Irish History - Mar. 23 - Mar. 29

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

March 23
1847 - Choctaw Indians collect money to donate to starving Irish Hunger victims
1889 - Robert Gibbings, illustrator and writer, is born in Cork
1893 - Birth in Dublin of Cedric Gibbons, designer of the coveted Oscar statuette and winner of eleven Academy Awards himself
1917 - Birth of singer Josef Locke (Joe McLaughlin) in Derry
1951 - On this date, Shannon Airport is the base for a rescue operation after a USAF C124 aircraft crashes into the sea - some wreckage is found 450 miles off the west coast, but all 53 people on board are lost
1971 - Chichester Clark resigns as Prime Minister and is replaced by Brian Faulkner
1976 - The EEC rejects the Irish government's application for derogation from its directive for equal pay to men and women
1998 - Ian Paisley lead his party back to the Northern Ireland peace talks for the first time in eight months — but only to protest at the re-entry of Sinn Féin following its suspension over IRA involvement in two murders
1998 - History is made in Galway when all vehicles are banned from the city's main thoroughfare, Shop Street, and its adjoining arteries. The streets are closed to traffic from 11am to 7.30pm as part of a pedestrianisation programme to tackle traffic problems in the city's narrow streets
1999 - Under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement, IRA prisoners, Paul Kavanagh, Thomas Quigley and Gerard McDonnell are freed after a High Court judge rejects a legal challenge by British Home Secretary Jack Straw to keep them in jail
1999 - The British government signals its growing impatience with the decommissioning deadlock when it issues a legal challenge to the release of Brighton bomber Patrick Magee and three other IRA prisoners
2001 - Gardaí arrest 12 protesting students as thousands of secondary school pupils take to the streets all over the country demanding an end to the ASTI teachers strike
2001 - At the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Day Auction, the hottest collectable is Bono’s handmade Black Fly shades, which fetches £4,000
2002 - At high tide, thirty-nine whales are washed onto Aughcasla Strand, in the Dingle Peninsula.

March 24
1603 - James VI of Scotland comes to the throne of England, as James I, following the death of Elizabeth I on this date
1796 - The Insurrection Act imposes curfews, arms searches, and the death penalty for oath-taking
1866 - Birth in Co. Cork of light-heavyweight boxing champion, Jack McAuliffe
1909 - Death in Dublin of John Millington Synge. The plays of Irish peasant life on which his fame rests are written in the last six years of his life. In 1904, Synge, Yeats and Lady Gregory found the famous Abbey Theatre. Two Synge comedies, The Well of the Saints (1905) and The Playboy of the Western World (1907), are presented by the Abbey players. The latter play creates a furor of resentment among Irish patriots stung by Synge's bitter humor.
1945 - Birth of actor Patrick Malahide; born Patrick G. Duggan, to Irish parents living in England
1953 - Queen Mary dies at 86
1958 - Dawson Stelfox, architect and mountaineer, is born in Belfast
1968 - An Aer Lingus plane, the St. Phelim, crashes into the sea near Tuskar Rock, Co. Wexford, with the loss of all 61 passengers and crew
1972 - Stormont parliament and government are suspended and direct rule from London is introduced; William Whitelaw becomes Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
1995 - For the first time in 25 years, Britain halts all routine army patrols in Belfast
1998 - The Prison Service in Northern Ireland confirms that five Loyalist Volunteer Force prisoners are now on hunger strike at the Maze jail to protest a security crackdown following the savage murder of loyalist remand prisoner David Keys
1999 - Anti-blood sports groups call on Minister Silé de Valera to refuse to renew a licence to the country's last remaining stag hunt
2000 - Dubliners face traffic chaos as the bus drivers’ dispute threatens to escalate into an all out strike
2002 - Twenty-one whales are rescued after stranding themselves on a Kerry beach; with the other whales forming a circle around her, rescuers are thrilled to observe one of the whales giving birth minutes after being pulled back out to safety
2003 - Veteran actor Peter O’Toole is awarded an honorary Oscar for a career which has spanned more than 40 years.

