Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
1779 – Birth of United Irishman and soldier, William Corbet, in Ballythomas, Co Cork. 1786 – Birth of Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and son of an Irishman. 1791 – Birth of Richard Lalor Sheil, dramatist and politician; first Catholic privy councillor, in Drumdowney, Co Kilkenny. 1846 – Lord John Russell’s Whig administration decides not to […]
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1793 – The Convention Act (1793) was aimed at preventing the recurrence of events like the Convention of the Volunteers in 1782 where armed groups (of Protestants) from various parts of Ireland assembled in Dublin and were able to overawe the Government at a time when there were few troops in the country. Contrary to […]
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Arthur Griffith was one of the most important players in Irish Independence. Griffith founded Sinn Féin in 1905 as an Irish nationalist party whose objective was “to establish in Ireland’s capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation”. It was not until after the 1916 Rising that Sinn Féin became […]
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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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1690 – Siege of Limerick commences when William of Orange encamps just outside the walls of the old city, with an army of about 26,000; the Irish defenders were similar in number though not nearly as well armed. 1850 – Irish Tenant League is founded. 1878 – Birth of architect and furniture designer, Eileen Gray, […]
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Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha was born in the Gaeltacht near Dingle in Co Kerry in 1883. Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha went on to become an organiser for Conradh na Gaeilge, cycling all over the countryside to set up branches and promote the Irish language. As a writer, he took the pen-name ‘An Seabhac’, the Hawk, writing books […]
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1690 – William of Orange and his army reached Limerick with 25,000 men and occupied Ireton’s fort and Cromwell’s fort (built during the Siege of Limerick (1650–1651), outside the city. However he had with him only his field artillery, as his siege cannon were still making their way from Dublin with a light escort. This […]
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1312 – John de Wogan ceases to be justiciar; Edmund le Botiller will act as justiciar for the present. 1761 – Richard Nugent, Lord Delvin, MP for Fore, and still a teenager, dies of wounds he received after fighting a duel with a Mr Reilly on 30 July. 1775 – Birth of Daniel O’Connell in […]
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1654 – Birth in Midleton, Co Cork of Thomas Brodrick, politician in Irish and British Houses of Commons who led the inquiry into the ‘South Sea Bubble’. 1805 – Birth in Dublin of Sir William Rowan Hamilton. He was an Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, who made important contributions to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra. […]
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Along with his close comrades Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera, Harry Boland was probably the most influential Irish revolutionary between 1917 and 1922. His sway extended to almost every aspect of republican activity. Already prominent as a hurler before 1916, he was convicted and imprisoned after an energetic Easter Week. He subsequently became Honorary […]
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