a better life.

Some made the six-day journey from the coal mines of the eastern States, and the mid-west. Others came from the mining camps scattered throughout the west, to work in the copper mines of Montana’s inhospitable Rocky Mountain region. Many prospered, though thousands lost their lives or were maimed in what became known as the “Richest Hill on Earth.”

Among the wave of souls who made their way to Butte were my grandfather, his brothers, and sisters, who hailed from Edrim Glebe, Killymard, Co. Donegal. Pat, John, Hugh, Manus, Annie, Winnie and Catherine (Kate), who were all sons and daughters of Patrick and Sophia Carney Sophia of Edrim Glebe, Sophia (nee Ward), hailing from Letterbarrow, made the long journey to Butte just before the turn of the 20th century and were pioneers of the town.

Throughout the 1990s I had been researching and corresponding with great uncle Hugh’s surviving relatives and others in Butte.

In 1998, my two sisters, Sheila and Patricia, and I, decided we must pay the town a visit. On hearing of our plans, our cousin Tommy Quinn, who also has Quinn cousins in Butte, decided he would come along too.

Butte is still a very Irish town with all the old mining pioneer names still in existence. Butte’s residents are still attached to their Irish culture, and indeed many of its second and third-generation Irish, still maintain strong family links with Ireland.

Being brought up in an Irish coal-mining community in South Yorkshire, England, my sisters and I found much in common with the people of Butte, especially since our dad had been a miner of long standing. He spent 40 years working 3,000 ft underground day-in day-out in the coal mines with his west of Ireland mates, and the job took its toll on them all.

It was he who initially sparked our interest in Butte, as he often related tales to us about his dad and uncles and aunts when we had a few pints.

My had grandfather returned to Donegal in 1914, fully expecting to return to Butte with his family to start a new life. However, tragedy struck again in the form consumption when his daughter Sophia died in 1916, aged sixteen. In 1923 my grandmother Mary, nee Sweeney, originally from Drumkeelan also died of the merciless disease.

As we would learn, his siblings back in Butte suffered still more strife and tragedy.

How Butte Became Irish

In the Montana-Territory, in what is now the State of Montana, prospector William, L. Farlin discovered encouraging deposits of rich mineral in his shallow diggings.

After having them assayed in neighboring Idaho, they were found to be rich in gold silver, and copper. Farlin kept his discovery a secret and, being without capital to exploit his find, continued making a modest living working his shallow diggings.

But Farlin never forgot the fact that mineral-bearing quartz lay under his workings. Several years later, in 1874, Congress passed a law compelling owners of claims to perform a certain amount of work or forfeit their claims by January 1, 1875. Farlin relocated his claim and commenced development work in the freezing Rocky Mountain location.

From a mediocre prospecting camp full of tents and rough shacks, Butte, as it was known (named after a mountain peak that stands northwest of the prospecting town) in three months became the most significant silver mining camp in Montana Territory.

News of the camp’s potential spread like wildfire, and soon Butte echoed to the sound of pick and shovel. A 19th-century writer described the camp as a “rough deplorable conglomeration of log cabins, shanties, tents, saloons, and livery stables where no man was safe without a revolver in his belt and a bowie knife tucked in the calf of his boot.”

Irish miners from the Mother Lode mines of California, from the hard-rock mines of Nevada and Colorado, and from the copper mines of Michigan, were among the new arrivals in Butte, along with “greenhorn immigrants” from Ireland. The majority of skilled miners were originally from the parishes of Eyries, Hungry Hill, and Berehaven, West Cork. Men from that area had long experience of mining from the area’s then redundant Puxley-family-owned copper mines (famous in Daphne du Maurier’s novel Hungry Hill), which forced thousands of West Cork men and women and their families to emigrate, with many ending up in Butte. Father Patrick Brosnan, a Butte priest from County Limerick, wrote back to his father that “Everyone here is from Castletownbere—Butte is a great city, we have seven fine Catholic parishes. ” He must have felt that he was in Castletownbere, too, as the most common name in Butte’s Polk directory was O’Sullivan.

Butte quickly grew from a small mining camp to an industrial town with 300 mines operating within the town’s boundary. The rip-roaring frontier town became fondly known as “Hell Roaring Gulch.” The town never slept and had the reputation of being the toughest town in America. It had saloons, as well as gambling joints, dance halls, theatres, Chinese wash houses, restaurants, and shebeens, such as Dublin Dan’s infamous Hobo-Retreat. All were open 24hours a day.

By 1900, half of Butte’s 30,000 population were Irish; Butte’s, suburbs were named Hungry Hill, Dublin Gulch, and Cork Town. Irish societies flourished too, with the Clann na Gaels, the Gaelic League, the Parnell Guard, the Emmet Guard, Daughters of Erin, the Robert Emmet Literary Association, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The G.A.A flourished too with the Butte-Based Wolf Tones and the Emeralds of nearby mining town Anaconda, according to one report many a fierce after-match battle took place between Butte’s miners and Anaconda’s smeltermen.

