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Irish History: Strange but True, Clifden (2026)

12/04/2026

An Irishman was the captain of the indomitable New Zealand rugby team which first toured the world.

Dave Gallaher and his family emigrated to New Zealand from Donegal in around 1878, settling on the North Island in Katikati.

Dave grew to 6 foot and was a talented sportsman, joining a rugby club near Auckland where he was found to be a forward of some ability.

He was quickly called up to the national squad and was chosen by teammates as captain for the 1905 tour of Europe and North America, the country’s rugby team’s first foray outside of Oceania.

They wore a strip of black jerseys, black shorts and black socks, which led to them being nicknamed the All-Blacks, a nickname that has stuck to this day.

Gallaher played against his home country in November 1905, the Kiwis triumphing 15-0. It proved to be a hugely successful tour and New Zealand lost just one match, to Wales.

Gallaher would go on to play 36 matches for New Zealand and to co-write the classic rugby manual ‘The Complete Rugby Footballer.’

He died in action in World War I in 1917 when he was hit by a piece of shrapnel while fighting in Belgium.

More than a century on, Dave Gallaher is still fondly remembered, both in his native land and his adopted home.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

11/04/2026

Bridget Dirrane was a nurse, a revolutionary and, at one point, the second oldest person in Ireland at 109.

But, most of all, she was a woman of Aran.

Bridget was born in 1894, the youngest of eight siblings in the Gillan family of Oatquarter, Inishmore, the Aran Islands.

The family were weavers and farmers, managing to sustain themselves through hard work from the rocky land around them.

Bridget rarely left the island during her childhood but nevertheless met many important people, including revolutionaries Pádraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett and Thomas Ashe, all of whom had come to the island to learn Irish.

Bridget later moved to Tipperary, a county known for its fierce republican tendencies, where she worked as a children's nurse.

This move hardened her belief in the Irish independence movement and she joined Cumann na mBan, the republican women’s organisation, and drilled regularly.

She became known to the Black and Tans and was eventually arrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison, going on hunger strike there for a time.

She spoke Irish to the guards and spent much of her time Irish dancing while in prison, much to the irritation of her captors.

After independence, Bridget settled into life on Inishmore again, although she harboured a desire to travel and in 1927 she took the 'Bád Bán' to America.

She worked variously in Boston, Mississippi and Alabama, first as a nurse and then in a munitions factory during World War II.

She also met and married Ned Dirrane, a neighbour of hers from Inishmore. Sadly, Ned died just eight years after their wedding day.

Bridget had a wide circle of friends in the Irish community in Boston and became active in politics, enthusiastically canvassing for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election.

After thirty-nine years she returned home to Aran on her retirement.

She again lived in Oatquarter and eventually married Pat Dirrane, the brother of her deceased first husband. She stated that the pair were very happy and never exchanged a cross word.

Bridget helped to refurbish the house the pair were living in and spoke of how she personally worked on slating the roof and mixing cement to construct the doorstep.

She also planted abundant flowers and trees in the garden

Bridget and her second husband lived contentedly together until Pat's death in 1990.

She melded her two wedding rings together after his death as a sign of her love for the Dirrane brothers.

Bridget soldiered on and was something of a celebrity on the island due to her colourful life and fun-loving character.

She even flew on Aer Arann's inaugural flight to the islands and met the American ambassador Jean Kennedy-Smith on several occasions.

In 2003, her memoirs were written down in the invaluable book 'Woman of Aran.' She died later that year and was buried on her beloved Inishmore.

At 109 years old, she was Ireland's second oldest person at the time.

When asked what advice she would give those who wished to live a long life, Bridget said:

'I do not like to preach but try a little kindness. Think positively and act swiftly.

And to the young people: stick to your books, avail of the educational opportunities available to you and eat green vegetables.'

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

10/04/2026

The world’s first road fatality was likely to have occurred in Ireland.

It happened in 1869 when the 42-year-old acclaimed scientist, Mary Ward, died after she fell under the wheels of a moving vehicle she had been travelling in near the town of Birr, Co. Offaly.

The vehicle was described in newspapers as a ‘road locomotive steam-engine,’ and Ward was killed when it went around a sharp corner in the town, causing her to fall from the vehicle which then drove over her.

