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.

I WAS in Donegal for a long weekend last month. Back to my ‘spiritual home.’ The place I go to decompress and recharge the aul batteries. While I was there, I was reading a lot of John O’Donohue, in particular a piece he wrote about death, and it resonated with me on a deep level because my time there coincided with the funeral of the ‘First Lady of Celtic music,’ Moya Brennan.

I WAS selected to be part of team Scotland to represent young people on behalf of our jurisdiction at the inaugural UK-Ireland Youth Forum. The forum acts as means to represent the opinions of young people across UK and Irish politics, to share perspectives and ultimately influence the policy.

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