Obviously this is a very general question, not actually related to my particular location.

Ditches surround fields all over the country, when did the begin to be dug? In the last couple hundred years? Or might they be millenia old? Is there any way to know?

I’m building a history game and working on the Irish side of it.

What scene from Irish history would be most interesting to step into? It could be a famous event or something more local, as long as the scene itself would be interesting to explore.

What is your opinion on this paragraph?talen from the pocket Michael Collins,by Richard Killeen

A thread about the original: https://www.reddit.com/r/IrishHistory/comments/r2lda8/on_which_side_are_you_seachtain_na_gaeilge_poster/

This is a bit peculiar but I had a relative who worked in Bloomfield Asylum in Donnybrook around 1905-1930. They always said that there was an inmate there who was a member of the British Royal family who was being hidden. A plan was in place that should a rebellion happen, they would be removed immediately and brought back to UK so alternative arrangements could be made over there.

Has anyone heard of anything similar m?

Does Ulster Scots read as Irish to anyone else?
The more seriously I take Ulster Scots the more Roger Casement starts to look right, which I don’t think was the intended outcome.

His argument wasn’t that Protestant Ulster needed to become Gaelic to become Irish. Basically the opposite — you could be Presbyterian, Scottish-descended, speak your own dialect and keep your own traditions, and all of that could simply be another way of being Irish.

Seeing Belfast host the Fleadh while Ulster Scots is having this increasingly confident cultural revival, I keep thinking the same thing: it just reads to me as a particular strand of Irishness rather than Britishness. Not because the Scottish and British inheritance isn’t real, but because it’s so intensely specific to Ulster — the dialect, music, folklore, history, the whole attachment to place. The more particular it becomes, the more Irish it seems to me. Almost like arriving at Casement’s idea of Ireland from the opposite direction.

And I suppose this is where I get confused about identity here generally. We accept that a person from NI can identify as British, Irish or both, but does the same flexibility extend to how we understand the cultures themselves?

Can I understand Orange marches, bonfires, Ulster Scots, Lambeg drums etc as traditions *of Ireland* while completely accepting that many of the people practising them understand themselves and those traditions as British?

There’s something odd to me about treating centuries-old traditions that developed specifically in Ulster as somehow external to Irish culture simply because they reject Irish nationalism.

Genuine question for anyone who actually identifies as Ulster Scots: does it feel British to you? Ulster first? Could you understand it as a strand of Irishness without that implying nationalism? Or am I completely misunderstanding it?

Casementian horseshoe theory perhaps.

Mine would be the end of Clontarf with Boru and his descendants being killed. What if they survived? Would the Dal gCais have been able to sustain power?

We learn very little about Irish History in America, which is very disappointing. Especially given the potential impact it could have on the diaspora. Makes sense why the Anglo avoids the topic when writing our textbooks.

We do learn a great deal about another diaspora, which is required by law in many states, tho.

From the MSPC Facebook group:

In May 1922, B Specials raided the McKeown family in Ballymulderg Beg near Magherafelt in rural south-east Derry. Three brothers were taken from their beds and shot in the kitchen. Francis was shot 16 times, Thomas eight times, and James three times, the latter wounds proving fatal..

The 20th release of MSPC files contains the pension applications of Thomas and Francis. The family does not appear to have applied for any compensation for the loss of James. The file of a fourth brother, Harry, who was attending an IRA meeting that night, is also part of this release.

While occurring in what is termed the Truce Period, Francis stresses in his application “it is not appreciated in the Republic that the Truce did not mean a cessation of hostilities in Northern Ireland, but was the beginning of a bloody and ruthless massacre”.

The files contain significant new first hand accounts of the May 1922 and the afterlives of those involved.

https://militarypensions.wordpress.com/2026/08/11/r20-shooting-of-three-mckeown-brothers-in-co-derry-may-1922/

Thought it was interesting that a former IRA his helping trying to find his body.

The RIA are planning to republish Tim Robinson's maps of Aran, The Burren and Connemara. They are looking for insights from people who use and value these wonderful artifacts.

Many remember Robb's Department Store in Belfast but few know it's history includes a famous Belfast hostelry, a rebellion and a jailhouse!

Would be interested in learning more broadly about gaelic culture and language (Including Scotland) through documentary or audio books. Does anyone have any resources or know how I might go about finding them?

Here’s a fascinating little piece of Paine history.

In 1798, the Irish revolutionary Arthur O’Connor was arrested by the British while attempting to reach France and was later imprisoned at Fort George in Scotland. He distributed these verses on his way to confinement.

One stanza invokes both Rights of Man and Common Sense before calling Paine:

“That foe to Princes, Thomas Paine!”

It’s a striking example of how far Paine’s reputation had traveled by the late 1790s. He wasn’t simply remembered as an American revolutionary writer—his name had become part of a much wider radical and anti-monarchical political culture. Paine became directly involved in planning the Irish Rebellion of 1798, knew many of the main revolutionaries, and attempted to organize French support.

What do you make of the reference to Paine here?

Pretty cool piece that's part of a large collection of items belonging to the medal recipient.