ON THE night of Saturday March 11, 1923, more than 100 Irishmen and women across Britain were rudely awoken by police, arrested, before being bundled into train carriages and taken to ports across the country. Amid much confusion, these men and women were transported by boat (above) to Ireland and imprisoned. Their crime: anti-Treaty activities committed against the newly established Irish Free State, during the height of the Irish Civil War.

"IF MORE politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics… the world would be a little better place in which to live.” These are the words spoken by John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the first Irish Catholic President of the United States, a man most Irish admire and feel we know.

EDWARD Hollywood, born in 1814, was a master silk weaver from Dublin whose artisan skills and political convictions were instrumental in the creation of the Irish tricolour. While Thomas Francis Meagher is often celebrated as the face of the flag, Hollywood was the craftsman who brought the symbol to life using the finest French silk.

PETROGRAD in 1920 was alight with revolutionary excitement. Representatives from around the world gathered to discuss major questions about Nationalism, Imperialism and revolution, and to bear witness to the new Soviet state. Formed to promote international revolution in 1919, the Communist International or Comintern was meeting for its Second Congress, with more than 200 delegates meeting at sessions in Petrograd and Moscow.

MY DAUGHTER, Roisín asked me recently what I thought was a fairly logical question. Why does the date that Easter falls on change each year? And the answer is simple; because it’s a ‘moveable feast’ based on the lunar calendar and not a fixed date like Christmas.

Neither Here Nor There Written by CG Docherty Published by Levenford Publishing Price: £12.99 WHEN studying local history and creating family trees has never been so popular, it is often said ‘you have to know where you came from in order to know where you are going.’ Some questions people ask regularly here in Scotland: “Who do you think you are?” Are you somebody? “Who were your parents?” “Where did they work?” What is really surprising is that so many people haven’t a clue

ANYONE reading this has either seen or heard of the film Reservoir Dogs. The classic mob movie features a gang of criminals stuck in a room waiting for information that never arrives which leads to increasing tension and a grand crescendo of operatic violence. What fewer people know is Quentin Tarantino’s gangster classic is simply Samuel Beckett’s Absurdist Play Waiting for Godot reimagined in a mobster setting.

DONEGAL Airport has evolved and grown to become an essential resource in Ireland’s travel hubs.

BORN in a Dublin cellar in 1776, Francis Higgins would swindle his way from lowly messenger boy all the way up to the top echelons of Dublin society, eventually becoming owner of the newspaper the Freemans Journal.

A FEW months ago on my return from a long walk up the country, feeling damp and tired I soaked in a hot bath then afterwards turned on the TV to catch up with the Saturday football scores—mainly to see how Celtic were faring in one of their rare Saturday games.

WHEN we think of a kilted soldier, we almost definitely think of someone very different from Ian MacKenzie Kennedy. He may have had—at times—a feather in his bunnet and a kilt upon his knee, but MacKenzie Kennedy was no representation of the clichéd Scottish martial spirit. He was, from early 1918, a soldier in the Irish Republican Army.

WITH St Patrick’s Day approaching as I write this, I pondered the question: What does it mean to be Irish? And how do we define ourselves in modern society?

TO LAND in Donegal Airport is to rejoice in a truly spectacular panorama. Descending where the rugged landscape meets the crystal-clear Atlantic Ocean breathes new life into the soul of the golfer, the emigrant returnee, or the business traveller back from a hop over to Glasgow or Dublin.

THE screen adaption of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet is widely tipped to win several Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards Ceremony in LA. The movie’s success follows hotly on the heels of Cillian Murphy’s Oscar for Best Actor in Oppenheimer (2024) and Kenneth Branagh’s Golden Statute for Belfast (2021). Irish writers and actors have excelled at the Academy Awards in recent years.

LONG before the fictional exploits of Dumas’ Three Musketeers, the fishing village of Rush, County Dublin, produced its own trio of real life adventurers whose story rivals any Hollywood epic. At the centre of it stood Luke Ryan, an Irish privateer and smuggler whose audacious career during the American War of Independence made him one of the most notorious raiders ever to prowl British waters.

AS HIBERNIAN FC entered the second half of the club’s 150th anniversary season an important landmark took place. January 20, 2026 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Michael Whelehan, who—along with Canon Edward Joseph Hannan—co-founded the club on the August 6, 1875.

I HAVE been spending a lot of time around older people this past while and I’m never disappointed with their company, their humour nor their ability to embrace the modern times that are in it. I was down at the Shamrock Lunch Club in St Columbkille’s before Christmas and the craic was great. A grand lunch of homemade soup, sandwiches and all the cakes and pastries you could eat, some good music, dancing, and best of all, storytelling.

CONTRIBUTORS to The Irish Voice share with us their personal highlights and standout performances at this year’s Celtic Connections Festival. TRUE AND BOLD: A NIGHT FOR DICK GAUGHAN Glasgow Royal Concert Hall January 18, 2026 GAUGHAN was a giant of traditional music. His album Handful of Earth is rated as one of the best folk albums ever, but he is now unable to perform after suffering a stroke in 2016, which affected his dexterity and memory. This show was hugely significa

GLASGOW Irish Bands and Gigs makes its return to the pages of The Irish Voice, bringing us an interview with Darren Devereux, who along with Shane Quinn make up the band Sciante Blues.

I LOVE to hear of fierce, strong women, especially ones who can multitask like a superhero—women with a good few strings to their bow. Well, I can tell you something with great certainty, that in finding Margaret Skinnider, (Ní Scineadóra, Máighréad, 1893-1971) I found one hell of a woman.