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

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 […]

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#OTD in 1980 – Kincora Scandal | ‘Boys suicide bids brought Kincora scandal to light’. Three staff members of the Kincora Boys Home, Belfast, were charged with acts of gross indecency.

The Kincora Boys’ Home was a boys’ home in Belfast, that was the scene of serious organised child sexual abuse, causing a scandal and attempted cover-up in 1980, with allegations of state collusion. The Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry began examining allegations relating to the Home on 31 May 2016, including claims that there […]

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#OTD in 1988 – At Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast, a gunman kills three mourners and injures at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members Maireád Farrell, Daniel McCann, and Sean Savage executed in Gibraltar.

Loyalist gunman Michael Stone kills three people at a funeral for IRA members (Maireád Farrell, 31, Daniel McCann, 30, and Sean Savage, 23,) who were executed in Gibraltar by SAS troops. Stone wanted to kill Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and others whom he believed to be members of the IRA. He claimed the attack […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 28 February:

1713 – Henry Pyne, MP for Dungarvan, aged about 24 and the father of three children, is killed in a duel with Theophilus Biddulph at Chelsea Fields, London; Biddulph will later be convicted of manslaughter. 1790 – The Northern Whig Club is founded in Belfast. 1799 – William Dargan, railway engineer and philanthropist, is born […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 10 October:

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 […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 23 September:

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 […]

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#OTD in 1998 – Massive bomb explodes in Omagh shopping centre at 3.10pm; Twenty-nine people are killed and hundreds injured.

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 the north of Ireland thought they had seen the end of violence. However, a tiny breakaway group of […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 13 August:

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 […]

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#OTD in 1969 – Battle of the Bogside.

As the annual Apprentice Boys parade passed close to the Bogside area of Derry; serious rioting erupted. The RUC, using armoured cars and water cannons, entered the Bogside. The RUC were closely followed and supported by a loyalist crowd. The residents of the Bogside forced the police and the loyalists back out of the area. […]

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