Wicklow Way

21/05/2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Commonly referred to as the ‘Garden of Ireland’, Wicklow is located to the south of Dublin and borders Kildare to the west. It is an extraordinarily beautiful county that is traversed by the picturesque Wicklow Mountains, the longest mountain range in Ireland. Crossing the range, though avoiding the major peaks, is the Wicklow Way, which […]

#OTD in 1918 – Seventy-three Sinn Féin prisoners are shipped to Britain, after being arrested on 17 May by police and military authorities.

21/05/2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

The arrests caused a public sensation; newspapers were snapped up by those eager for details of what happened. It is understood that twenty-four of the arrests took place in Dublin, the most recent of them involving Maud Gonne MacBride, who was seized while returning from a visit to George Russell. Also in Dublin, the Sinn […]

#OTD in 1981 – At 2:11 am, Raymond McCreesh dies on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh Prison. Later, the same day at 11:29 pm, he is joined in death by his friend and fellow hunger-striker, Patsy O’Hara.

21/05/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

The third of the resolutely determined IRA Volunteers to join the H-Block hunger strike for political status was twenty-four-year-old Raymond McCreesh, from Camlough in South Armagh: a quiet, shy and good-humoured republican, who although captured at the early age of nineteen, along with two other Volunteers in a British army ambush, had already almost three […]

#OTD in Irish History – 21 May:

21/05/2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

1639 – Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth imposes the Black Oath of loyalty to Charles I on all Ulster Scots over the age of 16. 1745 – Count Daniel O’Connell, a soldier in French and British services, is born in Derrynane, Co Kerry. 1799 – Bill of Union (later the Act of Union) introduced in Irish […]

Parke’s Castle, Co Leitrim

20/05/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Parke’s Castle is a plantation fort, picturesquely situated on the shores of Lough Gill, erected by Captain Robert Parke in the early 17th century and elegantly restored in the late 20th century by the OPW. A moated tower house once stood to the home of the Irish chieftain, Brian O’Rourke, who in 1588 was charged with high treason after […]

#OTD in 1311 – The war of the O’Briens of Thomond escalates as the Norman-Irish become involved on both sides.

20/05/2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

The de Burghs support Dermot O’Brien and Richard de Clare supports Donough O’Brien. There is a pitched battle at Bunratty on this date, with heavy losses on both sides; de Burgh and others are imprisoned. According to one account: “A pitched battle was fought under the walls and the invading force was defeated with great […]

#OTD in 1922 – De Valera and Collins agree to a pact whereby a national coalition panel of candidates will represent the pro- and anti-Treaty wings of Sinn Féin throughout Ireland in the forthcoming general election.

20/05/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

As in the Irish elections, 1921 in the south, Sinn Féin stood one candidate for every seat, except those for the University of Dublin and one other; the treaty had divided the party between 65 pro-treaty candidates, 57 anti-treaty and 1 nominally on both sides. Unlike the elections a year earlier, other parties stood in […]

#OTD in Irish History – 20 May:

20/05/2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

1311 – The war of the O’Briens of Thomond escalates as the Norman-Irish become involved on both sides: the de Burghs support Dermot O’Brien and Richard de Clare supports Donough O’Brien. There is a pitched battle at Bunratty on this date, with heavy losses on both sides; de Burgh and others are imprisoned. 1648 – […]

#OTD in 1939 – Birth of musician and composer, John Sheahan, who was a member of the The Dubliners.

19/05/2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

John Sheahan was the quiet one in The Dubliners. In that cast of beardy and hairy rogues and rascals, Sheahan stood out by not standing out. Brought in to stand shoulder to shoulder with founder members Luke Kelly, Ronnie Drew, Barney McKenna and Ciarán Bourke, Sheahan’s playing brought a touch of elegant class to that […]

#OTD in 1920 – Birth of Joe Cahill, a prominent Irish Republican and former Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA.

19/05/2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Joe was known for his comment. “I was born in a united Ireland, I want to die in a united Ireland”. In May 1920, Cahill was born in Divis Street in west Belfast where his parents had been neighbours with Irish revolutionary James Connolly. Cahill was the first child in a family of thirteen siblings […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Wicklow Way

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#OTD in 1918 – Seventy-three Sinn Féin prisoners are shipped to Britain, after being arrested on 17 May by police and military authorities.

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#OTD in 1981 – At 2:11 am, Raymond McCreesh dies on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh Prison. Later, the same day at 11:29 pm, he is joined in death by his friend and fellow hunger-striker, Patsy O’Hara.

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#OTD in Irish History – 21 May:

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Parke’s Castle, Co Leitrim

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#OTD in 1311 – The war of the O’Briens of Thomond escalates as the Norman-Irish become involved on both sides.

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#OTD in 1922 – De Valera and Collins agree to a pact whereby a national coalition panel of candidates will represent the pro- and anti-Treaty wings of Sinn Féin throughout Ireland in the forthcoming general election.

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#OTD in Irish History – 20 May:

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#OTD in 1939 – Birth of musician and composer, John Sheahan, who was a member of the The Dubliners.

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#OTD in 1920 – Birth of Joe Cahill, a prominent Irish Republican and former Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA.

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