Butte had eight Cork-born mayors; the Irish ran the police, the fire, and education department, the attorney’s office, and the district coroner’s office. There were numerous Irish judges, mine superintendents, shift bosses, mine engineers, and officials, and of course there was the god-like, Marcus Daly. There were seven Catholic churches, built mainly through miners’ donations and their own labor. The town also had three Irish newspapers—-the Rocky mountain Celt, the Irish American, and the Irish World. There was also an Irish brewery, and Guinness was also on tap in Butte’s saloons.

Many Irish politicians visited Butte on fundraising trips, including Countess Constance Markievicz, Douglas Hyde, founder of the Gaelic League, and first president of the Republic, also Michael Davitt, James Connolly, Eamon de Valera, and Mountcharles-born writer and story-teller Seamus Mc Manus. Butte’s miners were the most generous in the United States.

Butte’s mines also had a notorious reputation as the most dangerous in the world. The life expectancy of a miner being just 10 years. Saint Patrick’s and Holly Cross, cemeteries were the largest cemeteries per head of population in the United States. The town’s daily newspapers made grim reading, with headlines such as “blown to bits, legs torn off, crushed, scalded and blinded. Miners blamed accidents on company profit being put before safety.

Nevertheless, Irish miners kept their sense of humor. A fall of rock was a ‘Larry Duggan’ named after Butte’s Irish undertaker. Excessive coughing or miners’ consumption caused by the mines’ toxic dust was known as the ‘giggles.’ As in all Irish communities, fundraising dances and socials were organized to ease the burden of accidents or death. Stalwarts amongst the Irish societies were the Robert Emmet Literary Association, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, both of which had relief programs. Members could expect several weeks’ wages if sick or injured and lump sums in the case of death, payments were made to wives and children.

In the center of Saint Patrick’s cemetery stands a 20ft granite obelisk erected by Clann na Gael, it is decorated with harps and shamrocks, and acts as a lone sentinel for the men and women who forged new lives out of the western wilderness.

What Happened to my Ancestors?

The Carney siblings, from Edrim Glebe, Donegal, settled in Butte, with the men working in the mines. But as my sisters and I would learn, some of their new lives were cut short.

Newspaper clippings from local Butte papers of the day revealed their fates.

The first loss for the Carney family was Pat, the eldest, and under very mysterious circumstances.

Tragedy hits Edrim Glebe family

Eldest son of Sophia, and the late Patrick Carney, shot dead in gunfight.

Butte Intermountain news September 13th, 1902

Shot Carney in self-defense

John Taylor, watchman for the Montana Ore Purchasing Company, shot and killed Pat Carney of Toboggan Avenue, Walkerville at the Cora mine yesterday afternoon at 3 0’clock. The story of the shooting from the lips of Taylor, who is now in custody pending investigation, is as follows. “Paul Hudliff a shift boss at the Cora, told me that Carney, had been there and hit him in the head with a rock, this happened in the forenoon. Carney said at the time he was going to get a gun and kill everybody in sight. I went over and sat on a pile of timber and began talking to the day watchman. Suddenly a bullet came whizzing over our heads. The teamster of the Cora came running up to me, and said:

“Here’s a man with a shotgun coming. He is shooting at me and trying to kill me”.

“I went round the pile of timber and faced Carney, about 20ft away. Carney was holding the weapon in a threatening manner. I yelled to him to drop the gun. He had an old Winchester rifle. And, as I spoke, he blazed away. He kept shooting until he had emptied his gun. After the first shot his movements were rapid and he got behind the timber firing five shots at me. The company team and the timber prevented my receiving a serious wound. I could not get a chance to shoot either for fear I would hit one of the horses or some of the men. I had a six-shooter in my pocket and took it out when Carney began to blaze away”.

“My first two shots went wild. The third hit Carney in the head and he fell dead instantly without a groan. I was sorry to have to shoot so close, but it was a matter of life and death as he was pegging away at me all the time, and might have given me a fatal shot any minute.”

The jury heard that Carney had been none too well since returning from Ireland.

Deputies were after Carney

Deputies were on the track of Carney when he was killed, after the man had beaten up shift boss, Hudliff, and J.P. Sullivan, a day watchman at the Cora. Yesterday forenoon, Taylor, who is also a watchman, came downtown to the office of the County Attorney Lamb and swore out a warrant for Carney’s arrest.

Taylor feared trouble and had armed himself accordingly, as Carney, had openly boasted that “he meant to clean up the ranch.” Taylor came downtown again and gave himself up surrendering to Under Sheriff McGuigan at the courthouse.

At 5 0’ clock Coroner Johnston had been notified and was on his way to take charge of the body which lay where it fell.

Possible motive for crime

There is little doubt that Carney was insane. The only possible motive to be assigned to Carney, in his efforts to kill Taylor and wipe out the entire force up at the Cora, was animosity rankling in his breast on account of an old grudge he had against foreman Burlington of that mine. They had some trouble some months ago over a contract. Carney claimed he was to have been paid $5 a day for a certain piece of work, which, when it was completed, Burlington allowed him only $3. Carney was none to prosperous and felt the loss of the money deeply.

