#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rising: The Surrender.

After six days that reduced much of central Dublin to ruin, British forces numbering close to 20,000 troops (many of them Irish) finally force a rebel force of 1,500 men and women to surrender. At 12.45pm, Elizabeth O’Farrell (one of the last three women left in the GPO before it was evacuated), left 15 Moore […]

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#OTD in 1901 – Birth of Maeve de Markievicz, daughter of Constance, in Lissadell, Co Sligo.

Maeve, named after the legendary Queen of Connacht, was born to Constance in Lissadell, Co Sligo on 13 November 1901. Her father, Constance’s husband, was Count Casimir Dunin-Markievicz, a nobleman whose family owned an estate at Zywotowka in the Ukraine. He already had a son, Stanislaw, from a previous marriage. Very soon after the birth, […]

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#OTD in 1916 – Easter Rising: The Surrender.

After six days that reduced much of central Dublin to ruin, British forces numbering close to 20,000 troops (many of them Irish) finally force a rebel force of 1,500 men and women to surrender. At 12.45pm, Elizabeth O’Farrell (one of the last three women left in the GPO before it was evacuated), left 15 Moore […]

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#OnThisDay in Irish History – 17 March:

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint. 1762 – St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern). 1776 – General George Washington used the password ‘St Patrick’ as a secret code for his Colonial troops on […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 16 March:

In the liturgical calendar, today is the Feast Day of Abbán moccu Corbmaic. He was associated, first and foremost, with Mag Arnaide (Moyarney or Adamstown, near New Ross, Co Wexford) and with Cell Abbáin (Killabban, Co Laois). His cult was, however, also connected to other churches elsewhere in Ireland, notably that of his alleged sister […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 15 March:

1672 – The first declaration of indulgence suspending penal laws against Catholics and dissenters is issued by Charles II. 1764 – Charles O’Conor, antiquary and historian, is born in Belanagare, Co Roscommon. 1773 – Oliver Goldsmith’s ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ is performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London. 1774 – Birth of author, Isaac Weld, in […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 14 March:

1705 – An English act permits direct export of Irish linen to American colonies. 1732 – Birth of Sackville Hamilton, politician and civil servant. 1738 – John Beresford, unionist politician, is born in Cork. 1822 – Richard Boyle, civil engineer, is born in Dublin. 1894 – William Earle ‘Moley’ Molesworth, WWI Ace, is born. 1902 […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 13 March:

1784 – Reform Bill in Irish House of Commons. 1791 – Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man (part 1) – a reply to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and a major influence on Irish radicals – is published. 1846 – Ballinlass An Gorta Mór Evictions: Seventy-six tenant farmers and their families (three hundred […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 12 March:

1295 – Richard de Burgh is released by the council in parliament at Kilkenny. 1672 – Sir Richard Steele (baptised on this dated, birthdate unknown) in Dublin. He was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator. 1685 – George Berkeley, philosopher, physicist, mathematician, Dean […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 11 March:

1605 – A proclamation declares all persons in the realm to be free, natural and immediate subjects of the king and not subjects of any lord or chief. 1722 – Death of philosopher and theorist, John Toland. He was an occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, […]

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