Explore the Druidic families of Ireland and their professions in this week’s letter. Some Irish surnames are associated with professions, such as “Hickey” for “Healer” and “Ward” for “son of the Bard”. Who knows, your family might have inherited a trait from these ancient times!

How The Irish Saved Civilisation (#742)

In this episode, we look at the time of the Brehon laws of Ireland and take an example of just some of these Gaelic common laws that held our society together. We also chat about the Brehon families and some of the Irish surnames associated with these families. We then go on to chat about…

Do you Know your Irish Ancestral Origins?

I often come across a new member in the Green Room who provides us with the “facts” of their Irish ancestors origin in Ireland. I say “facts”, but these facts sometimes appear unlikely when presented to an Irish genealogist. For example, we might receive facts that a couple who were born in different parts of…

An Irish Placename Travels Abroad to the City of Baltimore.

If you were to pull out a map of your area this moment and have a look, how many places would you spot named after Irish villages, towns and counties? As you may have noticed, anywhere that the Irish – and other nationalities settled in numbers – they also brought along the names of their…

The Stone Circles and Druids of Ireland

Have you heard of the Druids of Ireland? Long before Christianity reached Ireland’s shores, there was a complex culture of beliefs involving the practices of law, medicine, and the oral tradition. In this letter we discuss the Druids, the ancient intellectual class of ancient Ireland.