Irish History - Sept. 11 - 17

September 11
1649 - Massacre at Drogheda. Cromwell captures the town and slaughters the garrison
1766 - John Bligh, former MP for Athboy, who suffers from the delusion that he is a teapot, marries suddenly and unexpectedly at nearly 50 years of age. Between now and his death in 1781 he will father at least seven children, 'in spite of his initial alarm that his spout would come off in the night'
1919 - Dáil Eireann is suppressed as a ‘dangerous association’ by the British government and membership is deemed to be a crime
1922 - Proportional representation for local elections is abolished in Northern Ireland
1998 - British troops are withdrawn from the streets of Belfast in response to the ongoing republican and loyalist cease-fires
1998 - The Northern Ireland Office announces that more than 200 loyalist and republican prisoners will be freed from the Maze Prison before the end of the year
2000 - Gina Adair, the wife of jailed loyalist paramilitary boss Johnny Adair is thrown out of the public gallery after disrupting proceedings at the Northern Ireland Assembly
2000 - Picturesque Kenmare completes a unique double by becoming the first town in the country to take the prize as both Ireland’s Tidiest Town and Ireland’s Best Kept Town
2001 - President Mary McAleese goes on RTÉ Radio to express her shock and horror at the terrorist attacks in the US. In the wake of the attacks, the government immediately begins reviewing security arrangements
2002 - In a gesture of support and solidarity, schools, shops and businesses come to a symbolic halt at 1.46pm - the precise moment, Irish time, that the first terrorist hijacked plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in NYC one year ago.

September 12
1653 - Ireland and Scotland are represented by six and five members respectively in the 'Barebones' parliament which is in effect from 4 July to this date
1798 - Rebels attack Castlebar and are repulsed
1907 - Louis McNeice, poet and classical scholar is born in Belfast
1919 - Dáil Éireann is declared illegal
1951 - Birth of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
1957 - Birth of Mal Donaghy, former NI and Manchester United player
1983 - The first episode of RTÉ’s Glenroe is broadcast
1999 - It is announced that every household in Ireland is to receive a millennium candle to light when the sun sets on New Year’s Eve
2001 - Irish aid agencies pull out of Afghanistan amid growing fears of a possible US retaliation on the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden
2001 - Families in Limerick take in American tourists grounded since 9/11 at Shannon Airport after all flights in and out of the US are cancelled.
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, Tipperary.

September 13
1494 - Edward Poynings, best known for his introduction of "Poynings Law," which prevented the Irish Parliament from meeting without royal permission and approval of its agenda, is appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland
1803 - Death of John Barry, a native of Ballystampson, Co. Wexford, Commodore in the US Navy and renowned as the Father of the American Navy
1903 - Padraic Pearse arrives in Ros Muc, County Galway and takes up residence at his cottage in Inbhear
1912 - In a speech at Dundee, Winston Churchill announces his support of a policy of devolution for Ireland, Scotland and Wales
1999 - Former US Senator George Mitchell returns to Northern Ireland as he embarks on the second week of his review of the Good Friday Agreement
1999 - Clonakilty, Co. Cork wins the Tidy Town competition.

September 14
1607 - Flight of the Earls from Ireland to the Continent
1647 - Lord Inchiquin, a royalist turned Parliamentarian, sacks the Irish Catholic Confederate garrison at the Rock of Cashel
1752 - The Gregorian calendar is adopted in Ireland and Britain, 170 years after mainland Europe: 2 September is followed by 14 September. There are protests and riots by people who are convinced that they have lost 12 days out of their lives
1824 - Sir Frederick Falkiner, impoverished former MP for Athy, Co. Dublin and Co. Carlow commits suicide in Naples
1852 - Death of Arthur Wellesley, alias the Duke of Wellington. The Dublin born soldier served as MP for Meath before eventually becoming Prime Minister of Britain
1886 - Birth of author Alice Milligan
1907 - Edel Quinn, promoter of Legion of Mary in Africa, is born near Kanturk, Co. Cork
1955 - Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Irish Citizen Army officer, dies
1971 - Ian Paisley founds the Democratic Unionist Party
1982 - Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, dies in a car crash
1994 - At a London auction, Bono pays $53,400 for Charlie Chaplin's costume from The Great Dictator
1998 - Sinn Fein is warned by First Minister, David Trimble, that it could not take up seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly's ruling executive until the IRA's vast armoury of weapons are decommissioned
1999 - Clonfert Cathedral which ranks in importance with the Great Pyramids and dates back to the 12th century, joins the millennium list of the 100 Most Endangered Monuments. The list is compiled by The New York Times and in the past has included such famous landmarks as the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru and the Aztec site of Teotihuacan in Mexico City
1999 - UFF "godfather" Johnny Mad Dog Adair is released from the Maze Prison
1999 - The Pro-Agreement parties resume talks with former US Senator George Mitchell during the second week of his review of the Good Friday Agreement
1999 - Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern begins his official visit to Russia
2000 - Roy Keane, Pauline McLynn and Samantha Mumba are among the stars who are honoured at the Millennium Irish Post Awards held at the Millennium Brittania Hotel in Grosvenor Square
2001 - Following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, as many as 15,000 Irish people are stranded in the US and Canada awaiting flights to Ireland
2001 - The Irish government declares a national day of mourning; schools, businesses and shops are shut down in an unprecedented gesture of sympathy following Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center.

