Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
1768 – The Octennial Act limits Irish parliaments’ life to eight years. 1822 – Birth of engineer, James Thomson, in Belfast. 1841 – The Maplin Sands lighthouse was first lit, constructed and built by blind Irish engineer, Alexander Mitchell, from Dublin, which began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames. A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse […]
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1782 – The first Dungannon Convention of the Ulster Volunteers calls for an independent Irish parliament; Grattan continues to campaign for the same objective. 1793 – A third convention of Dungannon – a gathering of Volunteers from Ulster is held. 1794 – The United Irishmen published a plan for parliamentary reform, advocating universal male suffrage, […]
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St Valentine’s Day, commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day, is a holiday observed on 14 February. Many churches claim to be Valentine’s final resting place, including the Carmelite Church on Whitefriar Street in Dublin. According to the story told there, the St’s remains were given to Fr John Sprat by Pope Gregory XVI and a shrine still […]
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1689 – William and Mary, daughter of James II, are proclaimed king and queen jointly. 1820 – Death of lawyer and English informer, Leonard McNally. 1850 – Michael Kelly, fourth Roman Catholic archbishop of Sydney is born in Waterford. Kelly was a leading figure in the foundation in 1901 of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association […]
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‘I started from Cork… for Skibbereen and saw little until we came to Clonakilty, where the coach stopped for breakfast; and here, for the first time, the horrors of the poverty became visible, in the vast number of famished poor, who flocked around the coach to beg alms: amongst them was a woman carrying in […]
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1722 – Thomas Burgh, MP for Naas, and Richard Stewart, MP for Strabane, receive the first £2,000 of £8,000 from the Irish parliament for operating their colliery at Ballycastle, Co Antrim. 1782 – The right of habeas corpus is introduced in Ireland. 1818 – Bernardo O’Higgins formally approves the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, […]
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In the Liturgical calendar today is the Feast Day of St Gobnait, also known as Gobnat or Mo Gobnat, a medieval, female saint whose church was Móin Mór, later Bairnech, in the village of Ballyvourney (Baile Bhuirne), Co Cork. She was associated with the Múscraige and her church and nunnery lay on the borders between […]
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1731 – Birth of Sir Lucius O’Brien, opposition politician; he will eventually be described as ‘a man who disagrees with the rest of mankind by thinking well of himself’. 1846 – Geophysicist and civil engineer, Robert Mallet presented to the Royal Irish Academy his paper, ‘The Dynamics of Earthquakes’, which is considered to be a […]
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‘She is in your hands — in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. I solemnly call on you to recollect that I predict, with the sincerest conviction, that one-fourth of her population will perish unless you come to her relief.’ Featured Image | The crypt of Daniel O’Connell | […]
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1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I – the revolt is quickly crushed. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years’ War in 1599. In 1601 he led an abortive coup d’état against the government […]
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