The Cavern Club, Penny Lane, Strawberry Field – Liverpool locations which will forever be associated with The Beatles.
But although they hailed from Merseyside, the Fab Four have strong Irish connections which a new podcast argues makes them at least adopted sons of the Emerald Isle.
Give The Beatles Back to the Irish begins on Sunday on Radio Ulster and begins by exploring the deep Irish family roots of the band.
Here are six other lesser-known facts to support the theory that Ireland can claim at least a little of The Beatles’ success.
Oliver Cromwell is responsible for the Beatles
Sounds far-fetched? Maybe, but bear with us here.
The Beatles have deep-rooted Irish family connections.
John’s great-grandfather James was born in County Down and his great-grandmother Elizabeth Gildea was from Omagh in County Tyrone.
Paul’s family was rooted in County Monaghan. His grandfather on his mother’s side was Owen Mohan from Tullynamallow.
Image caption,Gardaí (Irish police) had to hold back enthusiastic Beatles fans in Dublin in 1963
Ringo is the most English of the band but there are still family lines traceable to County Mayo.
George’s family was originally from County Wexford and were landowners until stripped of their land by Oliver Cromwell.
The family subsequently emigrated to Liverpool. The rest is musical history…eventually.
Indeed in 1963, John Lennon stated in an interview upon landing at Dublin Airport: “We’re all Irish!”
Back in the RUAS…They played their biggest UK/Irish gig in Belfast
Image caption,Ringo and Paul play with children’s Christmas presents backstage at the King’s Hall in Belfast in 1964
The band’s appearance in the King’s Hall Belfast in 1964 had the largest audience The Beatles ever played to in the UK and Ireland.
As Beatlemania swept the world, they performed two shows on the same day at the home of the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society with a total audience of 16,000.
It was an arena gig before the term was even coined. The highest ticket price on the day was a whopping £1.
The band played three famous gigs in Ireland – one in Dublin and two in Belfast – but did you know they also almost played Drogheda and Portstewart? All is revealed in the series.
With A Little Help From Their Irish Friends
The Fab Four had connections with some very interesting showbiz figures down the years.
Many of these were Irish. From “old man Steptoe” Wilfred Bramble, who was actually a Dubliner, to Irish talk show legend Gay Byrne – who Lennon dismissively referred to as Grey Burke.
You may recall Bramble played Paul’s “very clean” grandpa in Hard Day’s Night.
The band, especially Paul McCartney was close to the Irish socialite and Guinness heir Tara Browne who was at the centre of the swinging London scene.
Image caption,Tara Browne (left) was a leading London socialite and friend of The Beatles
Browne’s life was cut tragically short in a car accident, later to be immortalised in the classic Sgt Pepper’s album song A Day in the Life.
As the song went, “nobody was really sure is he was from the House of Lords”, in reference to Browne’s aristocratic father.
Baby You Can Drive My Car (with a slightly dodgy Irish driving licence)
Well not so much dodgy, but certainly convenient.
From a local newspaper in 1963: “McCartney who had two previous convictions for speeding this year was told by Alderman W.O. Hanford presiding: ‘It is time you were taught a lesson.'”
Anyone could get an Irish driving licence simply by applying for them in the early 1960s.
According to Jason and Stephen in the podcast, Paul had been stripped of his UK driving licence for repeated speeding offences and Ringo simply wanted to get a fast-track but legal means of getting back behind the wheel of his car.
Image caption,Paul may or may not have still had an Irish driving licence by the time this photo was taken in 1967
In the Republic of Ireland in the early 1960s, anyone living there could get an Irish driving licence simply by applying for one.
A Dublin “home” address was even provided for the paperwork. Beep beep, beep beep, yeah!
Arthur Fields forever – George immortalised in Dublin as a child.
The Beatles guitarist visited Ireland several times as a child to see some of his many cousins.
A tarapicture captured by legendary Dublin street photographer Arthur Fields on the streets of the city in the 1950s is astonishing.
Walking across a bridge with his mother, George stares down the camera lens just like he would later for Fab Four photoshoots, even though he’s a tiny kid, aged seven.
Arguably the coolest Beatle, even then.
John and Yoko bought an Irish island to retire
In the 1970s several Beatles flirted, with varying degrees of controversy, with Irish politics and The Troubles in song.
Give Ireland Back To The Irish went to number one in Ireland, but less predictably, also in Franco’s Spain.
John Lennon went even further than singing about Ireland, buying Dorinish island off the west coast intending to retire there with Yoko and his family.
He sent a beautiful old psychedelically-painted gypsy caravan to the island by helicopter in 1967.
While Dorinish had subsequently changed hands from hippes to farmers, Lennon was apparently still interested in finishing his plans which had received local planning permission.
Sadly, Lennon’s dream of an idyllic Irish lifestyle would never materialise as he was murdered in New York in 1980.
As he admitted himself in song: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”.
One can only imagine how differently Lennon’s life would have panned out had he lived and eventually became an Irish resident.
Give The Beatles Back To The Irish will be broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle at 18:30 GMT on Sunday and on BBC Sounds.
The Hollywood star, Maureen O’Hara, at Camp Pendleton, in 1945. USMC ARCHIVES / FLICKR
Maureen O’Hara, in what was likely her last interview, gave all the credit for her success to her mother’s inspiration. The Quiet Man star, also revealed who her hero was – Eamonn De Valera, Founder of the Fianna Fail Party and a deadly enemy of Michael Collins.
