1705 – An English act permits direct export of Irish linen to American colonies.
1732 – Birth of Sackville Hamilton, politician and civil servant.
1738 – John Beresford, unionist politician, is born in Cork.
1748 – Death of Field Marshal George Wade was a British Army officer who served in the Nine Years’ War, War of the Spanish Succession, Jacobite rising of 1715 and War of the Quadruple Alliance before leading the construction of barracks, bridges and proper roads in Scotland. Born in Killavally, Co Westmeath, he went on to be a military commander during the War of the Austrian Succession and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
1822 – Richard Boyle, civil engineer, is born in Dublin.
1894 – William Earle ‘Moley’ Molesworth, WWI Ace, is born.
1902 – The Irish Association of Women Graduates and Candidate-Graduates, an organisation open to those interested in promoting women’s education, is launched.
1921 – British authorities hang six IRA volunteers for crimes of high treason and murder in Mountjoy Gaol. There is some strong evidence to suggest at least some of the men were innocent of the crimes they were accused of.
1921 – Francis Xavier Flood (one of the six and youngest IRA Volunteers charged for crimes of high treason and murdger) is executed by hanging in Mountjoy Gaol.
1921 – The Battle of Brunswick Street. An Auxiliary patrol of two lorries and an armoured car, which was on its way to raid St. Andrews Club, 144 Brunswick St, Dublin was attacked on Brunswick Street (now Pearse street) near the corner of Erne St. In the gun battle that followed, three IRA volunteers and two policemen as well as two civilians (one of whom was Alderman Tom Kelly’s brother), were killed. A number of IRA volunteers were captured and one of them, Thomas Traynor, was hanged on 25 April.
1923 – More executions on this date. This time the new Irish government which has taken a strong stance against anti-treaty activists executes sixteen anti-Treatyites between 12-14 March.
1923 – Two Republicans are executed for their part in a bank robbery in Mullingar.
1923 – Two National Army soldiers are shot and killed in Dublin. One is seized when unarmed and off duty in Portobello and shot in the head. The other is killed in an exchange of fire when he tries to search two republican fighters near Mountjoy Prison.
1923 – Anti-Treaty IRA officer Charlie Daly and three other Republican fighters are executed by Free State troops at Drumboe Castle, near Stranorlar in Co Donegal where they had been held since January. They are executed in reprisal for the death of a Free State soldier in a nearby ambush the day before.
1961 – Birth of novelist and playwright, Kieron Connolly, in Thurles, Co Tipperary. He is the author of three novels: ‘Water Sign’, ‘There is a House’ and ‘Harold’. His stage play ‘The Book of Condolences’ premiered in Dublin, 2016.
1962 – Eibhín Bean Uí Choisdeaíbh, Irish language folk song collector, dies.
1971 – Birth of Irish stepdancer, choreographer, and actress, Jean Butler. She is best known for originating the principal female role in the Irish dance company Riverdance.
1972 – Two IRA members (Colm Keenan and Eugene McGillan) were shot dead by British soldiers in the Bogside area of Derry.
1973 – Liam Cosgrave is elected Taoiseach of Ireland.
1975 – [Public Record – Released 1 January 2006]: Note by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees. The note deals with plans for the Constitutional Convention; the election to which was held on 1 May 1975.
1977 – An English businessman, James Nicholson (44), was shot dead by the IRA as he left the Strathearn Audio factory, Stockman’s Lane, Belfast.
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
1982 – John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), said that the plans for ‘rolling devolution’ were ‘unworkable’.
1984 – Gerry Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt when several Ulster Freedom Fighter (UFF) gunmen fired about 20 shots into the car in which he was travelling. After the shooting, under-cover plain clothes police officers seized three suspects who were later convicted and sentenced. One of the three was John Gregg. Adams claimed that the British army had prior knowledge of the attack and allowed it to go ahead.
1985 – Schoolchildren claimed to have seen a ‘moving’ statue in Asdee, Co Kerry. Other reports came from Ballinspittle, Co Cork. The faithful claim a miraculous event. Sceptics said it is an optical illusion.
1989 – Eighteen members of the RUC were reprimanded and one cautioned over their part in incidents surrounding the shootings which led to the ‘shoot to kill’ allegations.
1990 – There were disturbances in the Crumlin Road Prison over the issue of the segregation of Republican and Loyalist prisoners. The issue was to lead to further disturbances during the year.