March 25
1635 - A shower of hailstones, with stones as large as four inches in circumference, is reported in Castletown, Co. Offaly; a hen is killed and a woman is injured
1738 - Irish harpist and composer, Turlough O'Carolan, dies at Alderford House, the home of his patron Máire MacDermott Roe, in Ballyfarnan, Co. Roscommon
1735 - Birth of James Agar, 1st Viscount Clifden and politician
1831 - Arthur Kavanagh, politician and progressive landlord, is born in Borris, Co. Carlow
1840 - Birth of Myles Keogh in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow. Soldier in the US army, it is said by the Sioux that he is the last man killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn, where his horse is the only US survivor
1846 - Michael Davitt, known universally as "The Father of the Land League", is born in Straid, Co. Mayo
1847 - Pope Pius IX issues an encyclical called "On aid for Ireland"
2000 - David Trimble narrowly beats off a challenge to his leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party casting doubt on its unity and the future of the Northern Ireland peace process
1920 - The first 'Black and Tans' (auxiliary policemen) officially arrive in Ireland
1946 - To mark the centenary of Michael Davitt's birth, a major celebration is held in Straide, Co. Mayo, primarily at the request of a personal friend and executor of his will, Mr. Dennis O'Rourke of Dublin.
An attendance of over 12,000 includes Eamonn De Valera, Hugh Delargy, M.P. as well as surviving members of the Davitt family, Dr. Robert Davitt and Miss Eileen Davitt. The occasion is covered live by the BBC
1963 - Captain Terence O'Neill becomes Northern Ireland Prime Minister after Lord Brookeborough resigns
1998 - New constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland that include cross-border bodies with executive powers and a new Northern Ireland Assembly are revealed by the British and Irish Governments
2001 - More than 1,200 animals are slaughtered in counties Meath, Wexford, Carlow and Laois as a precautionary measure against foot and mouth disease
2001 - Ballymun, a northside suburb in Dublin, is transformed into the Bogside for the filming of Bloody Sunday, a movie which promises to piece together the controversial events of the 1972 parade. More than 2,000 locals take part in the scenes, including some of the original marchers from Derry
2002 - An international report ranks Ireland 28th in the top 30 healthiest countries - behind Slovenia, Malta, the Czech Republic and Portugal
2002 - At an international conference in Co. Antrim, Dr Andrew Cooper of the University of Ulster warns that Ireland is shrinking. Every year an estimated 750 acres of coastline is swallowed up by the sea and the situation is likely to get worse unless urgent action is taken
2003 - Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue launches the Value Menu Restaurant Guide which will offer meals at record low prices.
Participating pubs, restaurants and hotels will give customers the choice of meals at fixed prices of €10, €20 and €30.
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of the Annunciation to Our Lady.

March 26
1787 - The Tumultuous Risings Act imposes penalties for rioting and for interference with the collection of tithes
1838 - William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian and philosopher, is born in Blackrock, Co. Dublin
1854 - Harry Furniss, caricaturist, is born in Wexford
1856 - William Massey, New Zealand statesman and Prime Minister from 1912 to 1925 is born in Limavady, Co. Derry/Londonderry
1922 - An IRA anti-treaty army convention announces it will no longer accept the authority of Free State Minister for Defense Richard Mulcahy
1931 - Death of Tim Healy, former Home Rule politician and first Free State Governor-General
1999 - SDLP leader, John Hume reveals that he intends to donate all of his £280,000 Nobel Peace Prize money to charity and victims of violence in Northern Ireland
2000 - A German couple miraculously escape with their lives when the light plane they are flying crashes to the ground at Galway Airport
2001 - Violence erupts at a number of demonstrations against the ASTI teachers’ strike
2002 - Hillary Rodham Clinton makes her first official visit to Ireland as a US Senator. The trip is to promote trade between Dublin and New York state
2002 - The Farm and Speciality Food Market at St George's, Belfast Ireland's becomes the first group to win the top prize in the Ballygowan/Irish Food Writers' Guild Food Awards.
2007 - DUP leader Ian Paisley and and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams commit themselves to forming a powersharing executive by May 8th after engaging directly for the first time at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair hail this first meeting and agreement as a historic, reconciliatory and transforming moment in British-Irish history.

