Irish History - April 27 - May 3

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

April 27
1696 - Act 'for encouraging the linen manufacture of Ireland': Irish linen gains duty-free access to the British market on this date
1739 - Lord Barry of Santry is tried by his peers in the parliament house for the murder of his former servant Laughlin Murphy in August 1738. They unanimously find him guilty, but recommend him to the royal mercy. The Lord Lieutenant endorses this plea, and Santry is pardoned under the great seal on 17 June. His estates, which had been forfeited for life, will be restored in 1741
1827 - Mary King Ward, Irish naturalist and astronomer is born
1880 - The Royal University of Ireland is founded by charter
1891 - The first ever Irish musical comedy, The Irish Girl, written by Percy French and William Collisson, is staged at the Queen’s Theatre, Dublin
1904 - Cecil Day-Lewis, poet, novelist, critic, and Ireland's poet laureate from 1968 to 1972, is born in Ballintogher, Co. Sligo
1920 - Georgina Frost wins a legal battle to allow her to be clerk of the petty sessions for Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare; she is thus the first woman to hold public office from central government in the UK
1923 - De Valera announces end of operations against the Irish Free State, effectively ending the Irish Civil War
1937 - The Most Rev. Robert Eames, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, is born
1953 - Maud Gonne McBride dies in Roebuck, Clonskeagh, and is later buried in Dublin in the Glasnevin Cemetery
1966 - Farmers protest against low milk prices; 28 are arrested in Dublin
1998 - Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, forecasts an end to the RUC in its present form. His prediction comes following a 55-minute review with Tony Blair in Downing Street of critical issues arising from the Good Friday settlement
1999 - Legal history is made when the country's first ever convicted gangland murderer, self-confessed drugs dealer and gang boss Joseph Delaney, is jailed for life
2001 - Ireland's foremost literary town officially opens a permanent home for its famous wordsmiths and their works. A 19th century Georgian house, in the heart of Listowel, has become the Kerry Literary and Cultural Centre, where life-size models and audio-visual presentations help portray the personalities and output of various writers. The £1.5 million centre is appropriately named Seanchaí after the art of storytelling and in recognition of the folklore and traditions that inspire great literature.

April 28
1714 - Sir Wentworth Harman, MP for Lanesborough, 'coming in a dark night from Chapel-Izod, his coach overturning, tumbled down a precipice, and he dies in consequence of the wounds and bruises he received'
1794 - Rev. William Jackson, agent of French revolutionary government, is arrested in Dublin
1864 - Birth of William Ellison, clergyman and the sixth director of the Armagh Observatory. On his appointment in 1918, he donates the original late nineteenth-century telescope to the Observatory - an 18-inch Newtonian reflector, made by the famous English telescope maker George Calver; for many years it is one of the largest telescopes in Ireland. During the 1920s and 1930s, Ellison and others use the telescope for observations of the planets and for taking spectral images of the stars, using a spectroscope to split the starlight into its constituent colours
1875 - Teresa Kearney, better known as Mother Kevin, missionary and founder of Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Africa, is born in Knockenrahan, Co. Wicklow
1922 - Nicky Rackard, Wexford hurler, is born in Killane, Co. Wexford
1936 - The Daíl introduces a bill awarding pensions to the Connaught Rangers who mutinied in India in 1920
1943 - Andrews resigns as Northern Ireland Prime Minister and is succeeded by Sir Basil Brooke, later Lord Brookeborough
1969 - Terence O'Neill resigns as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He is succeeded by Chichester Clark
1992 - Death of Dublin-born artist Francis Bacon
1998 - Some 30 years after waiting on Eamonn De Valera and literary luminaries of the day in the Great Southern Hotel in Galway, 57-year old Rita Gilligan from Bohermore is presented with an honorary MBE by UK Culture Secretary, Chris Smith,at London's Hard Rock Cafe where she has worked as a waitress for 27 years
1999 - Ireland's largest convoy packed with 200 tonnes of relief supplies for Kosovar refugees leaves Dublin for Albania
2000 - It is announced that 100 free bicycles will be placed on the streets of Dublin for the Heineken Green Energy Weekend. The free bicycles will be placed outside Trinity College, outside Dublin Castle and at the top of Grafton Street and will be available to anyone wishing to cycle around the city to take in the atmosphere of the Festival

