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Brian Boru became king of Munster after the death of his brother Mahon. From his headquarters at Kincora (near modern Killaloe), Brian fought other Irish chiefs for supremacy, and also the Vikings, who had begun to penetrate Ireland after c.795 AD and had by Brian's time established towns at Limerick, Cork, Dublin, Wexford and Waterford. Brian contrived to establish himself as 'High King' in opposition to Malachy and forced lesser kings to pay him tribute: hence his name 'Ború' - 'Brian of the Tributes.' In 1014 an alliance of Leinster Irish under Maelmora and Vikings from Dublin under Sitric (aided by other Vikings from Orkney, Norway and farther afield ) was formed against Brian (who in addition to his own forces had the aid of Limerick Vikings); he conquered at the battle of Clontarf, Good Friday, 1014 - the greatest single battle fought on Irish soil up to this time; it is calculated that there were up to 4,000 on either side. However Brian, who was too old to fight, was killed by a fleeing Viking named Bruder, while waiting in his tent for the results of the battle. - Contents -
Traditional musician; born at Milltown Malbay where he is commemorated each year at the Willie Clancy Summer School. He played pipes, fiddle, flute and whistle, sang songs and told stories - all to an equally high standard. The modern revival of Irish traditional music owes much to Clancy, and he helped to establish Co. Clare as the focus for Irish music par excellence. - Contents -
Traditional musician, born Cooraclare. After her marriage she and her husband Mike opened a pub in Kilrush; she became nationally famous as a concertina player and the pub a Mecca for traditional musicians. A festival, Eigse Mrs. Crotty, is held yearly in Kilrush in her memory.
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Born Biddy O'Connor in Faha, Kilenena in 1778 to a small farming family, her parents both died whilst she was relatively young. She left her home and went to work as a servant girl in Feakle and later in Kilbarron where she met the first of her four husbands, Pat O'Malley.
Biddy is probably most famous for her 'blue bottle' with which she could allegedly see the future. Biddy is also reputed to have had 'magical' healing powers with which she could cure illness. Nowadays this power to create 'magical' healing potions could probably be attributed to a good knowledge of herbalism. More...
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Born in Liscannor, County Clare. He studied engineering and then in the late 1860s began working on a design for a vessel that would travel underwater under its own power. He developed some of the first military submarines used by the US navy after emigrating to the USA in 1873. His first successful submarine launch - the Fenian Ram - was made in 1881. He was supported financially in its development by the Irish-American republican Fenian movement, who hoped to be able to use it against England. In 1893 he built the Holland, a 74-tonne and 56 ft-long vessel which was later bought by the US navy. He built submarines for several navies after 1895, but his company became embroiled in litigation (with financial backers) and consequently he died in poverty. He introduced many of the innovations that would later be incorporated in military submarines.
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Born perhaps near Ennistymon; acquired an education somehow and set up as a farmer in 20 acres and schoolmaster near Feakle, then an isolated and remote area in the North Clare hills, where he won prizes from the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) for flax-growing.
Of his poetry, the only one that has survived is The Midnight Court (Translated by, amongst others, Frank O'Connor ), a long poem of over 1200 lines which tells of a dream in which Merriman is put on a trial charged with remaining a bachelor by a covet of women near Lough Graney; he wakes up abruptly just as he is being stripped for his punishment. (Merriman himself was almost 40 when he married) The bawdy and outspoken treatment of various sexual taboos gave the poem great notoriety. Having moved to Limerick, he died there in 1805 and is buried at Feakle; there is a plaque on a wall of the graveyard there.
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Writer, born Tuamgreaney (near Scariff), educated at St. Raphael's, Loughrea. She wrote a controversial trilogy: The Country Girls (1960), Girl with Green Eyes (1962) and Girls in their Married Bliss (1964) which made her name and got her into trouble with the censorious. Later she wrote August is a Wicked Month (1965), Johnny I Hardly Knew You (1977), The Love Object (1968), Returning (1982), A Fanatic Heart (1985). To find out more about her books or to buy them online, visit our bookstore. - Contents -
Born Cahircivean, Co. Kerry, into a family of Small Catholic landlords. Educated: France and Lincoln's Inn (London) and called to the Irish bar in 1798; he opposed the rebellions of 1798 and 1803 and was opposed to violence on principle (although he did kill a man in a duel in 1815). He consistently opposed the Act of Union and set out to do two things: the repeal of this act and Catholic Emancipation. He achieved Emancipation in 1829 when he won the by-election in County Clare with the votes of the 'forty shilling freeholders' (who had the right to vote but not to stand). When he refused to take the oath of supremacy on grounds of conscience, the Government conceded defeat and an Act relieving Catholics of most of their disabilities was passed. O'Connell then became M.P. for Clare; the main square and street in Ennis are named after him, and his statue stands on a tall column in the town square.
His crusade to gain Repeal of the Union failed when the Government, unable to contend with him legally, intimidated him with threats of a bloodbath at his mass meeting at Clontarf (1843) and he cancelled it, recognising that the state was quite prepared to cause a mass slaughter if it went ahead. Within two years the Great Famine had broken out, and O'Connell worked in parliament to get a system of relief going; his graphic speeches on the sufferings of the starving peasantry reduced Charles Dickens, reporting in the press gallery, to tears. O'Connell's health began to fail, and he died at Genoa, on a journey to Rome, in 1847. - Contents -
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