1719 – The Toleration Act for Protestant Dissenters is passed.

1752 – Philip Twisden, Bishop of Raphoe and son-in-law of the politician Thomas Carter, dies bankrupt on this date, having been shot while allegedly masquerading as a highwayman.

1795 – Birth of William Grattan Tyrone Power, known professionally as Tyrone Power, was an Irish stage actor, comedian, author and theatrical manager. Born in Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, to a landed family, he took to the stage achieving prominence throughout the world as an actor and manager. He is said to have purchased the land that would later be occupied by Madison Square Garden, New York shortly before his death at sea when his ship, the SS President, sank shortly after departing for England. The lawyer who held the papers could not be found so the Power family were unable to claim right to the property.

1800 – Thomas (Buck) Whaley, MP for Enniscorthy, dies at Knutsford, apparently on his way from Liverpool to London. It is rumoured ‘that he was stabbed in a fit of jealousy by two sisters to whom he was paying marked attentions at a time when each of them was in ignorance of his concealed attachment to the other. Sarah, or Sally Jenkinson is stated to be the lady from whom he received his death-wound.’ She is said to have been won by Whaley from the Prince of Wales in a wager.

1815 – Birth of George Boole, a mathematical genius, educator, philosopher and logician, born in Lincolnshire, England. He was appointed as the first Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork in 1849. Boole died on 8 December 1864 and is buried in the Church of Ireland cemetery of St Michael’s, Church Road, Blackrock, Co Cork.

1821 – Birth of author and colonial administrator, Sir George Ferguson Bowen. Born in Co Donegal, his appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong.

1826 – Birth of Henry Smith, mathematician, in Dublin.

1903 – Samhain Festival held in Dublin.

1920 – Black and Tans shot dead IRA man Tommy Wall in Tralee, Co Kerry.

1920 – Following a mutiny in India by soldiers of the Connaught Rangers in protest at events in Ireland, Private James Daly is court-martialled and executed by firing squad; he is the last member of the British army to be executed for mutiny.

1920 – Sean MacEoin’s North Longford IRA column defended the village of Ballinalee from a Black and Tans assault, launched in response to the shooting of an RIC man there the previous day. British forces, consisting of eleven lorries of troops, retreated after a two and a half hour gunfight. The IRA column remained in the village for a week.

1921 – Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith met with Lord Birkenhead, Lloyd George and Chamberlain in relation to Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations.

1922 – Skirmish near Headford, Co Kerry, one Anti-Treaty IRA man and a Free State soldier are killed.

1922 – Birth of hurler, Seánie Duggan. Born in Co Galway who played as a goalkeeper for the Galway senior team.

1950 – Death of playwright, critic and polemicist, George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, whose influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912), and Saint Joan (1923).

1959 – Death of Michael Patrick Considine. Born in Co Mayo, he was an Irish-born Australian politician and unionist. He represented the seat of Barrier in the House of Representatives from 1917 to 1922. A controversial figure, Considine was pressured to resign from the Australian Labour Party (ALP). He won in 1919 as an independent before joining the Industrial Socialist Labour Party in 1920, but his seat was abolished for the 1922 election and he was defeated in an attempt to transfer to the seat of Darling.

1978 – Launch of RTÉ 2 television.

1986 – Sinn Féin Poblachtach founded in Dublin. It is a political party operating in Ireland. It emerged in 1986 as a result of a split in Sinn Féin. The party views itself as representing “true” or “traditional” Irish republicanism, while in the mainstream media the party is portrayed as a political expression of “dissident republicanism”.

1999 – In Ireland’s Marian village of Knock, a decision to replace the familiar Cnoc Mhuire road signs with An Cnoc creates major protests among residents.

2002 – A commuter aircraft, with 40 passengers on board, including rock group Aslan, overshoots the runway and ends up with its nose in the sea; no-one is injured.

Photo: Walled-city of Derry

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