#OTD in Irish History – 27 October:

27/10/2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast Day of Odhran. After serving as abbot of Meath, he journeyed to Scotland with St Columba to promote the faith and died at Iona. Odhran was the first Irish monk to die at Iona. He may have founded Latteragh Abbey in Tipperary and is considered the principal […]

#OTD in Irish History – 10 October:

10/10/2018.Reading time 16 minutes.

World Mental Health Day World Homeless Day 1084 – Patrick, Bishop of Dublin, dies in a shipwreck. 1580 – Over 600 papal troops land at Dún an Óir, Co Kerry, to support a rebellion. After a three-day siege, the English Army behead over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians. 1711 – The Linen Board […]

#OTD in 1968 – Civil Rights March in Derry, considered by many as the start date of ‘The Troubles’.

05/10/2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

The protest movements that broke out across the western world in 1968 had captured the imagination of many people in the north of Ireland, leading to the creation of a local civil rights movement that began a series of marches and protests calling for greater equality for the Catholic/nationalist minority. The civil rights movement formed […]

#OTD in Irish History – 23 September:

23/09/2018.Reading time 9 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 1998 – Massive bomb explodes in Omagh shopping centre at 3.10pm; Twenty-nine people are killed and hundreds injured.

15/08/2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anama. An IRA bomb explodes in Omagh, Co Tyrone killing twenty-nine people, including a pregnant woman with twins. As a result of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the people of Northern Ireland thought they had seen the end of violence. However, a tiny breakaway group of IRA dissidents […]

#OTD in Irish History – 13 August:

13/08/2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

1649 – Oliver Cromwell sets sail for Ireland and the commencement of one the most vicious military campaigns inflicted on Ireland. 1689 – The Duke of Schomberg lands at Groomsport with his 10,000 strong Williamite army. 1819 – Birth of Sir George Gabriel Stokes, mathematician and physicist, in Skreen, Co Sligo. 1846 – Birth of […]

#OTD in Irish History – 12 August:

12/08/2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast day of St Muiredach mac Echdach of Killala. 1646 – Archbishop Giovanni Rinuccini, papal nuncio to the Irish Confederate Catholics, condemns their adherence to Ormond’s peace terms for failing to fully recognise Catholicism. 1652 – ‘Act for the Settling of Ireland’ allows for the transplantation to Clare […]

#OTD in Irish History – 11 August:

11/08/2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

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 […]

#OTD in 1994 – Loughinisland Massacre: The UVF shot dead six Catholic civilians and wounded five others during a gun attack on a pub in Loughinisland, Co Down.

18/06/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

While the Republic of Ireland – Italy game is going on, two members of the Loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force walk into The Heights Bar in Loughinisland, Co Down with assault rifles and kill six Catholics who are watching the game. One of the dead was 87-year-old Barney Green, the oldest victim of the Troubles. No […]

#OTD in 1922 – The newly created Royal Ulster Constabulary took over the policing of Northern Ireland.

01/06/2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

Following the partition of Ireland, it was decided to disband the RIC as an All-Ireland police force. In southern Ireland a new police force, the Civic Guard later Garda Siochana was formed, while in Northern Ireland the Royal Ulster Constabulary was established on 1 June 1922 as the police force for Northern Ireland. The RUC […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: RUC