#OTD in 1919 – An unofficial government policy of reprisals began in Fermoy, Co Cork.

Two hundred British soldiers looted and burned several commercial buildings in the town, after 23 Cork Volunteers, under the leadership of Liam Lynch, augmented by Mick Mansfield and George Lennon of Waterford attacked members of the Royal Shropshire Light Infantry en route to services at the Wesleyan Church. Four soldiers were reportedly wounded, one fatally. […]

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#OTD in 1921 – Michael Collins paid a visit to Armagh.

Michael Collins paid a visit to Armagh on 4 September 1921, in what the ‘Irish News’ described as “his first official visit to the city.” The implication may well be that he had been in Armagh on IRA business in the past few years, but he was now a leading figure in the Dáil Éireann […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 31 August:

In the Liturgical calendar, it is the Feast day of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Apostle of Northumbria. He was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. A Christian missionary, he is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the anglicized form of the original Old […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 28 August:

1710 – A board of trustees for linen manufacture is established. 1788 – Birth of poet, Sir Aubrey de Vere, in Adare, Co Limerick. 1788 – Birth of banker and philanthropist, James Digges La Touche, in Dublin. 1798 – Cornwallis reaches Athlone; Humbert entrenches in Castlebar. 1814 – Birth of novelist and journalist, Joseph Sheridan […]

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#OTD in 1979 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British retired admiral Lord Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday off the coast in Co Sligo.

An IRA bomb kills the Queen’s cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten in Co Sligo. Mountbatten regularly holidayed in the West of Ireland. The bomb exploded on his boat some minutes after he and family friends had departed the little port of Mullaghmore. Mountbatten’s grandson Nicholas, 14, and fifteen year old local, Paul Maxwell, 15, employed as […]

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#OTD in 1999 – The remains of Tom Williams were exhumed from Crumlin Road Gaol and handed over to his surviving family members.

Williams had been a member of the IRA and was hanged for the killing of Patrick Murphy a Constable in the RUC. He was a volunteer in C Company, 2nd Battalion of the Belfast Brigade in the Irish Republican Army, and was hanged in the Crumlin Road Gaol on 2 September 1942 for his involvement in the killing. Williams was born in […]

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#OTD in 1919 – Motion passed by Dáil that an Oath of Allegiance (to the Republic) should be taken by all members and officials of Dáil Éireann, and all Irish Volunteers.

Ernie O’Malley says that with this oath the Irish Volunteers became the Irish Republican Army (IRA). At a meeting of Dáil Éireann (the Irish Parliament not recognised by Britain), Secretary of Defence, Cathal Brugha called for all TDs to swear allegiance to the new parliament. Every person and every one of those bodies undermentioned must […]

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#OTD in 1998 – Massive bomb explodes in Omagh shopping centre at 3.10pm; Twenty-nine people are killed and hundreds injured.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anama. An IRA bomb explodes in Omagh, Co Tyrone killing twenty-nine people, including a pregnant woman with twins. As a result of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the people of the north of Ireland thought they had seen the end of violence. However, a tiny breakaway group of […]

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#OTD in 1894 – Birth of nationalist revolutionary and politician, Dan Breen, in Grange, Donohill, Co Tipperary.

One of the most famous fighters in the fight for Irish freedom, Dan Breen is born in Co Tipperary. He was an iconic IRA figure in both the War of Independence and also the Civil War. Breen was involved in what is accepted as the first action of the War of Independence 1919-1921 when with […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 11 August:

In the Liturgical Calendar it is the Feast Day of Saint Attracta (also called Araght, and Naomh Adhracht in Irish), the patron saint of the parish of Tourlestrane, Co Sligo. Her legend states that she fled from home and took her vows as a nun under St Patrick at Coolavin. She then moved to Lough […]

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