Ireland lost two of its finest men on this date when John Hartley (Glenmore) and Nicholas Mullins, (Thomastown) were killed while attempting to ambush a force of Black and Tans who were escorting explosives to the nearby mines. The ambush had been set on the orders of Michael Collins who directed that pressure needed to […]
1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in Co Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature. 1329 – The Bishop of Ossory is charged with fomenting feuds among the magnates; he flees to England and then, when summoned before the king, he flees to Rome. The king (Edward III, aged […]
Nora Connolly was born in Edinburgh in 1893. She was the second daughter of James Connolly, and the family moved to Dublin having lived for a time in the United States and Belfast. Her father was an organiser for the Dublin Socialist club and the family lived in poverty for much of her childhood. For […]
Dublin Zoo was opened in 1831, making it the fourth oldest zoo in Europe. The Zoo’s first elephant was a female called Sita, and her keeper was James McNally. In 1903 Sita cut her foot and as James was applying ointment to her wound, she knocked him down with her trunk and stamped on his […]
Philip Chevron was most widely known as guitarist for the Shane MacGowan led punk/folk rock band, The Pogues. He grew up in Santry, a suburb of Dublin. He was regarded as one of the most influential figures in Irish punk music. His most evocative Pogues work is ‘Thousands are Sailing’ which he wrote shortly after […]
1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Rebels capture Tinahely, Co Wicklow and burn the town. Tinahely is unusual in that there is no Church in the village. Most of the village dates from the early part of the 19th century as it was rebuilt by Lord Fitzwilliam after it was burnt during the 1798 rebellion. The […]
No musical instrument has ever had to carry so much baggage, surely, as the Irish harp. It has been the symbol both of Ireland under English rule and of the Irish Free State. Unadorned, on a green background, it was a rebel flag in 1916. While its earliest origins are lost, the Irish harp has […]
In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast day of St. Colman McRoi, a sixth-century abbot in Dublin. Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce during which the events of his novel Ulysses (which is set on 16 June 1904) are relived. It is observed annually on 16 […]
Jim Larkin, a revolutionary socialist, dominated the Irish Trade Union movement. G. B. Shaw once described him as ‘the greatest Irishman since Parnell’. Today a statue of “Big Jim” stands on O’Connell Street in Dublin. The inscription on the front of the monument is an extract in French, Irish and English from one of his […]
