Cabragh West Research

29/04/2024

Today while working on a case, I was searching Thom's Dublin Street Directory for 1986 and accidentally found Maeve Binchy's house in Dalkey, "Pollyvilla". She and her husband, fellow author Gordon Snell, lived there.

29/10/2023

This afternoon and evening I went on a spooky tour of Bully’s Acre, an ancient burial ground within the stone walls of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, in Dublin. The Acre was the site of many a gruesome bodysnatching over the years but was originally the location of the monastery of St. Maighnan, for which Kilmainham itself is named. The area was the location of the first Viking base in Ireland, and Viking corpses with coins and swords have been discovered in the vicinity. Brian Boru’s army camped here before the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 and his son and grandson were buried in the Acre.

Robert Emmet, leader of a failed Irish rebellion, was originally buried here after his ex*****on in 1803. But under cover of darkness, his friends and family disinterred him and reburied him elsewhere, site still unknown to this day.

Bully’s Acre is only accessible during guided tours from March through November.

26/03/2023

I've researched some of the Irish heritage of two television stars with new seasons debuting tonight, Melanie Lynskey ("Yellowjackets" and "The Last of Us") and Jeremy Strong ("Succession"). Read my latest blog post to learn how surprisingly near each other their ancestors lived!

Cabragh West Research explores the genealogy of two popular TV stars, Melanie Lynskey (

23/03/2023

1847: Leaders of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma collected $170 for "the relief of the starving poor in Ireland". This was to help Irish people during the Famine, from a people who had also suffered expulsion, death and misery.

This plaque in the Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin (which has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715), remembers the Choctaw Nation who helped the Irish People in 1847.

Via and , Twitter

14/03/2023

"mors aurem vellit vivite ait venio"

death twitched her ear. 'live', he said, 'for i am coming.'

source: seligenstädter lateinpädagogik, a 15th-century latin textbook from germany! the big word next to them, "bello", means "war"

Via weird medieval guys

13/03/2023

Newly-rebuilt website alert 🚨

Explore your heritage! Cabragh West Research can perform Irish genealogy, Scottish, American, Canadian, and also focuses on dual citizenship.

14/04/2021

13 April is supposedly the 115th birthday of Samuel Beckett, famed Irish author and playwright. He liked to claim he was born on that date because it was both Good Friday and Friday the 13th, in 1906.

But a few years ago I found his actual birth registration. He was born on 13 May, not April. He was just being dramatic.

12/12/2020

What an adorable letter to Santa, in Dublin in 1911!

This letter to Santa was written in 1911, and hidden in the chimney of a house in Terenure in Dublin. The letter was discovered in 1992 by the house owner when he was installing central heating. It reads "I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee."

25/11/2020

As this is a holiday week for people in the United States, I'd like to point you to a good resource for beginner to intermediate level Irish researchers -- and you can even listen while you're working away in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving dinner!

Earlier this year, I recorded a three-part miniseries with Amateur Family History podcast on Irish genealogy. Look for episodes 17, 18, and 19, each is only about 25 minutes long:

Part 1 of 3

15/09/2020

Delighted to announce that I’ll be giving a video talk with my colleague, Dr. Jennifer Doyle, at Back To Our Past this weekend! For €10 attendees get access to the entire three-day virtual event, plus access to all recorded talks for a month.

Our talk is “Discovering Irish Pets and Their Families in the National Archives of Ireland Collections on Ancestry.com.” Tickets are available at http://www.backtoourpast.ie. Hope you enjoy!