Irish History - Nov 25 - Dec 1

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

November 25
1713 - The second Irish parliament of Queen Anne sits from this date to 24 December. The Whig Alan Brodrick is elected Speaker for the second time, in place of John Forster, after a stormy contest with the government's Tory nominee, Sir Richard Levinge
1764 - Birth of Henry Sirr, Dublin town head of police
1784 - Napper Tandy asks for parliamentary reform for Ireland
1858 - John Smyth Crone, physician and editor, is born in Belfast
1906 - Birth in Belfast of Saidie Paterson, trade unionist and peace activist
1913 - The Irish Volunteers, a militant nationalist splinter of the Irish Parliamentary Party and nationalist version of the 18th-century Ulster Volunteers, is founded by Eoin MacNeill at a mass meeting at the Rotunda, Dublin
1947 - Birth of former Liverpool and Irish international footballer Steve Heighway
1999 - Mystery surrounds the identity of two human skeletons discovered on the site of the former Carnegie school in Killorglin, Co. Kerry. According to experts, the remains of a child and an adult are at least 100 years old and could date to medieval times
2002 - JP McManus, the man who never liked school, receives a doctorate from the University of Limerick. The reluctant schoolboy is now an internationally-renowned financier, racehorse owner and part-proprietor of soccer giants Manchester United
2002 - Hundreds of Irish tourists are left stranded in France as a series of transport strikes threaten to bring chaos to roads, rail, and air traffic.
2005 - James McLoughlin the former bishop of Galway, dies at the age of 76.

November 26
1624 - Birth in Dublin of John Stearne, founder and first president of the College of Physicians
1791 - First convicts from Ireland arrive in New South Wales, Australia
1852 - Aeneas Coffey, inventor of the Coffey Still, dies
1873 - Birth in Cork of Celtic scholar Osborn Joseph Bergin
1885 - Birth in Belfast of Thomas Andrews, chemist and physicist
1926 - Rugby player Karl Mullen is born in Courtown Harbour, Co. Wexford
1955 - Saor Uladh (Free Ulster) a splinter group of the IRA, attacks the police barracks in Rosslea, Co. Fermanagh
1972 - RTÉ Journalist Kevin O'Kelly is imprisoned for contempt of court arising out of an interview with then Provisional IRA chief Séan MacStiofáin. Mr O’Kelly had refused to identify his interviewee in court
1972: Eight armed men protesting against the imprisonment of IRA leader Sean MacStiofain try to rescue him from a Dublin hospital. Police foil the attempt
1998 - Prime Minister Tony Blair makes a historic address to the Houses of the Oireacthas.

November 27
784 - Fergil, the Geometer, Irish educator, dies
1612 - Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, is the first of 40 new boroughs to be incorporated
1774 - John Kyan, inventor, is born in Dublin
1857 - Birth in Clogher House, Kilmore, Co. Roscommon of Thomas Heazle Parke, surgeon, military officer and author. Educated at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, he serves with the British Army in Egypt during Arabi`s 1882 revolt and on the 1884-1885 Nile expedition, to relieve General Gorden in Khartoum. In 1887, he volunteers as Medical Officer on an expedition led by Henry Morten Stanley. This journey takes them right across the Congo. He writes a book "My personal experiences in Equatorial Africa " which becomes a bestseller. He dies suddenly in 1893 at the early age of 36 years. His body is brought back to Clogher House and he is buried with full military honours in Drumsna graveyard
1876 - Henry Robinson Allen, tenor and composer, dies
1878 - Birth of Sir William Orpen, painter, in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin
1906 - Death of Michael Cusack, one of the founders of the GAA.
1953 - Playwright Eugene O'Neill dies
1963 - The Buchanan Committee warns of future chaos as traffic in cities multiplies
1975 - Guinness Book of Records co-founder and editor Ross McWhirter dies of wounds inflicted by Irish gunmen; an outspoken critic of the IRA, the BBC Records Breaker presenter had recently offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of IRA bombers.

November 28
1727 - William Connolly is unanimously re-elected Speaker of the Irish House of Commons
1856 - Birth of Cardinal Patrick O'Donnell near Glenties, Co. Donegal
1863 - Foundation of the Fenian newspaper, "Irish People"; John O'Leary is the editor
1871 - The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, opens with a performance of She Stoops to Conquer
1899 -Irish units in the Boer army fight in the battle of Modder River
1905 The Irish political party Sinn Féin is founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffith
1920 - An entire patrol of 18 auxiliaries at Kilmichael, west Cork, is wiped out by a flying column under the command of General Tom Barry in what would be one of the most effective and bloody IRA ambushes of the war.
1934 - Birth of travel writer Fervla Murphy
1959 - Birth of Tour de France winner, Stephen Roche
1967 - All horse racing in Britain has been cancelled indefinitely to help prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease
1969 - Birth of Olympic medalist Sonia O'Sullivan in Cobh, Co. Cork

