1647 – James, Duke of Ormond, agrees to surrender Dublin to English Parliament.

1798 – The United Irishmen Rebellion: The Battle of Ovidstown.

1820 – The Dublin Society for Improving Husbandry, which was originally founded on 25 June in 1731, becomes the Royal Dublin Society on this date.

1841 – Birth in Roscommon of Sir George Arthur French (a relation of songwriter, Percy French) who organised the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

1897 – The man who gave the English language the word ‘boycott’ dies in England. Charles Cunningham Boycott was an English landlord who was ostracised by his Irish neighbours and labourers after he attempted to evict a number of his tenants for non-payment of rent. The “boycott” was substantially instigated by Charles Stewart Parnell who on 19 September 1880 a few days prior to the action against Boycott, had suggested in a speech that unfit landlords should be shunned: “Shun him in the streets of the town, you must shun him in the shop, you must shun him in the fair green and in the marketplace, and even in the place of worship, by leaving him alone, by putting him in a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the rest of his country as if he were the leper of old, you must show your detestation of the crime he has committed”.

1914 – Birth of fiddler and traditional musician, Julia Clifford in Lichen, Gneeveguilla, Co Kerry, part of an area in west Munster known as Sliabh Luachra. One of eight children, her father Bill played flute, fife, and fiddle and had a fife and drum band. Both she and her brother Denis Murphy, also a noted musician, were taught the fiddle by noted fiddler from the same area, Padraig O’Keeffe.

1920 – The Listowel Mutiny.

1936 – Birth of campaigner against poverty and homelessness, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, née Treasa Kennedy, in Dingle, Co Kerry.

1936 – Mary Holland, noted journalist of the 1970s and 1980s in Northern Ireland and Scoop of the year award winner in 1994 (British Press Awards), is born in London.

1940 – Establishment of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

1968 – Nationalist MP for Tyrone, Austin Currie, asks a question in Stormont that might well be seen as the pivotal moment in Civil Rights politics in Northern Ireland.

1972 – In 1971, a contract is signed with Verlome Cork Dockyard (VCD) to build an offshore patrol vessel for the Naval Service. LE Déirdre is launched on the 21st January 1972, and commissioned by LT Cdr Brett on 19th June 1972. The building of L.E. Deirdre marks a milestone in the development of the N.S., being the first ship purpose-built in Ireland to patrol in Irish waters.

1972 – Representatives of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) held another meeting with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw. There was a hunger strike at Crumlin Road Jail at the time and Whitelaw conceded ‘special category’ status, or ‘political status’ for paramilitary prisoners.

1974 – Representatives of Loyalist paramilitaries held a ‘conference’ which announced their support for the negotiated independence of Northern Ireland.

1977 – New Zealand Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, held talks with representatives of the Peace People in Belfast. One of the items discussed was the possibility of of ex-paramilitaries being allowed to emigrate to New Zealand.

1978 – Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, paid a visit to Northern Ireland.

1980 – The European Commission on Human Rights rejected a case brought on behalf of Republican prisoners taking part in the ‘blanket protest’ at Long Kesh Prison. The Commission found that the conditions were self-inflicted but the Commission also criticised the British government for being inflexible.

1980 – Birth of international cricketer, Jean Carroll, in Dublin. Caroll debuted for the Ireland national side in 2007. A wicket-keeper, she played eight One Day International and five Twenty20 International matches.

1983 – Birth of actor, Aidan Turner in Dublin. He is best known for his roles as Kíli in the three-part fantasy film The Hobbit and John Mitchell in the supernatural drama series Being Human. Notable television roles include those of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in Desperate Romantics, Ruairí McGowan in The Clinic, and Ross Poldark in the 2015 BBC adaptation of The Poldark Novels by Winston Graham. He also portrayed Luke Garroway in the film adaptation of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones in 2013.

1992 – There was a meeting between representatives of the British and Irish Governments and the Northern Ireland parties to discuss an agenda for Strand Two of the political talks (later known as the Brooke/Mayhew talks).

1996 – The IRA issued a statement in which it said: ‘We are still prepared to enhance the democratic peace process’.

1998 – In a debate in the House of Commons on the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Bill there were divisions over the issue of the release of paramilitary prisoners. David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and John Taylor, deputy leader of the UUP, abstained from voting but six UUP Members of Parliament (MPs) voted against the bill along with Conservative MPs.

1999 – David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), invited Jeffrey Donaldson, a critic of the Good Friday Agreement, to rejoin his talks team in preparation for meetings with the British and Irish governments over the 30 June 1999 devolution deadline. The move seemed to dispel hopes in London and Dublin that the UUP leader might be persuaded to form the Northern Ireland Executive without a hard and fast agreement on IRA decommissioning.

1999 – Ten men were arrested on both sides of the Border in connection with the bombing in Omagh on 15 August 1998. A further two men were arrested on 21 June 1999.

2001 – Holy Cross Dispute: RUC officers had to protect pupils and parents at Holy Cross Catholic Girls’ School in Belfast, following attacks from loyalist protesters. The attacks resumed in September, following the school summer holidays, before subsiding in January 2002.

2005 – Death of poet, Michael Davitt. Born in Co Cork, he was a poet who published in the Irish language. He has been characterised as “…one of modern Ireland’s finest poets in either of the nation’s languages and key figure in the 1970s Irish Language poetry movement. Davitt died unexpectedly in Sligo, survived by one son and two daughters.

2010 – Thousands of people are availed of the ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity on Saturday when pedestrians were invited to walk through the newly constructed Limerick tunnel, before it opens to traffic later this summer.

2011 – Rory McIlroy from Holywood, Co Down wins the U.S. Open.

Image | Slieve League, Co Donegal

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