Irish History Jan. 20 - 26

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

January 20
1621 - Patents are granted for plantations in parts of Leitrim, King's County, Queen's County and Westmeath
1841 - James Armour, Presbyterian minister and political activist is born in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim
1902 - Kevin Barry, medical student and nationalist revolutionary, is born in Dublin
1902 - In the House of Commons, John Redmond criticizes the use of concentration camps by the British in South Africa
1916 - Secret negotiations result in alliance of the Irish Citizen Army with the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1961 - John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as president of the United States of America, becoming the first Irish Catholic to be elected to that office
1968 - Birth of Charlie Swan, jockey
1973 - Whiskey In The Jar by Thin Lizzy enters the British charts
1998 - Hope remain high that the IRA ceasefire will hold despite escalating violence in the North and Sinn Féin's implacable opposition to the Anglo-Irish blueprint
1999 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force announces plans for a second round of arms decommissioning which could include the handover of explosives
1999 - One of the world's biggest software piracy investigations identifies over 6,000 Internet sites in Ireland copying and promoting illegal software
2000 - According to a major international survey, Ireland is one of the least corrupt countries in the industrial world
2002 - Rioting erupts on the streets of north Belfast as angry mobs throw petrol bombs and blast bombs at police.

January 21
1600 - Charles Blount, 8th Lord Mountjoy, becomes Lord Deputy of Ireland
1684 - Chidley Coote, future MP for Kilmallock, is granted £500 for the upkeep of six lighthouses
1793 - Louis XVI is executed in Paris; he is attended by an Irish priest, Fr. Edgeworth. Lord Edward FitzGerald is the only member of the Irish parliament not to appear in mourning following the execution
1861 - Katherine Tynan, poet, novelist and journalist, is born
1876 - James Larkin, organizer of Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and socialist politician, is born in Liverpool
1919- Daíl Éireann, chaired by Sean T. O’Kelly meets for the very first time at Mansion House in Dublin
1919 - Two members of Royal Irish Constabulary are shot dead by Irish Volunteers including Seán Treacy and Dan Breen in an ambush at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary: this is regarded as the first incident in the 'War of Independence' (Anglo-Irish War). Attacks on policemen continue for the rest of the year
1998 - A controversialL deal is agreed by the British and Irish governments to transfer the IRA gang which carried out the Guildford and Woolwich bombings to Portlaoise prison
1998 - The North is plunged into a new crisis after Benedict Hughes, a Catholic, is shot dead in south Belfast in the latest murder aimed at wrecking the peace process
1998 - The IRA dramatically rejects the Anglo-Irish Stormont settlement plan
2002 - Sinn Féin MPs will never sit in the British parliament, Gerry Adams vows as they move into Commons offices for the first time. Party policy is also changed to allow MPs to sit in the Dáil.

January 22
1761 - Birth of Henry Welbore Agar (Ellis), 2nd Viscount Clifden, perhaps the only person to sit consecutively in four different Houses of Parliament - the two in Ireland and the two in England
1856 - Alfred Godley, classical scholar and writer, is born in Ashfield, Co. Cavan
1901 - Queen Victoria dies; Edward VII accedes to the throne
1913 - Cardinal William Conway, Primate of All Ireland from 1963-1977, is born
1925 - Raymond Crotty, radical economist, is born in Co. Kilkenny
1967 - Eleanor McEvoy, musician, singer and songwriter, is born in Dublin
1972 - Éamon Broy, agent for Michael Collins, and later Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, passes away
1972 - The Republic of Ireland signs a treaty of accession to the European Economic Community
1997 - Death of Lilly Kempson, aged 99, the last surviving participant in the Easter Rising
1998 - It is announced that up to 1 million ounces of high grade gold have been discovered in a mine in Co. Monaghan that will result in the country's biggest ever gold mine going into production in two years time
1999 - Pop concerts can be held at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, without the need for planning permission, the Supreme Court decides in a unanimous decision
2002 - It is announced that one of the British Army's main bases in Northern Ireland is to close and its 500 soldiers moved back to Britain. Ebrington barracks in the Waterside area of Londonderry is expected to be cleared by the end of next year
2003 - Amid much fanfare and brouhaha, quads Kelly, Katie, Shannon and Amy Murphy return to Cork’s Erinville Maternity Hospital for their first birthday celebration

January 23
1774 - Dudley Cosby (Baron Sydney), former MP for Carrick, commits suicide: 'Our domestic news is first the death of Lord Sydney occasioned by a dose of Danish poison. His lordship to render himself agreeable to his lady upon their marriage stopped two issues he had in his thighs but found no ill effects until the 13th inst. when, after a night of great exercise by dancing, his temper and reason as appears since, was in some sort affected; however, not so much as to make those about him immediately suspect it or the consequence. He complained of indisposition and sent for a physician. He republished his will leaving his estate to Capt. Cosby of the Navy and added a codicil leaving the jewels he bought for his wife (whom in his delirium he was jealous of) and the family china to his sister Lady Farnham, after which being disappointed in an attempt to shoot himself and one to poison himself, he took on (this date) the dose which was sufficiently strong to carry him off in a few hours'
1803 - Arthur Guinness, founder of the Dublin brewery, dies
1881 - William O'Brien, trade unionist and Labour politician, is born near Clonakilty, Co. Cork
1898 - The United Irish League, a nationalist electoral organization, is founded by William O'Brien
1999 - Two blast bomb attacks target Catholic homes in the seaport town of Larne, Co Antrim
2000 - A historic show of Christian unity takes place as the Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr John Buckley, appeals to parishioners at Cork Masses to make contributions to a multi million pound restoration programme of a Protestant cathedral in Cork city centre
2000 - Five grey Seals are released into the sea at Cullenstown Strand, Co. Wexford. The seals had been kept in the seal sanctuary in Co. Dublin while recovering from injuries. This the largest amount of seals to be released at one time
2000 - More than 20,000 people gather on the streets of West Belfast in memory of IRA teenager, Tom Williams, who was hanged in 1942 for his part in the murder of an RUC man
2001 - Irish airport charges are among the cheapest in the world, the latest independent study of the sector has found
2001 - It is announced that the State is in negotiation with a private landowner to purchase the internationally renowned Poulnabrone dolmen in the Burren, Co. Clare
2003 - The Irish and British governments agree to plans for an all-out push to restore the North’s power-sharing Executive.

