Celebrate Your Irish Heritage
Hi, we're Mike and Carina. We travel Ireland and the Irish ancestral trails of the world, connect with people of Irish descent and share the resulting stories, photos, videos and podcasts with you.
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Recent Articles
For hundreds of years to up the arrival of the Normans in the late 12th century – Ireland was divided into many autonomous kingdoms – ruled over by a “Ri” or King. These Kings won their lands through military and political might – the boundaries of their kingdoms were constantly changing with the ebb and…
Today we’re looking at Viking, Norman, Galloglass and Planter (English and Scottish) names. Let’s take a few examples using the ancestral family of one of our Readers – Patricia Clarke (thanks, Patricia J ). Patricia gave me six of her family names: Byrnes, Clarke, Halpin, Leonard, Martin and Rafferty. While I may be COMPLETELY incorrect…
Would you like to run an Irish Castle for a day? Sound exciting? But we’re not talking about just a castle – also the large family estate of lands that surround it. A few weeks back, Carina and myself went to County Galway and visited Aughnanure castle in Oughterard. Ever been there? Aughnanure was the…
Here on the Letter from Ireland – we focus on your Irish surnames and where in Ireland they come from – why? Simply because this matters to people! The 3 most common questions I get asked are: Questions 1 and 2 are what we are all about, as for question 3? That’s one for our…
Is your surname Irish? Maybe you’re not sure if it’s Irish or Scottish. You’re not alone, many of my readers ask me if their surname is Irish or Scottish. In this letter I hope to answer this question for you and give you some facts about Irish vs Scottish surnames.