This Book has not yet been published. I expect to publish it in the summer (2011). Introduction. This is the story of Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, a 19th century Irish Landlord who was born with no legs or arms, and yet was an expert horseman, a first class shot, a noted yachtsman, an active local Justice [...]
The Story of Strongbow Strongbow. A Thousand Years ago nobody in Ireland spoke anything but Irish. You probably wouldn’t understand them today, even if you were a native speaker from the far side of the Kerry mountains, but Irish was their language, and they didn’t know any other. Most people in the countryside didn’t even [...]
E-Pub is an open source e-reader programme being increasingly widely adopted by e-book publishers. It is currently used by Sony reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, BeBook, Bookeen, COOL-ER, Hanlin eReader, Hanvon and many other ebook readers. Mobipocket software (“Mobibook”) is currently used by Amazon Kindle, many Mobile phones,Blackberry, and some other mobile devices. I am [...]
1828 – 1830. Charles Bianconi’s record continues – Wellington was now Prime Minister. Daniel was the newly elected Member for Clare, albeit a Member who could not take his seat. And Peel was Home Secretary again. Back in Dublin, Daniel expanded on the theme of his speech in Ennis, this time addressing the politicians rather [...]
This (and one on the same story for children) is now available as an e-book. Click here to go to our e-book page. Chapter 4. 1166 – 1366. Strongbow and the Normans. As every English student knows, in 1066 the Normans arrived in England and defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. Saxon Harold [...]
Parnell, I suppose, was an aristocrat. His father was a Protestant Landowner, descended from a family of well-to-do merchants from Cheshire who had come to Ireland 200 years previously. A cousin was Viscount Powerscourt, descended from Sir Richard Wingfield who had been Marshall of the Queen’s Troops in Ireland 250 years earlier. The Powerscourts are [...]
This is now available as an e-book. Click here to go to our e-book page. My father, not normally given to blasphemy, would often be heard to say “Oh, Crumell!”, where another might have said “Oh, Damn it”. In fact, it was sometimes spelt that way in the 17th. century, which gives a clue as to [...]
This is the only purely fictional chapter in my “Story of Ireland” books, and was written to try and illustrate the manners and customs of the times, like what people wore and what they ate and drank….. It was a gorgeous morning in high summer. It was a race day today, with two more fair [...]
Daniel and Maurice duly arrived in London, and their timing on this occasion had been excellent. The year 1793 saw Grattan’s third Catholic Relief Act, which removed most of the barriers that had existed preventing Catholic advancement. They could now be Grand Jurors, enter universities and a be appointed to an enormous range of positions [...]
Brian mac Cennétig (c. 941 – 1014). 940 AD is the most generally accepted date for the birth of Brian (the ‘Boru’, or Bóruma, suffix only came later, see below). He was originally, of course, Brian mac Cennétig, Brian son of Cennétig, and his father was Cennétig mac Lorcain. He was born at Kincora, Killaloe, about twenty miles [...]
Meanwhile, I, Carlo Bianconi, had come into the world! While Daniel was progressing through school in Ireland and France, I was born in Italy. September in Lombardy, in Northern Italy, can be surprisingly hot, especially around the beautiful Lake Como, even though it was close to the mountains. September 1786 was no exception. It was [...]
By the time he was nine years old he had progressed to books like Captain Cook’s ‘Voyages round the World’. He used to run away and take his book to the window, where he would sit with his legs crossed, tailor-like, devouring the adventures of Cook. In the big wide world outside, this was the [...]
It was a balmy August Sunday, the 6th. day of that month in 1775, the day Catherine O’Connell was brought to bed of her second child. Morgan and she had chosen the name already, Ellen if it was a girl, and Daniel, after his uncle, if it was a boy. This one was a boy, [...]
Foreword. This book is a novel, but the characters and situations have been faithfully interpreted according to historical facts. I have chosen to present the story as a record, written by Charles Bianconi, of the life of his friend Daniel O’Connell. During the record, the greater part of Bianconi’s own life emerges too. In fact [...]
Chapter 2. Meath and Dublin I was born in 1737, at the Jenkins house near Drewstown in County Meath. That was because my father was an ironmonger in Dublin, with premises in Charlotte Street. Infant mortality was high in Dublin in those days, due to the generally poor sanitary arrangements, and the chances of survival [...]
Tandy had been following with increasing indignation the escalating legislative assault on America from London – the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party, the Massachusetts Government Act, which altered the Massachusetts charter and restricted town meetings; the Administration of Justice Act, the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the British had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party, and the Quartering Act of 1774, which allowed royal governors to house British troops in the homes of citizens without requiring permission of the owner. So when the Americans actually took up arms against this high handed authoritarianism, he was elated!
By way of introduction, some words on the state of Ireland in general and Dublin in particular in the second half of the 18th century, the backdrop against which much of this story is painted, may be of interest. It was in many respects a lawless place, quite literally, for there was no effective police [...]
The minute history is written down it becomes, I feel, subjective. Take for example the death of the last King of Dublin, Hasculf Thorgillsson, in 1170. According to Annals of the Four Masters who were Irish writing in the 17th century, he was defeated and killed in battle, while according to Giraldus Cambrensis who was writing at the [...]
There are conflicting views as to who St. Patrick really was. The most recent and increasingly consensual view is based on the Latin document “Confessio”. Essentially this is an autobiography, and it is generally accepted as having been written by St. Patrick.
