#OTD in 1918 – Sinn Féin leaders arrested over alleged ‘German plot’.

18/05/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

In a dramatic midnight swoop, police and military authorities arrested leading members of the Sinn Féin movement. Among them were a number of MPs and the party’s president, Éamon de Valera, who was seized at his home in Greystones, Co Wicklow and taken to Kingstown Police Station. Constance Markievicz was apprehended in Rathmines. Party Secretary, […]

#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rising: Irish patriots, Michael Mallin, Eamonn Ceannt, Cornelius “Con” Colbert and Sean Heuston are shot dead in Kilmainham Gaol.

08/05/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Executions of Easter Rising Leaders continue by a British regime in Stonebreakers’ Yard at Kilmainham Gaol, completely insensitive to the fact it was creating numerous martyrs and generating an emotional calling cry for Irish rebellion that would culminate in the War of Independence. Shot dead on this day: Michael Mallin | Born in Co Dublin, […]

#OTD in 1916 – Aftermath of the Easter Rising.

29/04/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

The National Museum holds many of the last letters written by the men executed in Kilmainham Gaol in May 1916 for their part in the Rising. The collection includes Pádraig Pearse’s letter to his mother, and letters from Con Colbert, Michael Mallin, Eamonn Ceannt and others, written to family and friends. All these letters have […]

#OTD in 1914 – Cumann na mBan, Irish women’s Republican movement, was founded.

02/04/2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

Ní saoirse go saoirse na mban. Over 100 women gathered in Dublin to discuss the role of women in the lead-up to revolution. The meeting, at Wynn’s Hotel, was presided over by Agnes O’Farrelly. The first provisional committee of Cumann na mBan included Agnes MacNeill, Nancy O’Rahilly, Mary Colum, Jenny Wyse Power, Louise Gavan Duffy […]

#OTD in 1919 – Third meeting of Dáil Éireann – Éamon de Valera was elected President of Dáil Éireann (or Príomh Aire) and appointed a cabinet.

01/04/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

De Valera issued a statement saying that “There is in Ireland at this moment only one lawful authority, and that authority is the elected Government of the Irish Republic”. When the First Dáil met in 1919, Éamon de Valera was the president of Sinn Féin and thus the natural choice for leadership. However he had […]

#OTD in 1922 – The seeds continue to be sown for an Irish civil war.

22/03/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Rory O’Connor holds what was to become an infamous press conference at the headquarters of the republican party (Cumann na Poblachta) in Suffolk Street, Dublin. He declares that the army is ‘in a dilemma, having the choice of supporting its oath to the Republic or still giving allegiance to the Dáil, which, it considers, has […]

#OTD in 1868 – Birth of Irish patriot and revolutionary, Countess Constance Markievicz, née Gore-Booth in London.

04/02/2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Countess Markievicz, born Constance Georgine Gore Booth, politician, revolutionary, tireless worker with the poor and dispossessed, was a remarkable woman. Born into great wealth and privilege, she lived at Lissadell House in Co Sligo. She is most famous for her leadership role in the 1916 Easter Rising and the subsequent revolutionary struggle for freedom in […]

#OTD in 1874 – Birth of Sinn Féin politician, activist and medical doctor, Kathleen Lynn, in Killala, Co Mayo. She was chief medical officer at the City Hall Garrison in Dublin during the 1916 Rising.

28/01/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Kathleen Lynn was a well-known feminist, socialist, suffragette, labour activist and a doctor by profession. She lived in Dublin and became involved in some of the most pressing political and social issues of the day, such as the Dublin workers during the 1913 Lock Out and went on to join the Irish Citizens Army. At the request […]

#OTD in 1997 – Death of Lily Kempson, aged 99, the last surviving participant in the Easter Rising.

21/01/2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Born in Co Wicklow, Lily Kempson, trade union activist, lecturer, leader, as well as a rebel in the Irish Citizen Army, was the last surviving member of the Easter Rising of 1916. Lily and her family moved to Dublin when she was young. She lived in poverty: eight members of her family lived in two […]

#OTD in 1897 – Birth of trade union activist, lecturer, leader, Lily Kempson, the last surviving participant in the Easter Rising, in Co Wicklow.

17/01/2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: Constance Markievicz