#OTD in 1917 – Hanna Sheehy Skeffington travelled to New York with her son, Owen, to speak about her husband’s murder during the Easter Rising.

13/01/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

In an interview with the New York Times, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington says she was determined to come to America to tell people about ‘my husband’s murder’, despite the British government’s refusal to give her a passport. ‘I am not willing to tell how I got here’, she said, before adding that she had been forced […]

#OTD in 1885 – Birth of patriot and nationalist, Thomas Ashe, in Lispole, Co Kerry.

12/01/2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘If I die, I die in a good cause.’ –Thomas Ashe shortly before his death. Thomas Patrick Ashe was born in Lispole, Co Kerry. He trained as a teacher in De La Salle College, Waterford and worked as a school principal in Lusk, Co Dublin. Ashe also enjoyed writing poetry and was a talented singer. […]

#OTD in 1915 – Roger Casement visits Limburg after the full contingent of prisoners had reached the camp.

06/01/2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Casement is now doubtful as to whether the Brigade would be successful, he writes to Count Georg von Wedel from Limburg with his doubts. “I dare say a sham corps of sorts could be formed by tempting the men with promises of money: but an appeal to their “patriotism” is an appeal to something non-existent”… […]

#OTD in 1915 – The Infamous Sabotage Order Against The U.S. and Roger Casement.

06/01/2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

The Imperial German Admiralty requested that the military and naval attachés in Washington, Franz von Papen and Karl Boy-Ed respectively, initiate sabotage in the United States and Canada. This request only surfaced as a memorandum in the Imperial Foreign Office. Initially, the Admiralty envisioned the Irish nationalists to conduct sabotage operations in the U.S. This […]

#OTD in 1941 – Jennie Wyse Power, Irish patriot and women’s rights activist, dies in Dublin.

05/01/2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Jennie Wyse Power, born Jane O’Toole, in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow in 1858. In the 1880s she joined the Ladies Land League and found herself immersed in their activities during the Land War. She would compile lists of those evicted from their homes and also she organised the Land League in Wicklow and Carlow. In 1883 […]

#OTD in 1922 – Michael Collins Defends Treaty as Debate Resumes.

03/01/2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Treaty debate resumes in Dáil. An emotional Michael Collins said: “Well, the suggestion is this: I have my own feelings about the Treaty. I have feelings about it perhaps very much keener than Deputies who are against it. Well, I believe that the Treaty was inevitable, and this is the suggestion: that the men and […]

#OTD in 2003 – Death of Bridget Dirrane who died at the age of 109. She was Ireland’s second oldest person.

31/12/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Bridget Dirrane was the oldest native of Ireland’s Aran Islands and the second oldest person in Ireland. Éamon de Valera was the Irish political leader she most admired, but in a life touching three centuries, she met Pádraig Pearse, went on hunger strike in Mountjoy gaol, campaigned for John F Kennedy in Boston, and was […]

#OTD in 1918 – Constance Markievicz while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.

28/12/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“I went out to fight for Ireland’s freedom and it does not matter what happens to me. I did what I thought was right and I stand by it.” –Constance Markievicz During the Easter Rising of 1916, Constance was second in command under Michael Mallin in Dublin’s St Steven’s Green. She proved fearless under fire […]

#OTD in 1916 – Irish prisoners interned at Frongoch are released.

25/12/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

Frongoch Internment Camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War. Until 1916, it housed German prisoners of war in an abandoned distillery and crude huts, but in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, the German prisoners were moved and it was used as […]

#OTD in 1878 – Birth of writer and radical activist, Francis Sheehy Skeffington in Dublin.

23/12/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Francis Skeffington, writer and pacifist, was born in Bailieborough, Co Cavan on the 23 December 1878 to Joseph Bartholomew Skeffington and his wife Rose née Magorian. The family moved to Co Down shortly after his birth. He was educated by his father, a schools inspector and enrolled in University College Dublin (UCD) in 1896. While […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: 1916 Easter Rising