Search Results for 'Alexandra'

At the beginning of the last century, the Prince of Wales would have been one of the most famous personalities known to most Irish people. He had been to County Galway on a few occasions hunting, but when it was announced he was going to make an official visit, it aroused very mixed emotions. There were a lot of objections locally, led by an umbrella group known as the National Council. They disrupted preparatory meetings by shouting and heckling. Nationalists were not impressed either and other objectors included Edward Martyn, WB Yeats, Maud Gonne, and George Moore.

King Edward VII was known as ‘Peacemaker’ for his role in fostering good relations between Britain and France, he was renowned for his politeness and good manners, and throughout the continent he was affectionately called the ‘Uncle of Europe’.

The busy city of Harbin is the 10th largest city in China, and regularly features on our TV screens for its famous winter ice sculptures. In the 1920s, Harbin, practically on the borders of Russia, was a refuge for thousands of émigrés, fleeing the Bolshevik revolution and the blood bath that followed. The Russians, many of them wealthy, brought style and glamour to this once far flung post on the Trans-Siberian railway. Among those seeking refuge was a 74-years- old Galway/Russian woman Kathleen ffrench, who was not only the chatelaine of Monivea Castle and its 10,000 acre estate in Co Galway, but who also had inherited vast estates on the Volga from her Russian grandparents.

This photograph was taken exactly 100 years ago during the installation of the sixth Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora since the foundation of the diocese. This was Bishop O’Dea, who was in the palace until 1923. There are elaborate and decorative floral arches across Williamsgate Street for the occasion and a banner that says “Long Live our Bishop”. There are a large number of RIC men in evidence, though they are not keeping much of a shape on the large crowd who are following the bishop. He is simply walking under the canopy and is not carrying the Blessed Sacrament. It is hard to know where the procession was going (The Pro-Cathedral ?) and where it was coming from. The flower girls were probably following a group of priests. Notice the tram tracks and the fact that all of the shops seem to be closed.

Following the success of the publication Me and Nu - Childhood at Coole published in 1970,* it is sometimes forgotten that Lady Augusta Gregory had three grandchildren, and not two as is often assumed. Written by Lady Gregory’s granddaughter Anne, Me and Nu is a charming account of life at Coole, as the children watched with amusement (and disillusionment at their human foibles), many of the great figures of the Irish literary movement of the 20th century as they came and went.