"The Haggis Feast", by Alexander Fraser.

Today is Burns Night.

#OnThisDay 1921 Six IRA Volunteers were executed in Victoria (Collins) Barracks, Cork. Five of whom had been captured at the Dripsey ambush. Cannon O'Sullivan said "they rose with absolute calmness, took leave of their companions & solemnly blessed each other’

The Hill of Uisneach, the ancient centre of Ireland and meeting point of the four provinces. The goddess Ériu, after whom Ireland is named, lies buried underneath the Cat Stone - an early kingship monolith. Co Westmeath

County Longford gets its name from 'An Longphort', which means 'Viking stronghold'. However the Vikings never settled the county - Rather the name refers to Norse-style forts built up by the Irish on the River Shannon.

County Offaly is named after the Gaelic kingdom of Uí Failghe, which existed from 500 AD up until the Tudor plantations. Failghe, its first king, was a contemporary of St Patrick, ‘whom the saint blessed and from whom the rulers of Offaly descend.’

County Carlow gets its name from Old Irish cethrae ('cattle, herd, flock'), which is related to the word ceathar ('four') and therefore means 'plane of four-legged animals'.

[Black Castle, Leighlinbridge]

County Laois is named after the ancient territory of Uí Laoighis, meaning 'people of Lugaid Laígne'. Lugaid was granted lands after driving out enemies from Munster. From 1556 it was known as Queen's County, after Queen Mary.

[Rock of Dunamase]

A Fianna Éireann Cert for service during the War of Independence 1919-21. Lar Farrell, went anti-treaty in the Civil War. Great men and women of their generation was common.

Daniel Hogan, Chief of Staff of the Free State Army between 1927-29. An active IRA man from Tipperary, his brother was Michael Hogan, the football captain shot in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday. Hogan raised the Irish flag over Dublin Castle during the handover.

"The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins."

Søren Kierkegaard, Journals, 1848

''We honour St. Patrick’s Day because in it we see the spiritual conception of the separate identity of the Irish race. On this Festival then our prayer is: Honour to St. Patrick the Irish Apostle, and Freedom to his people.''

- James Connolly

The drinks company Guinness helped British forces suppress the Easter Rising by supplying large boilers, which were modified into armoured cars.

Saint Patrick's Purgatory is a legendary site on what is now Station Island, Lough Derg, Ireland.

According to legend, it is where Christ revealed to St Patrick a cave or hole which was an entrance to purgatory.

A crowd of rustics in the home of Saints
They find no sweetness in devotion to poetry,
nor in the ancient generations of their forefathers.

The vengeance of God is the reason for it.
The men of Scotland have settled in their place.
Where have the Gaels gone?

Ulster poem c.1650

"For he whom the living do not glorify with blessings is not a true ruler."

- (Audacht Morainn, 700 AD)

The Old Irish word 'rígdomna' means heir-apparent (lit. 'material of a king'). However this noscript was not a guarantee of election as king, hence the superior noscript of 'tánaise ríg': "one whom the whole tribe looks forward for the kingship without dispute."