#OTD in 1921 – Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith and the other plenipotentiaries return from London to present Britain’s proposed treaty draft to government colleagues.

Presentation of the British draft of the Anglo-Irish Treaty took place from 1-6 December, with the delegates returning to Dublin on this date for two days to present the proposed draft to their colleagues, they returned to London to further negotiate and signed the Treaty (Articles of Agreement) on 6 December 1921. Collins was not […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 1 December (Nollaig):

World AIDS Day 1494 – Poynings Law enacted. This forbid the Irish parliament to convene without the King’s prior permission, and all intended legislation had to be approved by him. Coming in the aftermath of the divisive Wars of the Roses, Poynings’ intention was to make Ireland once again obedient to the English monarchy. 1848 […]

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#OTD in 1923 – Republican prisoner Denny Barry dies on hunger strike in Newbridge camp.

Denis ‘Dinny’ Barry (Donnchadh de Barra) was born into a farming family in Cullen, Riverstick, ten miles south of Cork city. Barry enjoyed Gaelic culture and sport, and was a prominent member of the Ballymartle hurling club. He later joined the famous Blackrock National Hurling Club where he won 4 senior county championships in a […]

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#OTD in 1893 – Birth of General Liam Lynch, Chief of Staff, IRA, in Limerick.

Liam Lynch was born in Barnagurraha, Co Limerick to Jeremiah and Mary Kelly Lynch. At 17 he was apprenticed to O’Neill’s hardware in Mitchelstown. Shortly after his apprenticeship began he joined the Gaelic League and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He joined the Irish Volunteers after witnessing the arrests of the Kent family by British […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Dáil Éireann approves the Constitution of the Irish Free State.

The Irish Free State constitution was adopted by an act of Dáil Éireann and given royal approval in December. It established many of the articles that had been set out in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Northern Ireland (Unionists) opted out of the Irish Free State, and under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, this […]

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#OTD in 1928 – The last active Fenian, John Devoy, dies in Atlantic City, NJ.

Fenian, John Devoy, whom the London Times called ‘the most dangerous enemy of this country Ireland has produced since Wolfe Tone’. John Devoy was born in Kill, Co Kildare, on the 3 September 1842. He worked for a short time as a clerk before joining the Fenian organisation. In 1861 Devoy travelled to France where […]

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#OTD in 1921 – The Dáil votes to appoint plenipotentiaries to negotiate with Britain regarding Ireland’s independence.

In what would turn out to be a momentous decision, de Valera opted NOT to be one of the negotiators stating that the Irish parliament “recognised themselves but no one else did. He really believed it was vital at this stage that the symbol of the Republic should be kept untouched and that it should […]

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#OTD in 1919 – An unofficial government policy of reprisals began in Fermoy, Co Cork.

Two hundred British soldiers looted and burned several commercial buildings in the town, after 23 Cork Volunteers, under the leadership of Liam Lynch, augmented by Mick Mansfield and George Lennon of Waterford attacked members of the Royal Shropshire Light Infantry en route to services at the Wesleyan Church. Four soldiers were reportedly wounded, one fatally. […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Michael Collins is buried in Glasnevin Cemetary, Dublin.

The seven mile journey from Dublin’s pro-cathedral to the Big Fella’s final resting place was lined with half a million mourners, many of whom, would have differed with him on the Treaty. After lying in State for three days, his funeral was held in Dublin on 28 August 1922 where 500,000 people turned out to […]

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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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