Wicklow man's journey to find the cousins he never knew he had
Bray People
A resident of Delgany, County Wicklow, who grew up in County Leitrim, has written a powerful and emotive book centred on a family of cousins he knew nothing about until chance led him on a journey to unearth his past.
Donal Winters first began shaking the family tree in 2018, simply because he was given the gift of a voucher for a genealogy service. But it took him down a road that he never knew existed and what he discovered inspired him to self-publish a book that is a gripping narrative in its own right, but is also a piece of social history that examines the Irish Catholic-Protestant divide in mid-20th Century Ireland.
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Irish Independent
11 hours ago
- Irish Independent
From the Kerry archives, June 9, 2000: Killarney explosion, Tarbert fire & Doms goes online
Killarney scene like bomb site after explosion Two fire units parked on the street with blue lights flashing, people kneeling beside a prone figure covered with a blanket, offering words of comfort, and ambulance sirens sounding in the distance. The scene outside Cronin's Restaurant in Killarney on Saturday night was for all the world like the aftermath of a bomb blast. Glass and wooden debris from the green shopfront lay scattered on the pavement but, uncannily, inside the restaurant, plates and glasses lay unscathed on the tables. The majority of those injured had been standing ion the footpath when the explosion occurred as the owner, Pat Cronin, had cleared the premises when he detected a gas leak. Five ambulances ferried 12 people to Tralee General Hospital after the explosion, which took place at 8.10pm, but just four were kept in hospital. Among those who were most seriously injured were Pat Cronin, Shirley O'Connor, who worked in the restaurant part-time, an English visitor from Nottingham who was staying at the Killarney Great Southern Hotel and an Irish woman who had injuries to her ear. Pat Cronin suffered burns while Shirley O'Connor sustained a leg injury. All those injured were Irish with the exception of the English visitor. Fire Officer in charge at the scene, Donal Grady, said the fact that the gas tanks were stored in an outside yard and that the front of the building was made of wood saved people. Mr Grady said the tank itself did not explode but it seemed as if a pipe had come loose and gas leaked. He said that in his opinion some gas leaked into the open air and some came into the building. "If it all came in, it would have blown the whole building," he said. Mr Grady, a Killarney town councillor, praised the initiative shown by Pat Cronin in clearing the building so promptly. ADVERTISEMENT Water gel was applied to the burns of the injured by the fire personnel, all of whom are trained in first aid, immediately after they arrived on the scene. The early treatment is credited with lessening the effect of the burns. The kitchen located behind the restaurant on [the ground floor in Cronin's bore the brunt of the ;damage. The force of the explosion to the rear of the building also damaged windows at the back of the Fáilte Hotel. The rear of Dan Corcoran's premises, which is next door to Cronin's, sustained some damage also. A Dublin-registered Rover car outside the restaurant had its driver's and rear windows blown in, while two cars parked near Scott's Hotel across the street were also damaged. Dr Norrie Buckley of the Arbutus Hotel in College Street was one of the first medics on the scene. Dr Buckley praised the work of a visiting doctor, who was on holidays in the area, in identifying the priority cases for the ambulances with her. "I turned around to thank him and he was gone. He was a guardian angel, The Guards, the fire service and the ambulance services were absolutely superb." she said. Dr Buckley said most people she attended were suffering from cuts and minor burns. "They were calm but quite a few were shocked, particularly the Cronin family, naturally," she said. Other doctors on the scene included Bill and Patricia Mangan, Donal Kavanagh and Jim Crehan. Fr Michael Fleming, Administrator, Killarney, attended the scene as well. Paudie O'Callaghan of the Failte, who is chairman of Killarney Vintners, was standing at his front door when the blast occurred. "My eye contact was towards Scotts and the first thing I saw was the window blown into the car," he said. "The force took a man outside the window (of Cronin's) off the pavement. I ran into the bar for help at that stage and I rang the Guards. It was just mayhem It was for all the world like a bomb scene. It was frightening. How someone wasn't killed was beyond me,' he continued. Michael Looney of San Sebastian Guest House, just two doors away from Cronin's, was at his front door also when the blast occurred. "There was just a bang and glass and rubble flying