Much has been written on the sense of displacement that stems from the diasporic experience. Growing up in Britain with a firm sense of Irishness, identity has always resided in something of a halfway-house. In Britain, you’re part of ‘that Irish…

At the beginning of 2020, Rosslare had 6 sailings a week to and from continental Europe. By the end of April 2021, this number had increased to 34. This unprecedented increase in direct sailings was a direct consequence of and response to the form…

“C’mon, we’ll go down The Mermaid and collect some firewood on the way.” They’re my Grandma’s words. She lived in Brynsiencyn near the banks of the Menai Straits. ‘The Mermaid’ was the name of the pub that stood at the small ferry port, where…

Ireland’s National Maritime Museum ishoused, aptly enough, in the old Mariners Church of Dún Laoghaire, Dublin Bay. Built in 1837, the churchhasremained in place despite a town that has changed rapidly around it. The church now has pride of place…

What do you get when you put together the Welsh reputation for musicality and the Irish tradition of a céilí band? The natural desire to compete. At least that’s what it stirred for me, a young musician performing in Wales as part of an annual…

Legend goes that St Patrick, a Christian missionary to Ireland in the fifth century, used the leaves of the shamrock to explain the concept of the holy trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Ireland's tourism identity has long used the symbol of…

The tragic torpedo attack of RMS Leinster on the 10th October, 1918, is recorded as the biggest loss of life in the Irish Sea. Out of 680 souls, 501 souls lost their lives (with 66 more discovered since the official record was submitted). Many of…

The cluster of rocks known as The Smalls, 20 miles off the coast of south west Wales, was a major shipping hazard, notorious for ferocious rip tides, until 1777 when an unorthodox timber lighthouse structure was erected consisting of nine stout oak…

In August 1909 the liner the Mauretania called for the first time at Fishguard, having established a new record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic from New York. A public holiday was proclaimed, and trains of day trippers from Swansea,…

Looking across the Irish Sea to Snowdonia in Wales on a bright snowclad morning is a disconcerting experience. From Wicklow, Wexford and even parts of Dublin it seems as though you could walk across to the Welsh coastline, and there are some…