📖 Ancient Restoration

The Kern was the original Irish 'forest fighter'. These lightly armed warriors lived in the deep forest & employed tactics to wear down their foe. The Elizabethans called them 'woodkerne' - a hated symbol of an unconquered land made up of wolves and Irishmen.

The Kern was the original Irish 'forest fighter'. These lightly armed warriors lived in the deep forest & employed tactics to wear down their foe. The Elizabethans called them 'woodkerne' - a hated symbol of an unconquered land made up of wolves and Irishmen.

Henry II famously attacked Ireland’s forests and bogs ‘as barriers to conquest and repositories of rebellion’. Throughout the land, forests were used as bases for resistance and as bastions against colonisation. For this reason Elizabeth I 'declared war' on…

Henry II famously attacked Ireland’s forests and bogs ‘as barriers to conquest and repositories of rebellion’. Throughout the land, forests were used as bases for resistance and as bastions against colonisation. For this reason Elizabeth I 'declared war' on the wilds of Ireland.

" A people without a language of its own is only half a nation. A nation should guard its language more than its territories — 'tis a surer barrier, and more important frontier, than fortress or river. " Thomas Davis in his essay Our National Language…

" A people without a language of its own is only half a nation. A nation should guard its language more than its territories — 'tis a surer barrier, and more important frontier, than fortress or river. " Thomas Davis in his essay Our National Language, 1st of April 1843

The word Gael, or 'Gaelic' is derived from meaning ‘forest people'. Irish people were always noted their high regard for trees: Forested areas once covered the whole country; they were religious centres, providers of food/fuel, & protected by Brehon law.…

The word Gael, or 'Gaelic' is derived from meaning ‘forest people'. Irish people were always noted their high regard for trees: Forested areas once covered the whole country; they were religious centres, providers of food/fuel, & protected by Brehon law. Part of Irish identity.

Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge and street as seen from Westmoreland Street in the 1940s.

Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge and street as seen from Westmoreland Street in the 1940s.

'Ireland is in the throes of a new invasion..It is a new plantation, this time with the blessing and connivance of the Parliamentary leaders of the Irish race'. - James Connolly speaking against the influx of foreign workers into Ireland, March 1916.

'Ireland is in the throes of a new invasion..It is a new plantation, this time with the blessing and connivance of the Parliamentary leaders of the Irish race'. - James Connolly speaking against the influx of foreign workers into Ireland, March 1916.