April 29
1653 - Birth of John Whally, necromancer and charlatan
1665 - Birth of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde and an ancestor of Princess Diana. The Dublin-born Irish general becomes one of the most powerful men in the Tory administration, governing England in the early part of the 18th century - from 1710 to 1714
1680 - The first stone of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham is laid by the Duke of Ormonde
1758 - Wide Streets Commission for Dublin is appointed by the Irish Parliament
1769 - Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman, is born in Dublin
1803 - Paul Cullen, prelate, is born in Prospect, Co. Kildare
1874 - Conal O'Riordan (pseudonym 'F. Norris Connell), writer and theatre manager, is born in in Dublin
1916 - Pearse orders surrender of the Easter Rising rebels on this date. Approximately 64 rebels have been killed, 132 crown forces, and 230 civilians. 2,500 people have been wounded; the centre of Dublin has been devastated by the shelling
1938 - Birth of Ray McSharry, Fianna Fáil politician and EU Commissioner
1941 - Birth of Jonah Barrington, squash player, in Cornwall; a student at Trinity in the late 1950s / early 1960s, it's where he started to play squash; one of the greatest squash players of all time, he is considered to be the father of the modern professional game
1954 - Kevin Moran, football player for Dublin Gaelic, Manchester United, Sporting Gijon, Blackburn Rovers and Republic of Ireland, is born in Dublin
1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis, best actor Oscar winner for My Left Foot, is born
1986 - Seamus McElwaine, IRA-terrorist, is killed
1998 - Triple Olympic champion Michelle De Bruin comes out fighting in response to the most serious drugs-linked threat to her glittering swimming career
1999 - Governor General of Australia, Sir William Deane, is to be conferred with an honorary degree at Trinity, and is the guest of honour at the first state dinner held at Dublin Castle under President Mary McAleese's term
2001 - The Irish Council for Civil Liberties celebrates the 25th anniversary of its foundation
2001 - Des O'Malley pledges his co-operation to a new inquiry into the Arms Crisis of 1970 and challenges Charles Haughey to do the same. Mr O'Malley strongly defends his role as Justice Minister during the turbulent events surrounding the most controversial trial in the State's history
2001 - A monument is unveiled in Inniscarra, Co Cork, in honour of an Ulster chief who could have changed the history of Europe if he hadn't been killed in battle. Chief of Fermanagh, Aodh Mag Uidhir (Hugh Maguire) is shot dead during an ambush in 1600 at Carrigrohane before the Battle of Kinsale the following year, which sees the last struggle for an independent Gaelic Ireland fail. "Maguire was a great strategist, and some believe that had he survived, the result of the Battle of Kinsale might have been different, changing the course of European history. He was the Rommel of the 1600s," says Seán O´ Ceallacháin of the Hugh Maguire Commemoration Committee
2003 - Thornton’s Restaurant in Dublin ranks 25th in Restaurant magazine’s latest list of the top 50 restaurants in the world.

