1784 – Reform Bill in Irish House of Commons.

1791 – Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man (part 1) – a reply to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and a major influence on Irish radicals – is published.

1846 – Ballinlass An Gorta Mór Evictions: Seventy-six tenant farmers and their families (three hundred people in total) were evicted from their homes in the small village of Ballinglass, Co Galway.

1856 – Birth of athlete, Patrick Nally, in Balla, Co Mayo. He was a major inspiration in the founding the GAA in 1884 by Michael Cusack. The Nally stand in Croke Park is named after him.

1888 – Birth of Patrick Moran in Co Roscommon. He was a grocer’s assistant, trade unionist and member of the Irish Republican Army executed in Mountjoy Prison along with five other men on 14 March 1921.

1913 – Birth of racing driver and motor trader, Joe Kelly, in Dublin.

1918 – John Dillon, MP for East Mayo, has been unanimously elected to replace the late John Redmond as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

1922 – George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Back to Methusaleh V’ premieres in New York.

1922 – Michael Collins addressed a mass meeting at the Grand Parade in Co Cork.

1923 – Three Republican prisoners from Wexford IRA units are executed in Wexford town.

1923 – Three other Republicans are executed, two in Cork and the other in Dublin. The Republican ‘government’ issues a statement announcing a period of mourning and forbidding all public entertainments such as sporting events while executions of their men continue.

1923 – A Free State soldier is killed in a gun attack at Glasson, near Athlone.

1923 – The bodies of two civilians are found at Morehill, Tallow on the Waterford/Cork border.

1939 – At Swim-Two-Birds, a novel by writer Brian O’Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O’Brien. It is widely considered to be O’Brien’s masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction.

1960 – Birth of bass player with U2, Adam Clayton, in Oxford.

1973 – Birth of Ballybeg Prim, one of the greatest racing dogs of all time in Thurles, Co Tipperary.

1974 – Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, made a statement in the Dáil in which he said that the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom could not be changed except with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.

1979 – Ireland joins new European Monetary System (EMS).

1981 – Death of Patrick Hennessy. He was an industrialist, born in Co Cork. During the First World War he served in the British army, between 1914 and 1918, with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He started his career in 1920 with Henry Ford and Son in Cork.

1990 – The Irish Supreme Court upheld the appeal of Dermot Finucane and James Clarke against extradition to Northern Ireland. The two men had escaped from Long Kesh Prison, on 25 September 1983. The decision caused uproar among Unionist politicians and the British Government.

1998 – Naval personnel question the crew of a British-registered flagship after a second day of intimidation of Irish trawlers off the South West coast.

1999 – Over 250,000 people pack the streets around the River Liffey in Dublin to witness the largest fireworks display ever seen in Ireland. The event marks the start of a five-day festival to mark St Patrick’s Day as well as the official launch of the Millennium celebrations.

2000 – A multi million pound seizure of drugs in Holland results in the arrest of John Cunningham, one of Ireland’s most prolific career criminals.

2001 – The Irish food industry is dealt a hammer blow as the United States and Canada ban Irish food imports, worth over £100 million a year, because of the foot and mouth scare.

2002 – There was a series of events in the White House in Washington, DC, to mark the celebrations leading to St Patrick’s Day. The leaders of the three main political parties in Northern Ireland attended, however Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), stayed away from the event because he did not wish to be photographed alongside Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Féin (SF). Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, presented George Bush, US President, with a bowl of shamrocks. Ahern dismissed comments earlier in the day by David Trimble, then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). At a morning debate Trimble had renewed his criticism of the Republic of Ireland. He described the recent abortion referendum as ‘a sectarian exercise’ and a ‘sectarian vote’.

2003 – Taoiseach Bertie gives his strongest indication yet that the US will be able to use Shannon Airport regardless of UN backing for war in Iraq.

2005 – On Adam Clayton’s birthday U2 are inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen.

Photo: Clogherhead, Co Louth, photo credit: Copter View

#irish #history #Ireland #OTD

SaveSave