Finally, to the anointed PR asses in the DAAA, when you are bankrolling the next glorification of Dublin Airport in your televised advertisements to the expense of Shannon International Airport (which somehow also belongs in your remit, for the now) please at least do us the courtesy of not hijacking work that is not of your own doing, especially confusing some of the public by presenting JP Holland and his inventions as some kind of Dublin Airport marketing ploy, or a Dalcassian clarification session similar to 1014 will have to be revisited again. Slán tamall and Happy Thanksgiving. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/gentlemen-you-have-a-country---thomas-davis-a-real-irish-president-132478203.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/gentlemen-you-have-a-country---thomas-davis-a-real-irish-president-132478203.html Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:00:34 PDT

I can only think one amongst them would. These questions have not been generally asked; just all decentskin, soapy stuff, and nasty, personal guff which has little or no public relevance. And that’s exactly what many reckon we will get, all airs of decency and dignified irrelevance. Davis sought to foster a nationality of the spirit of Ireland. That can-do, self governing, independent thought and action is exactly what we need in the wake of the economic collapse, not just confined to the citizens of the twenty six county state but extended to and embracing the cherished diaspora who are going to be targeted as part of a multimillion euro tourism campaign for the 2013 Gathering. They need, we all need a president to not just symbolise this, but to become this. We have a country still. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/exiled-gaels-and-sporting-rebels-of-ireland----part-iii-132176173.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/exiled-gaels-and-sporting-rebels-of-ireland----part-iii-132176173.html Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:15:14 PDT

PS: Congratulations to Clondegad GAA for attaining Clare senior status recently when annexing the Talty Cup; it is some parish to hold two vibrant senior teams, Lissycasey being the other - together they'd rule Munster football although the steadfast sons of Kilmurry Ibrickane may have a say yet on that for some time to come!! ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/exiled-gaels-and-irish-sporting-rebels-part-2-130772688.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/exiled-gaels-and-irish-sporting-rebels-part-2-130772688.html Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:55:34 PDT ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/irish-heritage-website-of-the-week---irelands-national-museum-130724618.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/irish-heritage-website-of-the-week---irelands-national-museum-130724618.html Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:55:18 PDT ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/the-restoration-of-the-ruined-heart-of-the-midlands-and-the-new-ireland-of-auckland-130186518.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/the-restoration-of-the-ruined-heart-of-the-midlands-and-the-new-ireland-of-auckland-130186518.html Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:25:20 PDT This is a town and a county where man has found God, craic, tax havens and all the leisure the lordly Shannon can throw up. A place where the land has given up live fish to saints - let that be an image for the resourcefulness that’s required ahead. A place with soul. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/exiled-gaels-and-sporting-rebels---exotic-stories-of-gaelic-and-indigenous-games-129715473.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/exiled-gaels-and-sporting-rebels---exotic-stories-of-gaelic-and-indigenous-games-129715473.html Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:25:18 PDT Histories and folklore, stories and legend abound about the ancient Gaelic sports of Ireland. These native games have a rich modern history, peopled by famous names and fabled places, from Ring and Mackey, Purcell and Stockwell to Thurles, Croker and Clones on a mid summers day in the Red Hand Province. The four seasons speak of the feats and fame, infamy and lows in the vernacular world of Irish sport. These contests have earned its association a rightful place as a dynamic force in today’s Irish society. Yet within the quilted patchwork of these indigenous games and memories, seldom is noticed a binding thread, which, when unraveled, takes you to the essence of our sporting traditions. Buried within the modern lore of our national games lay exotic histories which span across the world, from Batman’s Hill in Melbourne and the hallowed walls of Jerusalem to the Bocas Juniors of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires; from the glittering floodlit nigh time glory of nineteenth century Madison Square Gardens experienced by once starving Irish peasants to the Parisian playing fields of the French Sun King. One word leaps consistently from these obscured gems of Irish history amidst the tales of valour, struggle and joy – indomitable. Though defeat and victory may define the two sides of a sporting coin, these games, to borrow an iconic quote from an iconic Scouse sporting figure of another code, weren’t about life and death – they were much more than that. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/in-the-footsteps-of-saints-scholars-and-sinners---a-celtic-camino-128065538.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/in-the-footsteps-of-saints-scholars-and-sinners---a-celtic-camino-128065538.html Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:25:21 PDT Confessio Patricus, the written confessions of St Patrick, have a special resonance today, in this the age of damning reports from Raphoe to Cloyne on an infected church in an era of overwhelmingly disinterested, disconnected younger generations and demoralized older ones. Patrick apparently was an unbecoming upstart figure to his clerical peers in the mid fifth century, and the Confessio was all about setting the record straight from his own perspective. A fifth century tribunal response, if you like, where the once enslaved Briton shepherd boy of part Roman stock (some sources indicate Kilpatrick, near Glasgow was his birthplace) sets down in his own hand the circumstances that led to his mission to Ireland and how he went about answering the call. Indeed Dáibhí Ó Croinín a superb lecturer who could entice 9am attendances on hazy Friday mornings in Galway, quipped that Patrick, must have been the only citizen of the Roman empire to have been made a slave and live to tell the tale. It is also a strongly held viewpoint by Ó Croinín and prominent scholars of this period that Patrick the man, arrived into an Ireland that already had embryonic Christian communities and that aspects of these early missions are later combined within the persona of Patrick. __________ READ MORE: What presidents, poets and celebrities say about the Irish ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/romantic-ireland-is-far-from-dead-and-gone-yet-126410708.