Tag: The Troubles

#OTD in Irish History | 1 September (Meán Fómhair):

01/09/2023.Reading time 14 minutes.

1737 – Launch of the Belfast News Letter, now the oldest surviving newspaper in Ireland or Britain, and one of the oldest in the world. 1729 – Death of dramatist, essayist and publisher Sir Richard Steele, the Dubliner who founded The Tatler and The Spectator. 1789 – Marguerite Power Farmer Gardiner, Countess of Blessington; author, […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 31 July:

31/07/2023.Reading time 14 minutes.

1661 – The Act of Settlement confirms some adventurers’ landowning rights but allows claims from ‘innocents’ and royalist supporters. 1689 – Robert Lundy, Governor of Derry, advises surrender at the approach of James’s army but is overruled and allowed to escape. The city holds out under siege for 105 days and is relieved on this […]

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#OTD in 1998 – The three Quinn brothers, Richard, 11, Mark, 10, and Jason 9, are burned to death by a Loyalist firebomb in Ballymoney, 40 miles northwest of Belfast. 

12/07/2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha. Jason, Richard and Mark Quinn were three brothers killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in a firebomb attack on their home in Ballymoney, Co Antrim. Garfield Gilmour, was found guilty of murdering the three brothers 15 months later and sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting that he […]

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Kathleen Ní Houlihan | Ireland Personified and Irish Nationalism

07/05/2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Kathleen Ni Houlihan (Caitlín Ní Uallacháin, literally, “Kathleen, daughter of Houlihan”) is a mythical symbol and emblem of Irish nationalism found in literature and art, sometimes representing Ireland as a personified woman. The figure of Kathleen Ni Houlihan has also been invoked in nationalist Irish politics. Kathleen Ni Houlihan is sometimes spelled as Cathleen Ni […]

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#OTD in 1978 – La Mon Restaurant Bombing | Twelve people, all Protestant civilians, were killed and 23 seriously injured when an incendiary bomb exploded at the restaurant of the La Mon House Hotel, Gransha, near Belfast.

17/02/2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

The La Mon restaurant bombing was an incendiary bomb attack by the IRA on 17 February 1978 that is widely considered to have been one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles. It took place at the La Mon House hotel and restaurant near Belfast. The IRA left a large incendiary bomb, containing a napalm-like […]

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#OTD in 1989 – Belfast solicitor, Patrick Finucane is murdered by Unionist assassins.

12/02/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

Pat Finucane, who acted as solicitor for republican hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was shot dead at his north Belfast home in front of his wife and children. The De Silva report into the brutal murder of Pat Finucane, coupled with the prime minister’s searing confession to parliament, revealed probably the worst atrocity by the British […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 1 September (Meán Fómhair):

01/09/2022.Reading time 14 minutes.

1737 – Launch of the Belfast News Letter, now the oldest surviving newspaper in Ireland or Britain, and one of the oldest in the world. 1729 – Death of dramatist, essayist and publisher Sir Richard Steele, the Dubliner who founded The Tatler and The Spectator. 1789 – Marguerite Power Farmer Gardiner, Countess of Blessington; author, […]

Read More

#OTD in Irish History | 31 July:

31/07/2022.Reading time 14 minutes.

1661 – The Act of Settlement confirms some adventurers’ landowning rights but allows claims from ‘innocents’ and royalist supporters. 1689 – Robert Lundy, Governor of Derry, advises surrender at the approach of James’s army but is overruled and allowed to escape. The city holds out under siege for 105 days and is relieved on this […]

Read More