Post Archive by Year

Georgina Scally, MAGI, Dublin As the fall-out from the UK BREXIT vote trundles along a pace, a far reaching consequence has been the upturn in requests from the UK for information about acquiring Irish citizenship, the ultimate aim being to obtain an Irish passport. Presently, there are several routes to gaining Irish citizenship, one of which is citizenship through descent from Irish grandparents – if one of your grandparents is an Irish citizen who was born in Ireland, but neither you, nor your parents were born here, you may become an Irish citizen. Some time ago I received one of … Read More

AGI’s first Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event of 2017 took place at Dublin City Library & Archive on the afternoon of Tuesday, 21 February. It was a great success, with stimulating talks and lots of catching up among colleagues. More than half of the Association’s members were able to attend and they were joined by all eight of AGI’s Affiliates. The day’s speaker as were Andrew Cooney of Tusla, on the new adoption bill currently before the houses of the Oireachtas; John Grenham, MAGI, on tips and shortcuts  for many of the standard online sources for Irish genealogy; and Nicola Morris, MAGI, … Read More

Paul MacCotter MAGI has contributed a paper entitled ‘The Earlier Geraldine Knights of Kerry’ to the latest edition of the  Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society . The article should be of interest to anybody with Kerry or Limerick Geraldine roots.

Anne Rodda, MAGI, Co. Galway In most Tuam histories and guides there are images of the Kilbannon Round Tower. What remains of the tower is still an imposing structure, on the grounds of the modern day church at Kilbannon. The tower dates to about 1000 AD and marks the site of a church and school for the training of priests established by St. Patrick. The place name Kilbannon is for St. Benin, who was appointed by St. Patrick to head the church and school. St. Jarlath and St. Conla were trained there. The remains of the adjacent church that dates … Read More

AGI extends a warm welcome to the newest Affiliate. Being admitted as the first new AGI Affiliate of 2017, Clare Doyle celebrates twenty years working in genealogy and local history. Clare is originally from Co. Monaghan and now lives in Co. Galway. She is a qualified archivist who has experience of various archival, records management and research projects. Her voluntary work on transcription and digitisation of gravestone inscriptions in Killererin, Co. Galway, was followed by three years as genealogy manager for Ireland Reaching Out. In September 2016 Clare completed a Masters in Local History at the University of Limerick.

Beverly Brown, MAGI, Co. Down I never met my maternal grandfather; John Rea died in 1947, three years before I was born.  My father always referred to him as having been ‘something of an entrepreneur’, so perhaps that is why I have always been interested in finding out more about him.  He was a joiner, a carpenter and a successful building contractor, but these undertakings were secondary to John Rea’s foremost occupation – primarily that of a garage proprietor. In fact, my grandfather owned the first petrol-filling station in Northern Ireland; or so I was told. It was only once … Read More

Paul MacCotter MAGI has contributed a chapter on the early history of north Kildare, featuring his work as an historical geographer,  to Making Christian Landscapes in Atlantic Europe (Cork University Press, 2016). The book concerns the fabric of the medieval church in Ireland, Britain, France and Spain  during the early medieval period (c AD 400-1200) and its impact on how landscapes were inhabited and managed. More at the publisher’s website.