Most Welsh place-names that incorporate the names of saints occur in the form of llan with the name of the saint, and places named Llangybi (the enclosure, church or parish of Cybi) can be found elsewhere in Wales on the Llŷn Peninsula, in…

When exploring the shared cultural history of Irish Sea Port towns, it is expected that there will be movement of people in both directions. However less expected is emigrants leaving from both Ireland and Wales, to head to the same Liverpool port…

Medievalist Daryl Hendley Rooney from Trinity College Dublin talks about the famous churchman, scholar and historian Gerald of Wales (c.1146–1223) and his upbringing at Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire. He discusses Gerald's mixed Norman and Welsh…

In the school book for Wexford town, gathered by teacher Victoria M. Sherwood, we find this transcribed clipping from the Wexford Free Press paper, describing the origins of the magpie in Ireland: It is said that the first magpies that came to…

In the 1950s, Rosslare Harbour was a quiet village with the ferry port, the railways, farming and fishing being the main areas of employment. Following the great loss of Rosslare Fort in 1924/25, a lifeboat station was permanently transferred to…

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”―Rudyard Kipling. I love visiting Museums. You’ll always hear Writers and Storytellers say that stories, in whatever form, bind us and that we can only really learn how…

The tragic torpedo attack of RMS Leinster on the 10th October, 1918, is recorded as the biggest loss of life in the Irish Sea. Out of 813 souls, 569 souls lost their lives. Many of the crew were made up of residents from Holyhead, including Captain…

Virginia Woolf travelled widely in Britain and Europe throughout her life, but visited Ireland only once. On 27 April 1934, she sailed out from Fishguard to Cork for a motoring tour with her husband Leonard, visiting the novelist Elizabeth Bowen at…

There are a number of memorial plaques on view at the museum. These were made of bronze and issued to the next of kin in remembrance of those lost during the Great War of 1914-18. Each one is inscribed with the name of the person who died. Over one…

Seventy years ago, a young woman from Lismore County Waterford set out with her bicycle on her first trip out of Ireland alone. The trip would take her to England, a ‘Pagan land’ something that did not go unnoticed by her neighbours some of whom…