Joe was known for his comment. “I was born in a united Ireland, I want to die in a united Ireland”.
In May 1920, Cahill was born in Divis Street in west Belfast where his parents had been neighbours with Irish revolutionary James Connolly.
Cahill was the first child in a family of thirteen siblings born to Joesph and Joesphine Cahill. Cahill was educated at primary level at St. Mary’s Christian…

The exact reasons for Vikings venturing out from their homeland are uncertain; some have suggested it was due to overpopulation of their homeland, but the earliest Vikings were looking for riches, not land. Vikings also settled in Scotland and, like Ireland, started to settle with the local population. In Scotland these people became known as The Gallowglasses and would later arrive in Ireland as…

William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…

1748 – Birth of landscape painter, Thomas Roberts in Co Waterford.
1805 – Michael Doheny, poet and Young Irelander, is born near Fethard, Co Tipperary.
1849 – Novelist, Maria Edgeworth, dies in Mostrim, Co Longford. She is laid to rest in a vault at Edgeworthstown Church. Even though in her late seventies, she worked strenuously for the relief of the stricken peasants at the height of An Gorta…