Sunday, November 18, 2007

Irish History - Nov. 18 - 24

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

November 18
1703 - On 18 November the Commons hears a petition from Sir Kildare Dixon Burrowes, John Allen, Robert Dixon, Francis Spring, Alexander Gradon (all MPs) and 'other inhabitants of the County of Kildare complaining, that the inhabitants of the said County have been under great oppressions and grievances by the exorbitant power of Maurice [another MP], John and Francis Annesley, Esqrs, Justices of the Peace'. Shortly before this, the burgesses and freemen of Naas have also complained about the activities of the Annesleys. The allegations against Maurice and Francis are found not to be proved, but John is found to have illegally extorted money under cover of warrants and fees and is removed as sheriff
1709 - Birth of Henry Loftus, Earl of Ely and 4th Viscount; politician and proprietor of several boroughs
1873 - A three-day conference begins in Dublin to establish the Home Rule League. It will supersede Isaac Butt's Home Government Association
1880 - An historic meeting takes place at Queens Hotel, Belfast which will have far reaching effects on the administration of football in Ireland. At what is, in effect, the inaugural meeting of the Irish Football Association, the IFA elects its first President,
1899 - Death of William Allingham, poet
1922 - Court martial of Erskine Childers begins
1926 George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the Nobel Prize money of £7,000 awarded to him a year earlier. He said: "I can forgive Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
1960 - The first Aer Lingus Boeing jet Padraig arrives at Dublin Airport
1999 - Former US senator George Mitchell makes his final report into the Good Friday Agreement; he urges the IRA to appoint its representative to discuss disarmament on the same day the new power-sharing government is set up
2000 - Ensign Marie Gleeson of Cashel becomes the first female cadet to capture the prestigious Fastnet Trophy. The award is given to the cadet who achieves first place in his or her class
2002 - The Belfast High Court is told that Sinn Féin's administration office manager at Stormont, Denis Donaldson, is an active member of the IRA's intelligence unit with connections to terrorist groups in Europe and in El Salvador.

November 19
1783 - The Volunteers' parliamentary reform bill is rejected by the Irish House of Commons, 157 to 77
1798 - Theobald Wolfe Tone dies from a stab wound to his neck which he inflicted upon himself on November 12; his attempted suicide is the result of being refused a soldier's execution by firing squad and being sentenced to death by hanging
1821 - 17 people are burned to death in a house in Tubber, Co. Tipperary, probably by 'Rockite' agitators
1871 - Margaret Emmeline Conway Dobbs, Irish historian, language activist and defender of Roger Casement, is born
1900 - Birth of Pamela Hinkson, daughter of Katharine Tynan; she's best known for her novel "The Ladies Road" which sold over 100,000 copies in the Penguin edition
1913 - Irish Citizen Army is formed
1924 - Death in Ara Coeli, Armagh, of Cardinal Michael Logue, Primate of All Ireland
1944 - Denis Brosnan, managing director of Kerry Group, is born in Tralee
1954 - First performance of Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow at the Pike Theatre in Dublin
1957 - Affectionately known as "Jacko", Jack O'Shea, Kerry Gaelic footballer, is born in Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry
1998 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Mary Robinson, is elected as chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin. Dr Robinson is the first woman in the college's history to be appointed to the position, making her the head of the University of Dublin of which Trinity College is the sole constituent
1999 - The life of eighty-five year old Eamon Kelly is celebrated at a banquet in his honour held at the Listowel Arms Hotel in Co. Kerry. Among the 250 guests are John B. Keane, Barry McGovern, Niall Toibin and Frances Black
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announces that low-cost airlines will have a dedicated wing at Dublin Airport in 18 months; Aer Rianta is told to drop airport charges to attract tourists into the country.

