1084 – Patrick, Bishop of Dublin, dies in a shipwreck.
1580 – Over 600 papal troops land at Dún an Óir, Co Kerry, to support a rebellion. After a three-day siege, the English Army behead over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians.
1711 – The Linen Board meets for the first time. The Board of Trustees of the Linen Manufacturers for over 100 years (1711 to 1823) fostered and controlled the Irish Linen Industry, and it was due to the marked success of its control that Irish Linens today are looked upon as the high mark in quality among the linen manufactures of the world. This Board of Trustees was composed of eighty members, twenty representatives from each of the four provinces, among them the most exalted and distinguished men of the day. They had under them a most efficient organisation, which carried out its duties with a skill and energy much to be admired, and which took a firm hold of the whole situation through the medium of seal masters, or inspectors, placed in convenient centers all over Ireland.
1771 – During his visit to Ireland, Benjamin Franklin attends a meeting of the House of Commons on this date.
1790 – Birth of “The Apostle of Temperance” and campaigner against alcohol, Fr Theobald Mathew, in Co Tipperary.
1819 – Birth in Templemore, Co Tipperary of Charles Stanley Monck, the first Governor General of Canada.
1865 – Magee College is opened as a combined arts and Presbyterian theological college in Derry.
1899 – Irish Transvaal Committee is formed to aid Boers against the English.
1899 – Eoin O Grownley, Irish language scholar, dies.
1915 – Death of Albert Cashier. Born Jennie Irene Hodgers, in Co Louth, but lived his entire life as a transgender man who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
1918 – Over five hundred die in the Irish Sea following the sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster by U-boat 123. The Leinster was operating as a passenger ship and mail boat, although most of those who died were soldiers returning from leave, many of them Irishmen who fought in the British Army in World War I.
1920 – A Royal Air Force lieutenant was killed at an ambush in Bandon, Co Cork.
1922 – The Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland issue a formal statement, supporting the Free State as the lawful and democratic government, denouncing the Anti-Treaty campaign as an unlawful rebellion and denying their fighters access to Holy Communion or Confession.
1922 – A Free State officer is killed in an ambush between Clonmel and Cahir.
1922 – Peadar Breslin, a Republican captured after the fall of the Four Courts, is shot dead during an attempt to escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. Three Free State soldiers are also killed in the fire fights during the escape attempts.
1922 – A senior Free State army officer, Commandant Peter Doyle, of Ballinakill, Marshalstown, is shot in the grounds of St. Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, Wexford, by Anti-Treaty I.R.A. after mass. Five girls are injured in the process, two of them seriously.
1969 – The Hunt Committee Report on Ulster police recommends abolition of the B-special troops and the creation of the Ulster Defense Regiment. The Hunt Report was produced by Baron Hunt in 1969 to “examine the recruitment, organisation, structure and composition of the RUC and the Ulster Special Constabulary and their respective functions and to recommend as necessary what changes are required to provide for the efficient enforcement of law and order in Northern Ireland.” His recommendations resulted in the reshaping of the RUC, the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary and the formation of the Ulster Defence Regiment. Arthur Young was appointed as Chief Constable of the RUC at the request of British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. Young was appointed to oversee the reforms recommended in the Hunt Report. The publication of the report sparked serious rioting by loyalists in Belfast.
1971 – Death of Revolutionary, Margaret Skinnider, in Glenageary, Co Dublin.
1971 – Birth in Cork of Roy Keane, football player for the Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, the Republic of Ireland, before ending his career at Celtic.
1972 – Three members of the IRA died in a premature explosion in a house in Balkan Street, Lower Falls, Belfast. A UDR soldier was shot dead by the IRA in Newry, Co Down.
1973 – Representatives of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), met again at Stormont, for additional talks on the possibility of devolved government for Northern Ireland. The position of the parties on matters related to law and order were beginning to move closer to each other although there remained serious differences of opinion on specific issues.
1974 – A general election was held across the United Kingdom. The United Ulster Unionist Council (UUUC) won 10 of the 12 seats in Northern Ireland. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) held the seat in west Belfast and an independent Nationalist unseated Harry West, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), in Fermanagh/South Tyrone. Enoch Powell was returned for South Down.
1976 – Brian Stewart (13) died six days after being shot by a plastic bullet near his home in Norglen Road, Turf Lodge, Belfast. The shot was fired by a British solider. Rioting followed news of the boys death and representatives of the Peace People were attacked by some of the rioters. The Peace People organisation was also denounced by Republicans as being pro-British.
1977 – Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who were both founding members of the Peace People, were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. The Unionist dominated Belfast City Corporation refused to hold a civic reception in honour of the prize winners. The associated prize money of £80,000 was later to be the source of controversy within the Peace People.
