Irish History - March 5-11

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

March 5
1389 - Thomas Mortimer is appointed justiciar
1716 - Martin Bladen, soldier, politician, civil servant, gambler and writer, is given leave in the British House of Commons to bring in a bill to continue the privilege of exporting Irish linen cloth to British plantations without the duty payable by exporters in England and Scotland. The bill eventually passes
1867 - Fenian Rising begins in Co. Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary
1911 - Birth in Portaferry, Co. Down of actor Joseph Tomelty
1998 - Dublin gangland criminal Georgie "the Penguin" Mitchell is arrested in Holland after a joint operation between Irish and Dutch police catch him red-handed stealing £4 million worth of computer parts
1998 - The remains of Dermot Morgan are received at St. Theresa's Church in his native Dublin. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tanaiste Mary Harney are among the more than 1,000 mourners
1999 - As a precautionary measure, eighteen workers at the Warner-Lambert plant in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork are taken to hospital following a chemical spillage. They are found to be unharmed and are released
2000 - The Government closes the book on the millennium bug after spending £40m preparing for a potential disaster that doesn't happen
2001 - A total of 520 farms are under investigation because of fears of foot and mouth, Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh reveals
2001 - The shortlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is announced by Lord Mayor Maurice Ahern. Six novels are in contention for the world’s richest literary prize (worth IR£100,000) for a single work of fiction, among them Colm Tóibín’s The Blackwater Lightship
2003 - In Blarney, Co. Cork, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets enthusiastically embrace a no smoking day and the Blarney Stone restaurant in the town square takes the lead by slapping a permanent ban on smoking.
In the ecumenical calendar, today is the feastday of St. Cieran

March 6
1791 - John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam; nationalist campaigner and writer, is born in Tirawley, Co. Mayo
1831 - Philip Sheridan, general on Federal side in American Civil War and Commander-in-Chief of the US army, is born in Killinkere, Co. Cavan
1861 - Patrick McCall, songwriter, is born in Dublin
1918 - Death of John Redmond, Chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party
1921 - The Lord Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, his predecessor, Michael O'Callaghan, and another prominent nationalist, Joseph O'Donoghue, are killed by policemen in Limerick during curfew hours
1924 - A 'mutiny' in the Free State army begins on this date: dissident officers demand the suspension of demobilization, and discussions on progress towards a republic. Following the 'unauthorized' arrest of dissidents, two Government ministers and three senior officers resign and conservative elements take control of Cumann na nGaedheal. The 'army mutiny' signals the end of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1935 - Ronnie Delany, 1500 meter gold medallist in the 1956 Olympic Games, is born in Arklow, Co. Wicklow
1978 - Micheál Mac Liammóir, poet, actor and founder of the Gate Theatre, dies
1998 - The jobless trend continues downward and falls to its lowest numbers in seven years
1998 - Hundreds of Dubliners turn out to pay their last respects to Dermot Morgan as his funeral cortege makes its way to Glasnevin Crematorium
2000 - Flamboyant journalist Jonathan Philbin Bowman is found dead in his Dublin home. Gardaí are investigating the possibility that he may have fallen down the stairs
2000 - An Bord Pleanála upholds Clare County Council’s decision to refuse planning permissions to proposals by the Minister for the Arts and Heritage, Síle de Valera, to develop visitor facilities at Mullaghmore in the Burren National Park
2001 - The foot and mouth virus claims another Irish sporting casualty with the announcement that the world cross country championships is to be switched to Brussels, bringing with it some 1,000 runners from 80 countries who were due to converge on Dublin on March 24-25
2001 - Moves to provide nappies for Killarney’s famous jaunting car horses are dropped. Against the advice of the Town Manager, the local urban council bows to the wishes of local jarveys who strongly oppose proposals to include “equine sanitary apparatus” in the jarvey bylaws.

