Irish History - March 19-25

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

March 19
1642 - Charles I's 'Adventurers' Act' offers confiscated Irish land in return for investment in the reconquest
1821 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Richard Francis Burton, adventurer, writer, swordsman, scholar and explorer
1824 - William Allingham, poet and diarist, is born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal
1861 - Joseph MacRory, Catholic Primate of all Ireland and cardinal, is born in Ballygawley, Co. Tyrone
1920 - Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork for Sinn Féin and inventor of the famous "Flying Column, is killed by Black & Tans disguised as policemen. The inquest into his death returns a verdict of wilful murder against the RIC, and indicts Lloyd George and the British government
1921 - Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column routs a superior force from the Essex Regiment at Crossbarry
1924 - Death of Charles Villiers Stanford, composer and author
1928 - Birth of actor Patrick McGoohan
1988 - Two British soldiers who drive into a Republican area of Belfast during a funeral procession, are seized and killed
1998 - The country's beef industry takes a further blow following strong indications from the Department of Agriculture that Co. Clare is to be included in the beef export ban to Russia
1998 - The Maze prison crisis deeps after the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) issues a death threat against warders.The terror gang warns it will specifically target prison officers working in H6 unit over allegations of mistreatment
2000 - The Irish and British governments begin an all out effort to build on the positive signal from Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, and rescue the endangered Northern Ireland peace process
2000 - As many as 250,000 people line the streets of Dublin to watch a spectacular fireworks display which caps off four days of celebration as the grand finale of St Patrick’s Festival
2000 - Thirty five bands from the United States, Japan, Northern Ireland and across the country take part in the Limerick International Marching Band Competition, Ireland's biggest band parade
2001 - Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey is in critical condition in a Dublin hospital after collapsing at his home
2001 - Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, announces that she is stepping down from her post, saying she thinks she can do more outside the "restraints" of the UN system
Photo Credit: Laurent Gillieron, AP
2003 - Co. Clare takes top honours at the CIE National Awards of Excellence.
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast of St. Joseph.

March 20
1761 - Robert Simms, a founder of the United Irishmen and proprietor of the Northern Star, is born
1780 - Miles Byrne, United Irishman and officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, is born in Monaseed, Co. Wexford
1884 - Tomás MacCurtain, revolutionary and Lord Mayor of Cork is born in Ballyknockane, Co. Cork
1914 - After 60 cavalry officers at the Curragh resign their commissions - an incident known as 'the Curragh mutiny' - the War Secretary states that the army will not be used to coerce Ulster into Home Rule
1927 - Birth in Dublin Zoo of Cairbre, the lion used to introduce Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer films
1928 - William Sydney Callaghan, Methodist clergyman, is born in Dublin
1964 - Brendan Behan, writer/poet, dies at 41 in the Meath Hospital from complications caused by diabetes and alcohol
1971 - Brian Faulkner succeeds James Chichester-Clark as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
1989 - Senior RUC men, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, negotiating cross-border security co-operation in south Armagh, are ambushed and shot dead by the IRA
1993 - Two bombs explode in Warrington, Cheshire. A three-year old child is killed and more than 50 people are injured; another child dies of his injuries later. The IRA admits responsibility
2001 - Thousands of second level students across the country take to the picket lines to protest the nationwide strike by teachers
2003 - Hundreds of anti-war protesters gather outside the Dáil to protest the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.
2006 - Eczema gene identified in study led by Irish doctors. The findings are regarded as hugely significant as the first steps towards finding a cure. The study was led by Dr Alan Irvine, a consultant paediatric dermatologist at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, and Prof Irwin McLean, a geneticist at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Dr Irvine is from Enniskillen and Prof McLean is originally from Ballymoney, Co Antrim.

