On This Day Posts

Upper Left: Thomas Mellon (1813 - 1908)Lower Left: Thomas Mellon Birthplace, Tyrone, IrelandRight: Mellon Headquarters, Pittsburgh One of America's wealthiest families originates from the small village of Cappagh in County Tyrone. In 1813, Thomas M…

Upper Left: Ulysses First EditionLower Left: Ulysses: A Reader's Odyssey by Danial MulhallRight: James Joyce (1882 - 1941) The publication of Ulysses and James Joyce's birthday coincided in 1922. The book has bewitched and bewildered readers for 10…

Left: Daniel O'Connell; Upper Right: The 1815 Duel; Lower Right: Bishopscourt House When Talking of Daniel O'Connell (1775 - 1847) to folks unfamiliar with Irish history, I often refer to him as an equivalent to Martin Luther King, Jr or Mahatma Ga…

Michael Coleman (1891 - 1945)  was born into a musical family in Sligo. Coleman is considered one of the most important 20th-century influences on traditional Irish music. In 1914 he emigrated to America, where he settled in New York City. Duri…

John Palliser (1817 - 87) was born in Dublin and raised in Waterford. His family was descended from William Palliser, a late 17th-century bishop of Cashel. Despite being multilingual, a product of his family's continental European travels, Palliser …

William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939) died on this day at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour in Menton on the French Riviera. We repeat his words to each other; they can be both lyrical and provocative. Even now, when we recite his verses long …

Mairead Maguire, peace advocate and Nobelist, was born on this day in 1944. In 1976, an out-of-control car killed three children of her sister, Ann Maguire. The driver, a member of the IRA, had been fatally shot by the British Army. Another woman, …

The enigmatic Seán MacBride was born on January 26th, 1904, the son of nationalist, political activist and poetic muse, Maude Gonne. His father, Major John MacBride was a volatile man of action who had served in the Boer war against the Briti…

Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691), considered by many to be the Father of Chemistry, was born on this day in Lismore Castle in Waterford. He was the 4th son of the enormously wealthy Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and Catherine Fenton Lismore Castle …

Sybil Connolly was born in Swansea, Wales on January 24, 1921. On her father's death, John, in 1936, the family relocated to his native Waterford. During those years, Sybil showed a flair for fashion and design and was apprenticed to a London dressm…