She died instantly.

Meanwhile, the first motor car as we recognise them today to make its way to Ireland was said have been a Serpollet model, imported in 1896.

Numbers would increase exponentially year-on-year. in 1915 there were just under 10,000 cars, with a similar number of motorcycles.

A century later, there were some two million private cars in the republic alone while the number of motor cycles had increased much more slowly to just over 35,000.

This led to many improvements but also tragedies - by 1972, there would be an incredible 640 deaths on Irish roads, the worst year on record.

This number has steadily declined since with the introduction of seat belts, more rigorous testing of drivers and cars and strict drink driving laws.

Road deaths now average about 170 a year, making the country far safer for motorists than the USA and the E.U. average.

It comes in at 3.4 deaths per 100,000 people on Ireland’s extensive road network of some 62,000 miles long.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

09/04/2026

One of the worst mining disasters in Irish history occurred at a colliery between Dungannon and Coalisland (pictured), Co. Tyrone, on 10 December 1895.

There is a rich seam of coal under this part of Ireland and a long history of mining and after midnight on this date, eight miners were working approximately 550 metres underground.

The men were attempting to create a tunnel between a new shaft and an older mine, known as the Congo Shaft.

The had been supplied with maps of the underground maze of tunnels to complete the task but these turned out to be inaccurate.

Consequently, an old abandoned mine filled with water was accidentally breached during the boring.

This led to a massive inrush of water into the shaft. Six unfortunate men in the path of the violent inrush were swept away to their deaths.

Two others managed to make it to the lift and, waist-deep in water, signal frantically that they needed to be winched to the surface.

They were brought up in the nick of time and were the only survivors.

After six weeks of pumping, rescue teams entered the mine and the six bodies were discovered.

Four of the men were experienced miners from the north of England with two local men also among the casualties.

An inquest found the company 'worked strictly in accordance with the plans provided to them, which have been proved to have been defective.'

The dead men were named as Edward Rafferty, John McMullen, Frederick Mitchell, William Bretland, David Bretland and John Cooper.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

07/04/2026

There was deep anger in Ireland towards the end of the 1790s and, after the American and French Revolutions, it became increasingly obvious to authorities that rebel groups were forming in Ireland with revolutionary intent.

A failed attempt by the French to land in Ireland in the winter of 1796 increased anxiety that plans were afoot to overthrow the system.

Violence against elite landowners and their proxies had long been a reality but became more common in the late 1790s.

One incident which shocked the aristocracy occurred in the remote area of Araglin, on the borders of Tipperary and Cork.

Colonel Richard St. George (pictured), a landlord who owned more than 10,000 acres, was the only magistrate for miles around.

A veteran of the British Army, St. George was accustomed to conflict and disdainful of the new group known as the Society of United Irishmen which had sought to unite Catholics and Presbyterians against the Anglican ascendancy since its founding in 1791.

St. George threatened to burn every house on his estate if the group was aided by the local people and, in a show of intent, razed to the ground a local public house which he believed had hosted a United Irishmen meeting.

St. George was borderline reckless about his safety, and on 9 February 1798, with tensions rising in the area, he told his tenants that he was so unafraid of the rebels that he was staying without security in the house of his agent, Jasper Uniacke.

A band of up to thirty rebels broke into the house that night, killing both Uniacke and St. George using scythes, pistols and other implements. St. George attempted to defend himself with a sword but was overpowered and his co**se mutilated.

Two men from the locality, John Hay and Timothy Hickey, were tried and, partially on the identification of Uniacke's widow, found guilty. Hay was one of Uniacke's servants and had opened the door to the party.

The pair were hanged just days after the trial at Araglin, near the scene of the crime, and their bodies were later dissected. The crime certainly rocked the establishment, the Calcutta Gazette lamenting:

'The trial of two monsters, murderers, butchers. Possibly for the honour of human nature, it might be prudent to draw a veil over this almost cannibal barbarism, but mankind in general should be made acquainted with the horrid depravity to which the human species may be reduced.'

March and April saw martial law declared in parts of the country as whispers of an impending uprising reached government ears.

