#OTD in 1920 – IRA 3rd Cork Brigade personnel attacked a lorry carrying British troops from the Essex Regiment at the Toureen Ambush, on the road between Bandon and Cork.

22/10/2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Up until the ambush the 3rd West Cork Brigade Flying Column had not before engaged the British troops stationed in Co Cork in a proper battle. The Brigade had finished its training and to get it ready for combat it had to get in an engagement with the British soldiers. Under Tom Barry at Toureen, […]

#OTD in Irish History – 22 October:

22/10/2018.Reading time 13 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast Day of Pope Saint John Paul II. He is widely known to Catholics as Saint John Paul the Great, especially in the names of institutions. It is traditional to celebrate saints’ feast days on the anniversary of their deaths, but that of John Paul II (22 October) […]

#OTD in Irish History – 21 October:

21/10/2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

1449 – Birth of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, in Dublin Castle at a time when his father, the Duke of York, had begun to challenge Henry VI for the crown. His godfather was James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond. He was the third of the four sons of Richard and Cecily who survived […]

#OTD in 1933 – The Irish Free State government purchases the copyright of Peadar Kearney’s, ’The Soldiers Song’ (Amhrán na bhFiann) which becomes the national anthem.

20/10/2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

The lyrics of ‘The Soldiers Song’ were written by Peadar Ó Cearnaigh (Kearney), an uncle of Brendan Behan, who together with Patrick Heeney composed the music. Before the present-day National Anthem was adopted, “God Save Ireland” was the unofficial anthem used by the Fenians and the official anthem was “God Save the King” until the […]

#OTD in Irish History – 20 October:

20/10/2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

1612 – Birth of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, 2nd Earl of Cork, in Youghal, Co Cork. He was an Anglo-Irish nobleman who served as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and was a Cavalier. 1674 – Birth of James Logan, Colonial statesman and scholar in Lurgan, Co Armagh. 1775 – Two hundred passengers are […]

#OTD in Irish History – 19 October:

19/10/2018.Reading time 15 minutes.

1610 – Birth of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond; royalist soldier; and three times Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 1649 – New Ross town, Co Wexford, surrenders to Oliver Cromwell. 1680 – Birth of minister and church leader, John Abernethy, in Coleraine, Co Derry. 1745 – Death of Jonathan Swift. He was an Irish satirist, […]

#OTD in 1900 – Birth of Irish traditional singer, Sarah Makem, in Keady, Co Armagh.

18/10/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

Sarah Makem, a native of Keady, Co Armagh, was a traditional Irish singer. She was the wife of fiddler Peter Makem, mother of musicians Tommy Makem and Jack Makem, and grandmother of musicians Shane Makem, Conor Makem and Rory Makem. Sarah Makem and her cousin, Annie Jane Kelly, were members of the Singing Greenes of […]

#OTD in Irish History – 18 October:

18/10/2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

1171 – Henry II (1133-1189) King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, arrives in Ireland from France with an army and declares himself “Lord of Ireland”. Henry’s involvement was partly at the request of some dissident Irish chieftains and lords who feared losing their own lands. Three years previously Dermot MacMurrough “represented the malice […]

#OTD in 1803 – Birth of William Smith O’Brien in Dromoland, Newmarket on Fergus, Co Clare.

17/10/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

William Smith O’Brien was a Protestant Irish nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Young Ireland movement. He also encouraged the use of the Irish language. He was convicted of sedition for his part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, but his sentence of death was commuted to deportation to Van Diemen’s […]

#OTD in Irish History – 17 October:

17/10/2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

1171 – Henry II, fearful that Strongbow will grow too powerful in Ireland, lands at Waterford with an army. The Normans, Norse and Irish all submit to him, except for the most remote Irish kings. 1738 – In a duel at Mullingar, Arthur Rochfort, MP for Co Westmeath, shoots Dillon Pollard Hampson in the stomach. […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: Irish History