Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
Today is the Feast day of St. James. Since mediaeval times, Dubliners held an annual drinking festival in the Saint’s honour. Fittingly, Guinness chose St. James’ Gate as the site for their brewery. St. James is the patron saint of hatmakers, rheumatoid sufferers, and labourers. 1633 – Thomas (Viscount) Wentworth becomes Lord Deputy of Ireland. […]
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1803 – In opposition to the Act of Union, Robert Emmet leads an armed outbreak that is easily suppressed. 1830 – Birth of Fenian, John O’Leary, in Tipperary; referred to famously by Yeats in his poem “September 1913″: ‘Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone/It’s with O’Leary in the grave’. 1834 – St. Vincent’s Hospital, established by […]
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1688 – Death of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC, an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to […]
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It was said of Sorcha by her contemporaries that there was no ‘woman of that period whose efficiency, selflessness and enthusiasm was greater’. Born Sarah Teresa MacMahon at Coas, Co Monaghan. Born in 1888, she was called after her mother; as well as using her given name, she also used the Irish form, Sorcha. Her […]
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1608 – Preparations commence for the plantation of six Ulster counties (Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone). 1735 – Garrett Wellesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, politician, musician, and father of Duke of Wellington, is born in Co Meath. 1771 – Colonel Thomas Talbot is born at Malahide Castle near Dublin. He was the fourth […]
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Fuair sé bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. Twas England bade our wild geese go, that ‘small nations might be free’; Their lonely graves are by Suvla’s waves or the fringe of the great North Sea. Oh, had they died by Pearse’s side or fought with Cathal Brugha Their graves we’d keep where the Fenians […]
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1561 – Battle of Red Sagums: Shane O’Neill defeats the English, destroying much of Sussex’s withdrawing army. 1579 – James Fitzmaurice lands forces in Dingle with the intention of encouraging an uprising against England. 1689 – The Mountjoy ship breaks the blockading boom and ends the Siege of Derry after 238 days. 1794 – Feargus O’Connor, […]
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The IRA executes English Army officer Colonel Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth in Cork. While all British Army personnel were deemed legitimate targets, Smyth’s fate was sealed when he spoke in quite brutal fashion about how Irish citizens were to be treated. At a meeting in Listowel, Co Kerry on 19th June, Smyth reportedly told RIC […]
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1221 – Geoffrey de Marisco, justiciar of Ireland, is accused of financial irregularities and resigns: he is replaced by Archbishop Henry of London on this date. 1798 – Death of Henry Joy McCracken. He was a cotton manufacturer and industrialist, Presbyterian, radical Irish republican, and a founding member, along with Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper […]
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1685 – Birth of Samuel Haliday in Omagh, Co Tyrone. Minister of Belfast First Presbyterian Church in 1720, he refuses to sign the Westminster Confession, which leads to split between Subscribing and Non-Subscribing adherents. 1803 – Irish Rebellion of 1803: Following an explosion at his arms depot on this date, Robert Emmet brings forward his […]
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