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/romantic-ireland-is-far-from-dead-and-gone-yet-126410708.html Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:55:12 PDT  Ballroom of Romance, Glenfarne County Leitrim Having but mere Travolta like social experience of the raucous disco floors of west Clare, this column would not claim to have too much insightful knowledge of the delights of the Ballroom of Romance era. However the bashful secrets of this bygone age are to be revealed in a new museum project spearheaded by the good citizens of Glenfarne in lovely Leitrim. Amongst the community leaders of this innovative heritage tourism project is Sean McDermott, a namesake and distant blood relation of the 1916 leader who helped mould Michael Collins, Sean MacDiarmada. Sean highlighted to the Celtic Times the visit of the Minister for Tourism onsite last weekend at the world famous venue as a sure step in reliving the innocent heartbeat of a bygone Ireland. The show-band showpiece is set to revive memories for golden oldies and newer audiences who may or may not have came to be from the seeds first sown at show-band halls like in Glenfarne up and down the country. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/the-orange-sash-and-the-clash-of-the-ash---the-munster-boys-of-melbourne-12th-july-1843-44-125347513.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/the-orange-sash-and-the-clash-of-the-ash---the-munster-boys-of-melbourne-12th-july-1843-44-125347513.html Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:25:10 PDT The Orange sash and the clash of the ash -The Munster Boys of Melbourne, 12th July 1843-44 The Munster Clans from far and near, ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/celtic-games-of-our-father---from-setanta-to-mcilroy-124803089.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/celtic-games-of-our-father---from-setanta-to-mcilroy-124803089.html Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:55:10 PDT Way back in the mists of time, a hero came to Scotland from Ireland. With three massive steps, he came bounding over from the green swards of the Emerald Isle to the Isle of Skye. Hanging off his thighs and traveling with him were 80 other people: 80 more on each arm; nine more spinning in his hair. He came to Scotland to compete his education as a fosterling with the Warrior Queen Sgáthach; to learn to battle and love. As a gift in return, he gave the game of shinty to Scotland. Historians, though uncertain about exact chronologies, generally testify to the both the antiquity and commonality of the ball and stick games of the Irish and the Scots. The above legend of the Queen Sgáthach and the origins of camán in Scotland, quoted by my good friend, Hugh Dan MacLennan, the Mícéal Ó Muircheartaigh of Scotland, captures through metaphor the common heritage of the Irish and Scottish national games. ‘The game of camanachd’, MacLennan continues, ‘is peculiar to the Celts of Scotland and Ireland - peculiar that is to say, to the old Scottish or Gaelic-speaking people’. Shinty - iomain or camanachd in Scottish Gaelig - was introduced along with Christianity and the Gaelic language to Scotland around 1500 years ago by Irish missionaries. It is noteworthy that Saint Colmcille is believed to have arrived in Scotland as a result of a little local difficulty at an Irish hurling match! Born in c.521 A.D. in Donegal, Colmcille is actually the first historical person to be referenced in connection with the ancient game. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/presidential-tidings-and-flying-the-flag-for-ireland-123801524.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/presidential-tidings-and-flying-the-flag-for-ireland-123801524.html Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:10:10 PDT It is good to learn of the recent news that one of the two original tricolors unfurled at the GPO buildings during the 1916 Easter Rising is now in the good hands of the folk at the American Irish Historical Society. Some comment has been raised about such a historically precious artifact, so central to the narrative of Irish independence, belonging on Irish soil, but to raise such heckles is to be totally oblivious to the point that Irish America was also at the heart of this independence movement. That the American Irish Historical Society, with its traditional warm welcome and its dedication to the motto of its founding patrons, “That the world may know” now hosts the flag is entirely appropriate. The Society’s mission since the time of Teddy Roosevelt’s involvement and before to Thomas Hamilton Murray in the 1880s has been to bring to light the history of the Irish people. The history of the Irish people, with all of its complexities and varying shades of green, has never been exclusive to mere national boundaries - a 70 million diaspora can bear witness to this. ]]> http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/guests-of-the-nation-queen-elizabeth-obama-irelands-history-and-its-future-122954873.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the-celtic-times/guests-of-the-nation-queen-elizabeth-obama-irelands-history-and-its-future-122954873.html Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:25:11 PDT Something that can be restored stronger than ever, through the global Irish village, our heritage, our sports. Pierre de Coubertin the father of the modern Olympic movement was so inspired by the Gaelic games he witnessed almost 120 years ago that he began the great new international sporting movement and it would be fitting that by 2016, the compliment can be returned. ]]>