#OTD in 1915 – Roger Casement visits Limburg after the full contingent of prisoners had reached the camp.

06/01/2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Casement is now doubtful as to whether the Brigade would be successful, he writes to Count Georg von Wedel from Limburg with his doubts. “I dare say a sham corps of sorts could be formed by tempting the men with promises of money: but an appeal to their “patriotism” is an appeal to something non-existent”… […]

#OTD in 1915 – The Infamous Sabotage Order Against The U.S. and Roger Casement.

06/01/2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

The Imperial German Admiralty requested that the military and naval attachés in Washington, Franz von Papen and Karl Boy-Ed respectively, initiate sabotage in the United States and Canada. This request only surfaced as a memorandum in the Imperial Foreign Office. Initially, the Admiralty envisioned the Irish nationalists to conduct sabotage operations in the U.S. This […]

#OTD in 1941 – German bombers drop F bombs in Dublin and other parts of the country.

02/01/2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

German bombers drop F bombs in Dublin and other parts of the country. It was one of only a limited number of times, neutral Ireland was bombed. There is no clear rationale why the bombs were dropped. The greatest loss of life occurred on 31 May 1941 when at least twenty-eight people died as a […]

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

20/12/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

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 […]

#OTD in 1918 – Over five hundred die in the Irish Sea following the sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster by U-boat 123.

10/10/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

The Leinster was operating as a passenger ship and mail boat, although most of those who died were soldiers returning from leave, many of them Irishmen who fought in the British Army in World War I. First World War 1914-1918. On one side were Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. On the other side were the […]

#OTD in 1939 – In one of the more intriguing episodes of World War II, German U-Boat 35 under the command of Kapitan Werner Lott disembarked 28 men at Dingle, Co Kerry from the Greek cargo ship Diamantis.

05/10/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

About 15.40 hours on 3 Oct, 1939, the Diamantis was torpedoed by U-35 and sank 40 miles west of the Scilly Islands. Because the lifeboats were not suited for use in the bad weather, Lott decided to take all crew members aboard and landed them the next day at Dingle, Co Kerry. On a stormy […]

Roger Casement – A Man of Mystery

07/08/2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

In the week after Roger Casement’s execution, on 3 August 1916, newsreel footage of the nationalist leader was shown in cinemas across America. At a conservative estimate, some 15 million US citizens saw the moving pictures. A century on, this fragment of film provides a fascinating insight. Casement is glimpsed at his desk writing: The […]

#OTD in 1916 – Roger Casement, Irish patriot, is hanged by the English in Pentonville Prison, London.

03/08/2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. “Self government is our right, a thing born to us at birth. A thing no more to be doled out to us by another people than the right to life itself; than the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers or to love our kind.” […]

#OTD in 1943 – In a Dáil Éireann debate on The Emergency Powers Act which was primarily designed to curtail IRA activity, independent TD Oliver Flanagan unleashed an astonishing attack on Jews.

09/07/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

In a Dáil Éireann debate on The Emergency Powers Act which was primarily designed to curtail IRA activity, independent TD Oliver Flanagan unleashed an astonishing attack on Jews. “How is it that we do not see any of these Acts directed against the Jews, who crucified Our Saviour nineteen hundred years ago, and who are […]

#OTD in 1916 – Sir Roger Casement, Irish Nationalist and British diplomat is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.

29/06/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

“If today when all Europe is dying for national ends, whole people marching down with songs of joy to the valley of eternal night, we alone stand by idle and moved only to words, then we are in truth the most contemptible of all the people in Europe.” –Sir Roger Casement Sir Roger Casement was […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: Germany