The interview with Maureen O’Hara is from the book “Celebrating the Irish”, which fell foul of Ireland’s economic recession back in 2010 but has now been completed by Noreen Taylor, a respected journalist, author, and portrait painter. There are 60 or so short interviews as well as a portrait of remarkable Irish achievers.
O’Hara told Taylor: “My mother was very beautiful, someone I wanted to emulate. She sang in opera and for a long time I wanted to follow her footsteps.
“Fame did not turn my head, nor did I believe I’d come a long way for the simple reason that I always thought I came from a great bloodline and a great country. We’ve produced men like my great hero Eamonn de Valera, people who have gone out and conquered the world. So how could I not be proud.”
2
The late great Maureen O’Hara.
As for Hollywood, she never doubted she could make it.
“I knew I was going to be a top actress. I was ambitious, determined to be successful in life. We were all high achievers in my family. We delighted in being winners but we didn’t boast, we shared in each other’s success. But I’d have been walloped if I started to show off. One brother, Charles was a top barrister, another brother Jimy won the Leinster 400 (athletic race) and my sister Margaret was a dressage champion.”
Her father, Charles Fitzsimons was a successful businessman, while her mother Marguerita, was a trained operatic contralto, who ran a fashion business.
“I’ve always been proud of coming from Ireland… during all the years away I dreamed of it and wanted to come back.”
Which indeed she did to spend her final days there.
Veterans Day is a holiday celebrated annually in the United States (and a few other countries) that honors all of the men and women who have served in the military, both past and present. Veterans Day was originally known as Armistice Day. The holiday was first established in 1919 to honor the soldiers who fought in World War I. In 1954, it was renamed Veterans Day to include all veterans of all wars.
The meaning of Veterans Day is to remember the sacrifices that veterans have made for the country. It is also a day to show appreciation for their service. There are many ways to celebrate Veterans Day. Some people choose to participate in parades or other public events. Others may spend time volunteering at a local veterans’ hospital or home. Some people simply take a moment to remember and thank a veteran in their life.
Popular: Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald at the party’s ard fheis earlier this month
November 11 2022 06:30 AM
A series of polls suggest Sinn Fein is currently the most popular party in the Republic.
But for the moment, its role is confined to the opposition benches in the Dail.
The question remains, however, what would a Sinn Fein taoiseach mean, and what would the consequences be, if anything, for Northern Ireland?
There is no love lost between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail — who are coalition partners in government in Dublin, along with the Green Party — and Sinn Fein.
Leo Varadkar, soon to be reappointed taoiseach, has said the Republic cannot have someone leading the country who refuses to condemn terrorism, following Mary Lou McDonald’s comments that there is “no comparison” between IRA violence and gangland violence.
He claimed it would take a decade to clean up the “mess” Sinn Fein would make of the economy if the party was in government.
Current taoiseach Micheal Martin has also recently said it is time to “take the gun out of Irish politics”, but Sinn Fein “is not doing that, it tries to have a bet each way”.
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“Sinn Fein policies in the last year or two, in my view, have not made economic or fiscal sense in terms of the amount of public spending that would be involved.
“They are essentially a party that, at their core, have been anti-EU and anti-enterprise,” he added.
But is this fearmongering or political point-scoring, or a realistic assessment of Ms McDonald’s party and what it would do if it took power?
One former senior DUP figure, who did not want to be named, said a potential Sinn Fein taoiseach would “not make much difference” for Northern Ireland.
“It would be a long road before [a Sinn Fein taoiseach] could actually happen, as, while they may become the largest party, they would still need another party to go into government with,” they said.
“The electorate in the Republic seem to prefer a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition, and Leo Varadkar has already made it clear his party would not go into government with Sinn Fein. Even, let’s say, if Sinn Fein did fill the taoiseach position, I don’t think it would make much difference for us in Northern Ireland.
“It would probably heighten calls for a border poll, but it wouldn’t make such a poll any more likely to succeed.
“People down south don’t vote for Sinn Fein on the constitutional question, they vote for them regarding issues like housing and jobs.
“Recent polls have shown the electorate in the Republic are in favour of a united Ireland, but not if it means paying higher tax to pay for it.
“The vote for Sinn Fein to get one over on the ‘Dublin elite’, who they feel have not treated them fairly, those who feel wealth has not been shared evenly throughout society.
“If Sinn Fein were the lead party in the Republic, I think it would be very short-lived as people would see how economically illiterate the party really is. There’s also the issue of having a possible Sinn Fein taoiseach who can’t even publicly denounce terrorism.”
While Sinn Fein has come out as the most popular party in the Republic in polls, its support has recently dropped slightly.
A survey conducted by the Sunday Independent and Ireland Thinks put the party on top at 34%, but this is a drop of three points from the previous poll in March.
Political commentator David McCann said if Sinn Fein led the government in the Republic, there would be an “initial novelty” of having a Sinn Fein taoiseach for the first time, but “that would soon wear off”.
“If they did lead the government, at the end of the day I don’t think it would be a radical government, as they would have to go into coalition with another party and that would lead to more a run-of-the-mill regime, with Sinn Fein’s potentially more drastic plans tempered,” he said.
“People vote for Sinn Fein on the bread-and-butter issues like housing and healthcare, so they would try to make in-roads in those areas.
“In terms of what it would mean for Northern Ireland, I’m not saying Sinn Fein would ignore the border poll issue, but it’s up to the Northern Ireland secretary to call a border poll.
“They could set up a citizen’s assembly on the constitutional question, as they have been calling for, and do exploratory work on what an all-island civil service and those kind of things would look like, but that’s about it.”