April 30
1428 - Sir John Sutton, Lord Dudley, is appointed lieutenant for two years from this date; he has some success against the various rebels
1795 - Rev. William Jackson of the United Irishmen returns from France, unaware that his travelling companion, John Cockayne, is a spy; Jackson is arrested and found guilty of high treason; he commits suicide in the dock by taking poison
1942 - Because of petrol rationing, all private motoring in Ireland is banned, and bicycle thefts soar overnight
1951 - The first demonstration of television in Ireland is held at the Spring Show in the RDS, Dublin
1970 - "B-Specials" reserves within the Royal Ulster Constabulary formed to contain violence in 1933 (but notoriously violent in their own right) are disbanded
1998 - Michelle de Bruin, whose career has been almost destroyed by claims of drug abuse since her Olympic wins, has never been under suspicion, FINA, the international swimming authority admits
1999 - Lord Killanin, the man credited with saving the Moscow Olympics in 1980, is laid to rest. Many of the leading lights of the world of sport, business and politics in Ireland are present as the remains are buried in the family vault at the New Cemetery in the Bohermore area of Galway city
2001 - According to Dr. Vincent Maher, consultant cardiologist at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, has the highest rate of heart disease in the EU - claiming up to 14,000 victims each year. Lower income households are particularly at risk because of their diet, he says
2002 - Hopes that 325 workers at the Ardagh glass plant in Ringsend, Dublin, could keep their jobs are dashed with a surprise closure announcement by management
2003 - The Russell family decide to sell Dunkathel House, situated on 150 acres on Cork city fringes. The 220-year-old Georgian-style mansion has been open to the public, and is one of the most prominently-sited period homes in the greater city area, overlooking the Jack Lynch tunnel and River Lee at Glanmire. It carries a €15 million price guide.

Happy First Day of the Celtic Summer!
May 1 Beltaine
1169 - A small party of Normans arrives at Baginbun and establishes a bridgehead for further invasions
1170 - Arrival of Normans in Co. Wexford. Arrival of Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, subsequently known as 'Strongbow'.
1171 - Diarmaid MacMurrough, king of Leinster, dies in Ferns, Co. Wexford; Strongbow is his (disputed) successor (MacMurrough's remaining legitimate son, Connor, has been executed while a hostage of Rory O'Connor)
1316 - Records indicate that around this date, Robert Bruce has himself crowned king of Ireland near Dundalk
1654 - Transplantable landowners are ordered to move to Connacht by this date; this deadline is then put back to 1 March 1655
1650 - William King, archbishop, theologian and Williamite, is born in Antrim
1672 - Birth of Joseph Addison, poet and dramatist; Chief Secretary to Lord Lieutenant Wharton 1708-10; MP for Cavan Borough 1709-13
1697 - The Bishops' Banishment Act passed on 25 September,1696, requires most Catholic clergy to leave the kingdom by this date, and bans Catholic clergy from entering it - the Act will never be efficently enforced
1780 - Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin, teacher and diarist, is born in Killarney, Co. Kerry
1794 - Catholics are enabled by law to attend Trinity College
1786 - The Belfast Academy is opened; it becomes the Belfast Royal Academy in 1887
1803 - James Clarence Mangan, poet, is born in Dublin
1823 - Oliver Harty, Baron de Pierrebourg, of Co. Limerick, Lieutenant-General in Napoleon's army, retires
1854 - Songwriter, entertainer and painter, Percy French, is born in Cloonyquin, Co. Roscommon. One of his many famous songs is "The Mountains of Mourne"
1919 -Birth of Dan O'Herlihy, actor; film credits include Fail Safe, Last Starfighter, Robocop
1975 - General election is held to a constitutional convention on Northern Ireland
1984 - Séan nos singer, Joe Heaney, dies
1998 - Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, urges Gerry Adams, to get the IRA to accept that there would have to be arms decommissioning if progress in implementing the Good Friday agreement was to be made
2000 - Nobel Laureate and SDLP leader John Hume is awarded the freedom of Derry at a reception in the city’s Guildhall
2001 - Limerick is tops for pub grub after one of the city's trendiest bars picks up the coveted Club Orange/Licensing World Pub Lunch award. In a business worth an estimated £1million a day, the Thomas Street premises, Auburs, beat off stiff competition from 11 monthly winners to become Ireland's leading purveyor of pub lunches
2003 - The month of April goes into the record books as one of the warmest for the last 100 years. At Valentia Observatory and Malin Head the temperatures recorded for the month were the highest since 1893.