out," Mr-Looney said. "I ran out and checked to see were people OK and helped around a bit until the ambulance came. There were a lot of cuts from glass and a lot of blood. The Guards came then and cleared the street." The Gardaí evacuated nearby premises including the Fáilte, Murphy's Bar, the Jug of Punch bar, the Bombay Palace Restaurant and Scott's Hotel for a short period as well as cordoning the street off until about 9.45pm. Student escapes blaze before sitting exam Tarbert Comprehensive's 'Student of The Year' Mairead Enright got the first day of her Leaving Cert exams off to a dramatic start, when she and her family escaped from an early morning fire at their home above the family restaurant at Main Street, Tarbert. Gardai in Listowel are still investigating the cause of the fire, which broke out at 5.40am on Wednesday and which gutted the upstairs of the building where the family were sleeping. Luckily, all the Enrights escaped unscathed and Mairead, showing the strength of character which won her the recent acclaim of her peers, went ahead and sat the first paper of the English Leaving Cert exam. There was no such drama for Deirdre Twomey of Killarnev. one of the 174 students who sat the Leaving Cert at Killorglin Intermediate School. She and her classmates were very pleased with the first paper. "The essays were fine overall. I did one on 'Saving the Planet' and I just made it up as I went along. I feel it went quite well," she said. Her fellow student Brendan O'Sullivan from Killorglin was equally pleased with the first English paper, pronouncing the choice of essay titles 'grand'. Brendan, who took the higher Level paper, was keeping his fingers crossed for a question on Kavanagh or Yeats in the afternoon paper. There were smiles all round also at St Joseph's Convent of Mercy in Abbeyfeale, where Mary Anne Mulcahy from Templeglantine sat the higher level English paper. "It went fine and we got a good choice of essays. I think the prose passage suited everyone as well," she said. Mary Ellen Lane from Graigue, Abbeyfeale, was also quite pleased with the first paper. "The prose passage was nice enough but I found the essay titles a bit hard. They were different from other years. I'm hoping we'll get a nice question on Kinsella in the afternoon," she said. Both students chose the essay title.'Opening Doors' while 'Saving the Planet' was the second most popular choice among students who spoke to The Kerryman on Wednesday at lunchtime. Dominicans the latest to go online The Dominican order in Tralee has signed up to the electronic age by opening its own web site. The 'Domstralee' site has information about Masses and other services, a local history of the order, and a series of high quality images of the church and its environs. Tralee Dominican Prior Fr Ambrose O'Farrell said the order were being trained in the Internet and had felt they needed a website of their own. You can take a guided tour of the Dominican Church in Tralee, or contact the Dominicans by email. The Irish Dominican order has been quick to wmbrace the Internet and already has two national sites, one based in Tallaght and the other in Cork. "Our own site was on the one in Tallaght but we decided we would open our own here," Fr O'Farrell said. The site also contains information on Fr Thaddeus (Tadhg) Moriarty, who has been nominated for beatification. One of three Kerry people who has been entered into the process of canonisation, he is also the only Dominican. The Domstralee site was designed by a member of the Dominican congregation in Tralee, Frank Byrne, who is putting the finishing touches to the site. It can be accessed at You can also link into the Cork based site from the Tralee website, gaining access to religious resources, including a popular Jesuit site. "It's not a missionary kind of site," Fr O'Farrell said of the Tralee website, "but you can link into the national Dominican sites which have an explanation of the nature of the order and its mission."
Irish Independent
15 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Model Thalia Heffernan: I feared I'd end up homeless during desperate hunt for a house in Dublin
Irish model Thalia Heffernan has described the 'hell' of searching for a place to live in Dublin during the housing crisis and said there were times when she feared she would end up homeless.
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
Meet the Wexford woman empowering diverse voices in Irish business – ‘A lot of workplaces are still catching up to the reality of what Ireland is right now'
Growing up in Enniscorthy, Mamobo Ogoro admits to having feelings of 'not belonging'. Arriving in the Co Wexford town as a three-year-old she was part of the first wave of African immigrants to come to these shores, to attempt to integrate into communities which, up until that point, were almost exclusively white Catholic.
