Celebrate Your Irish Heritage

This episode of the Letter from Ireland podcast has a Hollywood theme! Not just Hollywood however, we tell two stories behind recently released movies with a strong connection to Ireland. So, what do Laurel & Hardy, Steven Spielburg, Tom Hanks, Mary Black and Carina Collins all have in common? They all feature in this week’s…

Today we tell the story of two Irish men who ended up fighting on the opposite sides of the American Civil War. One was Patrick Cleburne – also known as “Stonewall of the West” – who was born in the same village as Carina. The other was Thomas Francis Meagher – who came from Waterford…

In this episode of the Letter from Ireland podcast we take a literary turn! First off we have a look at that literary masterpiece of Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice – having fun with some of the Irish versions of the character’s surnames. Then, we trace our way from County Down to Yorkshire in…

Do you have ancestors who originated in the counties of Ulster? In this episode we interview Janet Hancock – the Deputy Head of Public Services at PRONI (The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland). We chat about: Janet’s role at PRONI and her own background. How and why was PRONI set up? How useful is…

We start this episode by hitting the high seas in the company of Saint Brendan the Navigator – a man who roamed the known (and unknown) world using the simple boats of his day. We then come back onto dry land and embark on a pilgrim trail towards Mount Brandon (named after the earlier mentioned…