March 27
1599 - Robert Devereux becomes Lieutenant-General of Ireland
1625 - Charles 1 becomes king of England, Scotland and Ireland
1650 - Kilkenny surrenders to Cromwell
1725 - The first number of Faulkner's Dublin Journal is published
1766 - First publication of The Vicar Of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
1782 - A Whig administration comes to power in Britain
1839 - Birth in Glenavy, Co. Antrim, of John Ballance, Prime Minister of New Zealand. The eldest son of a tenant farmer, John is not interested in farming and goes to Belfast to stay with his uncle. At eighteen, he goes to Birmingham and earns a living in the ironmongery business. At twenty-four, he marries Fanny Taylor. Her poor health encourages the couple to leave for New Zealand in the hope that the better climate would help her. John establishes the Evening Herald, later called the Wanganui Herald. During the Maori Wars of the 1860s, his editorials in the Herald often challenge aspects of military policy relating to land disputes with the local Maori. His activities as a journalist lead quickly and easily to a career in politics. He enters Parliament in 1875 and make his reputation in the spheres of the economy and land use. He holds office as Colonial Treasurer (1878), as Minister of Lands, Native Affairs and Defence(1884-7) and as Liberal Premier (1891-3). He has good relations with the Maori people and solves many of the land problems they face. He is instrumental in giving women the vote making New Zealand the first country in the world to do so
1872 - Mary MacSwiney - Maire Nic Shuibhne - Irish patriot, is born. Educated in the Ursuline Convent, she later trains as a teacher at Cambridge University. She teaches in Cork where she becomes a founding member of the Munster Women's Franchise League and a member of the Gaelic League. In 1914, she helps found Cumann na mBan and becomes president of the Cork branch for which she is interned after the 1916 Rising. As a result of her imprisonment, MacSwiney loses her job as a teacher and in 1917 she and her sister Annie found St. Ita's School for girls in Cork City where all subjects are taught in Irish. In 1917, she joins Sinn Féin and in 1918 she is elected to the First Dáil for Cork. MacSwiney is Vice-President of Cumann na mBan when that organisation votes 419 to 63 against supporting the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. MacSwiney is appointed to the Cabinet of the Second Dáil in 1922 and is twice imprisoned during the Civil War, undergoing a twenty-one day hunger-strike in Mountjoy Gaol and a twenty-four day hunger-strike in Kilmainham Gaol
1999 - A major rail disaster is averted by the quick reactions of a train driver, when a 40ft articulated lorry ploughs through a bridge and falls onto the railway tracks below — straight into the path of an on-coming train. The train driver manages to stop the train — carrying an undisclosed number of passengers — just 200 yards from the crashed truck
2001 - Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble kicks off his election campaign outside his party headquarters in Belfast with a massive poster of himself
2001 - The cross border cull of thousands more sheep in the south Armagh north Louth areas, where Ireland’s only two cases of foot and mouth have occurred, gets underway
2002 - A copy of the Cork Examiner, a golf club, flowers and national media awards are among gifts presented at the funeral of one of Ireland's best known newsmen. More than 1,000 people pack the Church of the Immaculate Conception, The Lough, Cork, to pay their last respects to Fergie O'Callaghan, editor of the Cork Examiner for 18 years before his retirement in November 1994.