1981 – The IRA carried out a bomb attack on a British Army bus close to Chelsea Barracks in London. The device was believed to be a remote controlled bomb hidden in a parked van, close to the junction of Ebury Bridge Road and St Barnabas Street. The bomb was detonated when the bus carrying the soldiers passed. Two British civilians were killed in the blast and 40 other people injured, including 23 soldiers.
1981 – Birth of singer-songwriter, musician, and a television presenter, Una Healy, in Thurles, Co Tipperary. She rose to fame in 2008 as a member of the 5 member English–Irish girl group The Saturdays, signed to Fascination and Polydor Records. The group have achieved substantial success with numerous top-ten hits as well as a hit number one single entitled ‘What About Us’. In October 2014, it was confirmed that she would become a judge on The Voice of Ireland.
1981 – The Fureys reach no. 14 in the UK charts with When You Were Sweet Sixteen.
1989 – A vote was taken by the British Conservative Party conference to organise in Northern Ireland for the first time.
1990 – RTÉ reports on the closure of Phoenix Park Racecourse. Phoenix Park Racecourse is a former horse racing venue in Ireland. It was located in the north-west corner of Dublin on the northern edge of Phoenix Park. The course was founded by J.H.H. Peard, and racing began there in 1902. From 1939 to 1950 the track was managed by Mr Peard’s son, Harry, and thereafter it was run by his widow Fanny. Mrs Peard retired in 1969, and the course was later owned by a consortium which included Vincent O’Brien and Robert Sangster. Due to financial difficulties the track was closed for racing in late 1990. Several of Ireland’s leading flat races, which are presently contested at other venues, originally took place at Phoenix Park. These include the Irish Champion Stakes and the Phoenix Stakes. Other races of note held at Phoenix Park include the G III Vauxhall Trial Stakes.
1991 – The Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO) shot dead a Protestant civilian during a gun attack on a public house on the Shankill Road in west Belfast. Hours later the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), shot dead a Catholic civilian near the Oldpark Road in west Belfast. A further four Catholic civilians were killed by the UFF over the following six days.
1993 – The Sunday Independent published the results of a poll of opinion in the Republic of Ireland. The result showed that, of those questioned, 72 per cent supported the talks that led to the Hume-Adams Initiative.
1993 – Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, held a meeting in Dublin with Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress. Mandela gave his endorsement to the Hume-Adams Initiative.
1994 – The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) gave permission for Loyalist leaders to enter Long Kesh Prison to discuss with Loyalist prisoners the possibility of a ceasefire.
1998 – THE IRA and Sinn Féin embark on a series of secret talks with Protestant churchmen and community leaders in a bid to prevent the peace process and the new Northern Ireland Assembly foundering.
1997 – The Scottish Office blocked the transfer of Jason Campbell from a Scottish prison to Long Kesh Prison in Northern Ireland. Campbell was serving a sentence for the murder of a Celtic football supporter in Glasgow in October 1995. The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) had originally requested the transfer but later withdrew its request following widespread criticism.
1998 – Vice-President of Sinn Féin, Martin McGuinness, travelled to Dublin for a meeting with Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. The meeting failed to provide any progress on the issue of decommissioning.
1998 – An Appeals court in the United States overturned a decision to extradite back to Northern Ireland three men who had escaped from Long Kesh prison.
1998 – Death of sportsperson, Tommy Quaid. Born in Charleville, Co Cork, he played hurling at various times with his local clubs Feohanagh-Castlemahon and Effin and was the goalkeeper on the Limerick senior inter-county team from 1976 until 1993. Quaid was regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation.
1999 – Patrick Campbell (22), a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and originally from Belfast, died after being badly beaten and stabbed on 6 October 1999 during clash between an INLA unit and a group of men in Ballymount industrial estate, Walkinstown, Dublin.
1999 – Ireland beaten by Australia in Rugby World Cup at Lansdowne Road, Dublin: 23-3. Ireland would qualify for the quarter finals of the World defeating the United States and Romania in its other group games. Argentina would narrowly win the quarter-final game 28-24
2000 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair signal the start of a concerted attempt to rescue the faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
2001 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern joins the ranks of the publicly contrite world leaders when he finally apologises to three journalists for the tapping of their telephones in the early ’80s.
2001 – Bryce Dickson, Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, visited the scene of the Loyalist protest at the Holy Cross Girls’ Primary School in Ardoyne, north Belfast. Dickson was there to observe the nature of the protest. He spoke to some of the Loyalist protesters but was criticised by some of the parents of the children for not walking the route of the protest along with them.
2002 – After 22 years at the National Museum in Dublin, an eighth-century silver chalice, silver paten and stand and a decorated bronze strainer ladle are returned to their original resting place at the monastic site of Derrynaflan, near Littleton Bog, Co Tipperary.
2009 – Death of Stephen Gately. He was a pop singer-songwriter, actor, dancer, musician and author, who, with Ronan Keating, was one of two lead singers of the pop group Boyzone. Gately died of natural causes, due to pulmonary oedema.
Image | Devenish Island, Co Fermanagh
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