March 21
1181 - John Cumin (or Comyn) is elected archbishop of Dublin and consecrated by the pope at Velletri on this date. He is the first Englishman to be appointed to an Irish see
1656 - Death of Bishop James Ussher. The Dublin-born cleric deduced from biblical studies the exact date of the Creation (October 23rd,4004 BCE), and the date of the end of the world: November 4, 1996. The Bishop had a cult following until then
1689 - Derry/Londonderry declares allegiance to William III
1763 - William James McNeven, physician, United Irishman and writer, is born in Aughrim, Co. Galway
1881 - The Peace Preservation Act, controlling possession and importation of arms, is enacted
1886 - Oscar Traynor, revolutionary, Fianna Fáil politician and Minister; football administrator, is born in Dublin
1970 - Dana (Rosemary Brown) wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with 'All Kinds of Everything'
1998 - Sonia O'Sullivan wins a gold medal in the World Cross-Country championships
2001 - Tests for foot-and-mouth disease are carried out on samples from sheep on a farm in Louth
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern strongly urges the release of the remaining Government funding to help complete the famine ship Jeanie Johnston
2001 - Hundreds of students gather outside Leinster House to protest the teacher's strike
2003 - The Government insists it is not a participant in the 50-member coalition of countries which the US says is providing support for the war on Iraq. The United States has published a list of 35 countries which make up its "coalition of the willing", but says another 15 members are providing back-up support and do not wish to be named.

March 22
1686 - With the return of a Catholic monarchy - James II - payments to the Catholic hierarchy are authorized; Catholics are appointed to government positions; replacement of Protestant by Catholic soldiers intensifies
1768 - Melasina Trench, writer, is born in Dublin
1829 - Sir Richard Sankey, soldier and engineer, is born in Cashel, Co. Tipperary
1841 - The Irish Emigrant Society is founded in New York
1848 - Birth of artist Sarah Purser in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
1912 - Birth of actor Wilfrid Brambell in Dublin
1929 - Sixty-six horses run in Irish Grand National Sweepstakes; Alike wins the race
1979 - Two members of the IRA assassinate Sir Richard Sykes, British ambassador to the Netherlands, outside his residence at The Hague
1983 - Belfast-born and Dublin-educated Chaim Herzog is elected president of Israel.
1998 - Unionist leaders launch a fresh bid to have Republicans excluded permanently from peace negotiations
1998 - Sonia O'Sullivan wins her second gold medal at the World Cross-Country Championships
2000 - Over 2,000 student nurses walk out of hospital wards and lecture halls in a protest over tuition fees
2001 - The Government declares a national emergency in a bid to contain the country’s first foot and mouth outbreak in 60 years
2002 - At the Four Courts, the conviction of Paul Ward for the murder of Veronica Guerin, is quashed.

March 23
1847 - Choctaw Indians collect money to donate to starving Irish Hunger victims
1889 - Robert Gibbings, illustrator and writer, is born in Cork
1893 - Birth in Dublin of Cedric Gibbons, designer of the coveted Oscar statuette and winner of eleven Academy Awards himself
1917 - Birth of singer Josef Locke (Joe McLaughlin) in Derry
1951 - On this date, Shannon Airport is the base for a rescue operation after a USAF C124 aircraft crashes into the sea - some wreckage is found 450 miles off the west coast, but all 53 people on board are lost
1971 - Chichester Clark resigns as Prime Minister and is replaced by Brian Faulkner
1976 - The EEC rejects the Irish government's application for derogation from its directive for equal pay to men and women
1998 - Ian Paisley lead his party back to the Northern Ireland peace talks for the first time in eight months — but only to protest at the re-entry of Sinn Féin following its suspension over IRA involvement in two murders
1998 - History is made in Galway when all vehicles are banned from the city's main thoroughfare, Shop Street, and its adjoining arteries. The streets are closed to traffic from 11am to 7.30pm as part of a pedestrianisation programme to tackle traffic problems in the city's narrow streets
1999 - Under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement, IRA prisoners, Paul Kavanagh, Thomas Quigley and Gerard McDonnell are freed after a High Court judge rejects a legal challenge by British Home Secretary Jack Straw to keep them in jail
1999 - The British government signals its growing impatience with the decommissioning deadlock when it issues a legal challenge to the release of Brighton bomber Patrick Magee and three other IRA prisoners
2001 - Gardaí arrest 12 protesting students as thousands of secondary school pupils take to the streets all over the country demanding an end to the ASTI teachers strike
2001 - At the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Day Auction, the hottest collectable is Bono’s handmade Black Fly shades, which fetches £4,000
2002 - At high tide, thirty-nine whales are washed onto Aughcasla Strand, in the Dingle Peninsula.