March 7
1777 - Sir Philip Crampton, surgeon, is born in Dublin
1864 - Archbishop Paul Cullen issues a pastoral for St. Patrick's Day denouncing Fenianism
1920 - Éilis Dillon, novelist and children's writer, is born in Galway
1921 - Limerick Mayor George Clancy is shot and killed in his home by disguised members of the Black and Tans
1923 - Eight republican prisoners are executed by use of a mine at Ballyseedy, Co. Kerry
1936 - Freddie Gillen, amateur boxer, is born in Belfast
1988 - The IRA confirms that the three people shot dead by security forces in Gibraltar are members of an active service unit
1999 - A human chain is formed around the Central Bank in Dublin to highlight the campaign to cancel unpayable Third World debt for the millennium. Over 400 people take part in the ceremony organised by Trocaire, Jubilee 2000 and the One World Network of Students in Ireland. Similar events are held in as many as 50 other countries across the world.
2005 - Calling the story of the Irish in America "an important part of the history of our country," President George W. Bush proclaims March as Irish-American Heritage Month.

March 8
1574 - Captain William Martin lays siege to Grace O'Malley in Rockfleet castle
1594 - English expedition sets out from Galway to kill pirate queen, Grace O'Malley
1700 (?) - Year is uncertain, but it is on this date that Anne Bonny, née Cormac, pirate, is born in Co. Cork
1702 - William III dies when his horse stumbles on a molehill; Anne accedes to the throne of Britain and Ireland
1742 - William Crotty, outlaw of the Comeragh mountains, is tried in Waterford on this date and later hanged, drawn and quartered
1770 - Mary Anne McCracken, radical and philanthropist, is born in Belfast
1834 - General John O'Neill, Irish Fenian leader, is born
1854 - Birth in Co. Cork of Tom Horan, the greatest of the many top class Australian cricketers to be born in Ireland
1903 - Charles Gavan Duffy, Young Irelander, is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
1909 - Francis MacManus, novelist, is born
1921 - Sir James Comyn, lawyer, is born in Dublin
1925 - Paddy Devlin, socialist politician, is born in Belfast
1942 - Mary MacSwiney, Irish patriot, dies
1959 - Aidan Quinn, film actor, is born in Chicago of Irish parents
1966 - Nelson's Pillar in Dublin is blown up
1973 - IRA car bombs explode outside the Old Bailey courthouse and Scotland Yard police headquarters in London, killing one and injuring 238
1998 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force pledges full backing for DUP leader Ian Paisley in his opposition to the Stormont talks process
1999 - Pressure on Sinn Féin and the IRA to make a start on decommissioning is stepped up as the Irish and British Governments sign four new treaties in Dublin providing for the implementation of the main elements of the Good Friday Agreement
2000 - Following a round of meetings in Belfast involving Foreign Minister Brian Cowen; Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, and the principal pro Agreement parties, the two governments are to assess the situation before the St Patrick’s Day summit in the White House next week. All the parties are now looking towards President Clinton to broker a deal that will break the impasse in the peace process
2001 - Retired Archbishop of Tuam, the Most Rev Joseph Cunnane, dies after a long illness at the Bon Secours Hospital
2002 - Car owners are to benefit from new regulations which will oblige insurers to give two-week's notice of any cost changes when renewing policies.
2006 - 1916 Proclamation donated to National Museum
An original copy of the Proclamation of Independence picked up in O’Connell Street in 1916 has been donated to the National Museum of Ireland. For more on this story, please click Irish Examiner.

March 9
1771 - Birth in Dublin of Thomas Reynolds, United Irishman whose information enables authorities to arrest Leinster Committee in 1798 1825 - The Catholic Association is dissolved in accordance with the Unlawful Societies Act
1914 - Prime Minister Asquith offers a compromise on Home Rule - electors in the North could vote to be excluded from an independent Ireland for six years
1932 - Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council of Ireland
1973 - The people of Northern Ireland vote overwhelmingly to remain within the United Kingdom. In a referendum on the future of the province, 591,280 people or 57% of the electorate vote to retain links with the UK. A boycott by the Roman Catholic population means only 6,463 vote in favour of a united Ireland
1982 - Charles Haughey becomes Taoiseach for the second time
1995 - Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh make a historic visit to Northern Ireland. For the first time, the Queen meets with the Roman Catholic Primate of all Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, as well as his Anglican counterpart, Archbishop Robin Eames
1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton approves a visa for Irish nationalist leader Gerry Adams to enter the United States
1998 - Justice Brian Walsh, judge on the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, dies suddenly of a stroke. On his appointment in December of 1961, Justice Walsh becomes one of the youngest Irish Supreme Court judges. He serves for 29 years - the longest by a member of the country's highest court
1999 - The European Parliament calls for the legalisation of abortion in Ireland. The opinion, passes in Strasbourg by 321 votes to 122; it carries no legislative weight but provokes a storm of political controversy
1999 - A record price for land in the South East is set in Waterford when leading city developer Noel Frisby pays £725,000 an acre for land being sold off for Telecom Eireann.

