#OTD in Irish History | 20 September:

1689 – The Enniskillen Protestants defeat Jacobite forces at Boyle, Co Roscommon. 1784 – Sir Richard Griffith, geologist and civil engineer, is born in Dublin. He was an Irish geologist, mining engineer and chairman of the Board of Works of Ireland, who completed the first complete geological map of Ireland and was author of the […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 19 September:

1757 – Having been funded by a bequest from Jonathan Swift, St Patrick’s Hospital for the insane, Dublin, is opened. St Patrick’s University Hospital is a psychiatric facility located in Dublin, near Kilmainham and the Phoenix Park. It was founded in 1747 with money bequeathed by Jonathan Swift following his death in 1745. 1864 – […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 18 September:

1830 – Sir Frederick Matthew Darley is born in Co Wicklow to an eminent Irish legal family. He was called to the Bar at the King’s Inn in 1853. Although he had a relatively successful career, he opted to emigrate to Australia in 1862 where he would go on to become the sixth Chief Justice […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 17 September:

1711 – John Holwell, surgeon and survivor of ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ is born in Dublin. 1798 – 3,000 French troops depart for Ireland from Brest. 1862 – The Irish Brigade suffered over 60% casualties at the Battle of Antietam at an area that came to be known as Bloody Lane. Over 500 Irish Brigade […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 16 September:

1732 – Birth in Castletown, Co Clare of Thomas O’Gorman, physician, wine trader and courtier in France; made a chevalier by Louis XV. 1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Small French force under James Napper Tandy makes brief landing on Rutland Island, Co Donegal. 1798 – Belfast United Irish leaders arrested. 1808 – William Trench, land […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 15 September:

1643 – Death of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork aka Great Earl of Cork, was Lord High Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland. Boyle is an important figure in the continuing English colonisation of Ireland (commenced by the Normans) in the 16th and 17th centuries, as he acquired large tracts of land in plantations […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 14 September:

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Formerly, in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following 14 September were observed as one of the four sets of Ember days. In the Irish calendar they were known as Quarter tense). 919 – Death of Niall Glúndub mac Áedo, a 10th-century […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 13 September:

908 – Cormac mac Cuilennáin, King of Mhumhain (Munster) and Bishop, died in battle with the forces of Laighin (Leinster) when his neck was broken after he had fallen from his horse. He was regarded as a saintly figure after his death, and his shrine at Castledermot, Co Kildare, was said to be the site […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 12 September:

In the Liturgical calendar, it is the Feast day of St. Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, Tipperary. Mexico – Commemoration of the mass hanging of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion. 1653 – Ireland and Scotland are represented by six and five members respectively in the ‘Barebones’ parliament which is in effect from 4 July to this date. […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 11 September:

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 […]

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