International Women’s Day

1574 – Captain William Martin lays siege to Gráinne Ní Mháille in Rockfleet castle.

1594 – English expedition sets out from Galway to kill pirate queen, Gráinne Ní Mháille.

1700? – Year is uncertain, but it is on this date that Anne Bonny, née Cormac, pirate, is born in Co Cork.

1702 – William III dies when his horse stumbles on a molehill; Anne accedes to the throne of Britain and Ireland.

1742 – William Crotty, outlaw of the Comeragh mountains, is tried in Waterford on this date and later hanged, drawn and quartered.

1770 – Mary Anne McCracken, radical and philanthropist, is born in Belfast.

1834 – General John O’Neill, Irish Fenian leader, is born.

1854 – Birth in Co Cork of Tom Horan, the greatest of the many top class Australian cricketers to be born in Ireland.

1903 – Charles Gavan Duffy, Young Irelander, is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

1909 – Francis MacManus, novelist, is born in Kilkenny.

1921 – Sir James Comyn, lawyer, is born in Dublin.

1923 – Four more Anti-Treaty IRA prisoners are killed in Kerry by National Army troops from Dublin. They are, as at Ballyseedy the day before, blown up by a mine, ostensibly while clearing a mined road, at Countess Bridge in Killarney. The dead are from IRA Kerry 2 Brigade. One man, Tadhg Coffey, escapes the massacre.

1924 – Birth of Seán McClory in Dublin, but spent his early life in Co Galway. He was an actor whose career spanned six decades and included well over 100 films and television series. He was the son of Hugh Patrick McClory, an architect and civil engineer, and Mary Margaret (née Ball).

1925 – Paddy Devlin, socialist politician, is born in Belfast.

1942 – Mary MacSwiney, Irish patriot, dies.

1959 – Aidan Quinn, film actor, is born in Chicago of Irish parents.

1966 – Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin is blown up.

1972 – Birth of Fergal O’Brien ‘The Baby Faced Assassin’ in Dublin. He is a professional snooker player. A member of snooker’s main tour since turning professional in 1991, O’Brien has been ranked within the world’s top 64 players since 1994, reaching his highest position, 9th, for the 2000/2001 season. He has won one ranking title – the 1999 British Open, where he defeated Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final – and reached two other major finals, notably in the 2001 Masters.

1973 – The IRA explodes two car bombs outside the Old Bailey courthouse in London, killing one person and injuring over two hundred. One of those convicted, nineteen year old Gerry Kelly escaped from Long Kesh Prison in 1983, but was recaptured in 1986. He went on to become a member of Sinn Féin’s negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement, and also served as a Sinn Féin Assembly Member for North Belfast in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

1981 – Bobby Sands recorded his diary for the first seventeen days of his hunger strike in which he detailed his thoughts and feelings on the momentous task that lay ahead of him. In order to secure his status as Irish political prisoner he was willing to fast til death, an event that would earn him a place in the annals of Irish history and in the hearts and minds of Irish republicans world wide. See Bobby Sands Trust for today’s entry: http://www.bobbysandstrust.com/writings/prison-diary

1998 – The Loyalist Volunteer Force pledges full backing for DUP leader Ian Paisley in his opposition to the Stormont talks process.

1999 – Pressure on Sinn Féin and the IRA to make a start on decommissioning is stepped up as the Irish and British Governments sign four new treaties in Dublin providing for the implementation of the main elements of the Good Friday Agreement.

2000 – Following a round of meetings in Belfast involving Foreign Minister Brian Cowen; Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, and the principal pro Agreement parties, the two governments are to assess the situation before the St Patrick’s Day summit in the White House next week. All the parties are now looking towards President Clinton to broker a deal that will break the impasse in the peace process.

2001 – Retired Archbishop of Tuam, the Most Rev Joseph Cunnane, dies after a long illness at the Bon Secours Hospital.

2002 – Car owners are to benefit from new regulations which will oblige insurers to give two-week’s notice of any cost changes when renewing policies.

2006 – An original copy of the Proclamation of Independence picked up on O’Connell Street in 1916 has been donated to the National Museum of Ireland.

2013 – Death of John Francis O’Connell. O’Connell was born in Dublin and educated at St. Vincent’s C.B.S. in Glasnevin and the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin. In 1960 he founded MIMS Ireland, a well-known monthly index of medical specialties, and in 1967 he founded the Irish Medical Times, a weekly broadsheet for doctors. He was first elected as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) in 1965 and was returned at each election until 1987, latterly for Fianna Fáil after a time as an independent. He served in Seanad Éireann from 1987 to 1989, when he was again elected to the Dáil. He then served until he retired in 1993. He also served as Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1981 to 1982, as Minister for Health (1992–1993) and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1979 to 1981.

Image | Lough Corrib, lake in Counties Galway and Mayo | George Karbus Photography

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