from Ballymahon to Brideshead
|
October 15, 2026
Good morning from London. Here, Autumn has settled in still, we’re hoping that October might surprise us with Lá idir dhá shíon In this week’s IrishFootprint
Michael Lynch
STORIES FROM THE ROAD (based on material from The Irish Continent) On a ramble through the Argentine countryside, I came across towns, villages and railway stations bearing Irish names, reminders of the Irish landowners who once held vast properties on the pampas. Among them were the Duggans, three brothers from Ballymahon, County Longford, who between them owned around 750,000 acres of land. Thomas Duggan was an ardent Irish nationalist (he once invited Roger Casement to his estancia). He would likely have been surprised then that his descendants found themselves at Eton and Oxford, and at the heart of the British establishment. One became a Conservative MP and was a friend of Evelyn Waugh. An episode from his life would find its way into Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. more here → (1.5 minute read) Smidríní #1 (smid – reenie) – bits & pieces Canadian Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize for Literature recently. There have been four Irish winners. Top marks if you can name them. Gold star if you know the years they won. (Smidríní 3 below has the answer) A DATE IN HISTORY – 16.10-22.10 Mary Teresa Kearney was born in Co. Wicklow in 1875. Educated locally, and in Dublin where she trained to be a teacher, Mary left for England in 1893. Two years later, she joined the Franciscan Missionary Sisters in London, reportedly after a dream in which she saw herself working in Africa. There, over the next 54 years she established schools, hospitals, nursing and midwifery colleges, orphanages and charitable institutions. (Along the way she took the name ‘Mother Kevin’). She also helped establish the Little Sisters of St Francis, an African congregation. By mid-century, it had more than 200 members. She and another nun had run a hospital to treat the Native Carrier Corps. Later, she was appointed a CBE. In Uganda she became known as ‘Mama Kevina’ or the ‘flame in the bush’. She died in Boston on 17 October 1957, aged 82, and was buried in Ireland. Ugandans, however, wanted her returned to their country. On December 3 of that year, she was reinterred at the mother house of the Little Sisters of St Francis at Nkokonjeru. Today, in Uganda, ‘Kevina’ is used as a word for a hospital or charitable institution.(1) Smidríní #2 An unusually-shaped tree in county Down has been voted Tree of the Year CULTURE It seems to have been a great success. In photos from the day on their Instagram page, the good people of Boorowa ‘Welcome ewe to Woolfest’. It’s festival day’ they tell us, ‘you’d be sheepish to miss it!’. Visitors were invited for coffee at the Shamrock Café; tickets were sold for the mechanical bucking ram (Raaambo, obviously) The festival’s crowning moment was the Running of the Sheep. (I was looking forward to this!). It’s here (25 seconds). * Declan O’Rourke releases his eighth album, Oceanic, on October 16. He also stars in a movie, Almost With You, an Australian-Irish co-production The film uses ten of his songs, including ‘Echo’, the lead single from Oceanic; Luka Bloom provides an additional score; the movie trailer is here (1:45) In the late 19th century, a Father MacDonald tried to discourage fiddle music; he thought it led to excessive drinking. Some instruments were handed over and ended up in the fire. Thankfully the padre made little further headway with his crusade. Fiddlers and musicians galore at the 30th Celtic Colours International Festival on Cape Breton from October 9-17. SPORT AFLW Top Irish performer of the week was Galway’s Áine McDonough. She scored three goals in Hawthorn’s win over Brisbane on Sunday and remains top of the scoring charts (follow the link; for the latest goalkicking stats, select ‘Entire Season’ from the ‘Round’ drop-down) TG4 names all Irish players on AFLW Club lists for 2026 (their AFLW clubs and their home county) Four Republic of Ireland players appeared in the English Premier League at the weekend: Dara O’Shea (Ipswich), Caoimhín Kelleher (Brentford), John Egan (Hull); Jake O’Brien came on for Everton. England’s top flight once had a healthy sprinkling of Irish players. Interesting to note that so far this year, 6 Irishmen have featured, one fewer than the number of Japanese who have made an appearance. Latest statistics on the Republic’s players in the English Premier League From Smidrini 1 above: Irish winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature:
The youngest winner was Rudyard Kipling, aged 41 in 1907; The oldest was Doris Lessing, 87 in 2007. on a light note … bonus Smidríní…
|