He acted in a peculiar manner

Carney was a native of Ireland and was 45 years of age and lived with his wife and one daughter at their Walkerville home. Last spring Carney went to Ireland on a visit. About two months ago he returned and since that time had been acting in a peculiar manner.”

Carney’s body now lies at Duggan’s undertaking establishment where an inquest will be held later this evening.

Then, seven years later, the family lost younger brother Hugh. Like his brother, Hugh died in the mine under mysterious – though not as violent – circumstances.

On the morning of January 9, 1909, the daily newspaper “The Butte Miner” reported the shocking death of my great uncle Hugh Carney:

Mystery Death of Hugh Carney

January 6, 1909

The Butte Miner

Little light shed on Carney

Hugh Carney met his death through falling from the mine cage between the 500 and 600 ft levels of the Bell Diamond, Mine on account of the gate becoming unfastened in some manner unknown to the jury”—was the verdict of the coroner’s jury, at the inquest held at Walshe’s undertaking rooms over the death of Hugh Carney, a well-known miner who was killed on Wednesday.”

Verdict of Coroners Jury

The inquest on the body of Hugh Carney commenced yesterday morning but was not concluded until 5 0’clock last evening. The inquire was a most thorough one and every possible point which might in some way explain how the gate of the cage became unfastened was gone into, but no light was thrown on the question.

It was also told at the afternoon session that the door of the gate was found hanging on the wall plate between the 400 and 800ft levels. Deputy State Mine inspector William B, Oram, stated that he went through the shaft after the accident hoping to find anything to indicate how the cage gate had become unfastened. The verdict of the jury was to the effect that Carney came to his death by falling through the cage gate that became unfastened through some unknown means to the jury.

“The inquest lasted from 10 to 5 in the evening thirteen witnesses were examined and the testimony of all was so clear showing that Carne met his death through the fault of the company in not providing a secure gate on the cage.”

Hugh left a wife, Mary Francis, and eight children. In spite of the trying conditions of the weather, the funeral was well attended as Carney was well known and highly respected by the whole community. Hugh was 42 at the time of death, born in Edrim Glebe Killymard, Donegal, he had been amongst the early pioneers to the town. He had been working in the copper mines of Hancock County, Michigan, where he met his wife Mary Francis O’Sullivan, of West Cork parents.

A Butte mining song lamented such deaths:

Only a miner killed under the ground,

Only a miner and one more is found:

Killed by the company, no one will tell,

Your mining’s all over poor miner farewell

When the Mining Days Were Over

The demise of the Irish hold on Butte’s mining world gradually came about as a result of a slowdown in emigration from Ireland in the 1920s, old Irish miners retiring, and fewer miners sons taking up mining because of easier work elsewhere.

Mining finally ceased in the 1970s as mining corporations shifted their investments to South America. Butte now relies heavily on tourism, with an emphasis on its mining past.

And what became of my family? There are to this day still some Carney descendants in Butte, but the rest dispersed across the country as did countless other Irish emigrants in search of the American dream.

Hugh Carney’s children eventually settled in Seattle and California, as many Butte Irish did.

Great uncle John returned to Donegal just before the turn of the century with his West Cork-born wife, Margaret Sheehan, and their children, buying a farm at Ballydavitt. John died soon after in 1901 reputedly from miners’ consumption. A daughter, Kate, married into the Gallagher family of the Castle Bar, Donegal Town. John and Margaret’s surviving descendants Brian, and Eamonn, live in Mountcharles, Cape Cod, Mass., Spokane, WA. And Seattle, WA.

Catherine (Kate) Carney, my great aunt, had married Peter Lorretz in Brooklyn, and made the long trek to Butte in 1901. She became widowed in 1910. Kate spent her last days in California, with her teacher daughters, Mae and Kate, and son, John. Manus, along with Winnie, disappeared from Butte without trace. Annie Carney married Chicago-born John Crimmins in 1900. They had one daughter, Ann, and lived very Irish lives in Anaconda.

During my visit to Butte, I visited Hugh’s grave but alas couldn’t find any trace of Pat’s burial, nor could I find the whereabouts of his wife and child. I’ve been searching for Pat’s burial plot on and off since my visit.

Feadfaidh siad eile i Siochain.

May they rest in peace

—

Seán Carney was born into the Irish coal mining community of Maltby in South Yorkshire, UK. He worked in the construction industry for many years in the UK, Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Ireland. He first started writing in 1996 after visiting Butte, when he described the visit in a letter to an aunt in Donegal.

Since then he has written short stories and articles for the Donegal Times, Donegal Democrat, Irish Post, and The Harp.

In 2012, he published his first book, “The Forgotten Irish” which tells the history of the Irish mining community of Maltby. The book is still selling and can be ordered via Kennys Booksellers.

He has been married to Connemara girl Máire for almost 50 years. They have four children and live in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, where Seán founded the now-defunct but prestigious Scarborough Irish Festival in the 1980s.

*Originally published in September 2015





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