#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 1892 – Birth of General Eoin O’Duffy, near Castleblaney, Co Monaghan.

20/10/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Birth of Eoin O’Duffy, IRA man, Commissioner of the Garda Síochána and General Franco supporter, near Lough Egish, Co Monaghan. O’Duffy first came to fame when he led an IRA group which captured the first RIC barracks at Ballytrain taking from it weapons and explosives, during the War of Independence. Also present at this victory […]

#OTD in 1851 – Birth of American financier, Thomas Fortune Ryan, in Charlottesville, Virginia, with ancestry to Protestant Anglo-Irish settlers in the 17th century.

17/10/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Thomas Fortune Ryan was born near Lovingston, a small Nelson County community south of Charlottesville, Virginia. Despite certain myths regarding his background, Ryan was neither orphaned nor penniless as a youth and he traced his ancestry to Protestant Anglo-Irish settlers in the 17th century. At age 17, Ryan perceived a lack of economic opportunity in […]

#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. […]

#OTD in 1920 – Peter O’Carroll (actor, Brendan O’Carroll’s grandfather) was shot dead in Manor Street, Dublin.

16/10/2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Actor, Brendan O’Carroll (Mrs Brown’s Boys) is the youngest of eleven children. He was born in 1955 in Finglas, Co Dublin to parents Gerard Francis O’Carroll and Maureen McHugh. Gerard was a cabinet-maker and Maureen a secondary school teacher and the first Irish Member of Parliament. They were married in 1936 in Dublin but both […]

#OTD in 1890 – Birth of Irish Revolutionary leader, Michael Collins (The Big Fella) in Sam’s Cross, near Clonakilty, Co Cork.

16/10/2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

“Give us the future, we’ve had enough of your past, give us back our country to live in, to grow in, to love.” –Michael Collins, during the treaty negotiations. Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the […]

#OTD in Irish History – 16 October:

16/10/2018.Reading time 13 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast Day of St. Gall (Gallen, or Gallus, c. 550 – c. 646). He was an Irish disciple and one of the traditionally twelve companions of Saint Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. 1588 – Birth of Franciscan friar and historian, Luke Wadding, in Co […]

#OTD in 1920 – Tipperary IRA man, Sean Treacy, is killed in a gun battle in Talbot Street, Dublin.

14/10/2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“Come on, he cried, Come show your hand, you have boasted for so long, How you would crush this rebel band with your armies great and strong”. No surrender”, was his war cry, “Fight on lads, no retreat” –Brave Treacy cried before he died, shot down in Talbot Street.” Irish Revolutionary, Seán Treacy was born […]

#OTD in Irish History – 14 October:

14/10/2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

1318 – Death of Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick. He was a younger brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, and supported his brother in the struggle for the Scottish crown, then pursued his own claims in Ireland. The Irish annals state that de Brus took the hostages and lordship of the whole province […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: Irish War of Independence