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
When we hear the word “Norman” in Ireland today, we often think of the “Anglo-Norman” invasion of Ireland in 1170 that we learned about in school. Many of my own friends today have Norman surnames – Roche, Barry, Fitzgerald and so on. We attended the same classes in school, played for the same teams and…
Would you like to know a little more about the typical origins of your Irish Surnames? Then read on…
Here are just six of our favourite Irish Heritage resources, with an example of how we can use each one to help one of our readers.
A few weeks back – we asked you if you would like to join us. Join us in sending a letter to the People of Ireland – care of the President of Ireland – Michael D. Higgins. It would be a letter from the readers of A Letter from Ireland – the vast majority of…
Do you have Irish ancestors somewhere in your family tree? As I write these words, I’m sitting on the waterfront of the beautiful town of Cobh in County Cork. On one side are the waters of Cork harbour – on the other the colourful shop-fronts of the town. In the middle of the shop fronts…
Why are there so many English (and Scottish) surnames in Ireland is a question we get asked on a regular basis. There are some good reasons for this…
This week on our road trip around Ireland, we move to the counties of Cavan, Longford, Westmeath, Offaly and Tipperary. In this post we finish our roadtrip around 16 counties of Ireland. You can see a map of the journey below – do leave a comment at the end of this blog post! This is…
A few weeks back we went on a road trip from Cork to Donegal and back – covering 16 counties in all. When we came back we wrote up a number of posts in our weekly newsletter – and these were some of the MOST popular newsletters we have done so far. This is Part…
Do you have an Irish surname in your family tree? In this Letter from Ireland we look at the Tribes of Ireland in 1150. Join us as we take a tour off the kingdoms at this time and the surnames associated with them.
This week on our road trip around Ireland, we move on to the counties of Sligo, Donegal, Leitrim and Fermanagh. As before, we’ll stick with the stories of the counties – the names and families associated with each. COUNTY SLIGO. Sligo is a pocket-sized gem of a county tucked away up in the north-west of…