Family historians will be able to access 21 million birth, marriage, and death records free of charge, on Thursday 24th of January.

Cork will host many of Silicon Valley’s most successful entrepreneurs, senior technology executives and investors next week when the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) arrives in Ireland for the Global Technology Leaders Summit.

One of America’s largest Irish families the ‘McCormicks’ are being invited home to Ireland for a Clan Gathering in August 2013.

As part of the year-long Gathering in Ireland, the Kenmare Gangs of New York Festival will take place in Kenmare, Co. Kerry from August 30 until September 1.  The event was launched at the Central Bar in New York on Friday night.

John McLoughlin casts a plane against the rugged surface of walnut, peeling its layers and compelling the timber to shape. The wood shavings, and the gatherings of dust and splinter, fall delicately upon the floor and table. Buckets of water-based paint and panels of unfinished wood stand strikingly against a wall of brick and mortar.

“Finally,” I remember thinking when I first heard of The Gathering Ireland.

If you’re planning to fit in seamlessly in Ireland this year during The Gathering Ireland 2013 then “How To be Irish: Uncovering the Curiosities of Irish Behaviour” is essential reading.

The Rose of Tralee International festival is reconnecting with over five million people who have attended the festival since 1959, for the extended Rose Gathering celebration which will take place from 14th to 16th August 2013.

Irish history is a constant reminder of how both amazing and modest we Irish actually are.

From October to December 2012 the number of trips to Ireland from North America increased by 14.2 percent, which is up to 201,300 trips from the same time last year. The Central Statistics Office has just reported the figures.

Over five million people who have been to the Rose of Tralee International Festival since 1959 are being invited to return for an extended Rose Gathering from August 14-20 this year.

Businessman Dan Adams from Boston has offered to help advertise the Donegal Gathering throughout the US.

Jasmine Guinness has launched details of the Guinness Storehouse Ambassador Programme for the year of ‘The Gathering’.  Irish residents can apply online to receive one of 50,000 exclusive ambassador cards entitling them to complimentary admission to the Guinness Storehouse throughout 2013.  Their friends and family who come home for ‘The Gathering’ will also receive a ten percent discount off admission.

The Leitrim Genealogy Centre is organizing the return of the Leitrim Roots Festival for September 2013. The Leitrim Roots Festival hopes to attract anyone who has connections with Leitrim.  Its aim is to get visitors to spend a week in Leitrim and get to know the beauty and history of the county of their ancestors. The festival is also for visitors who want to have a genuine Irish experience and interact with local communities and it is for Leitrim people who would like to experience all that their home county has to offer.

How would you like a free flight to Ireland and three nights free accommodation this October? That’s what San Francisco-based Irish entrepreneur Paul Downey is offering in return for a small favor.

The Roses are gathering in Tralee next August and the 2012 Rose of Tralee, Nicola McEvoy, is heading north to spend a week issuing invitations to the people of Ulster  to join in the celebrations in Kerry.

County Clare’s Gathering could be record breaking – largest gathering of people with the same name in the world
Everyone named Claire, Clair or Clare need to travel to Ennis this June

Boyle Co. Roscommon has been put on the map and it’s all thanks to funny man Chris O’Dowd. The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids star, who hails from the Co Roscommon town, certainly hasn’t forgotten about his roots. From his country accent to his Twitter name @BigBoyler, O’Dowd certainly isn’t lacking in hometown pride – a fact that’s solidified in his comedy series Moone Boy.

Carrick on Shannon in county Leitrim is preparing itself for a tourism boost of approximately €8m during 2013 as in excess of 26,000 additional visitors are expected to celebrate and take part in a major landmark in the town’s history, as 2013 marks the 400th anniversary since King James 1st granted the town charter.

Across Ireland's landscape thousands of years of history are recorded by ring-forts, round towers, castles, Georgian streets and thatched cottages. All are built to endure in stone. It's perhaps more surprising that an equal span of history is still marked today in the far more fragile form of Ireland's traditional boats.

Megan Smolenyak is the expert genealogist behind such discoveries as Barack Obama’s Irish roots and the true identity of Annie Moore, the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. With ancestral links to Cork, Kerry, Longford and Antrim, Smolenyak is always happy to discover “surprise Irish” in her research, though her work goes far beyond traditional genealogy. We had the chance to talk to her about her most famous findings, the other aspects of her work and the best way for us amateur genealogists to begin to trace our roots. 

The Gathering of the Clans in South Kerry, which is taking place Easter week, is looking to bring two people home from North America courtesy of Cable O’Leary’s in Ballinskelligs to join in their week long celebration as their guests of honor.
 
The ‘Fly them home’ competition is being run on the Gathering of the Clans Facebook page and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize is to describe why you and your partner or a couple you know deserve to to be flown home to South Kerry.
 
It’s all part of the ‘Gathering of the Clans’ taking place this year from the 23rd to the 1st of April in conjunction with the gathering 2013. ‘The aim is to create a week-long event in South Kerry with the primary goal of bringing the South Kerry Diaspora home and also to appeal to the national and international visitor in a celebration of our culture, sports, and heritage.’ said Joe McGill, one of the founders of this unique event.

Jim Corr, one quarter of Ireland’s super-group The Corrs, has given the strongest indication yet that a band reunion may be on the cards.

Dunhill, Co. Waterford and the surrounding area is set to be a hive of activity this summer as the far flung branches of the Power Clan are set to reunite for a 5-day Bank Holiday Weekend of fun filled and interesting events.

