#OTD in 1933 – The anti-Fianna Fáil Army Comrades Association, which developed into a fascist-inspired group nicknamed the “Blueshirts,” is outlawed.

Éamon de Valera denounced the Blue Shirts organisation as unlawful, yet despite the Government’s ban, the Blueshirts also known as the National Guard paraded throughout the country. The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, then Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, but better known by the nickname The Blueshirts, was a far-right […]

Read More

#OTD in 1950 – Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, writer, drowns while swimming off Co Galway.

“I am a boy who was born and bred in the Great Blasket, a truly small Gaelic island which lies north-west of the coast of Kerry, where the storm of the sky and the wild sea beat without ceasing from end to end of the year and from generation to generation against the wrinkled rocks […]

Read More

#OTD in 1996 – Jerry McCabe, a Detective in Garda Síochána, was shot dead during a post office robbery in Adare, Co Limerick.

Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, is shot dead and a second injured in Adare, Co Limerick by members of the Provisional IRA, during the attempted robbery of a post office van. Jerry McCabe and his colleague Ben O’Sullivan both 52 were escorting a Post Office truck making cash deliveries in the area. First-hand witness Willie Jackson, the An […]

Read More

#OTD in 1922 – The newly created Royal Ulster Constabulary took over the policing of Northern Ireland.

Following the partition of Ireland, it was decided to disband the RIC as an All-Ireland police force. In southern Ireland a new police force, the Civic Guard later Garda Siochana was formed, while in Northern Ireland the Royal Ulster Constabulary was established on 1 June 1922 as the police force for Northern Ireland. The RUC […]

Read More

#OTD in 1974 – Three car bombs in Dublin and a fourth in Monaghan exploded without warning, injuring almost 300 people and killing 34, the greatest loss of life on a single day during the Troubles.

On the morning of 17 May 1974, four cars are stolen in Belfast. That evening, they would explode without warning in Dublin and Monaghan resulting in the deaths of 34 civilians and injuries to more than 300. The bombings were the worst single atrocity in Ireland during the “Troubles.” The bombings were a Loyalist reaction […]

Read More

#OTD in 1904 – Birth of writer, Muiris Ó Suilleabhain, on the Great Blasket Island, Co Kerry. Best known for his book, ‘Twenty Years A-Growing’.

“I am a boy who was born and bred in the Great Blasket, a truly small Gaelic island which lies north-west of the coast of Kerry, where the storm of the sky and the wild sea beat without ceasing from end to end of the year and from generation to generation against the wrinkled rocks […]

Read More

#OTD in 2013 – Death of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

He was an Irish police detective working for the Garda Síochána. He was attached to Dundalk Garda Station in Co Louth, and was fatally shot in Bellurgan, Co Louth (near Jenkinstown) by an armed gang of five people during a robbery on a credit union. He was the first garda to be shot dead in […]

Read More

#OTD in Irish History | 20 November:

1762 – Francis Andrews is appointed first professor of history at the University of Dublin. 1800 – Richard Rothwell, painter, is born in Athlone, Co Westmeath. 1830 – Birth of Patrick Henry Jones, who attained the rank of Brigadier General in the Union army during the American Civil War is born in Co Westmeath. Jones […]

Read More

#OTD in 1933 – The anti-Fianna Fáil Army Comrades Association, which developed into a fascist-inspired group nicknamed the “Blueshirts,” is outlawed.

Éamon de Valera denounced the Blue Shirts organisation as unlawful, yet despite the Government’s ban, the Blueshirts also known as the National Guard paraded throughout the country. The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, then Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, but better known by the nickname The Blueshirts, was a far-right […]

Read More