Tag: Irish

#OTD in 1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion | In the first Battle of Enniscorthy, the rebels take the town.

28/05/2020.Reading time 1 minute.

The Battle of Enniscorthy was a land battle fought between forces of the British Crown and a force of Irish Rebels at Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. The attack began at about 1pm, when the Rebels drove a herd of cattle through the towns’s Duffry gate, creating disorder among the loyalist defenders. After a defense of about […]

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#OTD in 1318 – Richard de Clare, Lord of Thomond, a descendant of Strongbow, is killed while commanding his forces at the Battle of Dysert O’Dea.

10/05/2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

The Normans were very unsuccessful in trying to establish themselves in Clare. They had but one small section in Bunratty guarded by a strong Castle of the same name. In 1318 Richard DeClare occupied the Castle of Bunratty. In May of that year he was joined by some Irish traitors and they proceeded with a […]

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#OTD in 1366 – The parliament, alarmed at the apparent undermining by native influences of the settler population’s Englishness, passed the ‘Statutes of Kilkenny’.

19/04/2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

The Statutes of Kilkenny were a series of thirty-five acts passed at Kilkenny in 1366, aiming to curb the decline of the Hiberno-Norman Lordship of Ireland. This aims to halt the widespread adoption by the Norman-Irish, especially in frontier areas, of Gaelic Irish culture, customs and language. It bans the use of the Irish language […]

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Ruins of the O’Davoren Law School, Cahermacnaghten, Co Clare

03/04/2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

The Ó Duibhdábhoireann (O’Davoren) family were scholarly clan of Corcomroe, Thomond (modern-day Co Clare), active since medieval times. Famed for their sponsorship of schools and knowledge of history and Early Irish law, the Uí Dhuibh dá Bhoireann were known throughout Ireland as a literary family and held estates in the Burren down to the mid […]

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#OTD in 1923 – Anti-Treaty IRA officer Charlie Daly and three other Republican fighters are executed by Free State troops at Drumboe Castle, near Stranorlar in Co Donegal where they had been held since January.

14/03/2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

They were shot in retaliation for the death of Lt. Cannon, a pro-treaty National Army soldier, in an ambush at the barracks at Creeslough. CHARLIE DALY, THE KERRYMAN WHO DIED IN FAR DONEGAL (By Seamus G O’Kelly) It was the summer of 1920. Republican forces in Munster, particularly in Cork and Kerry, were being hard […]

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#OTD in Irish History – 7 February:

07/02/2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

1873 – Death of journalist, novelist, and short story writer, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, in Dublin. He is often called the father of the modern ghost story. Although Le Fanu was one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era, he is not so widely read anymore. His best-known works include Uncle Silas (1864), […]

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Ireland’s Independence Day

20/01/2020.Reading time 9 minutes.

The Declaration of Independence was a document adopted by Dáil Éireann, at its first meeting in the Mansion House, Dublin, on 21 January 1919. It followed from the Sinn Féin election manifesto of December 1918. Texts of the declaration were adopted in three languages: Irish, English and French.   The Irish Republic claimed jurisdiction over […]

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Clonmacnoise Monastery | Cluain Mhic Nóis – ‘Meadow of the Sons of Nós’

17/01/2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

This monastery is situated on the banks of the Shannon, it was founded in 544 AD by St Ciarán on a fertile meadow, or cluain, surrounded by bog. It could be reached only by river or along esker ridge known as the pilgrim’s road. The monastery flourished for 600 years as a centre of learning […]

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