Irish History - September 21 - 27

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.


September 21
1170 - MacMurrough and the Normans march on the Norse kingdom of Dublin, avoiding an Irish force that awaits them to the south of it. Dublin falls to them on this date. Some Norsemen, including the king of Dublin, Askulv, flee to the Hebrides or the Isle of Man
1601 - A Spanish army under Don Juan del Aguila lands at Kinsale
1703 - The first Irish parliament of Queen Anne is called; Alan Brodrick is unanimously elected Speaker
1728 - Philip Embury, founder of the American Methodist Church, is born in Ballingrane, Co. Limerick
1745 - The Jacobites are victorious at Prestonpans
1795 - 'Battle of the Diamond' between (Protestant) Peep o' Day Boys and (Catholic) Defenders near Loughgall, Co. Armagh leaves 30 Defenders dead and leads to the foundation of the Loyal Orange Institution (later the Orange Order) '...to defend the King and his heirs as long as they shall maintain the Protestant ascendancy'
1827 - Michael Corcoran, Union General, is born in Co. Donegal
1881- Revolutionary Éamonn Ceannt, is born in Glenamaddy, County Galway
1909 - Artist Tom Carr is born is Belfast
1932 - Birth of Mariga Guinness, née Princess Hermione Marie Gabrielle von Urach, Countess Württemberg; co-founder of Irish Georgian Society
1949 - The Republic of Ireland soccer team beats England 2-0 at Goodison Park - England’s first defeat by a foreign side
1981 - Death of author Christy Brown
1999 - Delegations from the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Féin meet at Stormont for their first direct talks in two months
1999 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pledges support for Arafat and the Palestinians
2000 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern condemns the missile attack on the MI6 HQ in London
2000 - Gardaí arrest a man in connection with the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar in O’Connell Street, Dublin, 34 years ago
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announces that Ireland will put its airports, airspace, refuelling facilities and garda intelligence at the disposal of the US in the battle against terrorism.
2006: Golfing history on Irish soil.
The Ryder Cup officially opens at the K Club in Co. Kildare. It is the first time golf's premier team tournament has come to Ireland and to date, it is the biggest sporting event ever staged in the country.

September 22
1601 - Battle of Kinsale
1626 - Charles I offers twenty-six concessions ("graces") to the Irish in return for subsidies to expand his army
1798 - Colonel Trench marches from Castlebar and takes Ballina
1821 - Patrick Moore, Confederate General, is born in Galway
1864 - Col. James Mulligan, who commanded "Mulligan's Irish Brigade," dies of wounds sustained at the 3rd Battle of Winchester
1884 - The gunboat HMS Wasp is wrecked off Tory Island, Co. Donegal, with the loss of 52 lives; there are eight survivors
1920 - Mid-Clare Brigade, IRA, kill six policemen near Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare
1928 - The first professional artist ever to appear on British television, Irishwoman Miss Peg O’Neil, gives "a charming entertainment, chatting and smiling, and telling Irish stories." The broadcast takes place at Olympia on the first day of the Radio Exhibition
1943 - Robert Ballagh, artist, is born in Dublin
1998 - RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan announces further reductions in the level of British troop patrols
1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pushes for a decommissioning timetable from the IRA
1999 - Ferry sailings resume following unofficial 24 hour strike action by SIPTU members which disrupted sailings out of Dublin and Rosslare, affecting almost 1,000 passengers
2001 - High-ranking British and Spanish diplomats join President McAleese and Britain's Prince Andrew to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Kinsale
2002 - David Trimble calls on all IRA members to quit the paramilitary organisation and join its political wing to save the Northern peace process.

September 23
1586 - At the battle of Ardnaree in Co. Mayo, Sir Richard Bingham, governor of Connacht, surprises a force of redshanks (Scottish mercenary light infantrymen) engaged by the Burkes of Mayo; 1,000 redshanks and 1,000 camp followers are killed. Bingham hangs the leaders of the Burkes
1641 - The Gaelic Catholics of Ulster stage an uprising against the Scottish Presbyterian planters
1798 - Second Battle of Killala. Final surrender of combined French and Irish forces to the English
1970 - Sir Arthur Young announces his resignation as chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
1992 - The IRA destroys Belfast's forensic science laboratory with a huge bomb
2001 - Kevin Boland, who resigned from the Fianna Fáil Government during the 1970 Arms Crisis, dies after a short illness. He was the son of Gerald Boland, a 1916 veteran, confidant of Eamon de Valera, and long-time FF government minister; his uncle was the celebrated War of Independence hero, Harry Boland
1999 - Bob Geldof, Bono and other members of an international lobby group meet with Pope John Paul II to discuss the cancellation of third world debt repayments
2002 - The Listowel Races in Co. Kerry begin. For the first year in its history, which dates to 1858, it will be a seven-day meeting.

