#OTD in Irish History – 15 September:

15/09/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

1643 – Death of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork aka Great Earl of Cork, was Lord High Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland. Boyle is an important figure in the continuing English colonisation of Ireland (commenced by the Normans) in the 16th and 17th centuries, as he acquired large tracts of land in plantations […]

HMS Argenta – Republican Internment Prison Ship

14/09/2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

In an attempt to subvert the nationalist economic position, the Minister of Home Affairs, Dawson Bates, imposed martial law tactics to rend supremacy over both a rural and urban populous through violence, intimidation and economic sanctions. HMS Argenta (originally the American cargo ship S.S. Argenta) was a prison ship of the British Royal Navy. The […]

#OTD in Irish History – 11 September:

11/09/2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

1649 – Siege of Drogheda ends: The first siege occurred during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, when Phelim O’Neill and the insurgents failed to take the town. The second more famous siege happened in 1649 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took the town by storm and […]

#OTD in 1945 – Birth of Van Morrison “Van the Man” in Belfast.

31/08/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

The Belfast Cowboy first achieved fame with a tight R&B band Them with whom he recorded Gloria, a song that still as fresh today as in 1964. A strong claim could be made that Van Morrison is the finest composer ever produced by the Emerald Isle. His body of work ranges from glorious pop like […]

#OTD in Irish History – 31 August:

31/08/2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, it is the Feast day of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Apostle of Northumbria. He was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. A Christian missionary, he is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the anglicized form of the original Old […]

#OTD in 2013 – World-renowned poet and playwright Seamus Heaney died in the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin following a short illness, aged 74.

30/08/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

“History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.” ―Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney was awarded numerous prizes over the years and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He was born to a farming […]

#OTD in Irish History – 29 August:

29/08/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

1170 – Richard de Clare (Strongbow) marries Aoife Ní MacMurrough and sets a precedent for Norman rule in Ireland. 1729 – Birth of David La Touche, banking magnate and MP. 1798 – Cornwallis reaches Tuam, Co Galway. 1803 – Samuel Neilson, one of the founder members of the Society of United Irishmen and the founder […]

#OTD in Irish History – 27 August:

27/08/2018.Reading time 13 minutes.

1695 – The second Irish parliament of William III is called in Dublin; Robert Rochfort is unanimously elected Speaker. 1798 – General Humbert appears outside Castlebar. The Government forces are deployed to cover the direct route and Humbert unexpectedly appears on their flank. Humbert attacks. French advance causes Militia to run. Government defence collapses and […]

#OTD in 1971 – Internment is introduced in Northern Ireland.

09/08/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

As violence continued to flare in the North, Unionist Prime Minister Brian Faulkner was under increasing pressure to halt Republican violence and bombings against the institutions of Northern Ireland. A conflict that had simmered, sometimes boiled since the introduction of the Northern Ireland state in 1922 was by now reaping terrible toil. The introduction of […]

Roger Casement’s Last Dying Wish

03/08/2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Roger Casement’s last dying wish to be buried at Murlough Bay, Co Antrim, would never happen due to Unionist opposition, however, a sod of turf was removed from Murlough (the resting place of St Maloge) and placed in his coffin when he was re-interred in Glasnevin Cemetery. A Celtic Cross memorial constructed in 1929 was […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: Northern Ireland