The World's Deepest Submarine Rescue
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 23, 2023
More than eighty hours after the Titan submersible lost contact with its surface ship while on a dive to explore the wreck of the Titanic a...
Showing posts with the label Ireland
Charles Boycott: The Man Who Became a Verb
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 12, 2023
The act of boycotting an organization or a person dates back to centuries, but the word “boycott” itself is relatively new. It entered Engli...
The Dublin Whiskey Fire of 1875
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 23, 2022
On June 18, 1875, a fire broke out on Chamber Street in the Liberties neighborhood of Dublin, Ireland. The exact cause of the fire remains u...
The Round Towers of Ireland
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 8, 2022
A unique feature of the Irish landscape are its free-standing round towers or Cloigtheach , which literally means “bell house”. As their nam...
Before Pumpkins People Carved Turnips on Halloween
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 18, 2021
The yearly Halloween tradition of carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns was originally an Irish ritual, but instead of pumpkins, the folks a...
The Lartigue Monorail of Listowel
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2021
A small heritage market town called Listowel in County Kerry, Ireland, is home to one of the strangest monorail system ever built. Instead o...
Turlough: Ireland’s Disappearing Lakes
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 2, 2020
Many lakes whose existence depends wholly on rainwater runoffs are seasonal. The phenomenon is not particularly mysterious—the lake forms wh...
Slip Coach: Trains That Split
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 24, 2020
In the middle of the 19th century, British railway engineers realized that journey times could be appreciably shortened if trains didn’t hav...
The Healing Soil of Boho
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 11, 2020
In the Boho highlands of West Fermanagh Scarplands in Northern Ireland, there is a longstanding belief that the soil from the local churchya...
Crannogs: Neolithic-Era Artificial Islands
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 23, 2019
The Neolithic people of Great Britain were prolific builders. Just look at the British Isles—they are studded with countless ancient megalit...
Why Did Ancient People Bury Butter in Bogs?
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 19, 2019
Peat bogs are favorite hunting grounds of archeologists because of the many odd surprises these marshy wetlands have revealed from time to t...
RMS Tayleur: The Other Titanic
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 31, 2019
The sinking of the Titanic is one of the best remembered maritime disasters in history. A grand luxury ship touted as the safest vessel aflo...
Cloughmills’ Crochet Village
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 18, 2019
The village of Cloughmills in County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, has a small model replica of their village displayed in their village hall...
Atmospheric Railways: The 19th Century Trains That Ran On Air
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 22, 2018
The 19th century ushered in a new form of transport—railways. Journeys that previously took weeks were now completed in days. Distances that...
The Clifftop Folly of Frederick Hervey
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 24, 2018
Perched dramatically on the edge of a 120 feet tall cliff, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the Mussenden Temple near Castlerock, in the nort...
The EIRE Signs of World War 2
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 8, 2018
The recent heat wave in the UK has revealed more than ancient henges . Over at Bray Head, on the Irish coast, a short distance away from Du...
Britain’s User Worked Level Crossings
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2018
The United Kingdom has some 6,500 level crossings on their sprawling railway network, out of which an astounding number of them—5,000—are us...
River Farset: Belfast’s Forgotten River
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 21, 2018
The city of Belfast in Northern Ireland looked very different when it was a thriving industrial city in the 18th century. A large river flow...
The Coffin Ships of The Great Irish Famine
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 25, 2017
During the Great Famine of Ireland in the mid-19th century, tens of thousands of starving Irish families fled the country and emigrated to C...
Sheela-Na-Gig: The Mysterious Medieval Carvings of Women Exhibitionists
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 30, 2017
The Church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck in the English county of Herefordshire is famous for its Norman carvings of writhing snakes an...
