Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology
1449 – Birth of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, in Dublin Castle at a time when his father, the Duke of York, had begun to challenge Henry VI for the crown. His godfather was James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond. He was the third of the four sons of Richard and Cecily who survived […]
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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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Gerry Adams, born in Belfast, former president of Sinn Féin, was one of the chief architects of Sinn Féin’s shift to a policy of seeking a peaceful settlement to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. He was elected several times to the British House of Commons for Belfast West, however, following party policy, did not take […]
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“We are the risen people, this time we must not be driven into the gutter. Even if this should mean dying for justice. The fight must go on. I want my memorial to be peace with justice.” –Frank Stagg Frank Stagg was the seventh child in a family of thirteen children, born at Hollymount near […]
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1331 – Birth of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond, as a noble in the Peerage of Ireland. He was Lord Justice of Ireland in 1359, 1364, and 1376. The son of James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond and Eleanor de Bohun, James was born at Kilkenny and given in ward, 1 September 1344, to […]
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Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking: Dream of battled fields no more, Days of danger, nights of waking. In our isle’s enchanted hall, Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, Fairy strains of music fall, Every sense in slumber dewing. Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er, Dream of fighting fields no […]
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1430 – A great council meets at Dublin on this date; it states that Irish enemies and English rebels have conquered almost all of Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Kildare, Meath and Louth, so that hardly anything but Dublin remains in the colony. 1598 – The English poet Edmund Spenser is appointed Sheriff of Cork. […]
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Kathleen Clarke, née Daly was a member of Cumann na mBan, and one of very few privy to the plans of the Easter Rising in 1916. She was the wife of Tom Clarke and sister to Ned Daly, both of whom would be executed for their part in the Rebellion. She would later become a […]
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Fenian, John Devoy, whom the London Times called ‘the most dangerous enemy of this country Ireland has produced since Wolfe Tone’. John Devoy was born in Kill, Co Kildare, on the 3 September 1842. He worked for a short time as a clerk before joining the Fenian organisation. In 1861 Devoy travelled to France where […]
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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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