Irish History - Oct. 21 - 27

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

October 21

1879 - Founding of the Land League by Michael Davitt
1803 - Execution of Thomas Russell, United Irishman, in Downpatrick for “high treason”
1805 - The Irish dead at the Battle of Trafalgar include Lieutenant William Ram, son of Abel Ram, MP for Co. Wexford, who is killed on board the Victory
1901 - Douglas Hyde's Casadh an tSúgán - The Twisting of the Rope - is presented at The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and becomes the first staged Irish-language play
1904 - Birth of poet Patrick Kavanagh in Inishkeen, Co. Monaghan
1999 - President Mary McAleese leads mourners at the removal of former Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, Jack Lynch, from Dublin’s Royal Hospital to the Church of St Paul of the Cross, Mount Argus
1999 - Hundreds of striking nurses from the midlands join a rally through the streets of Dublin
2001 - Gas pipeline work on a hillside at Kilmacanogue in the Wicklow Mountains uncovers the remains of a house dating back to 2,000 BC. Only eight similar discoveries have been made thus far in Ireland
2002 - The Real IRA pledges to continue their campaign of violence, ignoring a call by the prisoners in Portlaoise to disband and confirm the organisation has split
2002 - Even on paper Keane is faster than McCarthy; on the day of its launch, just one copy of Mick McCarthy’s World Cup diary is sold at Waterstones outlet on Dawson Street in Dublin
2003 - The last flight of the Concorde supersonic jet arrives at Belfast International Airport, Aldergrove.

October 22
1389 - Thomas Mortimer who was appointed justiciar on 5 March is replaced by John de Stanley who lands at Howth on this date
1641 - Rory O'More, Lord Maguire and Sir Pheilim O'Neill initiate a major revolt in Armagh. Known as the Ulster Rebellion, in the ensuing six months, at least 4, 000 Protestants are killed and Catholics are massacred in reprisals
1740 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Philip Francis, civil servant, duellist, and gambler; he may have been the author of the Junius Letters
1761 - John Ponsonby is unanimously re-elected Speaker of the Irish parliament
1906 - Charles Lynch, pianist, is born in Parkgariff, Co. Cork. He gave his first public recital at nine and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, London, at fifteen. In addition to concert recitals he broadcast regularly with the BBC and in 1937 acted as assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at Covent Garden
1955 - Belfast-born Ruby Murray has two singles in the British top 20 — I’ll Come When You Call and Evermore. Her much quoted achievement was that she had five top 20 songs at one time - a feat only surpassed by pop singer Madonna four decades later
1993 - Former South African President Nelson Mandela visits Dublin
1998 - Demonstrations by construction workers sweep the country in protest at the jailing of two builders in Mountjoy for a second night. A number of protesters are arrested after they clash with gardaí in Dublin
1998 - The remains of four males are uncovered by workmen during excavation work for a new drainage system to serve the South Tipperary town of Carrick-on-Suir. A coin dated 1805 found nearby, leads locals to believe the remains date from the early 19th century when a fever hospital stood on a nearby site, now occupied by St Brigid's Hospital
1999 - The coffin of former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, is removed from St. Paul of the Cross Church, in Harold's Cross in Dublin, after an interdenominational service, on the first leg of its journey to Cork city, where a state funeral will take place
2002 - Some of the worst storms on record lash the North wreaking havoc on roads and flooding hundreds of homes.

October 23
1662 - The Irish parliament orders the annual observance of this date as a day of thanksgiving for deliverance from the 1641 rising; for over a century, church services on this day will remind Protestants of Catholic disloyalty
1766 - Birth of John Claudius Beresford, banker, MP, and controversial figure in 1798 rebellion, during which he was alleged to have flogged suspects at his riding house in Marlborough Street, Dublin; the slogan 'Mangling done here gratis by Beresford and Co.' was daubed on it
1771 - Benjamin Franklin ends his visit to Ireland
1931 - The IRA and other organizations are declared illegal in the Free State and the Catholic Church excommunicates members of all of them, including Saor Eire, which soon dissolves
1948 - Gerry Robinson, (UK businessman, is born in Co. Donegal
1969 - Samuel Beckett wins Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in Foxrock, Dublin on Good Friday,13 April 1906. (Although his birth certificate says it was a month later). "Waiting for Godot"
is generally regarded as his best-known play
1970 - Charles Haughey, former Minister for Finance, is acquitted of charges that he and Neil Blaney, former Minister for Agriculture, imported arms for the IRA
1999 - The Guinness Jazz Festival in Co. Cork receives a spiritual blessing with the surprise appearance of an infamous cleric. Mother Bernadette Marie O’Connor, or the artist (formerly) known as Sinéad O’Connor, performs in Ireland for the first time in five years
2001 - Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble welcomes official confirmation that the IRA has put a quantity of guns and explosives beyond use
2001 - The Government announces it will sell off one-third of Aer Lingus at a knock-down price in order to fund a drastic rescue plan for the airline.
2001 - Former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam is presented with the International Woman of the Year Award at a ceremony in Dublin. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson's wins the Overall Award at the Irish Tatler Women of the Year Awards
2002 - Thornton’s in Stephen’s Green, Dublin, is awarded the Jameson Restaurant of the Year. It is among the national award winners announced to coincide with the launch of Georgina Campbell’s Jameson Guide Ireland 2003.

