#OTD in 1920 – Sinn Féin County Councillor John Lynch of Kilmallock, Limerick was assassinated by British agents at the Exchange Hotel, Dublin.

At 1.15 am Captain Geoffrey Thomas Baggallay, a “one-legged” courts-martial officer had phoned Dublin Castle telling of John Lynch’s presence at the Exchange Hotel. A group of 12 soldiers entered the Exchange Hotel, wearing military caps and long black Burberry coats. They held the hotel porter, William Barrett, at gunpoint. After consulting the register they […]

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#OTD in 1695 – Penal Laws are passed which restrict the rights of Catholics to have an education, to bear arms, or to possess a horse worth more than five pounds.

When Limerick fell to the Williamite army in 1691,  the first article of surrender stated that: The Roman Catholics of this Kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in their exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of King Charles the second: and their […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 5 September:

1724 – In the guise of an Irish Patriot, M. B. Drapier, Jonathan Swift publishes ‘Drapier Letter III’ – one of a series of letters designed to incite the people against a new coinage. 1771 – Benjamin Franklin commences a visit to Ireland where he would later report he had ‘a good deal of Conversation […]

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#OTD in 1930 – Birth of Frank McCourt in Brooklyn, NY. He was an American-Irish teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes.

Writer and educator Francis “Frank” McCourt was born on 19 August 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, as the eldest of seven children. McCourt’s father, Malachy, worked odd jobs while his mother, Angela, worked to raise the children. The family frequently struggled to make ends meet and, after a long stint of unemployment during the Depression, […]

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#OTD in 1814 – Birth of Sister Anthony (born Mary Ellen O’Connell) in Limerick.

A Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, she served with distinction as a nurse on the front lines of the American Civil War. Her work with the wounded and in health care in general caused her to be known as “Angel of the Battlefield” and “Florence Nightingale of America.” Her portrait hangs in the Smithsonian Institution […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 11 August:

In the Liturgical Calendar it is the Feast Day of Saint Attracta (also called Araght, and Naomh Adhracht in Irish), the patron saint of the parish of Tourlestrane, Co Sligo. Her legend states that she fled from home and took her vows as a nun under St Patrick at Coolavin. She then moved to Lough […]

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#OTD in 2009 – Death of author, Frank McCourt, in New York.

Writer and educator Francis “Frank” McCourt was born on 19 August 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, as the eldest of seven children. McCourt’s father, Malachy, worked odd jobs while his mother, Angela, worked to raise the children. The family frequently struggled to make ends meet and, after a long stint of unemployment during the Depression, […]

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#OTD in 1996 – Jerry McCabe, a Detective in Garda Síochána, was shot dead during a post office robbery in Adare, Co Limerick.

Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, is shot dead and a second injured in Adare, Co Limerick by members of the Provisional IRA, during the attempted robbery of a post office van. Jerry McCabe and his colleague Ben O’Sullivan both 52 were escorting a Post Office truck making cash deliveries in the area. First-hand witness Willie Jackson, the An […]

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#OTD in 1651 – Siege of Limerick | Henry Ireton, Oliver Cromwell’s son-in-law, lays siege to Limerick city.

Limerick is besieged by Cromwell forces under the leadership of his son-in-law, Henry Ireton. As with most of the Cromwell campaign in Ireland, it was a brutal affair. Limerick would finally fall in October mainly as a result of starvation and plague. English casualties were actually greater than the Irish (including Ireton who would die […]

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