Incidents such as the killing of St. George heightened the fears of the elites and reinforced government beliefs that Ireland stood on the brink of rebellion, prompting increasingly harsh measures that would culminate in the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

28/03/2026

A religious apparition was said to have occurred at the small village of Knock, Co. Mayo on 21 August, 1879.

Fifteen individuals saw a vision of Mary, St. Joseph, St. John, a Lamb, and a cross on an altar on the gable wall of the church in their local village.

The apparition continued for a full two hours. This miracle would eventually get the sanction of Rome and the basilica which was later built at Knock is visited by over a million pilgrims annually.

A remarkable episode of religious fervour occurred in 1899 when members of the British-Israel Association of London arrived to the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath.

Their plan was to excavate the sacred hill, a place where for some reason they believed they were likely to find the Ark of the Covenant, a chest said to hold the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

They descended on the hill using pics, shovels (pictured) and even dynamite in an effort to discover the religious artefacts that they believed to be there.

Their actions caused uproar and luminaries of Irish cultural life such as Maud Gonne, William Butler Yeats and Douglas Hyde protested at the site, singing nationalist songs and lighting bonfires.

The Irish press backed the protestors and the would-be archaeologists were eventually forced to move on.

Ireland arguably reached the peak of its religiosity in June, 1932 when the Eucharistic Congress came to the country.

Ireland was chosen to commemorate the 1,500th anniversary of the coming of St. Patrick and masses attracting up; to a quarter of a million worshippers were held in the Phoenix Park.

A half century later, the moving statues phenomenon of the summer of 1985 also caused a brief stir across Ireland. Reports emerged in several areas nationally of Virgin Mary statues moving inexplicably.

Thousands of people gathered at the grottos, hoping to witness the statues physically move, and there were also claims of spoken messages and apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It tapered off relatively quickly, although pilgrims still come to see the statue at Ballinspittle, Co. Cork, where the phenomenon began.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

27/03/2026

Sean na Sagart, or John of the priests, is the most famous and most reviled 'priest-hunter' in Irish history.

In penal times, such priest hunters could be well remunerated for bringing a clergyman to the attention of the authorities where the punishment was likely to be severe

A native of Co. Mayo, Sean na Sagart's real name was said to be John Mullowney.

Oral tradition states that he was born in around 1690 and as a young man was caught stealing a horse near Ballitubber Abbey (pictured) early in the eighteenth century.

He was reprieved from the death sentence which this crime carried if he agreed to bring the head of one priest a year to authorities, however.

He was also offered five pounds per priest. Despite being raised a Catholic, Mullowney agreed and used many nefarious methods of discovering priests, who went to great lengths to hide themselves.

He even killed some of them himself.

At one point, he told his sister that he was dying and wished for a priest to whom he could confess his sins. She believed him and sent for the local curate, Fr. Kilger.

As he was hearing Mullowney’s confession, the latter removed a knife from his coat and stabbed the priest with it.

The circumstances of Sean na Sagart’s death in around 1726 were recorded in the Folklore Collection by children in the local area over two hundred years later:

'One day Seán followed a priest and the priest ran as fast as he could. Seán fired his knife and it stuck in the heel of the priest's shoe. The priest turned around and he took the knife and Seán na Sagart and the priest caught each other and the priest knocked him down [dead.]'

One account states that Seán na Sagart was then buried in Ballyheane on the side of the road inside a wall for everyone to see. Another states that his body was thrown into a nearby lake by locals.

Either way, his name lived on in infamy.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

25/03/2026

Irish sisters Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins, the ‘Black Widows of Liverpool,’ were infamous in Victorian times.

Born in Ireland in the years leading up to the Famine, the pair emigrated to Liverpool where they first ran a pub which soon garnered a dangerous reputation.

The sisters then set up a boarding house together.

A string of sudden deaths befell their lodgers, however.

Catherine’s son, John, was first to die.

He was just 22 and previously in good health but was struck down with a painful illness in 1880.

Catherine had allegedly said to a nurse ‘he will not live to comb a grey head.’ She was proven correct and he died after three weeks.

John had been insured with a burial society and his apparently crestfallen mother collected what was due to her shortly after his untimely demise.