March 24
1603 - James VI of Scotland comes to the throne of England, as James I, following the death of Elizabeth I on this date
1796 - The Insurrection Act imposes curfews, arms searches, and the death penalty for oath-taking
1866 - Birth in Co. Cork of light-heavyweight boxing champion, Jack McAuliffe
1909 - Death in Dublin of John Millington Synge. The plays of Irish peasant life on which his fame rests are written in the last six years of his life. In 1904, Synge, Yeats and Lady Gregory found the famous Abbey Theatre. Two Synge comedies, The Well of the Saints (1905) and The Playboy of the Western World (1907), are presented by the Abbey players. The latter play creates a furor of resentment among Irish patriots stung by Synge's bitter humor.
1945 - Birth of actor Patrick Malahide; born Patrick G. Duggan, to Irish parents living in England
1953 - Queen Mary dies at 86
1958 - Dawson Stelfox, architect and mountaineer, is born in Belfast
1968 - An Aer Lingus plane, the St. Phelim, crashes into the sea near Tuskar Rock, Co. Wexford, with the loss of all 61 passengers and crew
1972 - Stormont parliament and government are suspended and direct rule from London is introduced; William Whitelaw becomes Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
1995 - For the first time in 25 years, Britain halts all routine army patrols in Belfast
1998 - The Prison Service in Northern Ireland confirms that five Loyalist Volunteer Force prisoners are now on hunger strike at the Maze jail to protest a security crackdown following the savage murder of loyalist remand prisoner David Keys
1999 - Anti-blood sports groups call on Minister Silé de Valera to refuse to renew a licence to the country's last remaining stag hunt
2000 - Dubliners face traffic chaos as the bus drivers’ dispute threatens to escalate into an all out strike
2002 - Twenty-one whales are rescued after stranding themselves on a Kerry beach; with the other whales forming a circle around her, rescuers are thrilled to observe one of the whales giving birth minutes after being pulled back out to safety
2003 - Veteran actor Peter O’Toole is awarded an honorary Oscar for a career which has spanned more than 40 years.

March 25
1635 - A shower of hailstones, with stones as large as four inches in circumference, is reported in Castletown, Co. Offaly; a hen is killed and a woman is injured
1738 - Irish harpist and composer, Turlough O'Carolan, dies at Alderford House, the home of his patron Máire MacDermott Roe, in Ballyfarnan, Co. Roscommon
1735 - Birth of James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden and politician
1831 - Arthur Kavanagh, politician and progressive landlord, is born in Borris, Co. Carlow
1840 - Birth of Myles Keogh in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow. Soldier in the US army, it is said by the Sioux that he is the last man killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn, where his horse is the only US survivor
1846 - Michael Davitt, known universally as "The Father of the Land League", is born in Straid, Co. Mayo
1847 - Pope Pius IX issues an encyclical called "On aid for Ireland"
2000 - David Trimble narrowly beats off a challenge to his leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party casting doubt on its unity and the future of the Northern Ireland peace process
1920 - The first 'Black and Tans' (auxiliary policemen) officially arrive in Ireland
1946 - To mark the centenary of Michael Davitt's birth, a major celebration is held in Straide, Co. Mayo, primarily at the request of a personal friend and executor of his will, Mr. Dennis O'Rourke of Dublin.
An attendance of over 12,000 includes Eamonn De Valera, Hugh Delargy, M.P. as well as surviving members of the Davitt family, Dr. Robert Davitt and Miss Eileen Davitt. The occasion is covered live by the BBC
1963 - Captain Terence O'Neill becomes Northern Ireland Prime Minister after Lord Brookeborough resigns
1998 - New constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland that include cross-border bodies with executive powers and a new Northern Ireland Assembly are revealed by the British and Irish Governments
2001 - More than 1,200 animals are slaughtered in counties Meath, Wexford, Carlow and Laois as a precautionary measure against foot and mouth disease
2001 - Ballymun, a northside suburb in Dublin, is transformed into the Bogside for the filming of Bloody Sunday, a movie which promises to piece together the controversial events of the 1972 parade. More than 2,000 locals take part in the scenes, including some of the original marchers from Derry
2002 - An international report ranks Ireland 28th in the top 30 healthiest countries - behind Slovenia, Malta, the Czech Republic and Portugal
2002 - At an international conference in Co. Antrim, Dr Andrew Cooper of the University of Ulster warns that Ireland is shrinking. Every year an estimated 750 acres of coastline is swallowed up by the sea and the situation is likely to get worse unless urgent action is taken
2003 - Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue launches the Value Menu Restaurant Guide which will offer meals at record low prices.
Participating pubs, restaurants and hotels will give customers the choice of meals at fixed prices of €10, €20 and €30.
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of the Annunciation to Our Lady.

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