Letter Archive
Welcome to the letter archive page for the weekly "Letter from Ireland". We started to write these letters in 2013 covering Irish Genealogy & Family History, Irish Surnames, Irish Culture & Customs and Ireland Travel, here you'll find a link to all of them.
Browse the letters listed on this page and jump to one that interests you, or enter a placename, surname or other item in the search box below to see related letters.
All of our weekly letters to date
Carina and myself were settling down in front of the TV last night – and up came the story of one Ernest Shackleton, in this case played by Kenneth Branagh. About 30 minutes into the movie, we are introduced to the Irishman who accompanied Shackleton on his South Pole voyage in 1914 – one Tom…
We were at a funeral/wake yesterday, and is the convention at such occasions in Ireland – a “drop” of Irish Whiskey was poured for the mourners and well-wishers as they entered the house. Have you ever had a “drop” of Irish Whiskey yourself? I just saw a interesting item on the newswire this morning –…
This week, we’re going to start off with a “bonus” letter. Here is a letter I wrote around about this time last year. It was all about “The Fighting Irish” – and how “faction fights” evolved into the Irish sport of Hurling today. Click here to read more about the Fighting Irish and the birth…
I was inside O’Flynn’s butcher shop yesterday, and something happened to trigger a memory long forgotten – three memories in fact. It seems they’re a bit like busses – they often come in groups of three! The first of those memories brought me all the way back to my early school days in the seaside…
Just last September, one of our Green Room members, Eunice Hawkins visited the City of Liverpool on the west coast of England, and compiled a wonderful “trip report” that reminded us of the so many links between Ireland and Liverpool: “Interesting visit yesterday! Liverpool has 2 cathedrals – the gothic designed Anglican, and the RC…
A few weeks ago, we announced our new reader of the month competition. Each month, we take one of your stories or letters, and feature it here with comments from myself. So, here is our reader of the the month for February – Lynn Clements from New Jersey in the USA: Lynn starts off: Hello…
With tens of millions of people around the globe claiming Irish heritage, there is a ever growing number of descendants wanting to trace their ancestors back to Ireland. In this letter we will follow one reader’s path to discovery.
He has sent on the above message especially for our readers and members on this Saint Patrick’s Day. For those of you who do not know President Higgins, he is held in high esteem by the vast majority of the people on this island. He is a scholar, a poet – and was a political…
I decided to lay out as many Irish names as I could come up with in this article. I included the answers to many of the questions I received – maybe you can find some of your familiar names below? We’ve also now created an Irish name translator for you to try out. It’ll try…
Do you have any school teachers in your family tree? Perhaps they have fond memories of the hallowed halls in which they taught, the ordered classrooms, fully stocked with the supplies of a good education. In this letter, we will visit a humbler school setting, that was the only option for many Irish schoolteachers during lean times.