May 2
1332 - Sir Anthony Lucy's campaign in Munster ends on this date
1656 - Birth of Sir Richard Levinge, Tory politician and Speaker of the House of Commons
1788 - An Act on this date repeals tests imposed on Protestant Dissenters
1794 - United Irishman Archibald Rowan escapes from custody and eventually makes his way to America
1806 - John Jones, sculptor, is born in Dublin
1858 - Birth of Edith Oenonne Somerville, novelist most famous for Some Experiences Of An Irish R.M written in collaboration with her cousin Violet Martin (also known as Martin Ross); in 1903, she becomes the first female Master of Foxhounds in Corfu
1884 - Birth of William Casey, dramatist and Times editor
1882 - Charles Stewart Parnell is released under the terms of the "Kilmainham Treaty"; writing off the debts of tenants in arrears. A landmark in the land agitation movement (and Parnell's career).
1921 - Lord FitzAlan of Derwent becomes the first Catholic lord lieutenant since the 17th century; he will be the last lord lieutenant
1923 - Birth in Milltown Malbay, Co. Clare of Patrick Hillery, surgeon, politician and former president from 1976 to 1990. He negotiates Ireland's entry into the European Community in 1973 and is later E.C. vice president for three years
1929 - The Fianna Fáil proposes a motion to retain the Land Annuities. It is defeated in the Dail
1945 - Eamon de Valera offers his condolences to the German Ambassador, Edouard Hempel, on the death of Adolf Hitler
1954 - Soccer great, Sammy McIlroy, is born
1957 - Death of Fr. Aloysius Roche, Irish patriot. During the 1916 Easter Rebellion, he and Frs. Albert, Augustine and Dominic bring spiritual aid to the Volunteers in the numerous garrisons and outposts throughout Dublin. Following Padraig Pearse's surrender on 29 April, Fr. Aloysius spends the next day carrying the surrender order to the main garrisons on the south side of the city. In the early hours of the morning of 3 May, Fr. Aloysius administers the last sacraments to Pearse, MacDonagh and Thomas, the first three leaders of the Rising to be executed; on May 7, Fr Aloysius accompanies James Connolly by ambulance from Dublin Castle to Kilmainham Jail for execution and stands behind the firing squad as they fire the final volley
1958 - Birth of David O'Leary, footballer for Arsenal, Leeds United and the Republic of Ireland footballer; Leeds United manager
1970 - Birth of soccer star, Steve Morrow
1982 -T he Irish government affirms its neutrality in the Falklands conflict between the UK and Argentina, and opposes EEC sanctions against Argentina
2000 - Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, arrives at Number 10 Downing St, London where he and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair are hosting talks aimed at trying to breathe fresh life into the flagging Northern Ireland peace process. The two premiers will have separate meetings with the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the SDLP to see if they can find a way to overcome the deadlock over devolution and decommissioning
2001 - Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness confirms publicly for the first time that he was the IRA's second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday. The admission prompts a swift call from the Ulster Unionists for Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams to come clean about his IRA past
2003 - The Rolling Stones set a new Irish box office record when more than 16,000 tickets for their Dublin concerts sell within two minutes.

May 3
1714 - Sir Wentworth Harman, MP for Lanesborough, dies from the wounds he receives in a carriage accident on April 28
1785 - The Irish Academy, later to become the Royal Irish Academy, meets for the first time
1903 - Bing Crosby, descendant of Irish immigrants, is born in Tacoma, Washington, as Harry Lillis Crosby
1915 - Birth in Galway of novelist Walter Macken
1916 - Patrick Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail
1921 - IRA troops under Tom Maguire fight off 600 English troops in Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo
1924 - The world premiere of Sean O’Casey’s Juno And The Paycock took place at the Abbey Theatre
1928 - Fianna Fáil petition with 96,000 signatures, calling for referendum to abolish the Oath of Allegiance rejected by Government which instead abolishes the plebiscite clause in the Constitution
1933 - Dáil passes an act removing the Oath of Allegiance from the constitution
1938 - Birth of Robert O'Driscoll, writer and professor of English
1999 - Swimmer Michelle de Bruin's hopes of salvaging her reputation and career nosedive with new allegations that a urine sample contains traces of a banned stimulant
1999 - RTÉ launches their 24-hour classical music station Lyric FM.

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