November 29
1330 - Edward III, on attaining his majority, executes Mortimer on this date and banishes his own mother, Isabella. This revolutionizes the political situation in Ireland and England
1521 - William Rokeby, Archbishop of Dublin, dies
1641 - The Ulster rebels defeat the government forces at Julianstown Bridge
1740 - Edward Sewell, a "couple-beggar" - i.e. a clergyman who conducts illegal marriages involving Catholics and Protestants - is hanged at Stephen's Green
1783 - Ulster Volunteers' parliamentary reform bill is rejected by the Irish Parliament at College Green
1895 - Death of Denny Lane, Young Irelander, author and poet
1898 - Birth of novelist C.S. Lewis in Belfast
1993 - The Conservative government has come under attack in the Commons over the revelations it has had secret contacts with the IRA
1998 - IRA leaders are on the brink of making a goodwill gesture which could kick-start the stalled North peace process
1999 - Pressure grows on the Provisional IRA to hand over weapons in the wake of Northern Ireland’s first power sharing Government in 25 years
2002 - Hurling in Cork is thrown into chaos after the county’s senior squad goes on strike.

November 30
1667 - Birth in Dublin of Jonathan Swift, poet, satirist and clergyman 1670 - Birth in Inishowen, Co. Donegal of John Toland, deist and philosopher
1864 - Cork-born Confederate General Patrick Cleburne is killed in command of his division at a battle in Franklin, Tennessee
1869 - Birth of James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn and first Governor of Northern Ireland
1900 - Death of Oscar Wilde in Paris
1909 - Lloyd George's People's Budget is rejected by the House of Lords, the first money bill to be rejected by Lords in 200 years. The Lords' loss of power to veto subsequent bills comes as good news to the Irish Nationalist Party because a third Home Rule Bill looked likely now that the Liberals are back in power and dependent on their support.
1930 - Death of Cork-born union organizer and human rights activist, Mary Harris - "Mother" Jones"
1933 - Birth of Eamon Campbell of the Dubliners
1960 - Catherina McKiernan, athlete, is born in Cornafean, Co. Cavan
1967 - Death of poet Patrick Kavanagh
1970 - Birth of Phil Babb, Irish soccer international
1995 - Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland on this date - the first serving US president to do so
2000 - Tributes are paid in the Supreme Court to former Chief Justice, Mr Justice Liam Hamilton, who passes on in the early morning hours on this date
2000 - With forecasters saying rainfalls in September, October and November are the highest in living memory, severe storms again lash the country. Munster and South Leinster get the worst of the weather as gales of up to 80 mph batter parts of Cork, Tipperary, Carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford.

December 1
1494 - Poynings Law enacted. This forbids the Irish parliament to convene without the King's prior permission, and all intended legislation has to be approved by him
1848 - The paddle steamer The Londonderry, with immigrants fleeing the famine, takes shelter in Derry harbour. When the covers are removed from the hold it is discovered that 72 men, women and children have suffocated
1889 - Michael Hayes, politician and professor of Irish is born in Dublin
1890 - Six days of Irish Parliamentary Party debates begin, only to end in a split, with the majority opposing Parnell
1901 - Fenian Thomas Clarke Luby dies in New York. Luby was born in Dublin in 1821. He was the son of a Church of Ireland minister and graduate of Trinity College. His first political experience was in the Young Ireland movement
1946 - Singer Gilbert (Richard) O'Sullivan is born in Waterford
1955 - Birth of Pat Spillane, Kerry Gaelic footballer
1956 - Birth of hurler Joachim Kelly
1986 - Guinness shares plunge by £300m after the British government orders an inquiry into the affairs of the company
1998 - President Bill Clinton contacts First Minister, David Trimble, and his deputy, Seamus Mallon, in a bid to save the stalled Northern Ireland peace process
1999 - The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair hails the transfer of powers to Stormont as “one giant step forward”
1999 - Plans to develop Pol an Ionain cave, which according to the Guinness Book of Records contains the largest free hanging stalactite in the world, are given the go ahead by Clare County Council
2001 - Morans on the Weir, Kilcolgan, Co Galway, wins the prestigious Gilbeys Gold Medal Award
2002 - Film producer Noel Pearson and brother Billy Harris lead the tributes to Richard Harris as hundreds pack the Church of the Sacred Heart for a memorial mass
2002 - Gusts reaching up to 80 miles per hour and driving rain continue to sweep across the country; in the west Clare village of Quilty, six fishing boats sink as winds reached between gale force seven and nine along the Clare coast.

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