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Darren McGettigan

Darren is an established Author and Genealogist from County Wicklow, Ireland. He provides genealogy services to help you discover your family history in Ireland.

Website URL: http://www.familyhistoryireland.com E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thursday, 28 April 2011 20:20

Barack Obama and other Irish heads of Foreign States

With President Barack Obama's visit to Ireland soon it may be time for a topical blog on some other Irishmen who became heads of Foreign States.

Famous examples from the twentieth century are well known - the visit of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Ireland in June 1963 was a very important event for Independent Ireland. In more recent times Paul Keating, the Prime Minister of Australia, also paid Ireland a state visit.

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Thursday, 21 April 2011 17:43

The O'Laverty family of West County Tyrone

What really got me interested in genealogy was researching the history of my own McGettigan family. My grandfather was from County Donegal and my surname was quite unusal for County Wicklow, at least while I was young. While researching the McGettigans I discovered records of the deaths of two McGettigan chieftains in the Annals of the Four Masters, Diarmaid McGettigan in 1132 and Tadhg McGettigan in 1215.

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Thursday, 14 April 2011 12:44

King Brian Boru - a major Irish ancestor figure

On Good Friday 23rd April 1014 a major and very hard fought battle was fought north of the Hiberno-Norse city of Dublin, on the level plain of Clontarf. On one side was King Brian Boru, king of Munster and High-King of Ireland, with the forces of his province and a few allies, and on the other a coalition of Dublin and Leinster rebels with Scandinavian warriors from the islands of Orkney and Man, led by Sigurd Hlodvisson, the jarl of Orkney.

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Thursday, 07 April 2011 20:22

The Irish of South America

While most Irish emigration over recent centuries has been to areas of what is now the English speaking world - the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, there was also substantial emigration to Spanish speaking areas, not only in the early modern period but also during the nineteenth century. Until recently this aspect of the Irish diaspora may have been relatively neglected by historians and genealogists, but this is a situation which is now being rectified in a big way. Many history books have been published recently dealing with the Irish who emigrated to Spain and to what is now the Spanish speaking world.

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Friday, 01 April 2011 11:43

The Annals of the Four Masters as an important Genealogical Resource

The Annals of the Four Masters (also often known as the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland), is one of the most important collections of Irish annals, written at the Franciscan house at Bundrowes in south County Donegal in the 1630s. These annals can also be a great genealogical resource as they record the deaths and very often the major events in the lives of thousands of medieval Gaelic Irish chieftains and kings, and often their wives and children and most important followers also.

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