‘How are you at Climbing Fences?’ Beth O’Leary Anish finds her Castleisland Roots

In June this year (2024), Castleisland District Heritage was contacted by Beth O’Leary Anish from Massachusetts, scholar of Irish American literature, who was travelling to Ireland to attend a meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies in Limerick. She was hoping to fit in a visit to Castleisland where her great grandfather, James Leary […]

Poff and Barrett: The Case against John Dunleavy

‘The smallest thing in the world would hang us’ – Sylvester Poff to James Barrett Sylvester Poff and James Barrett, hanged on 23 January 1883 for the murder of Thomas Browne on 3 October 1882, maintained their innocence to the end, and declared that they did not know who murdered Browne.   They did, however, […]