#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 1920 – RIC Detective Swanzy was shot dead by Cork IRA volunteers while leaving Church in Lisburn, Co Antrim.

On 20 March 1920, Oswald Swanzy was in charge of a group of masked RIC policemen who entered the home of Tomás Mac Curtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, and killed him. Mac Curtain was also the leader of Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA. On 17 April 1920, a coroner’s inquest was held into […]

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#OTD in 1928 – Pat O’Callaghan wins gold for Ireland at the Olympics.

Pat Callaghan from Co Cork made history by becoming Ireland’s first ever Olympic Gold medal winner. Little over six years on from the war of independence, the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics was just the second time Irish athletes were able to represent Ireland – the first being the Paris Olympics four years prior. Between 1896 and […]

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#OTD in 1980 – Death of Tom Barry, he died in a Cork hosptial and was survived by his wife, Leslie de Barra (née Price).

General Thomas (Tom) Barry was one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. In 1920, Barry joined the 3rd (West) Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which was then engaged in the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). He was involved in brigade council meetings, […]

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#OTD in 1879 – Birth of Irish patriot and Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, in Co Cork.

Terence Joseph MacSwiney was a playwright, author and politician. He was elected as Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence in 1920 after the murder of his friend Tomás Mac Curtain, the Lord Mayor of Cork on 20 March 1920. Like Tomás Mac Curtain, he had been a member of […]

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#OTD in 1918 – The SS Kenmare, part of the fleet of the Cork Steampacket Company, was sunk without warning in Irish waters, from a torpedo fired from a German submarine.

Out of the crew of 35, only six were saved. The vessel was en route from Liverpool to Cork when it was struck. Most of the crew were in their bunks asleep when they were awoken by a loud explosion that shattered the ship from end to end. It sank in less than two minutes. Among […]

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#OTD in 1867 – Fenian Rising begins in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.

The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smoulder, and during the later part of 1866, IRB leader James Stephens endeavoured to raise funds in the United States […]

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#OTD in 1925 – Hugh O’Flaherty was ordained on this date and posted to the Vatican.

When Germany occupied Rome in 1943, O’Flaherty and some like-minded friends hid Jews and Allied soldiers from the Nazis. They used convents, farms and even flats beside the SS headquarters. When Rome was liberated, 6,500 of O’Flaherty’s escapees were still alive. Monsigner Hugh was also amateur golf champion of Italy. From to 1942-43, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty […]

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#OTD in 1845 – Frederick Douglass delivers a speech in Belfast | ‘The Cambria Riot, My Slave Experience, and My Irish Mission’.

In 1845, as Ireland was descending into the despair of the Great Hunger, Frederick Douglass arrived for a four-month lecture tour of the island. Douglass had escaped slavery in Maryland seven years earlier, and had recently published his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Douglass was greeted in Dublin, Belfast, […]

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