Despite collecting a considerable amount of money, Catherine gave him little more than a pauper's funeral.

In 1882, Margaret married one of the other lodgers, Thomas Higgins.

His 8-year-old daughter Mary died suddenly that November.

She had also been insured, although this time Margaret Higgins was the beneficiary.

In early 1883, a third lodger, a young woman named Margaret Jennings, fell ill and died in agony.

By now, the deaths were garnering attention locally and the women moved across the city to Ascot Street to escape wagging tongues.

It was here, in October 1883, that Thomas Higgins died suddenly. An enormous sum of over £100 was paid out, dysentery being recorded as the cause of death.

The dead man’s brother was suspicious, however, and went straight to the police after finding out Thomas had been insured by multiple companies.

On the day of the wake, officers raided the boarding house, finding multiple traces of arsenic. Thomas’s body was examined and found to also contain arsenic and exhumations of the other dead lodgers were ordered.

These found the same poison present.

Catherine, who had absconded after the raid and been missing for a week, was discovered and arrested alongside her sister.

The two women stood trial for Thomas Higgins’ murder, the court finding that they had acted in partnership and found them guilty, sentencing them to death.

Afterwards, Catherine, perhaps looking for a reprieve, told authorities that the pair had been part of a wider conspiracy and there had been additional deaths involving several other conspirators, including workers from the burial societies.

She named several women and although it seemed like there was some truth in her allegations, it was decided not to proceed with any further investigations.

The sisters were hanged on 3 March 1884 at Kirkdale Prison.

Wax effigies of Flannagan and Higgins were quickly placed in Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors.

The Irishwomen proved to be among the star attractions in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

24/03/2026

'Failing to wipe off all arrears, we were one morning thrown out on the roadside and our little house and home pulled down before our eyes by the reigning institution: the ‘Crowbar Brigade’.

I was then but four and a half years old yet I have a distinct remembrance of that morning’s scene.

The remnant of our household furniture flung about the road, the roof of our house falling in and the thatch taking fire, my mother and father looking on with four young children.'

- Michael Davitt, on the eviction of his family in 1850.

Later in his boyhood Davitt, now exiled in England, stated that he often went to bed and dreamed of avenging his parents' eviction.

'I wondered whether I should ever be big enough to give the Irish landlord a licking?'

Davitt duly returned to his native land and in 1879 founded the Land League, an organisation which united small Irish farmers nationally for the first time.

The League's tactics ultimately forced legislative change which led to the introduction of land acts that improved the status of Irish tenants.

These evenutally set in motion the decline of the same landlordism which had put Michael Davitt's family on the roadside all those years before.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

23/03/2026

The 'Beresford Apparition' is one of Ireland's most chilling ghost stories.

One morning in the autumn of 1693, Lady Nichola Beresford of Curraghmore House, Co. Derry, arose from her bed.

She sadly told her family that her close friend from childhood, Lord Tyrone, had died during the night, although he was many miles away and how she could have known this fact was a mystery.

Nevertheless, a messenger arrived later to the house to confirm the sad news.

From this point on, Nichola sported a black ribbon tied tightly around her wrist, although she warned her family against asking about it.

They respected her wishes and she wore it ever after, not for many years elaborating on its purpose.

In later years, after the death of her first husband, Lady Beresford finally revealed to her children that she had been visited by Lord Tyrone on the night of his death.

He had grabbed her wrist with a cold and heavy grip and informed her that he had died. He added that she was pregnant, unbeknownst to herself, and that her husband would die shortly and she would remarry.

All of this proved correct.

He continued ominously that she would die at the age of 47. Lady Beresford lived with this terrifying spectre of death until her birthday in 1713, when she believed herself to be turning 48.

She was secretly celebrating cheating the prophecy until a clergyman present, who remembered the day of her birth, informed her that she was in fact turning 47 years old that day.

This sent her into a frenzy.

When her anxious children asked her what was the reason for her distress, she told them of her chilling night-time visitor from all those years before.

Lady Beresford duly died that year at 47 years old, fulfilling the prophecy.

After her death the black ribbon, which she had never removed, was finally taken off her wrist. The skin underneath was black and withered.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

22/03/2026

The Carrickshock Incident was the most explosive event of Ireland's 1830s Tithe War and saw multiple government fatalities.