1991 – The Birmingham Six: Paddy Joe Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker are released from jail after their convictions for the murder of 21 people in two pubs are quashed by the Court of Appeal. The six had been found guilty on the basis of forensic evidence and confessions that the men claimed were beaten out of them. The forensic evidence was shown to be unreliable and there was evidence that the police had forged notes of interviews and had given false evidence at the original trial. Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, accepted that this was the third case of a miscarriage of justice involving Irish people in the previous 18 months.
1991 – Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Brooke, announced to the House of Commons that an agreement had been reached with the Irish government whereby he would decide when they would enter the political negotiations. In addition he also set Easter as the deadline for all the parties deciding on the arrangements for new political talks. The talks were to involve the four main political parties and were the first in a series that lasted from April 1991 to November 1992 and later became known as the Brooke/Mayhew Talks. Patrick Mayhew took over from Brooke as Secretary of State before the talks were concluded.
1994 – Louis Blom-Cooper, independent commissioner for RUC holding stations, called for the introduction of video and audio recording of interrogations.
1995 – Prison officers at Long Kesh Prison carry out searches for ‘illicit material’ which spark rioting by 150 Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners. In the following week there are a number of attacks on the homes of prison officers.
1995 – Death of prolific writer, Gerard Victory. Born in Dublin, he wrote over two hundred works across many genres and styles, including tonal, serial, aleatoric and electroacoustic music. Victory’s career was primarily in music administration, serving as Director of Music for RTÉ from 1967 to 1982.
1997 – Chairman of the multi-party talks at Stormont, George Mitchell, spoke at the American Ireland Fund dinner in Washington, DC and condemned the ‘twin demons of Northern Ireland, violence and intransigence’ which were feeding off each other ‘in a deadly ritual in which most of the victims were innocent’. Many people took the reference to ‘intransigence’ to have been particularly directed at certain Unionist politicians, especially Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The DUP subsequently issued a statement which called for Mitchell’s resignation as Chairman of the talks.
1997 – US Senator, Edward Kennedy, called for an ‘immediate and unconditional’ ceasefire by the IRA. Kennedy also called on British Prime Minister, John Major, to state that Sinn Féin would be allowed to enter the Stormont talks when they resumed on 3 June 1997.
1998 – Former Defence and Marine Minister Hugh Coveney falls to his death from a headland near Roberts Cove, Co Cork.
1999 – The Parades Commission banned a Loyalist parade from passing through the mainly Catholic Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh.
2002 – Ulster Unionist peer (Lord Kilclooney), John Taylor, told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that he believed in 1972, and still believed, that 13 gunmen were killed by the British army on Bloody Sunday. Later during questioning he partially qualified his assertion and said: ‘There are those who now say that innocent people were shot. If that is so it is a tragedy, but at that time I believed that all of those who were shot were shot because they were endangering the lives of the security forces, and that they were armed.’
2002 – Roundwood House, Mountrath, Co Laois is the only Irish establishment to make the list of the world’s top 50 restaurants published by Restaurant magazine. It placed at 42.
2002 – Lisburn, Co Antrim, and Newry, Co Down, were granted city status in a competition to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee. The towns were judged on their notable characteristics, historical and royal connections and progressive attitudes. The two new cities joined the existing three cities of Armagh, Belfast, and Derry.
2002 – There was continued criticism of the remarks made by David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), about the Republic of Ireland on 9 March 2002. Richard Haass, a special advisor to the US President, said the comments were ‘regrettable’. He said he thought leaders should not talk ‘in ways that sharpen sectarian conflict’. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, also joined the criticism.
2005 – The completed redevelopment of Croke Park was unveiled, ahead of schedule in twelve and half years, when a new Nally Terrace and Hill 16 Terrace were officially opened.
2017 – Irish Coast Guard – RNLI flight 116 – chopper crashed off Blackrock Island with the deaths of Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith. Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, was recovered from the water within hours and later pronounced dead in hospital. The body of Mark Duffy was found in the wreckage on 24 March and recovered by NSDS divers on 26 March. Two other members of the crew, Winchman Ciarán Smith and Winch Operator Paul Ormsby remained missing.
2018 – A ceremony is held to give Drumcondra Bridge a new name, ‘Frank Flood Bridge’. It was the scene of an IRA ambush on 21 January 1921 – nineteen year old student, Frank Flood, was executed as a result on this date in 1921.
2018 – Death of uilleann piper and Irish traditional musician, Liam O’Flynn. Born in Kill, Co Kildare, in addition to a solo career and his work with the group Planxty, O’Flynn recorded with many international musical artists, including Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Kate Bush, Mark Knopfler, the Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Mike Oldfield, Mary Black, Enya and Sinéad O’Connor.
Image | Beara Peninsula, Co Cork, | Tourism Ireland
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