November 20
1762 - Francis Andrews is appointed first professor of history at the University of Dublin
1719 - Spranger Barry, actor, is born in Skinner's Row (Christ Church Place) Dublin
1800 - Richard Rothwell, painter, is born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath
1830 - Birth of Patrick Henry Jones, Union General from Co. Meath
1840 - Birth of John Russell Young, journalist in American Civil War, from Co. Tyrone
1889 - Donn Byrne (real name Brian Donn-Byrne) novelist and short-story writer, is born in Brooklyn, New York of Irish parents
1908 - Birth of Alistair Cooke who describes himself as a "Lancastrian Irishman" - his mother was from Co. Sligo
1917 - The 16th Irish Division of the British army assaults an area of the German lines known as Tunnel Trench
1925 - Eoin MacNeill resigns from the Boundary Commission
1959 - Stephen Roche, champion cyclist, is born in Dublin
1998 - An historic union between Labour and Democratic Left is agreed. Unveiled by the two top negotiators, Labour's deputy leader Brendan Howlin and DL Deputy Eamon Gilmore, the merger proposal will go before Labour's General Council and DL's Executive for ratification
2000 - Three Galway pubs are prosecuted by the Director of Consumer Affairs for failing to display correct price lists, in the first ever such prosecutions brought under new Retail Price Display regulations
2001 - Cash-strapped Aer Lingus auctions its collection of paintings. Most money went on "By Merrion Strand" by Jack B. Yeats, an oil on canvas, which is sold for £290,000
2002 - The last surviving member of the recruits which founded the Garda Síochána is laid to rest. Galway-born Charlie Clarke, who spent most of his career in Dublin, celebrated his 100th birthday last summer.

November 21
1281 - Stephen de Fulbourne, bishop of Waterford and treasurer, replaces the infirm Robert de Ufford as justiciar and establishes a mint at Waterford
1759 - Henry Flood enters parliament and becomes leader of the opposition
1767 - United Irishman Thomas Russell is born in Kilshanick, Co. Cork. Although born in the Rebel County, he is now identified in the popular imagination of Co. Down and elsewhere as "The man from God-knows-where", from the ballad which recalls his charismatic but doomed efforts to raise the county in support of Robert Emmet’s rebellion of 1803
1887 - Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish patriot and poet, is born in Dublin
1918 - The Parliament (Qualifications of Women) Act entitles women to sit and vote in the house of commons
1920 - On the morning of this date, 14 British intelligence officers are shot dead in Dublin by Michael Collins' men. In the afternoon, at a GAA match in Croke Park, Dublin, between Tipperary and Dublin, 12 civilians including one of the players die after Black & Tans open fire; auxiliaries kill three prisoners, including two IRA men, in Dublin that night; the date becomes infamously known as 'Bloody Sunday'
1929 - Birth in Cork of stage, television and film actor Niall Toibin
Photo Credit: Official Niall Toibin website
1952 - Birth in Dublin of middle distance runner and former World Champion Eamon Coghlan
1974 - Bombs believe planted by the Provisional IRA devastate two central Birmingham pubs, killing 19 people and injuring over 180
1999 - Victims of Birmingham IRA bombings are remembered in a 25th anniversary service at St. Philips Cathedral
1999 - President Mary McAleese pays a warm tribute to former President Dr Erskine Childers on the 25th anniversary of his death. Speaking at Derralossary Cemetery, Co. Wicklow, Mrs McAleese describes Dr Childers as a pivotal figure in politics for more than 35 years.

