The Letter from Ireland Show - with Mike & Carina Collins
The Letter from Ireland Podcast. Join us as we travel in the footsteps of your Irish Ancestors around Ireland - visiting their homelands and telling their stories and with lots of great Irish music along the way.
Recent Episodes
38
Sept. 21, 2023
Finding your Irish Ancestral Homeland (#838)
In this special Irish family history episode we take two letters from our Green Room members. We chat about the approach they should take to uncover more about their respective Irish ancestral homelands. The first letter comes from one of our members in Australia and shares the story of her Irish Irish ancestors. She wonders how to go about discovering the actual origin for these ancestors in Ireland. Mike shares his approach - and comes up with a target destination! In the second letter we ch
37
Sept. 14, 2023
A Genealogical Trip Back to County Cork (#837)
In this special episode we choose one of our Green Room members (see more about the Green Room here) and accompany them on a genealogical trip back to County Cork. Cathy Abraham lives in Boston, USA and her great-grandparents arrived there in the 1870s from County Cork. They were Timothy O'Callaghan and Ellen Richardson. The story went that Timothy was a poor farm-hand on Ellen's parents farm just outside Cork City. They eloped to America as Ellen's parents did not approve of a match between th
36
Sept. 7, 2023
Did Your Irish Ancestor Live Through This Terrible Time? (#836)
In this episode we look at a very difficult time in Ireland - one that triggered a time of death across the population of the island as well as emigration for many generations afterwards. I'm talking, of course, about "An Gorta Mór" - also known as "The Great Hunger" or "The Great Famine" of the mid 1800s. The first letter looks at a particular landless class in Ireland - who formed a sizeable percentage of our population - but who were, more or less, wiped out during the Famine. I wrote the s
35
Aug. 31, 2023
Two Royal Families of Ireland - O'Neill and O'Connor (#835)
In this episode we look at two of the major family surnames of Ireland - O'Neill and O'Connor. The first story asks if you have Niall of the Nine Hostages DNA?. This Niall was the patriarch of the O'Neills of Meath and Ulster and there are a surprising number of people on the planet today who have a direct link back to this one individual. We then move on to the O'Connors - who provided us with the last two High Kings of Ireland. Using the first and second name of the late, great, singer - Sin
34
Aug. 24, 2023
The 8 Most Unique Male Irish Singing Voices (#834)
In this musical episode we look at a very personal choice of the eight most unique Irish MALE singing voices. I wonder will you agree? Maybe it will introduce you to a new talent that you have not heard before - or maybe you feel I have left out one or two of your own favourites! Either way, I hope you enjoy this selection of beautiful Irish songs and voices. Music featured in this episode: "Samhradh, Samhradh" performed by Iarla Ó Lionáird and The Gloaming. "Bodenstown Churchyard" performed
33
Aug. 17, 2023
From County Cork to the Bright Lights of Broadway and Chicago (#833)
In this episode we tell the story of not one, but two, Irish families that came out of the area surrounding the town of Bantry in West Cork, Ireland. The first story shares the story of Francis O'Neill who emigrated to the USA and Chicago - eventually becoming a chief of police. More importantly, he became an avid collector and preserver of traditional Irish music. The healthy state of Irish traditional music today owes a lot to the efforts of this one man. We then follow the Keohane family wh
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