Search Results for 'British Isles'

Although the Great Irish Famine, which devastated Ireland in the 1840s and early 1850s, happened at a time when photography was only in its experimental stage, we still have vivid images of the appalling suffering that the vast majority of the people endured. A suffering that was heightened by systematic neglect by government, the total absence of a comprehensive humanitarian plan of relief, and the law of the land which only supported the rights of landlords.*

There was a curious sequel to the story of poor Michael Kelly of Mirehall, Headford, whom I mentioned last week. Kelly, a substantial farmer and horse breeder, won the ‘gentleman’s race’ at Galway in 1884. However the stewards refused to give him the trophy claiming he was not a gentleman. Kelly sued, and won his case.

A traffic engineer from Rahoon lost eight stone in one year after the tragic death of his best friend inspired him to get in shape, and fulfil his lifelong dream of competing in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, the world’s longest ocean race.

Costello Lodge, located in Casla, Connemara, or The Lodge as it is affectionately known, forms part of DNG Maxwell Heaslip & Leonard’s first summer auction of the year and is expected to attract huge interest due to both its keen price and its interesting and varied history. Among this impressive and vast property’s previous owners is the infamous Joseph Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, the company that owned RMS Titanic.

‘The Claddagh at Galway is one of the most remarkable sights in Europe. I find it almost inconceivable to realise that a man can breakfast in London, and lunch the next day within sight of this Gaelic village....

Anne Tobin has been a Cambridge Diet counsellor since 1988 and achieved counsellor of the year for the British Isles in 2001.

An Olympic size 50-metre swimming pool – rather than the proposed 25-metre swimming pool – should be incorporated into the new €12.5 million Sports Academy planned at Lough Lannagh, which would in turn guarantee national success and make Castlebar the tourist centre of the west.

Between 1869 and 1909 a revolution took place in land ownership in Ireland. A succession of Land Acts gradually reduced the powers of the landlord, and gave their former tenants the means and the opportunity to buy out their tenancy, and to own their own farms. Generous terms were given to tenants by the Wyndham Act of 1903. £100 million was advanced for land purchase, which was immediately availed of by the great majority of tenants. Tenants were advanced the whole purchase price of their holding, at a little over three per cent to be repaid over 68 years. Most landlords were pleased to accept the ready cash, and a whole new social structure emerged throughout the island. However, initially landlords were not compelled to sell, and the independently wealthy marquis of Clanricarde of east Galway refused to cooperate. But his days of evictions, disparaging remarks about his tenants, his bully boy land agent Edward Shaw Tener and his henchmen, were numbered.

August 3 1857 was a day of celebration in Galway as the British War Department handed over two Russian cannons to the town commissioners. These cannon were described as “64 pounders of a heavy and clumsy description, each weighing two tons”, and were part of a large amount of Russian ordnance which fell into the hands of the 88th regiment during the Crimean War. Many of these artillery pieces were presented by the War Department as trophies to cities and town across the British Isles.

Benetton lovers will be delighted to learn that a new look store has opened at Anthony Ryans in Shop Street.