#OTD in 1981 – Francis Hughes, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in Long Kesh Prison.

12/05/2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann! The death of Francis Hughes at the age of 25 after a 59 day hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Hughes was such an effective guerrilla fighter that British authorities at one stage named him as the most wanted man in the north of Ireland. […]

#OTD in 1981 – Francis Hughes began his hunger strike in Long Kesh prison, two weeks after Bobby Sands.

15/03/2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

The second republican to join the H-Block hunger-strike for political status – a fortnight after Bobby Sands – was twenty-five-year-old Francis Hughes, from Bellaghy in South Derry.

#OTD in Irish History | 21 February:

21/02/2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

1710 – Elizabeth St. Leger, was known in her time as ‘The Lady Freemason’ and was the first recorded woman to be initiated into Regular Freemasonry. 1775 – Edward Denny, MP for Tralee, commits suicide. 1760 – François Thurot lands French forces at Carrickfergus in Belfast Lough, increasing English anxiety about an Irish-Catholic alliance with […]

#OTD in Irish History | 17 December:

17/12/2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. 1785 – Birth of general and military historian, Sir William Napier, in Celbridge, Co Kildare. 1823 – Death of Oliver Pollock. Born in Bready, Co Tyrone, he was a merchant and financier of the American Revolutionary War, of which he has long been considered a […]

#OTD in Irish History | 13 December:

13/12/2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

In the Julian calendar before the Gregorian reform, this was the shortest day and longest night, and widely celebrated as such. 1779 – The demand for the removal of restrictions on Irish free trade through out the colonies is satisfied on this day. After boycotting British goods and parading on College Green, Dublin in November, […]

#OTD in 1975 – Gardaí surrounded a house in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, where Tiede Herrema, then a Dutch industrialist, was being held hostage.

21/10/2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

On the morning of 3 October 1975, having just left his home in Castletroy near Limerick, Herrema was abducted by Provisional Irish Republican Army members Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle. The kidnappers demanded the release of three IRA prisoners, including Rose Dugdale. After a massive security operation, the kidnappers were eventually traced on 21 October 1975 to a house in Monasterevin, Co […]

#OTD in Irish History | 23 September:

23/09/2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

1586 – At the Battle of Ardnaree in Co Mayo, Sir Richard Bingham, governor of Connacht, surprises a force of redshanks (Scottish mercenary light infantrymen) engaged by the Burkes of Mayo; 1,000 redshanks and 1,000 camp followers are killed. Bingham hangs the leaders of the Burkes. 1922 – Anti-Treaty fighter Michael Neville, is taken from […]

#OTD in Irish History | 28 August:

28/08/2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

1710 – A board of trustees for linen manufacture is established. 1788 – Birth of poet, Sir Aubrey de Vere, in Adare, Co Limerick. 1788 – Birth of banker and philanthropist, James Digges La Touche, in Dublin. 1798 – Cornwallis reaches Athlone; Humbert entrenches in Castlebar. 1814 – Birth of novelist and journalist, Joseph Sheridan […]

#OTD in 2004 – Death of Joe Cahill, a prominent Irish republican and former chief of staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

23/07/2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

“I was born in a united Ireland, I want to die in a united Ireland”. –Joe Cahill In May 1920, Cahill was born in Divis Street in west Belfast where his parents had been neighbours with Irish revolutionary James Connolly. Cahill was the first child in a family of thirteen siblings born to Joesph and […]

#OTD in Irish History | 20 July:

20/07/2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

1616 – Death in Rome of Aodh Mór Ó Néill (anglicised as Hugh The Great O’Neill), 3rd Baron Dungannon and 2nd Earl of Tyrone. He led an unsuccessful uprising against the English, and was eventually forced into exile as part of “the Flight of Earls.” 1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Rebel camp at Timahoe surrenders. […]

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Tag: PIRA

#OTD in 1981 – Francis Hughes, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in Long Kesh Prison.

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#OTD in 1981 – Francis Hughes began his hunger strike in Long Kesh prison, two weeks after Bobby Sands.

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#OTD in Irish History | 21 February:

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#OTD in Irish History | 17 December:

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#OTD in Irish History | 13 December:

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#OTD in 1975 – Gardaí surrounded a house in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, where Tiede Herrema, then a Dutch industrialist, was being held hostage.

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#OTD in Irish History | 23 September:

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#OTD in Irish History | 28 August:

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#OTD in 2004 – Death of Joe Cahill, a prominent Irish republican and former chief of staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

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#OTD in Irish History | 20 July:

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