A Short History of Irish Gold

A Short History of Irish Gold

There is gold in Irish hills, as evidenced by recent finds on the Armagh-Monaghan border, Slieve Glah in County Cavan and the Sperrins Mountains of County Tyrone. Ireland’s rapport with gold actually began about 4,000 years ago when the Bell-Beaker people arrived in...
Notes on Arklow, County Wicklow

Notes on Arklow, County Wicklow

The stories of the Arklow munitions factory, a 1920s party animal, the brilliant Ronnie Delany, a spy called Agent ZigZag, a lady mariner, the man who made Jefferson presdient, and an old world cure for Charles Stewart Parnell’s wounded hand. Extracted from Past...
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...
Barton & Childers of Glendalough House, Co. Wicklow

Barton & Childers of Glendalough House, Co. Wicklow

  “Fide et Fortitude” (By fidelity and fortitude)   The story of the Barton family is told in depth in my account of the Bartons of Straffan House, County Kildare, and Grove, County Tipperary. What follows here is a shorter précis of that, related to the branch that...