STANDING proudly on the north side of St Stephen’s Green, the Shelbourne Hotel is one of Dublin’s most famous landmarks. For more than two centuries, its elegant rooms and corridors have witnessed political upheaval, revolution, romance and social change.

FROM the mills of the 19th century to the playing fields of today’s Gaelic games, Dundee’s Irish story is one of resilience, cultural exchange, and enduring community spirit. Far from being a relic of the past, Irish influence in the city is not only remembered—it is being actively revived.

"I AM of Ireland… come dance with me in Ireland,” declared Erin’s greatest poet, WB Yeats. It is hard to overestimate the significance of Yeats to the development of modern Ireland. The Sligo poet was the artistic father of the Irish Literary Revival, and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, which put Irish creativity at the centre stage of the emergent cultural Nationalism in the late 19th century.

SOME older readers will recall The Irish Weekly—sister paper of The Irish News—being sold in churches throughout Scotland. It was a Nationalist and Catholic publication, which, in 1892 incorporated The Ulster Examiner. The content was of Irish interest whether in news, prose, history or verse.

IN 2017, the Irish language television channel, TG4, broadcast a programme, Bus Ghlaschú, about the bus services between Donegal and Glasgow that acted as a vital link between the two places. It was so popular that it was also picked up by BBC Alba, the Scottish Gaelic channel and would have reminded many people of the long and difficult journey as well as the many happy reunions enabled by the bus.

IRELAND'S first railway was opened between Dublin and Kingstown—now Dún Laoghaire—in 1834, just nine years after the pioneering Stockton and Darlington opened for traffic. The Irish line made history as the world’s first commuter railway. Steam-powered, it was built to the standard British gauge of four feet eight-and-a-half inches between the rails and today’s modern, electric DART trains still use the route on their way to and from Greystones.

THE day after an uninspiring loss to Shamrock Rovers, my brother and I made our way by car to the cradle of the Hibernian Football Club—Ballingarry in County Limerick—to attend a service to commemorate the founder Canon Edward Joseph Hannan.

GROWING up in East Kilbride in the 1960s was a bit surreal. As the first new town in Scotland, it was a bit of a social experiment and, by extension, its residents were the guinea pigs.

JULY 2026 marks an incredibly special date for the organisers, volunteers and pilgrims, past and present of an incredibly special group of people—St Margaret of Scotland Youth Group (SMSYG)—as they celebrate their Golden Jubilee.

KEEPING on the theme of 18th century rogues, perched atop Montpelier Hill in the Dublin Mountains, the Hellfire Club is one of Ireland’s most famous historic ruins.

‘AN IRISHMAN'S heart is nothing but his imagination,’ observed George Bernard Shaw (GBS). In the history of literature, few writers have accumulated more honours than the extraordinary Dubliner.

THIS year’s Edinburgh Mary is Cara Molloy, originally from West Belfast, but now living and studying in Scotland’s capital city. Cara was recently crowned by the Edinburgh Emerald Irish Social Group at Gilmerton Miner’s Club.

THERE'S nothing to beat the company of friends, especially when they’ve been in your life forever and you know, and love, each other like sisters. Four of us took a trip back to Donegal together. We hadn’t been in Gweedore together since we were 17!

WITH World Cup fever fully underway around the world, fans of Irish football might be feeling a little left out. A summer of GAA action is providing some diversion, but with another competition coming round with no Irish involvement now might be the time to take a little wander down Memory Lane.

HOLY Cross Church in Crosshill was packed to the rafters for Charlie Devlin’s Requiem Mass, a sign of just how highly valued and deeply admired he was in a remarkable life.

IN THE Dublin of the late 18th century, a peculiar and troubling phenomenon took hold among a segment of the city’s privileged youth. Known as the ‘Pinking Dindies,’ these young men, drawn largely from wealthy or aristocratic backgrounds, became synonymous with disorder, intimidation, and casual violence.

THE days when an oil rush brought Irish Catholics flocking to work in the shale mines and oil refineries of West Lothian (above), are being recalled thanks to the establishment of a Shale Trail, linking Livingston with West Calder.

JUNGLE Days: Supporting Celtic in the 1980s by John Wight does what it says in its title. The book chronicles his support of the Bhoys in the one of the most turbulent decades of the 20th century. Yet the tome delivers far more, giving a superb history of Celtic and its importance to the Irish in Scotland.

IN EARLY June 1937 a squad of 23 young seasonal agricultural workers left Achill Island, County Mayo to work on the annual Scottish potato harvest. There were 13 young women and girls and 10 young men and boys; the average age of the latter being around 16, the youngest, 13 years of age.

WHEN my son, Gabriel Cormac, was accepted to Law at the University of Glasgow, I had never been so proud of him. I paid for his rites of passage sixth year leavers’ party trip to Corfu. But I wanted to give him gifts of value rather than something that had a mere price. So, I decided to give him my two most prized possessions that I have carried with me throughout my adult life.