September 15
1851 - Sir William Whitla, physician and professor, is born in Co. Monaghan
1865 - Police raid and close the Irish People offices; Rossa, Luby and O'Leary are arrested
1866 - John Blake Dillon, Young Irelander and co-founder of The Nation, dies in Killarney
1881 - First soccer international in Ireland; England beats the Irish squad Total crowd receipts: £9.19s.7d
1889 - Birth in Castlebar of singer Margaret Burke Sheridan
1905 - Pat O'Callaghan, physician, hammer-thrower and first man to win an Olympic gold medal while representing Ireland, is born near Kanturk, Co. Cork
1976 - Anne Letitia Dickson is elected leader of the Unionist Party of Northern ireland, becoming the first woman to lead a political party in Ireland
1997 - Sinn Fein joins multiparty peace talks in Northern Ireland
1999 - The Corrs, the Cranberries and the Chieftains take the lion’s share of £15.6 million collected by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) on behalf of Irish song writers
2000 - Sonia O'Sullivan leads the Irish team at a spectacular Olympic opening ceremony in Sydney, Australia
2001 - Aer Lingus, Delta and Continental Airlines resume services to and from Ireland. The first trans-Atlantic flights to the US leave for New York, Newark, Chicago and Washington. Priority status is given to all relatives of the victims and injured in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

September 16
1732 - Birth in Castletown, Co. Clare of Thomas O'Gorman, physician, wine trader and courtier in France; made a chevalier by Louis XV
1798 - Small French force under James Napper Tandy makes brief landing on Rutland Island, Co. Donegal
1798 - Belfast United Irish leaders arrested
1808 - William Trench, land agent and author, is born near Portarlington, Co. Laois
1830 - Birth in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow of Patrick Moran, Archbishop of Sydney, first Australian cardinal, and church historian
1845 - Death of Thomas Davis, revolutionary, poet, and political theorist
1865 - Fenian newspaper, Irish People, ceases publication
1870 - Birth in Dublin of John Pius Boland, nationalist politician and Ireland's first Olympic gold medalist
1906 - Trevor G. McVeagh, cricket, hockey, squash and tennis player, is born in Athboy, Co. Meath
1925 - Charles Haughey, Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, is born in Castlebar, Co. Mayo
1934 - Singer, guitarist and founder of the Dubliners, Ronnie Drew, is born in Dublin
1941 - Sixteen soldiers are killed in the Glen of Imaal, Co. Wicklow, while testing mines
1945 - World renowned Irish tenor, John McCormack, dies in Athlone
1998 - Irish-owned Musgrave Group becomes the biggest food distribution company in the country after signing an historic franchise deal with supermarket chain Roches Stores
1998 - Books of condolences opened in the aftermath of the Omagh tragedy are closed. More than 150,000 people from across Northern Ireland are estimated to have signed the books.

September 17
1711 - John Holwell, surgeon and survivor of 'Black Hole of Calcutta' is born in Dublin
1798 - 3000 French troops depart for Ireland from Brest
1903 - Frank O'Connor, (pseudonym of Michael O'Donovan), short-story writer and author of poetic translations from Irish is born in Cork
1920 - Birth of Chaim Herzog, former president of Israel, born in Belfast and educated in Dublin
1930 - The Free State is elected to the council of the League of Nations
1937 - Ten young men, potato-pickers from Achill Island, die when a bothy catches fire on a farm at Kirkintilloch, Scotland
1976 - The founders of the Peace Movement, Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, are awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace
1999 - Interest rates for thousands of home owners tumble as the mortgage war escalates
2003 - Mrs Harriet O'Donovan Sheehy unveils the new stamp of her late husband Frank O'Connor at St Patrick's National School, Gardiner's Hill, Cork.

Sources: Irish Culture and Customs, The Celtic League, Irish Abroad, The Wild Geese.