Second paragraph of third chapter:During my grandmother Edwina's childhood, the family used it primarily as a shooting lodge. It was lit by candles and oil lamps and had just one bath. Water from a well was carried a quarter of a mile uphill by donkey. The sandy beaches on which the children played rolled into dunes and fields. Seal colonies lived ( Read more... )

The wars of the 1640s, which are taught in England as the Engish Civil War, began in Ireland in 1641, when a co-ordinated rebellion by Catholic aristocrats and peasants established control over a large part of the island. Many of the Protestants from England and elsewhere who had settled in Ireland over the previous decades were forced from their ( Read more... )

Lots more numbers overnight. Below seats in bold have declared their final results; seats in red are where I have either changed my prediction from last night, or else been proved wrong by the result. FF not doing as well on transfers - including internal transfers - as I had expected.

Constituency
Seats
FG
FF
SF
GP
Lab
SD
PBP
Ind

Carlow- ( Read more... )

It's difficult to call the irish election without having seen where SF transfers go. But looking at first preferences (where we have them) and tallies (where we don't) I think this is a better election for FF than people are saying. I call ( Read more... )

Second to fourth paragraphs of third chapter:You should study English, says Marianne.
Do you think I should, or are you joking?
I think you should. It’s the only subject you really enjoy in school. And you spend all your free time reading.
I had missed all the hype around this book, which won the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, the Costa Award ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third chapter:While the party fights within Fianna Fail since the departure of Sean Lemass in 1966 had focused on personal rivalries and hatreds, they also revolved around three enduring themes from past history: politics, nationalism and land. The way these continue to intertwine gives some pause for thought, especially in the ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third chapter (it's a long one, brace yourself):Ireland's first cycling club, the Amateur Velocipede Club, was organised in Dublin by Dr Austin Meldon in 1869. Its first two meeting places were Meldon's house at 10 Weston Row and the house of a pawnbroker, Edward A. Hayden, at 43 Clarendon Street, before a permanent club ( Read more... )

So, I had an article in the Irish Times yesterday:


( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third chapter: A wet salty wind. And tomorrow Marion comes back. And the two of us sit here wagging our American legs. Marion, stay away a little longer, please. Don’t want the pincers on me just yet. Greasy dishes or baby’s dirty bottom, I just want to watch them sailing. We need a nurse for baby to wheel her around some public ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third chapter:Inside was a teeming mass of bobbing heads and hoisted horns. He sank his weight onto the oak branch he'd whittled into a crutch and breathed in the familiar, happy sounds of the feis, the ancient gathering convened by the high king once every third year. Bone dice clattered, cheers spurred a chieftain crowing ( Read more... )