1365 – Lionel returns to England, leaving Ormond as his deputy.
1671 – An English Navigation Act prohibits direct importation of sugar, tobacco and other produce from the colonies to Ireland; act expires in 1681 but is renewed in 1685 and extended in 1696.
1717 – John Marshall, a successful attorney and father of Robert Marshall, a future MP for Clonmel and an executor of Hester Vanhomrigh (Vanessa), commits suicide in Boate Street, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
1834 – Daniel O’Connell introduces debate on Repeal of Union bill in the House of Commons.
1841 – Birth of conductor, Patrick William Halton in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. He is best known for his long tenure as music director and conductor of D’Oyly Carte Opera Company touring companies during the original runs and early revivals of the Savoy Operas, including many of the New York premieres.
1857 – Birth of actress, Ada Rehan, in Limerick. She was known as one of the great comediennes of her day, and typifying the ‘personality’ style of acting in the nineteenth century.
1875 – Newly elected MP, Charles Stewart Parnell enters House of Commons for first time as MP.
1875 – Birth of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly in Ballylongford, Co Kerry. Self-described as The O’Rahilly, a nationalist who took part in the Easter Rising, during which he was killed in the fighting.
1905 – Death of politician, Captain William O’Shea, in Hove. It was O’Shea’s wife, Kitty, who Charles Parnell had an affair with, which ultimately cost him his career.
1916 – The Easter Rising planned for 22 April (Easter Saturday) is postponed for two days. The capture of Roger Casement and the scuttling of the Aud which was transporting an estimated 20,000 rifles were some of the reasons for the delay.
1918 – A general strike takes place throughout Ireland against the British government’s attempts to introduce conscription.
1923 – Free State troops surround Frank Aiken, Paidrag Quinn and Sean Quinn, the leaders of the Anti-Treaty forces in the Dundalk area, in a safe house in Castlebellingham. A firefight breaks out in which the two Quinns are wounded, Sean was mortally and subsequently captured. In the confusion, Aiken manages to slip away.
1945 – Birth of Alan Dukes in Drimnagh, Co Dublin. He is a former politician who served as leader of Fine Gael and as Teachta Dála (TD) for Kildare and Kildare South. He held several major government positions, and holds the distinction of being one of only five TDs to be appointed Minister on their first day in the Dáil. He lost his seat in the 2002 general election. He was subsequently appointed Director General of the Institute of International and European Affairs and chairman of Anglo Irish Bank.
1956 – Birth of singer, songwriter and producer, Pól Brennan in Co Donegal. He is the brother of Enya and Moya Brennan and a member of the family band Clannad. He left the group in 1990, but rejoined in 2011. Since the early 1990s, Pól has gained critical acclaim as a solo artist when he joined Japanese musician Joji Hirota and Chinese musician Guo Yue, and released an album, Trísan.
1967 – Actor and writer, Walter Macken dies at his home in the gaeltacht village of Menlo, Co Galway. A prolific author, he is best known for his novel Rain on the Wind and his trilogy about the famine – Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind.
1969 – Bernadette Devlin, a newly elected MP, made a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons.
1972 – An 11 year-old Catholic boy, Francis Rowntree, was killed by a ‘rubber bullet’ fired by the British Army. This was the first death to result from the use of the rubber bullet baton round.
1973 – One of the leaders of the IRA, Dáithí Ó Conaill, addressed a public demonstration to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Following the speech he managed to avoid arrest.
1979 – The body of Martin McConville (25), a Catholic civilian, was found in the Bann River, at Portadown, Co Armagh. McConville had been abducted by Loyalists one month earlier and had been beaten to death.
1981 – Dolours Price, who had been serving a sentence along with her sister Marion for a car bombing in London on 8 March 1973 was released from Armagh Prison on medical grounds. Dolours Price was suffering from anorexia nervosa the same condition her sister suffered from. Marion Price had been released from prison on 30 April 1980.
1982 – Sinn Féin denied media claims that the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) was still active.
1991 – Birth of rugby player, Jordi Murphy, in Barcelona to Irish parents. Murphy moved to Dublin at the age of nine; he is registered to Lansdowne and plays for provincial and Pro12 League side Leinster.
1991 – The Fair Employment Commission (FEC) published its first report on the religious composition of the workforce in Northern Ireland in those companies with more that 25 employees. The report showed that 65 per cent of the workforce was Protestant while Catholics accounted for 35 per cent.
1996 – Death of novelist and playwright, Molly Keane. Born in Newbridge, Co Kildare, she used her married name for her later novels, several of which (Good Behaviour, Time After Time) have been adapted for television. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote 11 novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. She was a member of Aosdána.
1998 – The Northern Ireland Parades Commission cancelled the publication of a crucial report on contentious parades after the personal intervention of British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Blair argued that it was too sensitive a time to publish the report which would have given an initial outline of the Commissions plans for dealing with contentious parades in the coming year. The Parades Commission denied that Blair’s intervention amounted to political interference. Unionists were highly critical of the decision and called for the scrapping of the Commission.
1998 – The Irish parliament passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution Bill which would allow for the necessary changes following the Good Friday Agreement. A ministerial order was also signed to allow for the referendum on 22 May 1998 which would ratify the proposed changes to the Irish Constitution.
1999 – In Washington DC, the House International Relations Committee hears allegations of continuing abuses against citizens by security forces in Northern Ireland.
1999 – Sinéad O’Connor was ordained in Lourdes by the dissident bishop Michael Cox.
1999 – An historic meeting between David Trimble and the Pope took place in Rome the day before; careful stage-management ensured there were no public photographs of the two men close together. Mr Trimble was the first unionist leader to meet a Pope.
1999 – Sir Peter Ustinov received his 14th honorary degree — doctor of laws – from the National University of Ireland.
2002 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sent a blunt pre-election warning to the Progressive Democrats that he was determined to have a national stadium and sports campus built if he was returned to power.
2003 – It was announced that gardaí were to be given video cameras to record drink-related offences at pubs, nightclubs and takeaways, as part of a new clampdown on public order offences. Special units in 25 Garda districts were provided with hand-held cameras.
2008 – The series of £5, £10 and £20 notes issued all featured an illustration of the Old Bushmills Distillery on the reverse side. Prior to 2008, all Bank of Ireland notes featured an image of the Queen’s University of Belfast on the reverse side.
2015 – Death of Actress Aideen O’Kelly. A gifted actress with a string of successes in Ireland and on Broadway, O’Kelly was one of that brilliant generation of young actors including, among others, Sinead Cusack, Niall Toibín, Niall Buggy, Maureen Toal, Donal McCann and Joe Dowling who rejuvenated the Irish theatrical scene in the 1960s and 1970s.
Image | Church ruins near Wicklow Gap, Co Wicklow | Fiachra Mangan Photography
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