#OTD in 1870 – Erskine Childers, novelist, member of the Royal Navy, and later an Irish nationalist, is born in London.

25/06/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Erskine Childers was the author of ‘Riddle of the Sands’, an arms smuggler via The Asgard, father of the fourth president of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers, and would be executed by the Free State government for carrying an unlawful weapon. Childers supported the Anti-Treaty forces in the vicious Irish civil war which bedeviled the country. […]

#OTD in Irish History – 25 June:

25/06/2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the feastday of St Moluag of Lismore. 1731 – The Dublin Society for Improving Husbandry (Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath [CRBÁC]), later to become the Royal Dublin Society on 19 June 1820 was founded “to promote and develop agriculture, arts, industry, and science in Ireland”. 1783 – The Bank […]

#OTD in 1850 – Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum; soldier and statesman, is born in Ballylongford, Co Kerry.

24/06/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Kitchener was the son of Lt. Col. Henry Horatio Kitchener who settled in Ballylongford, Co Kerry under a scheme to encourage the purchase of land after the recent Great Hunger. His father was an unpopular tenant-evicting landlord. The young Kitchener was commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 4 January 1871. Kitchener saw active service in […]

#OTD in 637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dalriada.

24/06/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

The battle was between Domhnall, High King of Ireland and Congal Cláen, King of Ulster. It is described as one of the most sanguinary in early Irish History. Congal had killed the King of Ireland in 628 but was defeated the next year at the battle of Battle of Dun Cethirn and Domnall became King […]

#OTD in Irish History – 24 June:

24/06/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

In the Liturgical Calendar, today is the feast of St. John and the second day of the Midsummer celebrations. 637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dalriada. It is the largest battle in the history of Ireland. 1747 – Birth of actor […]

#OTD in 1998 – Death of actress, Maureen O’Sullivan, who was born in Boyle, Co Roscommon.

23/06/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Maureen Paula O’Sullivan was the daughter of Mary (née Frazer) and Charles Joseph O’Sullivan, an officer in the Connaught Rangers who served in World War I. She attended a convent school in Dublin, then the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Roehampton (now Woldingham School), England. One of her classmates there was Vivian Mary Hartley, […]

#OTD in Irish History – 23 June:

23/06/2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

St. John’s Eve / Bonfire Night / Oíche Fhéile Eoin. The evening of 23 June, St John’s Eve, is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of St John the Baptist. This ancient custom has its roots in pre-Christian Irish society when the Celts honoured the Goddess Áine. 1704 – The Registration Act comes […]

#OTD in 1798 – Execution of John Kelly, also known as ‘Kelly of Killane’.

22/06/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

John Kelly lived in Killanne in the parish of Rathnure and was a leader who fought in the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798. While Kelly was obviously well-known to rebels and loyalists alike during the short duration of the Wexford rising, almost nothing is known of him outside this time. He was one of the […]

Midsummer’s Eve – St John’s Eve

22/06/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

St John’s Day, the feast of St John the Baptist, or Midsummer’s Day as it is sometimes called, occurs on 24 June. In many cultures, however, it is 23 June, the vigil of the feast, that is considered more significant because of the wealth of superstition that surrounds it much of it going back to […]

#OTD in 1897 – James Connolly is arrested and detained overnight for organising a series of protests over Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.