#OTD in 1969 – Bernadette Devlin, a newly elected MP, made a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons.

22/04/2021.Reading time 26 minutes.

I understand that in making my maiden speech on the day of my arrival in Parliament and in making it on a controversial issue I flaunt the unwritten traditions of the House, but I think that the situation of my people merits the flaunting of such traditions. I remind the hon. Member for Londonderry (Mr. […]

#OTD in 1916 – Eoin MacNeill’s last minute bid to call off the Easter Rising.

22/04/2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

The letter penned on Easter Saturday, 22 April 1916, by Irish Volunteers chief Eoin MacNeill, dispatched to rebel leaders in an effort to call off the planned revolution. “Volunteers completely deceived. All orders for to-morrow Sunday are entirely cancelled,” says the note signed by MacNeill on what is now a tatty piece of paper, embossed […]

#OTD in 1875 – Birth of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly in Ballylongford, Co Kerry.

22/04/2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

Michael Joseph O’Rahilly was born in Ballylongford, Co Kerry in 1875. He was a republican and a language enthusiast, a member of An Coiste Gnótha, the Gaelic League’s governing body. He was well-travelled, spending at least a decade in the United States and in Europe. He was a reasonably wealthy man; the Weekly Irish Times […]

#OTD in Irish History | 22 April:

22/04/2021.Reading time 16 minutes.

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 […]

#OTD in 1994 – Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Hutton, quashed the conviction of Paul Hill for the murder of a former British soldier in 1974. Hutton declared that the conviction was ‘unsafe and unsatisfactory’.

21/04/2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

An appeals court overturned a 19-year-old murder conviction against Paul Hill, who spent nearly 15 years in prison for two IRA attacks that he insisted he never committed. The decision was the latest rebuke to the British police for mishandling high-profile terrorist cases in which innocent people have gone to jail. The court ruled that […]

Éirí Amach Ná Cásca 1916 | The Birth of a Nation!

21/04/2021.Reading time 35 minutes.

The Easter Rising took place in April 1916 in Dublin and is one of the pivotal events in modern Irish History. At the end of the Easter Rising, fourteen men identified as leaders were executed at Kilmainham Gaol. To some, these men were traitors, to others they became heroes. It was the first major armed […]

#OTD in Irish History | 21 April:

21/04/2021.Reading time 16 minutes.

1738 – A Mr Lorimer, receiver of Sir Arthur Acheson (MP for Mullingar), is killed in a duel. 1816 – Birth of author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, daughter of an Irish father and eldest of the three Brontë Sisters. 1871 – Birth of Labour leader and Irish nationalist, John Fitzpatrick, in Athlone, Co Westmeath. […]

#OTD in 1995 – Father Ted was broadcast for the first time.

20/04/2021.Reading time less than 1 minute.

A television programme offers to interview Father Ted Crilly. However Ted goes to extreme lengths to ensure the other members of the clergy on the island don’t interrupt his moment in the spotlight. Meanwhile Craggy Island hosts Fun Land, a fun fair to which Dougal is desperate to go. Ted takes the film crew to […]

#OTD in 1912 – Death of Bram Stoker, the Dublin born writer who created Dracula.

20/04/2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

Death of novelist Bram Stoker, author of Dracula which was first published in 1897. Born in Dublin, Stoker was bed-ridden for much of his childhood, but lived a relatively healthy life during his adulthood. Educated at Trinity College, he moved to London in 1878 and married actress Florence Balcombe. Dracula received some praise on its […]

#OTD in 1608 – Sir Thomas Phillipps was granted a license by James I to the Old Bushmills distillery in Co Antrim, which is thought to date from at least 1276 – the oldest distillery in the world.

20/04/2021.Reading time 1 minute.

Uisce beatha is the name for whiskey in the Irish language. The word “whiskey” itself is simply an anglicised version of this phrase, stemming from a mispronunciation of the word uisce. This may in turn have influenced the Modern Irish word fuisce (“whiskey”). The phrase uisce beatha, literally “water of life”, was the name given […]

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

#OTD in 1969 – Bernadette Devlin, a newly elected MP, made a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons.

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#OTD in 1916 – Eoin MacNeill’s last minute bid to call off the Easter Rising.

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#OTD in 1875 – Birth of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly in Ballylongford, Co Kerry.

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#OTD in Irish History | 22 April:

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#OTD in 1994 – Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Hutton, quashed the conviction of Paul Hill for the murder of a former British soldier in 1974. Hutton declared that the conviction was ‘unsafe and unsatisfactory’.

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Éirí Amach Ná Cásca 1916 | The Birth of a Nation!

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#OTD in Irish History | 21 April:

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#OTD in 1995 – Father Ted was broadcast for the first time.

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#OTD in 1912 – Death of Bram Stoker, the Dublin born writer who created Dracula.

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#OTD in 1608 – Sir Thomas Phillipps was granted a license by James I to the Old Bushmills distillery in Co Antrim, which is thought to date from at least 1276 – the oldest distillery in the world.

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