Search Results for 'Battle of the Boyne'

There are places in Ireland where the landscape seems to hold its own memory, where rivers, hills and ancient stones tell stories far older than any written word. The Boyne Valley is one of those rare places. Winding through the heart of Ireland’s Ancient East, the River Boyne has been a constant presence for thousands of years, flowing past prehistoric monuments, medieval towns, ruined monasteries and fertile green fields.

This week Kylemore Abbey saw the Blessing of its twentieth Abbess, Mother Karol O’Connell OSB.

At early Mass on Christmas morning 1842, there was a dreadful accident at Galway’s Pro-Cathedral during which 37 people were killed, and many more were injured. Known as the Parish Church, and completed just twenty-one years before, it was by far the largest Catholic church in the town, surprisingly built in preCatholic Emancipation times.

During the afternoon and evening of Sunday July 12 1691 the people of Galway could hear the distant thud of cannons as two armies in the Cogadh na Dá Rí (war of the two kings) was nearing its climax. The Irish army, led by the inept French general, Charles Chalmont, Marquis de Saint-Ruhe, known as Saint Ruth, and the heroic Earl of Lucan, Patrick Sarsfield, had taken a stand on Kilcommodon Hill, below which lay the village of Aughrim, some 5km from Ballinasloe, Co Galway.