#OTD in 1975 – Death of Éamon de Valera from pneumonia and heart failure, while in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, Co Dublin, aged 92.

Éamon de Valera was a man loved by his supporters but distrusted and hated by those who blamed him for the Irish civil war. (That latter sentence could equally apply to Michael Collins from the opposite side of the political divide.) Although born in Brooklyn, New York, “Dev” had an almost mystical and spiritual belief […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Michael Collins is killed in an ambush. On the last day of his life, he set out from Cork in a convoy that passed through Bandon, Clonakilty, and Rosscarbery on its way to Skibbereen.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. “Give us the future, we’ve had enough of your past. Give us back our country, to live in, to grow in, to love.” –Michael Collins Michael Collins was killed during Ireland’s Civil War at Béal na mBláth – not far from Woodfield, Clonakilty, Co Cork where he […]

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#OTD in 1911 – 3,000 women at Jacob’s factory led by young Rosie Hackett, withdrew their labour in pursuit of a pay claim.

Rosie Hackett helped to galvanise and organise more than 3,000 women working in the factory. They withdrew their labour and the women were successful. They received better working conditions and an increase in pay. Rosie was just 18 years old at the time. When the Irish Transport and General Workers Union was founded in 1909, […]

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#OTD in 1796 – Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin receives its first prisoners.

Kilmainham Gaol is one of the largest unoccupied gaols in Europe, covering some of the most heroic and tragic events in Ireland’s emergence as a modern nation from the 1780s to the 1920s. Attractions include a major exhibition detailing the political and penal history of the prison and its restoration. Located approximately three miles outside […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Arthur Griffith, founder of Sinn Féin, dies of a cerebral haemorrhage.

Arthur Griffith was one of the most important players in Irish Independence. Griffith founded Sinn Féin in 1905 as an Irish nationalist party whose objective was “to establish in Ireland’s capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation”. It was not until after the 1916 Rising that Sinn Féin became […]

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#OTD in 1894 – Birth of nationalist revolutionary and politician, Dan Breen, in Grange, Donohill, Co Tipperary.

One of the most famous fighters in the fight for Irish freedom, Dan Breen is born in Co Tipperary. He was an iconic IRA figure in both the War of Independence and also the Civil War. Breen was involved in what is accepted as the first action of the War of Independence 1919-1921 when with […]

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Key Events in Irish History

An island people the Irish may be, yet the history of Ireland has never been intolerant or inward-looking. Instead, it is a story of a people profoundly aware of the wider world – its threats, its possibilities and its advantages. In addition, while the English and British connection will always remain key to any reading […]

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Roger Casement | A Man of Mystery

In the week after Roger Casement’s execution, on 3 August 1916, newsreel footage of the nationalist leader was shown in cinemas across America. At a conservative estimate, some 15 million US citizens saw the moving pictures. A century on, this fragment of film provides a fascinating insight. Casement is glimpsed at his desk writing: The […]

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Roger Casement’s Last Dying Wish

Roger Casement’s last dying wish to be buried at Murlough Bay, Co Antrim, would never happen due to Unionist opposition, however, a sod of turf was removed from Murlough (the resting place of St Maloge) and placed in his coffin when he was re-interred in Glasnevin Cemetery. A Celtic Cross memorial constructed in 1929 was […]

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#OTD in 1916 – Roger Casement, Irish patriot, is hanged by the English in Pentonville Prison, London.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. “Self government is our right, a thing born to us at birth. A thing no more to be doled out to us by another people than the right to life itself; than the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers or to love our kind.” […]

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