The tithe was a levy paid by farmers to the official state religion, the Church of Ireland.

It mattered not if the farmers were Catholic or Presbyterian, as they generally were; the fee was mandatory and went to the local vicar or someone to whom he had sold the right to collect tithes.

Unsurprisingly, this caused outrage amongst these communities, particularly Catholics in the south-east, many of whom were poor and struggled to pay the cash levy which was expected of them.

Not paying led to harsh punishments but paying the tithe could also be life-threatening. One notice posted in Co. Armagh warned farmers:

'Whoever pays that impost called tythe shall be in a short time freed from all worldly cares by him who has slumbered these many days but has now recovered from his drowsiness. Therefore, we beseech you, have not a hand in your own deaths.'

There were several violent incidents related to the collection of tithes.

The first occurred at Newtownbarry (now Bunclody) in Co. Wexford on 18 June 1831 after livestock had been seized from local Catholic farmers who resisted paying the tax.

There was chaos in the town during the attempted seizure and several animals escaped from the yeomanry who had seized them.

When attempts were made to reclaim the animals by their owners, the yeomanry began to shoot. Eighteen people died.

This incident became a rallying cry for those who opposed the tithes.

Six months later, on a rural laneway in Carrickshock, near Hugginstown, Co. Kilkenny, an attempt to serve summonses for non-payment of tithes in December 1831 ended in disaster, although on this occasion it was the authorities who suffered.

After being surrounded by protestors, police shot a local man named Treacy.

The ensuing riot saw the process server, Edmund Butler, and thirteen policemen killed, many being stoned and beaten to death or killed with pitchforks by hundreds of furious local residents.

Many shouted ‘Remember Newtownbarry.’ Despite several arrests, no conviction was forthcoming for the deaths with locals remaining tight-lipped.

The name of ‘Carrickshock’ became a rallying cry at nationalist gatherings for decades to come.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

Pictured is 'The Affray at Carrickshock" by David Henry Friston.

21/03/2026

There was just one uprising during the terrible years of the Great Famine and it was short lived.

The population of the country was plummeting during the Famine years. 1 million deaths may have occurred while another 1.5 million deserted the country for foreign shores.

Unsurprisingly, there was huge anger against the authorities and food riots occured, as did an attempt at a rebellion in 1848.

The Young Ireland Movement’s attempts to overthrow the British government began when thousands of men gathered in the south east to raise a flag of rebellion.

The only real skirmish occured on 29 July 1848 and involved just a few hundred men leading a siege against policemen who had been forced into Mrs. Margaret McCormack's house in Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary.

This came to be known derisively as the 'Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch,’ and petered out after barely a day.

Despite this, the British were angered and the sentences handed out to the conspirators, even those already imprisoned before the event, were harsh in the extreme.

Leaders such as Thomas Francis Meagher and William Smith O'Brien were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

These sentences were eventually commuted to transportation when cooler heads prevailed.

The most astonishing aspect of the rebellion is the ultimate successful fate of the transported rebel leaders:

Thomas Francis Meagher became governor of the American territory (later state) of Montana;

John Mitchel, a planner of the revolution, was arrested before it and transported, although he would eventually rise to become editor of the New York Daily News;

Charles Gavan Duffy was voted as premier of the Australian state of Victoria;

Thomas D’Arcy McGee rose to become the minister of agriculture in the Canadian government.

John Blake Dillon served the New York Bar and eventually returned to Ireland where he was elected as an MP for Co.Tipperary.

James Stephens, meanwhile, stayed true to his principles and founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an organisation that would ultimately play a huge role in securing Irish independence, some seven decades later and long after his death.

For more stories of the lesser-known side of Irish history, see my new book - 'Irish History: Strange but True (from the author of 'Little History of Galway.) In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at: https://strangeirishhistory.etsy.com/listing/4446372429,

Irish History: Strange but True

12/04/2026

11/04/2026

10/04/2026

09/04/2026

07/04/2026

28/03/2026

27/03/2026

25/03/2026

24/03/2026

23/03/2026

22/03/2026

21/03/2026

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