#OTD in 1939 – The horror of a war declared just days previously comes to Galway. German U-boat 30 torpedoed the SS Athenia 250 miles north-west of the Donegal coast resulting in the deaths of 112 of over 1,400 passengers and crew.

The Athenia was bound for Quebec carrying civilians fleeing the situation in Europe. It was the first ship to be sunk in the war. Survivors were picked up by the Norwegian freighter Knute Nelson and brought to Galway. Under the command of Captain James Cook, the SS Athenia had begun her voyage in Glasgow on 1 September, […]

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#OTD in 1803 – James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot, dies in exile in France.

James Napper Tandy was born in the Cornmarket area of Dublin in 1740; one of three children born to James Tandy, an iron works merchant, and Maria Bella Jenkins. Tandy received his education at the Quaker boarding school in Ballitore, Kildare, amongst its alumni Edmund Burke, a champion of Catholic emancipation and a supporter of […]

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#OTD in 1608 – Preparations commence for the plantation of six Ulster counties (Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone).

The Plantation of Ulster was presented to James I as a joint “British”, or English and Scottish, venture to ‘pacify’ and ‘civilise’ Ulster, with at least half the settlers to be Scots. James had been King of Scots before he also became King of England and needed to reward his subjects in Scotland with land […]

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#OTD in 1801 – The trial of United Irishman, Napper Tandy, begins.

James Napper Tandy was born in the Cornmarket area of Dublin in 1740; one of three children born to James Tandy, an iron works merchant, and Maria Bella Jenkins. Tandy received his education at the Quaker boarding school in Ballitore, Kildare, amongst its alumni Edmund Burke, a champion of Catholic emancipation and a supporter of […]

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#OTD in 1935 – Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their yawl founders.

At 5.30pm on Saturday the 9 of November 1935, a yawl left Burtonport harbour, for Arranmore Island. In order to avoid being kept at sea too long in the dark, in the heavy swell, it was apparently decided to take a short course between rocks which the sea is studded for a large area between […]

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