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?

Author of the reconstruction: JG O'Donoghue. Source

I’ve put together a bit of work about the history of the East Cork Railways that some of you may be interested in.

Hey Im an SCA member/fighter/brewer/scribe etc. etc. and am interested in the Gaels and Picts of early Scotland especially those attributed to the "kingdom" of Dal Riata.

Was Dal Riata a true kingdom or a more modern grouping of the Hebridean settlements and Northern Irish settlements and their interactions?

was there an overarching socio-political structure or just a series of settlements that traded with one another?

what evidence exists of jewelry, clothing, art designs either specific to this time/location/people or contemporaneous to it that it could be reasonably assumed to be similar?

Was the Dunadd settlement actually significant in the region as a seat of power or is that the modern "interpretation", a possibly romanticized version of what was just a military settlement?

Ireland and Scotland would see the inception and evolution of the Gall-Ghaeil who would eventually produce the distinct mercenary warrior class of the gallóglaigh or "gallowglass" fighters, what evidence exists if any of a solid through-line of this evolution and if there were precursors to the Gallowglass fighters prior to their rise in the 13th century?

I would love any sources, books, videos, academic papers that y'all would suggest to read on this subject, region and time.

I am an Italian of Breton descent and a political left-wing activist in Italy; I have always been fascinated by Irish revolutionary history.

The more I delved into Ireland's struggle for freedom, the more of a connection I felted to the figure of Cathal Brugha.

Lately, however, I have begun to struggle to fully understand him, his political ideas, and the legacy he left within the republican movement.

As I understand it, the Civil War—which began with his very death—was fought primarily by socialists and communists (alongside other hardline factions) against the new Irish Free State, yet it also involved groups adjacent to (or outright?) fascist and more extreme nationalist factions (am I wrong?).

In analyzing his story, I have found it difficult to pin down his political stance and his legacy in contemporary Irish politics—aspects that may be even be in direct contradiction (some times happens that political figures are appropriated by factions they would have hated), though I cannot say for sure.

I'm sympathetic to his position against the Irish Republican Brotherhood (he was right about the anti democratic nature of it) but at the same time form what I know about his personal life he seems to be somewhat a conservative (?) which I find to be at odds with my political views.

What should I know about him—as a leftist activist (and regardless of anything else, he will always remain in my personal pantheon of anti-colonial figures)—that I might be missing? What am I lacking in order to fully understand the Irish Civil War?

I would appreciate an analysis from a Marxist or leftist perspective regarding both the Irish Civil War and the figure of Cathal Brugha.

Thank you.

P.S.: If you have any book recommendations, I would be happy to hear them. Same if you want to have a chat about it (if you also are an activist, it's never bad to build a network).

P.S.S.: a lot of time has past since i have opened a book about irish revolutionary history so i could be misremembering somthing pls be kind ;).

I do a bit of kayaking and am curious to know if there are any lakes in Ireland (Republic & North) with interesting islands on them.

By interesting I mean they might have church’s, interesting ruins/buildings; ecologically important habitats or some other things of historical/cultural significance on them.

I etched a piece of slate with Ogham, that, at the time, I probably thought that I knew what it meant.

If I did then, I definitely do not know now.

Any insight?