March 28
1646 - Peace between the confederates and James Butler, the Marquis of Ormond and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, leads to a split within the confederation, i.e. between confederates and royalists
1719 - John Cairnes, son of David Cairnes, former MP for the city of Londonderry, is killed in a duel in Newcastle, England
1772 - An Act to repress Steelboy disturbances in five Ulster counties is passed
1820 - Sir William Howard Russell, war correspondent, is born in Tallaght, Co. Dublin
1874 - Joseph McGarrity, Irish patriot, is born in Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone
1879 - Terence MacSwiney, Irish patriot and Lord Mayor of Cork, is born
1881 - Birth of Martin Sheridan, "the world’s greatest athlete", in Bohola, Co. Mayo. Although largely unpublicised, Sheridan’s achievements in field athletics undoubtedly put him amongst the greats: in three successive Olympics he wins 5 gold medals, 3 silver and 1 bronze, and sets up 16 world records
1932 - Birth of Richard Burke, Fine Gael politician and EC Commissioner
1944 - Birth of Nell McCafferty, journalist and feminist, in Derry/Londonderry
1955 - John Alderdice, Alliance Party leader, is born in Ballymena
1957 - Death of Patrick "Jack" B. Yeats, Ireland's leading painter of the 20th century
1970 - Easter rising commemorations lead to rioting and the first fighting between the British army and Provisional IRA
2000 - Wildcat action by certain SIPTU rail workers in support of their National Bus and Rail Union colleagues quickly exacerbates the dispute; as the strike appears to worsen, commuters can expect another day of chaos in getting to work. On a lighter note, sales of bicycles in Dublin have soared
2001 - The Government expresses serious concern about another potential outbreak of suspected foot and mouth in Co Louth
2003 - A Dublin woman pays 8,500 euros for two tickets for Ireland’s Grand Slam showdown with England. With interest in the game at fever pitch, Ann Higgins secures her seats for one of the biggest games of the year during a charity auction on the Marian Finucane Show.

March 29
1613 - A charter incorporates Derry as the city of Londonderry and creates the new county of Londonderry
1793 - Charlotte Brooke, author of Reliques of Ancient Irish Poetry, dies
1850 - The SS Royal Adelaide sinks in a storm with the loss of 200 lives
1859 - First publication of The Irish Times
1869 - James MacNeill, Governor-General of the Irish Free State from 1928 to 1932, in Glenarm, Co. Antrim(May have been March 27)
1873 - Peig Sayers, Blasket Island storyteller, is born in Dunquin, Co. Kerry
1898 - The Registration Act allows women and peers to vote in local government elections 1901 - James Stephens, Fenian leader, dies
1913 - Birth in Dublin of actor Niall MacGinnis 1924 - Charles Villiers Stanford, composer/writer, dies
1933 - Birth in Belfast of singer Ruby Murray. In the early part of 1955 Murray has five singles in the Top 20 at the same time, an extraordinary record that lasts until the emergence of Madonna in the 1980s. A few of Murray's many hits include 'Let Me Go Lover', 'Real Love', 'Goodbye Jimmy, Goodbye' and 'You Are My First Love'
1998 - Provisional IRA chiefs meet to discuss their ceasefire which has been rocked by the defections of up to a dozen Provo volunteers who quit the organisation to join the hard-line Continuity IRA
1998 - A fresh debate on film censorship is set to erupt with the new edition of Lolita being submitted to the censor, Séamus Smith
1999 -The IRA agrees to identify the graves of nine of the 20 disappeared persons, murdered and buried in secret since 1970; but their leadership holds out on decommissioning
1999 - Fishing skippers sign contracts for 17 new ultra modern fishing vessels valued at almost £30 million under the Government's whitefish fleet renewal programme
2000 - A live grenade, dating back to either the First World War or the War of Independence, is found in a ditch just yards from the entrance gate to a secondary school in Cork. The Mills 36 grenade is rendered harmless in a controlled explosion by army bomb disposal experts from Collins Barracks
2001 - Members of Louth County Council bring in goats for burial after being shot by Irish Rangers in the Cooley Mountains to help contain the spread of foot and mouth disease.
2001 - Many major tourist attractions reopen to the public with the easing of restrictions due to the foot and mouth disease scare
2001 - A new survey, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that out of 22 Western countries, Ireland lies third behind the US and Poland for illiteracy rates
2002 - During a simple, poignant service in Dublin's Unitarian Church, 3,600 victims of the Northern Ireland conflict are remembered
2007 - U2 frontman Bono accepts an honorary knighthood from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with one condition — “don’t call me Sir”. The award is in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music and humanitarian work. The front man believes his new title — Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) — will help him secure talks with world politicians to advance the battle against Third World debt. “An award like this actually really helps me get through a few doors I wouldn’t get through and that’s the truth, that’s the way the world is,” he says.

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