1332 – Sir Anthony Lucy’s campaign in Munster ends on this date.
1656 – Birth of Sir Richard Levinge, Tory politician and Speaker of the House of Commons.
1788 – An Act on this date repeals tests imposed on Protestant Dissenters.
1794 – Archibald Hamilton Rowan escaped from Newgate prison in Dublin where he lay convicted of seditious libel. A founding member of The Dublin Society of United Irishmen was arrested on a charge of distributing a seditious paper, beginning ‘Citizen soldiers, to arms!’. Rowan was sentenced to be fined £500, and was forced to pay two assurities for good behaviour of £1,000.
1806 – John Jones, sculptor, is born in Dublin.
1858 – Birth of Edith Oenonne Somerville, novelist most famous for Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M written in collaboration with her cousin Violet Martin (also known as Martin Ross); in 1903, she becomes the first female Master of Foxhounds in Corfu.
1872 – St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin becomes the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland
1882 – Charles Stewart Parnell is released under the terms of the “Kilmainham Treaty”; writing off the debts of tenants in arrears. A landmark in the land agitation movement (and Parnell’s career).
1884 – Birth of William Casey, dramatist and Times editor.
1912 – The British Wreck Commissioner inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic opens in London seventeen days after the disaster.
1914 – The ‘Dublin method’ was published by John Joly, a maverick scientist from Co Offaly. Joly’s brilliant insight was to use not the expensive radium itself, but the radioactive radon gas that it gave off. This ’emanation’ could be collected in thin glass tubes; the amount or dose of radiation could be controlled; and the gas could be injected to the core of the tumour, where it could percolate through the tumour and have the best chance of killing the cancerous cells. He persuaded the RDS to set up a Radium Institute to develop radiotherapy for cancer patients in Ireland.
1916 – Easter Rising: update.
1916 – Letter written by Thomas MacDonagh to his family.
1916 – Death of William N. Rowe in Co Cork. He was a member of the RIC, fatally shot during a police raid on the home of the Kent family at Castlelyons, Co Cork. As the raid unfolded, the Kent brothers refused to be taken into custody, a firefight occurred which resulted in the death of Rowe and also the fatal wounding of Richard Kent as he attempted to flee.
1921 – An IRA column ambushed British troops near Lackelly, Co Limerick, but took heavy casualties in the ensuing fire fight. The IRA columns was itself ambushed another three times as it retreated during a five and a half hour running fight. Between five and fourteen IRA volunteers were killed and up to thirty wounded.
1922 – The IRA launched a series of attacks on RIC barracks in counties Derry and Tyrone. Six RIC and USC men were killed in the attacks. In reprisal for the attacks, Ulster Special Constabulary personnel killed nine Catholic civilians in the area, two on 6 May, three in Magherafelt on 11 May, and four more in Desertmartin on 19 May.
1922 – Republicans take over the centre of Kilkenny, including the city hall and Kilkenny Castle. The Provisional government sends 200 troops by train from Dublin to dislodge them. Fighting breaks out when the troops from Dublin arrive and there are up to 18 casualties. A truce is then brokered whereby both sides garrison different posts in the town.
1923 – Two Republican prisoners are executed in Ennis, Co Clare.
1923 – Birth of surgeon, politician and former president from 1976 to 1990, Patrick Hillery, in Milltown Malbay, Co Clare. He negotiated Ireland’s entry into the European Community in 1973 and was later E.C. vice president for three years. He died on 12 April 2008, in his Dublin home, following a short illness.
1929 – The Fianna Fáil proposes a motion to retain the Land Annuities. It is defeated in the Dáil.
1945 – Éamon de Valera offers his condolences to the German Ambassador, Edouard Hempel, on the death of Adolf Hitler.
1951 – Birth of journalist and film critic, Michael Dwyer in Tralee, Co Kerry. He wrote for The Irish Times for more than 20 years and previously in this role for the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Press and the magazine In Dublin. Dwyer was central to the foundation of two film festivals in Dublin and served on the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art until shortly before his death. He appeared often on the country’s top radio shows, Morning Ireland and The Marian Finucane Show. He died after an illness on 1 January 2010.
