565 – St Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.

1755 – Birth of General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert. He was a French soldier, a participant in the French Revolution, who led a failed invasion of Ireland to assist Irish rebels in 1798.

1791 – Theobald Wolfe Tone publishes “An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland”.

1798 – Birth of doctor, writer, abolitionist and historian of the United Irishmen, Richard Robert Madden in Dublin.

1798 – A French force of 1,019 men under General Humbert lands at Killala, Co Mayo.

1846 – John Keegan Casey, Fenian, poet and writer of ‘Rising of the Moon’ is born near Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

1850 – First Catholic Synod in Ireland since the Middle Ages in Thurles, Co Tipperary. Paul Cullen summons the synod which runs from this date through September 10.

1881 – Second Gladstone Land Act introduces the ‘three Fs’ – fair rent, fixity of tenure, free sale – and sets up the Land Commission.

1889 – Birth of Fianna Fáil politician, Seán McEntee, in Belfast.

1918 – Dublin-born WWI ace Dennis Latimer shot down. A Bristol Fighter pilot and the highest scoring ace in 20 Squadron, Latimer shot down 28 enemy aircraft between March and August of 1918. On this date, he and his observer, Lieutenant T.C. Noel, were shot down near Westroosebeke by a member of Jasta 7. Latimer was captured, Noel was killed.

1920 – IRA forces from East Mayo, led by Sean Corcoran and Sean Walsh captured the RIC barracks in Ballyvarey, Co Mayo. Arms and ammunition were taken.

1920 – RIC Detective Swanzy was shot dead by Cork IRA volunteers while leaving Church in Lisburn Co Antrim. Swanzy had been blamed by an inquest jury for the killing of Cork Mayor Tomas MacCurtain. Catholic residential areas of Lisburn were burned in revenge by local loyalists. Several people were later prosecuted for the burnings. Loyalists attack Catholic areas of Belfast in reprisal. A total of 33 people died over the next ten days in sectarian rioting and shooting in the city.

1922 – Two National Army soldiers are killed and three wounded in an ambush at Redmondstown, Co Kilkenny on the road between Clonmel and Kilkenny. Free State commandant Frank Thornton is also badly wounded in the incident. Three other National Army officers had been captured by the irregulars in the same spot the previous night.

1922 – A Free State soldier is killed in an ambush of a convoy near Tralee, Co Kerry.

1922 – Michael Collins is killed in an ambush. On the last day of his life, he set out from Cork in a convoy that passed through Bandon, Clonakilty, and Rosscarbery on its way to Skibbereen. He stopped at Woodfield, and there in the Four Walls, the pub situated across the road from the house where his mother had been born. On the return trip they again passed through Bandon. Michael Collins had only twenty minutes more to live. Around eight o’clock, his convoy was ambushed at Béal na Bláth – the mouth of flowers. To this day, there is controversy about what actually happened.

1933 – The National Guard is banned.

1954 – Birth of hurler and Gaelic footballer, Jimmy Barry Murphy, in Co Cork.

1966 – The Munster and Leinster, Provincial and Royal Banks merge to form Allied Irish Banks.

1971 – Approximately 130 non-Unionist councillors announced their withdrawal from participation on district councils across Northern Ireland in protest against Internment.

1972 – A bomb that was being planted by the IRA exploded prematurely at a customs post at Newry, Co Down. Nine people, including three members of the IRA and five Catholic civilians, were killed in the explosion.

1977 – Cardinal Tomas Ó Fiaich becomes the 112th successor to St Patrick as Primate of All Ireland.

1979 – Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Humphrey Atkins, rejected a proposal from Governor of New York, Hugh Carey, to chair talks in New York between Atkins and Irish Foreign Minister, Michael O’Kennedy.

1984 – Armagh coroner, Gerry Curran, resigned after discovering ‘grave irregularities’ in RUC files related to the killing of two INLA members on 12 December 1982.

1995 – Death of professional footballer and manager, Johnny Carey. Born in Dublin, Carey spent most of his career at Manchester United, where he was team captain from 1946 until he retired as a player in 1953. He was also a dual internationalist, playing for and captaining both Ireland teams, the FAI XI and the IFA XI.

1998 – The republican splinter group INLA calls for a total and unconditional ceasefire and says it has instructed all units to desist from the ‘armed struggle’.

1999 – Yann Reynard Goulet – ‘The Fox’ – Breton patriot and Irish Republican dies in Ireland.

2000 – Prominent loyalist Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair is sent back to prison after Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson suspends his early release license.

2001 – Colombian authorities announced that the three Irishmen arrested on 13 August 2001 would be held while a criminal investigation was undertaken. The three men face charges of allegedly training Marxist rebels and carrying false passports.

2001 – Liam Kennendy (Dr), then Professor of Modern History at Queen’s University of Belfast, published his findings on paramilitary ‘punishment’ attacks in a report entitled ‘They Shoot Children Don’t They‘. One of the findings of the report was that between 1990 and 2000, 372 teenagers had been beaten and 207 shot by Loyalist and Republican paramilitary groups in what is commonly termed ‘punishment’ attacks. The report showed that during 1999 and 2000 there were 47 ‘punishment’ attacks on under 18 year olds compared with 25 in the previous two years. The report was prepared for the Northern Ireland Committee Against Terrorism and the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of the House of Commons. The report was also submitted to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

2002 – Caroline Corr, drummer with The Corrs, marries Frank Woods on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

2002 – U2’s ‘Elevation 2001: Live From Boston’ picks up the ‘Best Music Release DVD’ award at the 5th DVD Awards in Hollywood.

2010 – Finance Minister Brian Lenihan steps onto the podium and into history as the first Fianna Fáil minister to deliver the keynote speech at the annual Michael Collins commemoration in Béal na mBláth.

Photo: Michael Collins grave site, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, © Stair na hÉireann

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