Rolling Around the Achill Sound (1999)

Ireland’s largest outlying island is also one of its most magical. Measuring 20 kms from east to west and 18 kms from north to south, Achill Island enjoys a coastline of about 120 kms and supports a community of about 2600 people (2011). If you’ve only got time to...
Grace Kelly (1929-1982) – Olympic Gold & Mayo Princesses

Grace Kelly (1929-1982) – Olympic Gold & Mayo Princesses

In 1956 the Academy Award-winning actress from Philadelphia achieved what many deemed a fairytale dream when she married Monaco’s Prince Rainier. There hadn’t been an Irish woman on a throne since Grace O’Malley who was not just Grace’s namesake but also came from...
William Knox D’Arcy (1849-1917) – The Irish Oil Tycoon

William Knox D’Arcy (1849-1917) – The Irish Oil Tycoon

Knox D’Arcy was one of Australia’s greatest entrepreneurs. The only son of an Irish-born solicitor, he is regarded as the founding father of the oil and petrochemical industry in Iran. His company, Anglo-Persian Oil, was the forerunner of British Petroleum. He already...
Violet Jessop – ‘The Luckiest Woman Afloat’

Violet Jessop – ‘The Luckiest Woman Afloat’

Born in Argentina in 1887, to Irish parents, Violet survived three major maritime disasters while serving on board the White Star liners Titanic, Olympic and Britannic - a record that ensured Violet’s status as the most famous of Titanic’s eighteen stewardess....

Jack Judge (1872-1938)

Jack Judge (1872-1938) THE MAN WHO WROTE ‘TIPPERARY’ As the curtains parted in Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre on the evening of 27th August 1914, the audience must have craning their necks to get a better view of Jack Judge.[i] The Great War had been on for just under a...