John Walsh & the Connaught Rangers

John Walsh & the Connaught Rangers

Often considered the most Irish of regiments in the British army, 'The Devil's Own' excelled from the Peninsula War through to the horrors of the First World War trenches. This story also looks at the career of John Walsh, a sergeant, whose career ended up in disgrace...

Ballintemple: Dark Knights, Blue Bells

BALLINTEMPLE: DARK KNIGHTS, BLUE BELLS Major Piers Butler had been living in America for close on 20 years when he embarked on his first return trip to his Irish homeland in the summer of 1785. Life on the 41-year-old Carlow man’s plantations in South Carolina had...

The Whishaws: From Rudheath to Russia

(with sub-chapters on the Henley & Yeames families) This story was commissioned in 2006 as a gift for the Green family of Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons, Co. Cork.   The Whishaw Family & the Russian Connection One of the great discoveries in probing the...
Dennis of Fortgranite, County Wicklow

Dennis of Fortgranite, County Wicklow

Kinsfolk of both Jonathan Swift and John Dryden, the Dennis family fortunes rose with a prudent marriage to a sole heiress, netting them extensive estates in Kerry, Cork and Dublin. Family members include the artist Kathleen Marescaux, the Indian tea magnate Maurice...
Acton of Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow

Acton of Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow

Now part of a magnificent National Botanic Gardens adjunct, Kilmacurragh was built by the Acton family during the reign of Queen Anne. In the 1850s, the forward-thinking Actons planted an arboretum that is now in peak condition with the greatest collection of...