The Halpin Family: Lighthouse Builders, Port Engineers, Pioneers

The Halpin Family: Lighthouse Builders, Port Engineers, Pioneers

A dynasty whose bloodlines interlink across multiple generations from their origins in the Huguenot stronghold of Portarlington, County Laois, to Wicklow, the Dublin Docklands, Meath and the distant lands of the USA and Australia. George Halpin, the ‘Founding Father’...
Notes on Ballina, County Mayo

Notes on Ballina, County Mayo

The stories of one of Ireland’s most successful presidents, the origin of the town ‘Font’, a pioneer of showbiz in Chicago, the engineering ancestors of Joe Biden, a leading opponent of slavery and a strike by schoolboys seeking an end to corporal...
Sir William Gregory (1817-1892) – Governor of Ceylon

Sir William Gregory (1817-1892) – Governor of Ceylon

Considered one of the finest governors of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in the island’s history, Sir William’s legacy is complicated by the appalling treatment of Tamil labourers, as well as the Gregory Clause in Ireland during the Great Hunger. His wife was the...
The Moffatts – Bannockburn to Ballybay, Blackrock to Baghdad

The Moffatts – Bannockburn to Ballybay, Blackrock to Baghdad

From the Scottish Borders to the drumlins of Monaghan, from Blackrock to Baghdad — the story of the Moffatt family, and of Willie Moffatt CBE, the Trinity-trained sapper who spent 35 years building Iraq’s railways and rose to Director General under King Faisal II....
The Dacres Dixon Family (1630-2025)

The Dacres Dixon Family (1630-2025)

Following a family famous for the Mason-Dixie line, who made their mark as astronomers, canal engineers and wildlife artists, with cameos by intrepid emerald hunters in Colombia and Venezuela, plus the Red Lion Inn in Henley-on-Thames and links to the families of...