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1084 – Patrick, Bishop of Dublin, dies in a shipwreck.

1580 – Over 600 papal troops land at Dún an Óir, Co Kerry, to support a rebellion. After a three-day siege, the English Army behead over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians.

1711 – The Linen Board meets for the first time. The Board of Trustees of the Linen Manufacturers for over 100 years (1711 to 1823) fostered and controlled the Irish Linen Industry, and it was due to the marked success of its control that Irish Linens today are looked upon as the high mark in quality among the linen manufactures of the world. This Board of Trustees was composed of eighty members, twenty representatives from each of the four provinces, among them the most exalted and distinguished men of the day. They had under them a most efficient organisation, which carried out its duties with a skill and energy much to be admired, and which took a firm hold of the whole situation through the medium of seal masters, or inspectors, placed in convenient centers all over Ireland.

1771 – During his visit to Ireland, Benjamin Franklin attends a meeting of the House of Commons on this date.

1790 – Birth in Co Tipperary of Fr. Theobald Mathew, “The Apostle of Temperance” and campaigner against alcohol.

1819 – Birth in Templemore, Co Tipperary of Charles Stanley Monck, the first Governor General of Canada.

1865 – Magee College is opened as a combined arts and Presbyterian theological college in Derry.

1899 – Irish Transvaal Committee is formed to aid Boers against the English.

1899 – Eoin O Grownley, Irish language scholar, dies.

1918 – Over five hundred die in the Irish sea following the sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster by U-boat 123. The Leinster was operating as a passenger ship and mail boat, although most of those who died were soldiers returning from leave, many of them Irishmen who fought in the British Army in World War I.

1920 – A Royal Air Force lieutenant was killed at an ambush in Bandon, Co Cork.

1922 – The Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland issue a formal statement, supporting the Free State as the lawful and democratic government, denouncing the Anti-Treaty campaign as an unlawful rebellion and denying their fighters access to Holy Communion or Confession.

1922 – A Free State officer is killed in an ambush between Clonmel and Cahir.

1922 – Peadar Breslin, a Republican captured after the fall of the Four Courts, is shot dead during an attempt to escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. Three Free State soldiers are also killed in the fire fights during the escape attempts.

1922 – A senior Free State army officer, Commandant Peter Doyle, of Ballinakill, Marshalstown, is shot in the grounds of St. Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, Wexford, by Anti-Treaty I.R.A. after mass. Five girls are injured in the process, two of them seriously.

1969 – The Hunt Committee Report on Ulster police recommends abolition of the B-special troops and the creation of the Ulster Defense Regiment. The Hunt Report was produced by Baron Hunt in 1969 to “examine the recruitment, organisation, structure and composition of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Special Constabulary and their respective functions and to recommend as necessary what changes are required to provide for the efficient enforcement of law and order in Northern Ireland.” His recommendations resulted in the reshaping of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary and the formation of the Ulster Defence Regiment.

1971 – Birth in Cork of Roy Keane, football player for the Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, the Republic of Ireland, before ending his career at Celtic.

1981 – Birth of singer-songwriter, musician, and a television presenter, Una Healy, in Thurles, Co Tipperary. She rose to fame in 2008 as a member of the 5 member English–Irish girl group The Saturdays, signed to Fascination and Polydor Records. The group have achieved substantial success with numerous top-ten hits as well as a hit number one single entitled ‘What About Us’. In October 2014, it was confirmed that she would become a judge on The Voice of Ireland.

1981 – The Fureys reach no. 14 in the UK charts with When You Were Sweet Sixteen.

1990 – RTÉ reports on the closure of Phoenix Park Racecourse. Phoenix Park Racecourse is a former horse racing venue in Ireland. It was located in the north-west corner of Dublin on the northern edge of Phoenix Park. The course was founded by J.H.H. Peard, and racing began there in 1902. From 1939 to 1950 the track was managed by Mr Peard’s son, Harry, and thereafter it was run by his widow Fanny. Mrs Peard retired in 1969, and the course was later owned by a consortium which included Vincent O’Brien and Robert Sangster. Due to financial difficulties the track was closed for racing in late 1990. Several of Ireland’s leading flat races, which are presently contested at other venues, originally took place at Phoenix Park. These include the Irish Champion Stakes and the Phoenix Stakes. Other races of note held at Phoenix Park include the G III Vauxhall Trial Stakes.

1998 – THE IRA and Sinn Féin embark on a series of secret talks with Protestant churchmen and community leaders in a bid to prevent the peace process and the new Northern Ireland Assembly foundering.

1998 – Death of sportsperson, Tommy Quaid. Born in Charleville, Co Cork, he played hurling at various times with his local clubs Feohanagh-Castlemahon and Effin and was the goalkeeper on the Limerick senior inter-county team from 1976 until 1993. Quaid was regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation.

1999 – Ireland beaten by Australia in Rugby World Cup at Lansdowne Road, Dublin: 23-3. Ireland would qualify for the quarter finals of the World defeating the United States and Romania in its other group games. Argentina would narrowly win the quarter-final game 28-24

2000 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair signal the start of a concerted attempt to rescue the faltering Northern Ireland peace process.

2001 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern joins the ranks of the publicly contrite world leaders when he finally apologises to three journalists for the tapping of their telephones in the early ’80s.

2002 – After 22 years at the National Museum in Dublin, an eighth-century silver chalice, silver paten and stand and a decorated bronze strainer ladle are returned to their original resting place at the monastic site of Derrynaflan, near Littleton Bog, Co Tipperary.

2009 – Death of Stephen Gately. He was a pop singer-songwriter, actor, dancer, musician and author, who, with Ronan Keating, was one of two lead singers of the pop group Boyzone. Gately died of natural causes, due to pulmonary oedema.

Photo: Cahercommaun, Co Clare is a Triple Stone Fort which is dramatically situated on the edge of a steep valley; photo credit: Copter View

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