1957 – Death of Irish patriot, Fr. Aloysius Roche. He was the son of an Irish father and English mother, born in Scotland in 1886. He studied for the priesthood and following his ordination, he was transferred to Dublin where he was attached to the Capuchin Order in Church Street.
1958 – Birth of David O’Leary, footballer for Arsenal, Leeds United and the Republic of Ireland footballer; Leeds United manager.
1974 – The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) exploded a bomb at the Rose and Crown public house on the Ormeau Road, Belfast, killing six Catholic civilians and injuring a further 18.
1974 – A female member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was shot dead by the IRA during a gun and rocket attack on the UDR base in Clogher, Co Tyrone.
1974 – The Irish government brought a case of torture against the British government to the European Commission on Human Rights. The case related to the treatment of Internees held in Northern Ireland.
1976 – A Catholic civilian, Seamus Ludlow (47), who was an unmarried forestry worker from Thistle Cross, Dundalk, Co Louth, was killed in the early hours of the morning. He was shot a number of times. Initially the IRA was suspected by some members of the Garda Siochana. Members of Ludlow’s family concluded that the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)/Red Hand Commando (RHC) were responsible. The family have pressed the Irish government for an Inquiry. On 3 November 2005 an interim report into the killing was published.
1977 – In a last minute attempt to avoid the planned United Unionist Action Council (UUAC) strike, Secretary of State, Roy Mason, met leaders of the UUAC including, Ian Paisley and Ernest Baird, but the talks broke up without any agreement. Ian Paisley rejected allegations that the UUAC was using the strike as cover to secure independence for Ulster but warned that if it did take place he could not guarantee that intimidation would not take place.
1977 – In areas of Belfast, including the Shankill and Crumlin Road, there were reports of a number of food vans being hijacked and their contents stolen.
1982 – The Irish government affirms its neutrality in the Falklands conflict between the UK and Argentina, and opposes EEC sanctions against Argentina.
1984 – The Report of the New Ireland Forum was published. The authors of the report criticised Britain’s policy of ‘crisis management’ since 1968. The report set out three possible options for the future of Northern Ireland: join with the Republic in a United Ireland; joint authority over the region by the Republic of Ireland and Britain; a federal or confederal arrangement. Charles Haughey, leader of Fianna Fáil (FF), said that unity was the only option. The report rejects the use of violence to achieve political change in Northern Ireland.
1986 – Chief Constable of the RUC, John Hermon, stated that fifty RUC families and seventy-nine Catholic families had their homes fire-bombed by Loyalists between 1–26 April 1986. Hermon condemned the attacks and accused some Unionist politicians of ‘consorting with paramilitary elements’.
1992 – The Garda Síochána uncovered a large cache of arms, including fifty-one automatic rifles, in a concealed bunker at a farm near Newmarket, Co Cork.
1996 – Conor Cruise O’Brien, formally an Irish Labour Party Minister, announced that he would stand in the forth-coming Northern Ireland elections on behalf of the United Kingdom Unionists.
2000 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, arrives at Number 10 Downing St, London where he and Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair are hosting talks aimed at trying to breathe fresh life into the flagging Northern Ireland peace process. The two premiers will have separate meetings with the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Féin and the SDLP to see if they can find a way to overcome the deadlock over devolution and decommissioning.
2001 – Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness confirms publicly for the first time that he was the IRA’s second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday. The admission prompts a swift call from the Ulster Unionists for Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams to come clean about his IRA past.
2003 – The Rolling Stones set a new Irish box office record when more than 16,000 tickets for their Dublin concerts sell within two minutes.
2009 – Croke Park, the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association hosts a world record crowd for a non-international rugby match as 82,000 fans watch Leinster defeat Munster 25-6 in the Heineken Cup rugby semi-final.
Image | Hog’s Head (Reenearagh), Waterville, Co Kerry | By Valerie O’Sullivan
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