‘A Childhood Christmas’ by Patrick Kavanagh

09/12/2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

One side of the potato‑pits was white with frost— How wonderful that was, how wonderful! And when we put our ears to the paling‑post The music that came out was magical. The light between the ricks of hay and straw Was a hole in Heaven’s gable. An apple tree With its December‑glinting fruit we saw […]

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

09/12/2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

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, […]

#OTD in Irish History – 8 December:

08/12/2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

In the Liturgical Calendar, today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. If it falls on a week day, Roman Catholic schoolchildren are given a holiday, marking the beginning of the Christmas season. 1757 – The Rotunda Hospital opened in Dublin. Initially located in George’s Lane on the site of a recently closed theatre, the […]

#OTD in 1879 – Birth of Anti-Treaty Nationalist and Politician, Austin Stack, in Tralee, Co Kerry.

07/12/2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

Under the influence of his father, Austin Stack joined the local Young Ireland Society and the local branch of the Irish National Foresters, and was a keen student of Irish history. Appalled at the Cinderella status of Gaelic football and hurling, he co-founded the John Mitchel club in Tralee and became its secretary. The remarkable […]

#OTD in 1921 – After lengthy negotiations, the British give the Irish a deadline to accept or reject the Anglo-Irish treaty.

05/12/2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Negotiations on Irish independence from Britain enter their final and crucial stage at Downing Street. The Irish delegates including Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith had returned from an acrimonious cabinet meeting in Dublin where unfortunately clarity did not exist. The negotiators again met with the British team which included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. It […]

#OTD in 1921 – Dáil Cabinet Discusses Treaty Proposals.

03/12/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Following an acrimonious and poorly written meeting minutes, Michael Collins and colleagues were asked to return to London for further negotiations. The Irish delegation consisted of Collins, Arthur Griffith (Chairman of the Delegation), Robert Barton (Minister for Economic Affairs), George Gavan Duffy and Eamonn Duggan. The delegates were styled ‘Envoys Plenipotentiary’ and given power to […]

#OTD in 1920 – Countess Markievicz was court-martialed by the British administration.

02/12/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

She had been held in Mountjoy since her arrest at Rathmines on 26th September. The proceedings took place at the Royal Barracks (now Collins Barracks). Her close friends Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Maud Gonne MacBride and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington were permitted to attend but under strict conditions. Markievicz was charged with conspiring to ‘organise and promote’ Fianna […]

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

02/12/2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

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 […]

Kilmainham Gaol

01/12/2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

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 two miles outside […]

#OTD in 1900 – Death of playwright, novelist, and poet, Oscar Wilde, in Paris.

30/11/2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. […]

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Tag: Dublin

‘A Childhood Christmas’ by Patrick Kavanagh

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

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#OTD in Irish History – 8 December:

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#OTD in 1879 – Birth of Anti-Treaty Nationalist and Politician, Austin Stack, in Tralee, Co Kerry.

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#OTD in 1921 – After lengthy negotiations, the British give the Irish a deadline to accept or reject the Anglo-Irish treaty.

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#OTD in 1921 – Dáil Cabinet Discusses Treaty Proposals.

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#OTD in 1920 – Countess Markievicz was court-martialed by the British administration.

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

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Kilmainham Gaol

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#OTD in 1900 – Death of playwright, novelist, and poet, Oscar Wilde, in Paris.

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