October 24
1642 - Irish Confederate rebels establish government at Kilkenny
1789 - Work begins on the construction of the Royal Canal
1854 - Birth of Sir Horace Plunkett, agricultural reformer and politician
1880 - Fanny Parnell launches the Ladies' Land League in New York. Known as the Patriot Poet, Fanny Parnell is the leading spokeswoman throughout the United States for the organization
1942 - Birth of Frank Delaney, writer and broadcaster, in Tipperary town 1990 - The IRA kills 6 soldiers and a civilian in bomb attacks at Derry and Newry
1998 - New British proposals for a European defence force which could undermine Irish neutrality are outlined at a key summit of EU heads of government in Austria
1999 - The first state funeral ever held in Co. Cork takes place for former taoiseach Jack Lynch at St Mary and Anne’s Cathedral in Cork
1999 - Westlife become the first boy band to score number ones with their first three singles; and, as their song Flying Without Wings hits the top, they beome only the third act ever to see all of their first three releases go straight into the charts at number one
2000 - Hallowe'en firework displays are dampened after gardaí seize rockets and bangers worth close to £1 million in a warehouse north of Omeath, Co. Louth
2002 - President Mary McAleese is named the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year. Northern Ireland Woman of the Year is awarded to blind world water-skier champion Janet Gray
2003 - A smoking ban in all enclosed workplaces except private dwellings is signed into law. Prisons will be excluded to prevent security and conduct problems. The law will go into effect on January 26, 2004. Hoteliers and publicans consider legal action.

October 25
1212 - John Comyn, Archbishop of Dublin, dies and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral
1784 - A radical reform congress commences in William Street, Dublin
1818 - Birth of opera singer Catherine Hayes in Limerick
1899 - Birth of Micheál Mac Liammóir, actor and writer
1909 - The Engineering and Scientific Association of Ireland assures the population that flying machines will never be of any practical use
1920 - Terence MacSwiney, the Mayor of Cork, dies in a London prison after 73 days on hunger strike. His last words to a priest by his side were, "I want you to bear witness that I die as a soldier of the Irish Republic."
1922 - The Dáil approves the Constitution of the Irish Free State
1960 - Death of Harry George Ferguson, environmental pioneer, aircraft designer, inventor of the Ferguson tractor and revolutioniser of mechanised farming. He was from Dromore, Co. Down
1985 - First commercial flight from Knock Airport (Horan International Airport) in Co. Mayo
1999 - Inter-party talks resume at Stormont as the Northern Ireland peace process enters its final and most crucial phase
2000 - The Provisional IRA throws beleaguered Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble a lifeline after it agrees to allow a number of its arms dumps to be re-examined by international inspectors
2002 - Limerick-born movie star, Richard Harris, loses his battle to cancer.

October 26
1601 - A Spanish army under Don Juan del Aguila, which had landed at Kinsale on 21 September, is besieged by Lord Mountjoy on this date
1771 - John (Juan) MacKenna, who would rise to fame in South America, was born in Clogher, Co. Tyrone
1791 - Founding of the United Irishmen movement
1831 - Birth of painter Nathaniel Hone in Dublin
1837 - James Lawlor Kiernan, Union general in America's Civil War, was born in Mount Bellew, County Galway
1932 - Margaret "The Unsinkable Molly" Brown, daughter of Irish immigrants, dies in New York
1943 - Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, the coordinating body for Irish-language organizations, is formed
1997 - The country's first women soldiers hold their passing out parade
1998 - A price war rages over the video of Oscar-winning Titanic, which is set to become Ireland's biggest selling video of all time.
1999 - A major opinion poll reveals that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote ‘yes’ in a new referendum on the Good Friday Agreement
1999 - A line of tractors backs up for miles as a cavalcade of farmers make their way to the annual Great Maam Cross Fair - the last great fair of the millennium
2000 - The new Manchester United Superstore is officially opened in Dublin
2000 - The country’s 350,000 secondary school students are asked by the Department of Defence to propose a name for a new £20m naval patrol boat.

October 27
1651 - Surrender of Limerick
1673 - A proclamation declares the banishment of Catholic bishops and priest and the closure of religious houses and schools under Charles II's reign
1878 - Between October 24 and this date, Fenians propose a 'New Departure': an alliance with the Parnellites
1905 - Birth in Dublin of Bryan Guinness, 2nd Lord Moyne; brewer and writer
1980 - Beginning of the Hunger Strike by seven Republican prisoners in the 'H' Blocks at Long Kesh. They are later joined by three female prisoners at Armagh Prison
1998 - 200 delegates of the 24,000-strong INO (nurse's union) vote unanimously to reactivate industrial action if their claims are not met
1999 - Fifty bar workers are to sue their bosses in the first smoking related personal injury claim in the history of the State
1999 - NUI Galway marks its 150th anniversary
2000 -The IRA says that the re-examination of a number of its arms dumps by the international inspectors has already taken place 2002 - Severe storm batters Ireland causing power cuts and interruptions in road, rail, air and sea transport services
2002 - After comments by British prime minister Tony Blair that the continued existence of the IRA is an obstacle to rescuing the peace process, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams says the IRA is never going to disband in response to ultimatums.

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