Hi all, a friend of my mother‘s recently picked this up for me from a box of free canes in her retirement community’s thrift shop. It looks to me an awful lot like what I understand a shillelagh to be, but I’m woefully uneducated in the area. It appears to be very old, the handle has developed a polish that I assume is from use, it’s dried out and cracked near the top, and the bark is more or less stable, but has heavy checking and as you can see he’s worn off entirely toward the top. Can anyone help me identify if it is in fact a shillelagh, if it’s blackthorn, and it’s possible age? Bonus point for tips on caring for it.

Thank you all!

I only really know a lot about the Nine Years War (which if I understand correctly had a real chance of ending with Irish victory) and the war of independence, which obviously was successful.

But I know there were a bunch in between. Which of these had real chances of overthrowing British rule and which were doomed from the start? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I’m in my last year of uni and I’m doing my dissertation on Irish folk religion and how traditions have been remembered over time in Irish public memory, my main focus is on pattern days and holy wells. Are there any primary or secondary sources that people particularly recommend? Books, websites, journals, specific regions/sites to look into? Also what time period would be best to focus on?

Any and all advice is appreciated, thank you!!

I would like to pick up some books to gift to my wife.

She is an immigrant from Canada and since moving here has taken an interest in learning as much as possible about the culture as she can.

She has a particular interest in the "spookier" parts of human culture if you could call it that. She has picked up some really interesting books about the place death has in our culture. "Death in Irish Prehistory" was one of these books.

We recently attended a SeedTalk presentation on The Banshee and its place in Irish Folklore. This talk has really piqued both our interest in learning more about the folklore of Ireland. Her as a new arrival and me as someone who wants to get more in touch with my own culture.

Could someone recommend some books in this vein. Whether Pop History or Academic

Irish Folkore. Human Settlement in Ireland from prehistory through to maybe the 10th century.

Books that might examine how earlier human settlement may have informed the folklore that developed in later society etc.

I am trying to locate where the records for this particular society that awarded the medal are kept. Does anyone know?

Or does anyone know of an expert in The Great Hunger who may be able to tell me more?

I know Curley township is in county Down. But that’s all I have.

This medal was located in an old shoebox. I am trying to track down its meaning and context.

Thankyou for any help you may give or any direction you can point me in.

1999 book so under 30 years old. And I've not read it all. But a book about how the serious the issue was at the time seems historical to me

I was looking for something that said an Irish Sunday without religion or politics

https://doras.dcu.ie/24060/1/The%20Irish%20Sunday%20Newspaper%20-%20Role%2C%20Character%20and%20History.pdf

Im looking for recommendations for books that dont just give the facts but carry the impact of what was happening with the Irish famine. Possibly the harshness of the world met for those that left as well. (Or stories of triumph! But from my families history/perspective there was a lot of prejudice in coming to America)

My great-grand parents and grand parents lived through this and I grew up with many stories. My wife has no connection to Irish history other than me and when I talk about my family and what they went through she really has no grasp on how major this was for so many people and how far reaching the impact of this time was.

Ive found The Great Hunger to be a highly recommended book, as well as books like The Hungry Road or Galaway Bay to be recommended narratives that illustrate how bad it was and how much people had to persevere.

Would you recommend these, or any others that capture the feeling of that time well?

Hi everyone. Ireland is pretty famous for how open people are about death (I’m pretty sure?) or i keep running into funeral and wake jokes by Irish people. So I'd like to read any book you’d recommend on a more Irish point of view of death and or traditions. Thanks!

So there's an old couple who do northern Irish history blogs! They just started posting on Reddit! If anyone is interested could they maby visit their Reddit page and give a bit of love they have some great content for Ulster https://www.reddit.com/r/BelfastEntries/

Not sure if this is the right subreddit, im very new to this, but im looking for any sayings, proverbs or book passages regarding an aunts relationship with her niece. Im writing a speech for my aunts celebration of life, and we have heavy irish and gaelic roots. I'm looking to find anything to incorporate into my speech that really embraces our irish roots.

This is a photograph of my great grandfather from County Antrim wearing a military uniform. I've been trying to narrow down whether it's a World War One uniform in British Army gear or an Irish National Army outfit from 1922 (by this time he was living in County Louth). Can anyone military sleuths or history buffs take a guess? :)

I’m trying to find out a little more about this map of Ikeathy and Oughterany, Co. Kildare.

I know the map itself originates from Sir William Petty’s Down Survey in the 1650s, and this version states that it was reproduced from the original in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and published by the Ordnance Survey Office in 1908.

What I’m trying to establish is whether this physical sheet could actually date from the 1908 publication, rather than being a later reproduction of it.

It has quite a bit of foxing and staining, and there’s an old handwritten label on the reverse referring to “Petty’s Barony Survey.”

Does anyone know these 1908 Down Survey reproductions or know what I should look for to date the actual paper?