Mary Smith | The Knocker-Upper

09/09/2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

In the early 20th century, a Knocker-upper’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time, a profession that started in England and Ireland during the Industrial Revolution, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. Mary Smith earned six pence a week shooting a pea into the windows of the […]

#OTD in 1916 – Death of Thomas Michael “Tom” Kettle on the 71st day of the Battle of the Somme.

09/09/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

Tom Kettle was a journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier, economist and Home Rule politician. As a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Tyrone from 1906 to 1910 at Westminster. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, then on the outbreak of World War I in 1914 enlisted […]

#OTD in 1845 – The arrival of the potato blight in Ireland is reported in the Dublin Evening Post.

09/09/2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

To this day, all over Ireland the landscape bears mute testimony to the events that occurred in the horrific period from 1845–1852. Starvation graveyards offer silent tribute to the millions of Irish men, women, and children buried in unmarked mass graves. Thriving villages were replaced by heaps of moss-covered stones. Although historians have not agreed […]

#OTD in Irish History | 9 September:

09/09/2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, this is the feast day of St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise. He was one of the early Irish monastic saints and Irish bishop. He is sometimes called Ciarán the Younger to distinguish him from Saint Ciarán of Saighir. He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He dies on this date […]

#OTD in Irish History | 10 September:

09/09/2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

World Suicide Prevention Day – #WSPD 1315 – Battle of Connor: Major victory for Edward the Bruce in his invasion of Ulster. 1602 – “Red” Hugh O’Donnell dies in Simancas, Spain; evidence suggests he was poisoned by an English spy. 1649 – Oliver Cromwell seizes Drogheda. 1763 – The Freeman’s Journal is founded in Dublin […]

#OTD in 1933 – Fine Gael was following the merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the National Guard, popularly known as the “Blueshirts.”

08/09/2023.Reading time 25 minutes.

In the face of intimidation of Cumann na nGaedheal meetings by the anti-treaty IRA and the rise in support for Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil from 1926, a new strategy was required to strengthen the voice of the pro-Treaty tradition who now found themselves in opposition. The National Guard, popularly known as the Blueshirts, and […]

#OTD in 1908 – Poet, educator and eventual Easter Rising leader, Pádraig Pearse, opens St. Enda’s school for boys (Scoil Eanna).

08/09/2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

“I dwell on the importance of the personal element in education. I would have every child not merely a unit in a school attendance, but in some intimate personal way the pupil of a teacher, or to use more expressive words, the disciple of a master … the main objective in education is to help […]

#OTD in 1806 – Death of Patrick Cotter O’Brien.

08/09/2023.Reading time 1 minute.

For many years Patrick Cotter O’Brien (born Patrick Cotter), was believed to be the first of only 16 people in medical history to stand at a verified height of eight feet (244 cm) or more. Only Anton de Franckenpoint reached this height before him. Patrick Cotter O’Brien was born in Kinsale, Co Cork. His real […]

#OTD in Irish History | 8 September:

08/09/2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast day of St. Disbode, a 7th century Irish missionary. According to German legend, the Irish saint founded the German wine industry when wine started pouring from his pilgrim’s staff. 1783 – A second convention of Dungannon – a gathering of Volunteers from Ulster – is held and […]

#OTD in 1981 – Death of Christy Brown, the handicapped Dublin author, who learned to type with his left foot.

07/09/2023.Reading time 1 minute.

The film My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown encapsulates all that makes Irish acting, theater, writing and film making so compelling. Christy Brown was born into a poor, working class family in 1932 Dublin with severe cerebral palsy. Encouraged by a loving mother, the incapacitated child learned to communicate through writing and painting […]

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Category: Ireland

Mary Smith | The Knocker-Upper

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#OTD in 1916 – Death of Thomas Michael “Tom” Kettle on the 71st day of the Battle of the Somme.

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#OTD in 1845 – The arrival of the potato blight in Ireland is reported in the Dublin Evening Post.

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#OTD in Irish History | 9 September:

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#OTD in Irish History | 10 September:

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#OTD in 1933 – Fine Gael was following the merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the National Guard, popularly known as the “Blueshirts.”

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#OTD in 1908 – Poet, educator and eventual Easter Rising leader, Pádraig Pearse, opens St. Enda’s school for boys (Scoil Eanna).

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#OTD in 1806 – Death of Patrick Cotter O’Brien.

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#OTD in Irish History | 8 September:

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#OTD in 1981 – Death of Christy Brown, the handicapped Dublin author, who learned to type with his left foot.

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