Monastic ruins of Clonmacnoise - Ireland's 'Valley of the Kings'.

The historical burial place of the high kings of Tara and Connacht.

Niall of the Nine was Ireland's Alexander the Great - Nine hostages from Scots, Saxons, Brits & Franks were paid to him, such was his power.

Up to 3 million men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, medieval Irish king of the O'Neill dynasty: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8600-medieval-irish-warlord-boasts-three-million-descendants/

Irish Kingship ritual - Shows the sacrifice of a white mare & preparation of stew by a tribe of Ulstermen, c. 1220.

The Irish king was expected to have fir flathemon (truth of the ruler); to be righteous, come from high ancestry & capable of heroic action.

Morann macMáin was a legendary judge who instructed ancient Irish kings.

He taught that a king's justice brought abundance, truth, morality.

To secure peace, stability, the fertility of land & women, to abstain from pointless bloodshed - Advice for Irish kings, Morann's Testament:

Irish kings or chiefs (rí, lords): a white wand, the “rod of kingship” rather than a crown, was the symbol of legitimate authority. Inaugurated outdoors under sacred trees or stones, by ollamhs (poets/seers).

14th of April 1920: British soldiers & RIC in Miltown Malbay Clare, fire into a crowd of civilians celebrating the release of Republican hunger strikers from Mountjoy. Three men are killed & several more were wounded including a 14 year old boy & a teenage girl.

#OnThisDay 1916 Thomas Ashe & his Volunteers from the Fingal Battalion attack the RIC barracks in Ashbourne. After a five hour firefight the police finally surrendered. Ashe lost 2 men while the RIC lost 8. Ashe took roughly 70 RIC men prisoner.

Irish people are known for being informal and relaxed. This might stem from times when Irish kings were elected from a Derbfine (4 generations of relatives) within a kingdom of only several thousand people. Thus a ruler could not afford to upset others with haughty behaviour.

The 3,000 year old stone fort of Dún Aonghasa, Inishmore, The Aran Islands. Once called 'the most magnificent monument in Europe'.

The Bronze Age fort of Dún Aonghasa in the limestone studded landscape of Aran, County Galway, Ireland.

March is the month which feast of St Enda of Aran, the 'Patriarch of Irish monasticism' takes place. A warrior-king of Oriel in Ulster, he was converted by his sister, St Fanchea. In 484 AD he established the first Irish monastery on Inishmore. Most of the great Irish saints are connected to Aran Islands.

Teaghlach Éinne, St Enda's House, Inis Mór.

The ancient burial place of the Irish saints on the Aran Islands. St Enda is reputedly buried under the altar, alongside many other early saints.

Dún Dúchathair ('Black Fort') - the most foreboding of Aran's Bronze Age stone forts, West coast of Ireland.