#OTD in 1920 – IRA 3rd Cork Brigade personnel attacked a lorry carrying British troops from the Essex Regiment at the Toureen Ambush, on the road between Bandon and Cork.

22/10/2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

Up until the ambush the 3rd West Cork Brigade Flying Column had not before engaged the British troops stationed in Co Cork in a proper battle. The Brigade had finished its training and to get it ready for combat it had to get in an engagement with the British soldiers. Under Tom Barry at Toureen, […]

#OTD in Irish History – 22 October:

22/10/2017.Reading time 9 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast Day of Pope Saint John Paul II. He is widely known to Catholics as Saint John Paul the Great, especially in the names of institutions. It is traditional to celebrate saints’ feast days on the anniversary of their deaths, but that of John Paul II (22 October) […]

#OTD in 1809 – Opening of Nelson’s Pillar: The Nelson Pillar (also known as The Pillar) was a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Horatio Nelson in the middle of O’Connell Street (formerly Sackville Street) in Dublin.

21/10/2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

It was built in 1808–1809, and was among the first and grandest monuments erected in memory of Nelson in the ‘THEN’ United Kingdom. It surprisingly survived until March 1966, when it was destroyed by a bomb planted by Irish republicans. Today the Spire of Dublin stands on its former ground. It was opened to the […]

#OTD in 1803 – Execution of Thomas Russell in Downpatrick for ‘high treason’.

21/10/2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

Born in Dromahane, Co Cork to an Anglican family, Thomas Russell joined the British army in 1783 and served in India. He returned to Ireland in 1786 and commenced studies in science, philosophy and politics. in July 1790 he met Theobald Wolfe Tone in the visitor’s gallery in the Irish House of Commons and they […]

#OTD in Irish History – 21 October:

21/10/2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

1449 – Birth of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, in Dublin Castle at a time when his father, the Duke of York, had begun to challenge Henry VI for the crown. His godfather was James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond. He was the third of the four sons of Richard and Cecily who survived […]

#OTD in 1892 – Birth of General Eoin O’Duffy, near Castleblaney, Co Monaghan.

20/10/2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

Birth of Eoin O’Duffy, IRA man, Commissioner of the Garda Síochána and General Franco supporter, near Lough Egish, Co Monaghan. O’Duffy first came to fame when he led an IRA group which captured the first RIC barracks at Ballytrain taking from it weapons and explosives, during the War of Independence. Also present at this victory […]

#OTD in 1933 – The Irish Free State government purchases the copyright of Peadar Kearney’s,’The Soldiers Song’ (Amhrán na bhFiann) which becomes the national anthem.

20/10/2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

The lyrics of ‘The Soldiers Song’ were written by Peadar Ó Cearnaigh (Kearney), an uncle of Brendan Behan, who together with Patrick Heeney composed the music. Before the present-day National Anthem was adopted, “God Save Ireland” was the unofficial anthem used by the Fenians and the official anthem was “God Save the King” until the […]

#OTD in Irish History – 20 October:

20/10/2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

1612 – Birth of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, 2nd Earl of Cork, in Youghal, Co Cork. He was an Anglo-Irish nobleman who served as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and was a Cavalier. 1674 – Birth of James Logan, Colonial statesman and scholar in Lurgan, Co Armagh. 1775 – Two hundred passengers are […]

#OTD in 2004 – Care International aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq.

19/10/2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

Margaret Hassan, also known as “Madam Margaret”, was an Irish aid worker who had worked in Iraq for many years until she was abducted and murdered by unidentified kidnappers in Iraq in 2004, at the age of 59. Her remains have never been recovered. She was born Margaret Fitzsimons in Dalkey, Co Dublin, to parents […]

#OTD in 1896 – Birth of Kathleen Barry at 8 Fleet Street, in Dublin.

19/10/2017.Reading time 9 minutes.

Kathleen Barry Moloney was the eldest of seven children. Her parents Thomas and Mary (née Dowling) and her aunt Judith ran a prosperous dairy that included an eighty-six acre holding at Tombeagh, Hacketstown, Co Carlow and a retail outlet below the family home in Fleet Street. When Thomas Barry died in 1908 the Barry family […]