Organizers of Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade have promised the annual celebrations will be the best yet, with the greatest ever number of overseas participants set to take part.

The newest figures from the Central Statistics Office reveals an increase of 4.4% in passengers from North America to Ireland between November 2012 and January 2013. In comparison to the same time period last year, this is an additional 52,900 trips within a very small time frame.

A lot of the Irish Workhouses fell into ruin or were burned down in the years after the Famine, but one of the few remaining can be found in the town of Carrick-on-Shannon.

A great crowd gathered in Cable O' Learys, in Ballinskelligs, to hear that two Irish Americans, Ann Smith and Michele Maggi Miller, would be flown home to County Kerry to mark the season of events taking place for The Gathering. The cousins, both New Yorkers, won the competition to be flown back.

The Dingle International Film Festival 2013 is set to prove once again that it has something for everyone. Throughout the weekend the town will be filled with filmmakers, writers, animators, artists and Fungi followers  sampling the best that cinema has to offer. This boutique festival now in its seventh year promises to the best ever.

The Percy French Festival – The French Connection - in association with Roscommon County Council and to coincide with The Gathering Ireland takes place from the 10th – 12th July 2013.
 
Set in the wonderful historic Georgian building of Castlecoote house in French’s native town the annual festival plays host to an exciting and diverse programme of lectures, recitals, poems, monologues, music, and paintings celebrating the life and times of the multi-talented William Percy French.
 
The Festival features prominent speakers covering the historical and sociological context of his life and work.
 
Percy French’s multifaceted role in the Anglo-Irish cultural heritage can be shown to be both important and fascinating yet until now it has been somewhat neglected.
 
The Festival seeks to illuminate the considerable social significance of French’s song writing, poetry, and paintings and their relevance to Ireland’s various ways of life today.  The Festival has succeeded in attracting a wide range of significant authors, academics, politicians, and artists to lecture and perform.
 
The range of lectures and events in the programmes to date reflect the broad spectrum of interests of its directors.  The Festival’s Honorary President is, President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins.
 
The festival takes place at Castlecooote House,  Castlecoote, Co. Roscommon from 10th to 12th July. For more information visit www.percyfrench.ie or the festival’s Facebook page.
 
This event is being run as part of the Tourism Ireland year-long tourism initiative The Gathering.
 
Here’s the audio for Percy French’s most famous song “Are ye right there Michael are ye right?”:
 

Paul Byrom, one of Ireland’s premier tenors, has partnered with The Gathering Ireland 2013 and Tourism Ireland as an ambassador of Irish music on Ireland’s global outreach initiative. 

Ireland has gone green for St Patrick’s Day – and the country has been painted white as snow fell and the cold snap deepened.

Snow and rain failed to dampen the spirits as thousands of tourists added a mix of color to the St Patrick’s Day festivities all across Ireland.

Failte Ireland, Ireland’s National Tourism Development Authority, has said that The Gathering is already benefiting the Irish economy.

They say you can never go home. Even so, while Ireland’s Minister for Tourism tries to lure the secretive Irish out of their silence, we diaspora hope against all odds to be found, to be brought into the fold, home.

President Michael D. Higgins was VIP guest on the viewing platform at Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday before he flew next day to Rome for Pope Francis’s inaugural Mass on Tuesday.
Higgins was among a half-million who watched the Dublin parade at which Westlife singer Nicky Byrne was grand marshal.

The Irish government has relaunched their genealogy website, which offers visitors a new portal that includes historical records from multiple sites. It is a major breakthrough in bringing together all genealogy sources in one site.

According to the Central Statistics Office’s overseas travel bulletin, the number of trips into Ireland has increased over a three month period, showing a rise in flights to Ireland from North America while trips by British residents have continued to decline.

Experts who developed the London 2012 Olympic Torch are working on a newly built Emigrant Flame in New Ross, Wexford, which will be lit by members of the Kennedy family this summer.

Conference Partners has officially launched the Irish World Cup 2013 event, an amateur soccer tournament open to both male and female adult soccer teams of all skill levels from all over the world. The event will take place from the 7th to 9th June 2013 in University College Dublin, and promises to be the largest seven-a-side tournament since the London 2012 Paralympic Games. With player packages starting from €40 per person, everyone from soccer enthusiasts to those seeking a holiday with a difference, are encouraged to gather and register a team and come to Ireland to play a minimum of six matches for the chance to win a prize pot of €5,000 and a VIP day out at a World Cup Qualifier game; Republic of Ireland vs. Sweden on September 6th.

Luka Bloom, Martin Hayes, Donal Lunny, John Spillane, Steve Cooney and Hermitage Green are amongst the acts lined up to perform during the inaugural Doolin Folk Festival on June 14th to 16th 2013. Sponsored by Smithwick’s Pale Ale the three-day festival will take place on the grounds of Hotel Doolin, less than a mile from the site of the famous Lisdoonvarna Festival of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The people of County Clare have extended their invitation to The Gathering in the form of a song written by songwriter and Ennis native, Peter Keane.

Action hero Tom Cruise, famed for his horrific Irish accent in the 1992 movie “Far and Away.” is set to be presented with a scroll by the Irish government to honor his Irish roots. The Hollywood star, who traces his roots to County Roscommon, will be travelling to Ireland to promote his new movie “Oblivion.”