Men in Tights – The Battle of the Boyne 1690

MEN IN TIGHTS – THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE 1690 On a warm and sunny summer afternoon, I am walking across the River Boyne at Oldbridge, County Louth, when I chance upon an old codger taking his hound for a stroll. We strike up a conversation, about a ruined shell of a...
The Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

The Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

‘The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it’. A short account of Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694 – 1773), British statesman, man of letters and arguably the...

Colonel John Ievers (c. 1650 – 1729) of Sixmilebridge

COLONEL JOHN IEVERS (C. 1650 – 1729) OF SIXMILEBRIDGE Colonel John Ivers was born circa 1650 and was the second son of Henry Ivers by his marriage to Elizabeth Butler. Following the disinheritance of his older brother Henry for marrying a woman ‘of noe forune’, John...

Colonel Henry Ievers (1696-1758)

Colonel Henry Ievers (1696-1758) FROM COLLEGE BOY TO HIGH SHERIFF Colonel Henry Ievers, the prosperous barrister who built Mount Ievers, was the eldest son of Colonel John Ievers, whom he succeeded in 1729. He was a grandson of the Henry Ivers who acquired so much of...
Barton of Straffan House, County Kildare, and Grove, County Tipperary

Barton of Straffan House, County Kildare, and Grove, County Tipperary

The remarkable tale of the family of ‘Wine Geese’ who, having arrived in Ireland in the last year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, prospered in the wine trade despite the French Revolution.  They owned the Châteaux Léoville Barton and Langoa vineyards from where some of...