The word Gael, or 'Gaelic' is derived from meaning ‘forest people'.

Irish people were always noted their high regard for trees: Forested areas once covered the whole country; they were religious centres, providers of food/fuel, & protected by Brehon law. Part of Irish identity.

" A people without a language of its own is only half a nation.
A nation should guard its language more than its territories — 'tis a surer barrier, and more important frontier, than fortress or river. "

Thomas Davis in his essay Our National Language, 1st of April 1843

Henry II famously attacked Ireland’s forests and bogs ‘as barriers to conquest and repositories of rebellion’. Throughout the land, forests were used as bases for resistance and as bastions against colonisation. For this reason Elizabeth I 'declared war' on the wilds of Ireland.

The Kern was the original Irish 'forest fighter'. These lightly armed warriors lived in the deep forest & employed tactics to wear down their foe. The Elizabethans called them 'woodkerne' - a hated symbol of an unconquered land made up of wolves and Irishmen.

The Harvesters - Mary Swanzy (1882-1978)

Born in Merrion Square, Dublin, Swanzy was arguably Ireland's first modernist painter. Her travels around Europe added great variety to her palette, yet her strongest interest lay in depicting Irish themes.

'The Grace' - Mary Swanzy (1882-1978), Bread and potatoes on the table, surrounded by the dark walls of a small cottage. A powerful insight into rural Irish life from early last century.

The monastic ruins of Clonmacnoise is the historical burial place of the high kings of Tara and Connacht. Ireland's 'Valley of the Kings' in our own Co Offaly.

Durrow Abbey in County Offaly has a long & rich history.

Founded by St Columba in 553, it came to house the Book of Durrow during the Viking age. It was the site of Hugh de Lacy's murder, and was the only European observatory to record the supernova of 1054.

The funeral of Easter Rising hero Thomas Ashe took place #OnThisDay in 1917. He died due to forced feeding while on hunger strike. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

This day 59 years ago – 30 September 1959 – the first feature-length Irish language film, Mise Éire, premiered as the closing film of the Cork Film Festival.

In attendance at the screening was Seán MacEntee, the then-Tánaiste.

Its noscript was taken from a poem by Patrick Pearse.