November 22
1773 - Lord John Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, is born in Dublin
1830 - Justin McCarthy, politician, novelist and historian, is born in Cork 1869 - Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Fenian, contests and wins a Tipperary by-election in abstentia, but is declared ineligible as a convicted felon
1912 - Birth in Dublin of poet, dramatist and lawyer Donagh MacDonagh, son of Thomas MacDonagh
1919 - Birth of Máire Drumm, Irish Republican, in Newry, Co. Armagh
1963 - C. S. Lewis, Irish writer, dies
1963 - The first Roman Catholic president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
1974 - Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Robert Hunter, Noel McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker, who become known as “The Birmingham Six” are charged in connection with pub bombings which took place earlier in the week. Nineteen people were killed.
They are found guilty in August 1975 of carrying out the bombings and sentenced to life imprisonment. But they are released after 16 years in jail when their convictions are quashed by the Court of Appeal in May 1991. The real bombers are never prosecuted and no group has ever admitted planting devices. Three detectives are charged with perjury and conspiracy in connection with the investigation, but their trial is halted in 1993 on the grounds of prejudicial media coverage. The six men finally agree undisclosed compensation settlements in June 2002 - more than 10 years after they are freed.
1998 - Security forces in Northern Ireland brace themselves as fears grow over a new bomb-blitz alert, the first since the Omagh massacre
1999 - The North’s politicians are given an ultimatum when the British Government warns it will pull the plug on the planned Stormont institutions if the IRA fails to decommission its arms
1999 - A timetable for the transfer of power to an inclusive Northern Ireland executive is outlined to the House of Commons
2000 - Blockades by taxi drivers brings the threat of serious confrontation with gardaí, mainline train services are paralysed by strike, and secondary schools are again closed
2000 - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams meets with Bertie Ahern on the forth coming Irish Budget

November 23
1074 - Donatus (or Dunan), the first Bishop of Dublin, dies and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral. Patrick, his successor, is sent to Canterbury for consecration. (Some records say he died on May 6)
1702 - Birth of Sir Richard Cox, politician and pamphleteer
1819 - Birth in Waterford of Margaret Aylward, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Faith
1841 - Birth in Co. Cork of Richard Croker, Boss of Tammany Hall, New York
1845 - Charlotte Grace O'Brien, social reformer who campaigned against conditions on emigrant ships, is born
1865 - Birth of Herbert Trench, poet, dramatist and theatre producer, in Avonmore, Co. Cork
1867 - Fenians Michael Larkin, William Philip Allen, and Michael O'Brien - the "Manchester Martyrs" - are executed
1876 - Sir Richard Dawson Bates, unionist politician and minister in Northern Ireland is born in Belfast
1913 - Irish Citizen Army is founded in Dublin by James Larkin
1923 - Tomás Ó Fiaich, cardinal, historian and Catholic Primate of All Ireland, is born in Cullyhanna, Co. Armagh
1927 - Birth of journalist and BBC political editor, John Cole
1941 - Birth of poet, Derek Mahon, in Belfast
2000 - The Opel Corsa is named the Semperit Irish Car of the Year 2001 by the Irish Motoring Writers Association
2000 - Traffic in Dublin comes to a standstill as hundreds of taxi drivers protest against the decision to deregulate the industry
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St. Columbanus.

November 24
1713 - Lawrence Sterne, clergyman, humorist, and author of the experimental novel Tristram Shandy, is born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
1807 - Henry Blosse Lynch, soldier and explorer, is born in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
1820 - Arthur French, MP for Co. Roscommon, dies 'of excessive fox-hunting'
1865 - Two weeks after being arrested, James Stephens escapes from Richmond prison, Dublin
1922 - Irish republican Erskine Childers is executed by the Free State government
1940 - Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, dies peacefully at his home on this date and is succeeded by the Minister of Finance John Andrews
1942 - Death of Peadar Kearney, writer of the Irish National Anthem, "A Soldier's Song"
1965 - The Government imposes an experimental 70mph speed limit on motorways
1972 - The RTÉ authority is replaced by the government after RTÉ broadcasts a radio interview with IRA leader Seán Mac Stiofáin
1982 - General election in the Republic leads to a Fine Gael-Labour coalition government
1998 - The national 24-hour stoppage by train drivers costs Dublin City centre traders about £1·5m in lost sales, with Irish Rail losing substantial revenue from more than 60,000 stranded travellers
1999 - Father Aengus Finucane, CSSp, former chief executive of Concern Worldwide, is conferred by the University of Limerick with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in recognition of his outstanding work with the world’s disadvantaged peoples
2002 - Ireland’s TDs and Senators, lose 3-2 to their Scottish counterparts in a friendly football match. The ‘Clash of the Celts’ inter-parliamentary match was held to highlight the Irish-Scottish bid to host the Euro 2008 football championships.

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

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