#OTD in 1892 – Birth of General Eoin O’Duffy, near Castleblaney, Co Monaghan.

20/10/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Birth of Eoin O’Duffy, IRA man, Commissioner of the Garda Síochána and General Franco supporter, near Lough Egish, Co Monaghan. O’Duffy first came to fame when he led an IRA group which captured the first RIC barracks at Ballytrain taking from it weapons and explosives, during the War of Independence. Also present at this victory […]

#OTD in 1896 – Birth of Kathleen Barry at 8 Fleet Street, in Dublin.

19/10/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

Kathleen Barry Moloney was the eldest of seven children. Her parents Thomas and Mary (née Dowling) and her aunt Judith ran a prosperous dairy that included an eighty-six acre holding at Tombeagh, Hacketstown, Co Carlow and a retail outlet below the family home in Fleet Street. When Thomas Barry died in 1908 the Barry family […]

#OTD in 1890 – Birth of Irish Revolutionary leader, Michael Collins (The Big Fella) in Sam’s Cross, near Clonakilty, Co Cork.

16/10/2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

“Give us the future, we’ve had enough of your past, give us back our country to live in, to grow in, to love.” –Michael Collins, during the treaty negotiations. Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the […]

#OTD in 1921 – The first meeting of the Anglo-Irish conference was held.

11/10/2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

First meeting of the two month negotiations commences at 11.00am. The Irish delegation which had arrived in London two days previously to a rapturous reception from their exiled kinfolk consisted of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith (Chairman of the delegation), Robert Barton (Minister for Economic Affairs), George Gavan Duffy and Eamonn Duggan, The delegates were styled […]

#OTD in 1939 – With the onset of World War II, the government of Éamon de Valera passes the Emergency Powers Act 1939.

02/10/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

The act gave the government wide sweeping security powers as it endeavored (successfully) to maintain Irish neutrality during what is euphemistically called “The Emergency.” In 1940, Irish Government would extend its wartime power with the introduction of the Emergency Powers (Amendment) Act providing authority for Irish-born citizens to be interned. The device was designed to […]

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

29/09/2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

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 […]

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

14/09/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

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 […]

#OTD in 1921 – De Valera received nationalist delegations from counties Down, Derry, Antrim and the city of Belfast who expressed anxiety at partition.

11/09/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Referring to the unionists, one Protestant member of the Belfast delegation said that “partition would place power in the hands of those responsible for the pogroms”. The issue which faced the two sides in that second half of 1921 was the status, and size, of this new Ireland. Clearly something more than the old Home […]

#OTD in Irish History – 11 September:

11/09/2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

1649 – Siege of Drogheda ends: The first siege occurred during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, when Phelim O’Neill and the insurgents failed to take the town. The second more famous siege happened in 1649 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took the town by storm and […]

#OTD in 1933 – Fine Gael was following the merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the National Guard, popularly known as the “Blueshirts.”

08/09/2018.Reading time 25 minutes.

In the face of intimidation of Cumann na nGaedheal meetings by the anti-treaty IRA and the rise in support for Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil from 1926, a new strategy was required to strengthen the voice of the pro-Treaty tradition who now found themselves in opposition. The National Guard, popularly known as the Blueshirts, and […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: Éamon De Valera