Conway Mill Trust

Aug 12, 1690 Patrick Sarsfield troops attack and destroy the Williamite seige train at Ballyneetty Castle, Limerick.

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St. Colmcille’s House (Meath) is an ancient stoned roofed oratory which is believed to have been the place where most of the Book of Kells was written. The upper floor has a window oriented to focus sunlight onto the writing table.  St. Colmcille’s bed was also there until it was stolen in the 1950’s.  It […]

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Aug 6, 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the battle of Suvla Bay in which 22,000 Irish were killed during WW1.

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Aug 3, 1916, Roger Casement was hanged as a traitor in London for his part in collaborating with Germany to obtain weapons for Ireland.

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Aug 1, 1915, marks the 100th anniversary of Patrick Pearce’s famous oration at the graveside of O’Donovan Rossa.  It is believed to be the speech which spearheaded the Irish people to fight for independence.

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On July 17, 1798, Henry Joy McCracken was executed in Belfast as a leader in the Nationalist movement.

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Friar’s Bush cemetery in Belfast, now closed, has a grisly history.  During the plague in 1832 thousands of bodies were burnt and thrown into a pit.  This pit was also the resting place of victims of the Great Hunger.  Stories are told of servant girls, afraid of scandal, threw their babies, dead and alive, over […]

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James McHenry was born in Ballymena, Co Antrim. He came to America as a young man and studied medicine.  He joined the army at the outbreak of the American Revolution as a surgeon.  He was captured and imprisoned by the British. McHenry tried in vain to improve the medical conditions in prisons.  After his release, […]

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In July 1784 Daniel O’Connell was elected as MP from Co Cork.

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June 1853, John Mitchel, a member of “Young Ireland” escaped from the notorious prison, Freemantle in Australia, via the ship “Catalpa.” He had been sentenced to penal servitude for the crime of felony-treason. This law was passed to specifically target the” Young Ireland” group.  His crime was as a founder of the newspaper “United Irish.” […]

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