Hello and welcome
to our New Year Annual 2025
For many decades now, Foster and Allen have been great friends to us all here at Ireland’s Own and it is a great honour for us to feature them as our cover story interview as they mark fifty years in the entertainment business. June McDonnell chats to Mick and Tony and hears some of their highlights from their fantastic music career.
Long before sightings of ‘Nessie’ were reported in Scotland, talk of a strange wild beast had the people of Limerick looking over their shoulders. Denis O’Shaughnessy recalls the legend of ‘The Limerick Sea Monster’. Much-loved singer Johnny McEvoy has written an original ghost story called ‘The Guard’ which we are delighted to share with Ireland’s Own readers, and Maxi remembers the universally loved star that was Maureen Potter, who was born 100 years ago.
Anthony F. Hughes concludes his ‘Classic Western Series’ and begins a new series on the ‘Wild West’, while you can read the words of the old recitation ‘Micheál Bocht’ which many of us would have heard at parish variety nights down the years.
During the American Civil War, a small force of Irishmen, led by Galway man Dick Dowling, took on the might of the Union army at Sabine Pass, a strategically located sea channel on the Texas-Louisiana border. Defying all odds, Dowling and his Davis Guards, with ingenious tactics, extraordinary courage and magnificent gunnery, achieved one of the greatest Confederate victories of the Civil War writes Mairéad O’Brien.
District Inspector McCoy was enjoying a well-fortified lunch with his Unionist friends when the door of the Dining Room burst open and the Kiskeam deputation entered, writes Denis J. Hickey in his piece ‘Don’t Mess With Kiskeam’. In ‘The Irish Priests’ series Maolsheachlann O Ceallaigh recalls Fr. F.X. Martin who is most famous for the Wood Quay protests. Shaun Ivory recalls historical figures who paid the ultimate price for their inventions in ‘Killed by Their Own Inventions’.
In 1943 the famous musician Glenn Miller, who was of Irish descent, played the pipe organ in in Gartree Church in County Antrim, writes Con McGrath in his World War II stories. Who was Esther Johnson and why did she become the muse of Jonathan Swift, asks Jenny Crossley. In ‘The Ballad Sheet’ Eugene Dunphy writes about the song ‘No Irish Need Apply’ which highlighted anti-Irish sentiment overseas.
Joe Cushnan writes about Hollywood star Dick Van Dyke. The star of Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang lays claim to Irish ancestry and possible links to a passenger on the Mayflower, explains Joe. Eddie Ryan tells us about Harry Ramsden and the fishy end of Big Jack’s tenure as manager of the Republic of Ireland football team.
Miss Flanagan returns with another case to crack in ‘Sales Fever’ while Kitty the Hare shares the chilling story of ‘The Boarding School’. Columnists Mary Kennedy and Michael Lyster are back with more of their very enjoyable monthly musings. Alex Dobbs has more health advice for readers as we enter a new year.
They often called him the ‘Ernest Hemingway of the Cinema’ and in his ‘Great Directors’ series, Thomas Myler profiles John Huston. Ivor Casey goes behind the scenes of the Elvis Presley movie ‘Viva Las Vegas’ on what would have been ‘The King’s’ 90th birthday. In his Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame Series, Chris Hughes looks at the career of Gladys Knight and the Pips.
In ‘The Golden Girl’ Liam Nolan remembers a vivacious young athlete named Lillian Board who took the athletics world by storm over fifty years ago. John Joe McGinley continues his series on the ‘Irish Wild Geese’ while Cheryl Devaney remembers ‘Miss Unsinkable’ Violet Jessop.
We have all this for you to enjoy in a jam-packed New Year Annual as well as regular favourites Cassidy Says, Dan Conway’s Corner, Patrick O’Sullivan’s Seasonal Reflection, It Happened in January with Cian Manning, Readers’ Letters, What’s In Your Name, jokes, songs, competitions, puzzles, Pen Friends, Owen’s Club, Learn to Draw with Don Conroy, short stories, Just A Memory, June McDonnell’s Irish Music Diary, a new series on Great Europeans with John Powell and much more.
I hope that you enjoy this week’s issue and I will look forward to catching up with you all again next week. Until then, take care and once again, we wish you all the best for the new year.
Best regards, Seán Nolan, Editor, Ireland’s Own