#OTD in 1689 – The Williamite War in Ireland begins.

The Williamite War in Ireland was between the newly recently crowned King William III of the House of Orange and King James II of the House of Stuart, whom he had recently replaced on the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. To the Irish the Williamite War was known as An Cogadh na dá Righ […]

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Queen Scotia

Scota appears in the Irish chronicle Book of Leinster (containing a redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn). According to Irish Folklore and Mythology, the battle of Sliabh Mish was fought in this glen above the town of Tralee, where the Celtic Milesians defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann but Scotia, the Queen of the Milesians died […]

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#OTD in 1893 – Peadar O’Donnell, novelist, editor of the newspaper An Phoblacht (The Republic) and social reformer, is born in Co Donegal.

A school teacher by profession, he taught on Arranmore Island before leaving for Scotland to assist migrant labourers in their strike for improved pay and conditions. Returning to Ireland, he became involved in the Republican Movement and played an active part in the War of Independence. O’Donnell opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and in January 1922 […]

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#OTD in 1941 – Death of painter, Sir John Lavery, in Kilkenny. Best known for his portraits, Belfast-born Lavery attended the Haldane Academy in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1870s and the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1880s.

John Lavery was born in Belfast, the son of a wine and spirit merchant, but was orphaned at the age of three and for a number of unsettled years wandered between Moira, Magheralin, Saltcoats, Ayrshire and Glasgow. Finally he started working by touching up photographic negatives in Glasgow and attended evening classes at the Haldane […]

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#OTD in 1935 – Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their yawl founders.

At 5.30pm on Saturday the 9 of November 1935, a yawl left Burtonport harbour, for Arranmore Island. In order to avoid being kept at sea too long in the dark, in the heavy swell, it was apparently decided to take a short course between rocks which the sea is studded for a large area between […]

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#OTD in 1887 – Celtic Football Club was born in Glasgow.

A meeting in the church hall of St Mary’s parish in East Rose Street (now Forbes Street), Calton, Glasgow, established by Irish Marist Brother Walfrid, and while those present would have harboured well-intentioned ambitions for the new sporting organisation, none of them could ever have imagined that Celtic would go on to become one of the […]

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#OTD in 1918 – Over five hundred die in the Irish Sea following the sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster by U-boat 123.

The Leinster was operating as a passenger ship and mail boat, although most of those who died were soldiers returning from leave, many of them Irishmen who fought in the British Army in World War I. First World War 1914-1918. On one side were Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. On the other side were the […]

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#OTD in 1971 – Death of Revolutionary, Margaret Skinnider, in Glenageary, Co Dublin.

“Scotland is my home, but Ireland my country.” –Margaret Skinnider Margaret Skinnider’s mother was Scottish and her father was originally from Co Monaghan. She became a mathematics teacher in Scotland and was active in the women’s suffrage movement. She also joined the Glasgow branches of the Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan in 1914; she also […]

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#OTD in 1942 – Twenty miles off the coast of Donegal, the luxury Cunard liner Queen Mary – converted into a troop carrier for the war smashes into her escort ship, the British cruiser Curaçao.

The Curaçao which had connected with the Queen Mary to escort her for the final two hundred miles to the port of Greenock, Scotland sinks with the loss of 338 men. As were his orders, Captain Cyril of the Queen Mary which was carrying an estimated 15,000 US troops does not stop to mount a […]

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The Banshee

As we move into the darkest months of the year, it seems fitting to visit a spectre as ancient as life itself – the Banshee. A banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology who heralds the death of a family member, usually by shrieking or keening. Her name is connected to the mythologically-important tumuli […]

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