March 10
1478 - John De La Pole, the Duke of Suffolk, is appointed lieutenant of Ireland for 20 years on this date, but does not take office
1653 - Sir Phelim O'Neill is executed by Parliament forces in Dublin, after refusing to state that Charles I authorized the 1641 rebellion
1810 - Birth in Belfast of Sir Samuel Ferguson, Celtic scholar and a poet best known for his rendering of Irish legends in English verse
1883 - Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha, writer under the pseudonym 'An Seabhac' and promoter of the Irish language is born in Dingle, Co. Kerry
1888 - Birth in Dublin of William Joseph Shields, aka Barry Fitzgerald, actor
1894 - Ireland collects its first ever Triple Crown, defeating Wales in Belfast
1932 - IRA prisoners in the Free State are released
1945 - Birth of Donal Lunny, the founder of Planxty, the Bothy Band, and Moving Hearts
1966 - Death of Frank O'Connor, poet and novelist
1971 - Fighting erupts between Official and Provisional IRA in Belfast
1998 - After five wildly inaccurate missiles are fired with little warning at a police station in Armagh city, police accuse republicans of attempting mass murder. 100 people — many pensioners — are forced to flee their homes. Fortunately, no-one is killed or injured
2000 - Harland and Wolff’s last hope of saving the Belfast shipyard appear doomed after it is confirmed that Cunard’s £433 million contract to build the Queen Mary 2 has gone to French rivals
2002 - Former Circuit of Ireland rally champion Frank Meagher is killed in a driving accident in Co. Tipperary, between Cloneen and Mullinahone
2003 - The National Aquatic Centre opens in Abbotstown, Dublin. The water-park with its eight different fun rides and attractions is one of the most hi-tech in Europe and the pool complex is one of the most advanced Olympic standard facilities in the world
2003 - Tobacco manufacturers Gallaher announces a range of increases which sees the cost of several popular brands rise to nearly €6 for a packet of 20 cigarettes.

March 11
1605 - A proclamation declares all persons in the realm to be free, natural and immediate subjects of the king and not subjects of any lord or chief
1812 - Composer William Vincent Wallace, best known for his opera, Maritana, is born in Co. Waterford
1858 - Irish revolutionary Thomas James Clarke is born of Irish parents on the Isle of Wight
1880 - On the last day of his tour of the United States, Parnell launches the Irish National Land League of the USA
1926 - Eamon de Valera resigns as head of Sinn Féin
1929 - Erskine B. Childers, diplomat, is born in Dublin
1951 -Ian Paisley co-founds the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
1953 - Birth in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway of Mary Harney, politician, leader of the Progressive Democrats and Tánaiste
1954 - Margaret (Gretta) Cousins, Irish women's rights activist, is born
1964 - Shane Richie, actor and game-show host, is born Shane Roche to Irish parents in London
1974 - Brothers Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn break out of Mountjoy Prison. Jailed in 1973 for a £67,000 heist at a Dublin bank - the biggest to date in Irish history - during their trial they claim they are M16 spies working for the British Government against the IRA
1995 - Gerry Adams arrives in New York
2000 - Emigrant Francis O’Neill, an American police chief who carried a Chicago gangster’s bullet to the grave is honoured at the weekend in his native West Cork where Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne unveils a life-sized memorial sculpture
2001 - Over 1,300 people pack the Cathedral of the Assumption to pay their last respects to the former Archbishop of Tuam, Most Reverend Joseph Cunnane, at his funeral Mass
2001 - Mr. Tony Luff, founder of the Galway Swan Rescue, coordinates a rescue operation involving dozens of volunteers in Galway city to save the lives of over 60 of the famous Claddagh swans after yet another oil slick surrounds the birds - just a fortnight after four are killed in a previous spill
2002 - Limerick-born Michael Collins, author of The Keepers of Truth, is named as one of seven writers competing for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2002, worth €100,000
2002 - Customs officers smash the biggest illegal oil laundering operation ever discovered in the State.The plant, near Dundalk, Co Louth, had the capacity to launder up to 300,000 litres of oil a week.


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