The first Plantation of West Cork took place in the 1580s, and continued into the 17th century. The English Crown hoped to create English settlements which could be defended in the area as they had been in the broader region of Ireland. The planters were given vast acreages of land which formed the origins of […]
This podcast was compiled in response to an email we received recently from a descendant of Robert Travers, an officer serving under Murrough O’Brien, Lord Inchiquin at the Battle of Knocknanuss which took place outside Kanturk, Co. Cork in November 1647 during the Irish Confederate Wars. Having downloaded and listened to our Irishlifeandlore.com oral history […]
This is a fascinating account of the origins of a company which has had far reaching and very positive effects on the economy of a town in Ireland’s southwest. In 1949 in Germany, Hans Liebherr invented the tower crane, and he later commissioned the first Liebherr factory outside of Germany with the intention of gaining […]
While working on an oral history project in 2011 to record the children of those who played a central role in the 1916 Rising, Maurice O’Keeffe of Irish Life and Lore (www.irishlifeandlore.com) travelled to Hong Kong to meet and record Fr. Joseph Mallin, son of executed revolutionary Michael Mallin. The late Fr. Joseph Mallin worked […]
Our Irish Life and Lore archive contains some amazing personal testimonies from nurses who served in wartime Britain. In this podcast can be heard the voices of four remarkable women who volunteered to serve with the British forces during wartime. They displayed incredible courage under dreadful conditions, and we are privileged to have recorded their […]
The Blacksmith’s Forge was once an important landmark in every town and village in Ireland, and the forge itself was an integral part of the community where news was passed on and discussed and humour was often paramount. These days are now long departed, but this podcast helps to relive those times in our past. […]
We were privileged to have been given the opportunity to record Kerryman John Moriarty during the year prior to his passing, in 2007. He was recorded at length about his life, his writings and his beliefs. We were prompted to create this podcast having received an email from Canada in which the writer stressed the […]
With this podcast we take a step back in time to when the Irish landscape was dotted with large country estates and Big Houses. The wooded demesnes of many of these houses still remain, though the houses may have disappeared. Many of the houses which survive have taken on a new life. Without the butler, […]
Over many years Maurice O’Keeffe of Irish Life and Lore has travelled the roads of Ireland meeting and compiling oral history recordings with members of the farming community for our organisation Irish Life and Lore. The changes witnessed on Irish farms during the 1950s and 1960s are recalled and discussed in these recordings. During these […]
Over the past few years I have been recording those who made a contribution towards the development of Ireland since the foundation of the State in 1922. I wanted to record people who inspired in the field of architecture, resulting in an improvement in the quality of all our lives. The Royal Institute of Architects […]