January 24
1851 - Charles Plummer, Irish language scholar and editor of Lives of the Irish Saints, is born
1920 - Death of Percy French, writer of many popular Irish songs, including the Mountains of Mourne
1921 - Patrick Scott, artist, is born in Kilbrittain, Co. Cork
1933 - Fianna Fáil wins a general election
1969 - Brian Faulkner resigns from his position as Prime Minister Terence O'Neill's minister of commerce, furthering the split in the Unionist party
1973 - Death of piper and folklorist, Willie Clancy
1974 - The official Unionist Party is founded
1978 - Eddie Gallagher and Dr. Rose Dugdale, both jailed for their part in the kidnap of Tiede Herrema, are married in Limerick prison
1998 - In west Belfast, Loyalists kill taxi driver, John McColgan by shooting him in the back of the head. It is the sixth sectarian murder in a week
1999 - After months of negotiations and two special delegate conferences, Democratic Left merges with the Labour Party
2000 - Tánaiste Mary Harney warns the IRA to begin decommissioning or run the risk of derailing the Northern peace process
2001 - Government sources say the resignation of Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson is not a major setback to the peace process
2002 - Irish doctors are among the worst-paid in Europe and charge less than they need to run a viable business, according to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).

January 25
1356 - The 1st Earl of Desmond dies; Kildare is his replacement as justiciar
1627 - Robert Boyle, physicist, chemist and alchemist, is born in Lismore, Co. Waterford
1777 - The Earl of Buckinghamshire, who eventually conceded free trade and some relief from the Penal Laws to Catholics and Dissenters, is sworn in as lord lieutenant
1831 - Edmund Hogan, Jesuit and scholar, is born in Cork
1924 - Charles McCarthy, trade unionist, is born in Cork
1924 - Tomás Mac Giolla, republican and socialist, and later, Workers' Party leader, is born near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
1998 - The Irish Seaspray plant in Lettermore, Co. Galway is extensively damaged after two explosions rip through the facility and start a major fire
1999 - The Government descends into chaos over allegations that European Commissioner Pádraig Flynn received a donation of £50,000 ten years ago and that the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, knew about it
1999 - Ireland's first day centre for refugees is opened in Dublin by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
2001 - The new Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr. John Reid, pledges to carry forward the Good Friday Agreement
2001 - Thousands gather in Ballinamallard, Co. Fermanagh for the funerals of rally champion Bertie Fisher and two of his children, Emma, and Mark - also a renowned driver.

January 26
1316 - At the battle of Ardscull, Co. Kildare, Edward the Bruce defeats the army of Justiciar Edmund Butler. The Scottish dead are buried in the graveyard attached to the Dominican Priory in Athy which occupies the area on the east bank of the River Barrow. Among those buried are two Scottish chiefs, Lord Fergus Andressan and Lord Walter de Morrey
1699 - The second session of William III's second Irish parliament ends on this date
1716 - Birth of Lord George Sackville (-Germain), soldier, politician and MP for Portarlington
1799 - Thomas Charles Wright, officer in Bolivar's army and founder of the Ecuadorian naval school, is born in Drogheda, Co. Louth
1871 - Sir Arthur du Cros, pioneer of pneumatic tyre industry, is born in Dublin
1904 - Birth of Seán MacBride, IRA leader, politician, head of Amnesty International, and recipient of Nobel and Lenin peace prizes
1907 - Synge's Playboy of the Western World is performed for the first time at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; the audience riots because of the bad language and negative perspective on Irish peasant life
1998 - Fears of a backlash heighten in the North due to the removal from the peace talks of the Ulster Democratic Party because of the recent spate of sectarian murders
1998 - The trial of a Dublin man accused of the murder of journalist, Veronica Guerin, is adjourned until June by the Special Criminal Court
1999 - Irish swimming takes its first step towards a fresh beginning following a series of child sex abuse scandals with the creation of a new identity, Swim Ireland
2000 - Tánaiste Mary Harney announces that the new minimum pay rate of £4.40 per hour will apply from April 1
2000 - Amid reports that Britain is drawing up emergency legislation to re-impose direct rule on Northern Ireland, the IRA faces renewed pressure to start decommissioning its arsenal
2000 - Supporters of ancient herbal remedies stage a wake in Dublin mourning the death of the free availability of the herb St John’s Wort, which can now only be obtained on prescription
2001 - Motorists crossing Dublin’s East and West Links will have to pay an extra 20p following a VAT hike
2001 - AN Bord Pleanála gives the go ahead for a £35 million leisure, residential and shopping development in Limerick.


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