It was built in 1808–1809, and was among the first and grandest monuments erected in memory of Nelson in the ‘THEN’ United Kingdom. It surprisingly survived until March 1966, when it was destroyed by a bomb planted by Irish republicans. Today the Spire of Dublin stands on its former ground. It was opened to the […]
Theobald Mathew, founder of the The Total Abstinence Association is born at Thomastown, near Golden, Co Tipperary. He received his schooling in Kilkenny, then moved for a short time to Maynooth. From 1808 to 1814 he studied in Dublin, where in the latter year he was ordained to the priesthood. Having entered the Capuchin order, […]
Charles Stewart Parnell was one of the most significant political figures in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century. As leader of the Home Rule Party, he made a notable contribution to the progress towards national self-determination and he also played an important role in the Land War in post-Greater Hunger Ireland. His […]
A man claimed to have blown up Nelson’s Pillar in the centre of Dublin in 1966 was arrested and questioned by police. Liam Sutcliffe was ordered to present himself at Store Street Garda station in the Irish capital. Under the Irish Republic’s Offences Against the State Act, he could be detained and held for 72 […]
One of Dublin’s finest sculptors, John Henry Foley designed this imposing and remarkably beautiful memorial to Daniel O’Connell which was unveiled at the south end of what was called Sackville street – the name was changed to O’Connell street in 1924 – to admiring crowds gathered in the pouring rain on 15 August 1882. In […]
Daniel O’Connell was born in Cahirsiveen, Co Kerry. He would go on to be one of the most important figures in Irish political and Catholic civil rights history. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation – the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years – and Repeal of the Union […]
During the Battle of Dublin, Republican leader Cathal Brugha and a rearguard of 15 men, who stayed behind in the Hammam hotel after Oscar Trayner and most other IRA men had left. At 5.00pm, when the fires made the hotel untenable, Brugha ordered his men to surrender. He however, stayed behind, only to emerge from […]
It is the fourth day of the Easter Rising and the remaining rebels are under constant attack. The GPO and Four Courts are being blitzed with machine gun and rifle fire, and large parts of Sackville Street (O’Connell Street) are up in flames. As British authorities come to terms with the situation in Dublin, fierce street […]
In 1976, the 60th anniversary of the Rising, the southern state and the republican paramilitaries – particularly the Provisional IRA were in frank confrontation. The Irish government banned that year’s proposed Easter parade by republicans under the Offences Against the State Act – its anti-terrorist legislation. Just ten years after the state’s own bombastic commemoration […]
The Easter Rising took place in April 1916 in Dublin and is one of the pivotal events in modern Irish History. At the end of the Easter Rising, fourteen men identified as leaders were executed at Kilmainham Gaol. To some, these men were traitors, to others they became heroes. It was the first major armed […]