In the Liturgical calendar, this is the feast day of St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise. He was one of the early Irish monastic saints and Irish bishop. He is sometimes called Ciarán the Younger to distinguish him from Saint Ciarán of Saighir. He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He dies on this date in 545.

872 – Earliest verifiable date of a Viking invasion of Ireland in Dunrally.

1806 – Death of Antrim born William Patterson, a signatory of the U.S. Constitution and a Supreme Court Justice. Patterson’s family emigrated when he was a child. He went on to become the first Attorney General of New Jersey and a governor of the state.

1807 – Birth of Anglican archbishop and poet, Richard Chenevix Trench, in Dublin.

1831 – 30,000 pounds is allocated to establish “national” system of elementary education in Ireland.

1845 – The arrival of the potato blight in Ireland is reported in the Dublin Evening Post.

1852 – The last day of the Tenant League Conference in Dublin.

1890 – Birth of physician, Dorothy Stopford Price, in Dublin. She was key to the elimination of childhood tuberculosis in Ireland by introducing the BCG vaccine. Dorothy’s first job was as a dispensary doctor in Kilbrittain in Co Cork, where she also engaged in the Irish War of Independence, tending to injured members of the IRA. During the ensuing Irish Civil War, she favoured the Republican side. Dorothy joined Cumann na mBan, and gave lectures on first aid as part of her involvement.

1893 – House of Lords rejects Second Home Rule Bill. (It was the second attempt made by William E. Gladstone, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to enact a system of home rule for Ireland. Unlike the first attempt, which was defeated in the House of Commons, the second Bill was passed by the Commons only to be vetoed by the House of Lords.)

1916 – Death of Thomas Michael “Tom” Kettle. He was a journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier, economist and Home Rule politician. As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Tyrone from 1906 to 1910 at Westminster. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, then on the outbreak of World War I in 1914 enlisted for service in an Irish regiment where in 1916 he met his death on the Western Front.

1922 – Republicans attack and take Kenmare in Co Kerry. A total of 84 Anti-Treaty fighters take over the town and shoot dead local pro-treaty officer Tom “Scarteen” O’Connor” and his brother after taking them prisoner. They take 120 National Army troops in the town prisoner, but later release them. They capture 110 rifles and 20,000 rounds of ammunition. This action allowed the Kerry Anti-Treaty units to pursue a fairly effective guerrilla campaign for the remainder of the war.

1922 – A British intelligence report states that the Free State intelligence unit, the Crime Investigation Department or CID has, “murdered a number of prominent republicans” in Dublin.

1922 – Anti-Treaty fighters attack the barracks at Carrickmacross. One Free State soldier is killed and two wounded in the firing. A civilian is also killed in the crossfire

1922 – The newly elected Daíl Éireann meets to frame its constitution and elects William T. Cosgrave President of the Executive Committee.

1963 – Cardinal William Conway becomes Primate of All Ireland.

1971 – A British soldier was killed trying to defuse a bomb near Lisburn.

1975 – British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, together with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees, held a meeting with leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, to brief her about a number of matters including Northern Ireland. On 3 May 2006, the Irish News published details of confidential cabinet minutes that had been taken at the meeting. The minutes reveal that the British government was aware of collusion between the security forces, particularly the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), and Loyalist paramilitaries.

1976 – The leaders of the main churches in Ireland issued a statement supporting the Women’s Peace Movement.

1978 – U2 support The Stranglers at the Top Hat Ballroom in Dublin before a crowd of 2,500 people, their biggest to date. The band is paid 50 pounds.

1981 – The National Concert Hall in Dublin officially opened.

1999 – Patten Report Published: The Report of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland was released and was accompanied by a statement from the author Chris Patten. Patten called on Catholics to join the RUC. It contained recommendations for a radical overhaul of the police service in the region. The proposed changes to the ethos, composition, training and structure of the RUC met with a mixed reaction. David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), described it as “the most shoddy piece of work I have seen in my entire life”, and there were strong objections from rank-and-file RUC officers.

2001 – Protestant residents of Ardoyne defy church leaders and politicians by continuing their protest outside north Belfast’s Holy Cross primary school.

2001 – Family, friends and fans pay tribute to actor Joe Lynch during a special commemorative mass at the Catholic Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.

2001 – Three suspected IRA members – Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan – are transferred from La Modelo federal prison to a high security jail in Bogota over fears for their safety.

2002 – Bob Geldof delivers a moving speech at the launch of the world’s first genocide centre in Nottinghamshire.

2002 – Castletown, Co Laois, is declared Ireland’s Tidiest Town.

2016 – Rock climber, Iain Miller – who runs an adventure company in Donegal – managed to make it to the top of one of the most famous landmarks in Ireland, Dun Briste, in Co Mayo, the first climber in 25 years. Meaning ‘broken fort’, the towering sea stack sits 260 ft off the shoreline and rises  more than 400 ft above the water. Dun Briste is notoriously difficult to master for a number of reasons. Firstly, the unpredictable sea makes boat access tricky. It was his third attempt climbing the stack and he was cheered on by a group of locals on the headland.

Photo: Clonmacnoise, Co Offaly

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