September 24
1661 - Faithful Tadpole is admitted as a clerical vicar choral of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
1725 - Sir Arthur Guinness is born in Celbridge, Co. Kildare
1786 - Birth of Charles Bianconi, Irish passenger-car entrepreneur
1798 - United Irishman, Bartholomew Teeling, is hanged in Dublin
1801 - James Moore O'Donell, former MP for Ratoath, is killed in a duel with Major Denis Bingham in a feud over Co. Mayo politics
1880 - Mayo agent, Captain Charles Boycott, was sent to a 'moral Coventry.' He described his plight in a letter to The Times: "...people collect in crowds upon my farm and order off all my workmen. The shopkeepers have been warned to stop all supplies to my house. My farm is public property, I can get no workmen to do anything, and my ruin is openly avowed as the object of the Land League unless I throw up everything and leave the country"
1944 - Birth in Dublin of Eavan Boland, a poet who helped develop Arlen House, a feminist publishing company
1959 - Ireland's first Ban Garda recruit - woman police-officer - is introduced to RTÉ listeners
1998 - Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne admits that the Real IRA leaders who ordered the Omagh bombing will probably never be prosecuted
1998 - First Minister David Trimble and his deputy Séamus Mallon are divided over the set-up of the Assembly's power-sharing Executive
2000 - Boy band Westlife makes British pop history by becoming the first act to have six consecutive number one singles.

September 25
1697 - During William III's reign, Catholic clergy are banished by Act of Parliament
1819 - George Salmon, mathematician and professor of divinity, is born in Cork
1880 - Viscount Mountmorres is killed near Clonbur, Co. Galway
1917 - Thomas Ashe dies in the Mater Hospital in Dublin from the combined effects of a hunger strike and forced feeding at Mountjoy Jail. The following famous and much repeated Sean O’Casey quote "You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea... you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build." was made on the subject of the death of Thomas Ashe
1961 - Ronnie Whelan, Home Farm, Liverpool, Reading and Republic of Ireland footballer, is born in Dublin
1983 - 38 IRA prisoners break out of the Maze prison, 19 succeed in escaping
1999 - Sam Tamsanguan from Wilton’s Restaurant in London wins the world oyster opening championship title at the 45th annual Galway Oyster Festival
1999 - Protestant civil rights marchers blatantly defy a Belfast City Council ban to lay a wreath at the cenotaph to the victims of the Troubles during the so-called Long March
2000 - Sonia O'Sullivan wins a silver medal in the 5,000 meters at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia
2002 - Saying "He is no longer acceptable in our organisation," Loyalist chief Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair is dumped by the leadership of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association.

September 26
1289 - 'All men of good will to the king', both Irish and English, in Munster and Leinster are summoned to Buttevant in Leix (Queen's County). A ten-day expedition which begins on this date, subdues and forces the local Irish into an uneasy peace
1713 - Charles Lucas, physician, MP and political radical, is born in Ballingaddy, Ennis, Co. Clare
1902 - James Dillon, politician and Fine Gael leader is born in Dublin
1930 - Saor Éire, a republican/socialist party, is founded by Peadar O'Donnell, Seán MacBride and other IRA members; it, the IRA and ten other organizations are declared illegal in the Free State on 23 October, and the Catholic Church excommunicates members of all 12 organizations. Saor Éire is soon dissolved
1932 - De Valera opens the 13th Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva
1957 - Shamrock Rovers become the first League of Ireland team to play in the European Cup — they lose 6-0 to Manchester United
1997 - U2 plays its first-ever show in Greece, in the city of Thessaloniki
2000 - Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble warns that the Good Friday Agreement could vanish over plans for new policing arrangements and the IRA’s failure to disarm
2000 - Financier George Finbar Ross, whose Gibraltar-based International Investments company went bust in the mid-eighties owning millions to Irish investors, is cleared of the bulk of the charges against him
2001 - Thousands of teachers will be docked up to £500 each because of industrial action they took prior to last year's State exams
In the liturgical calendar, today is Feast day of St. Colman.

September 27
1662 - An "act for encouraging Protestant strangers and others to inhabit and plant in the kingdom of Ireland" is passed in the Irish Parliament under Charles II
1725 - Patrick Darcy, scientist and soldier, is born in Kitulla, Co.Galway
1891 - Charles Stewart Parnell makes his last public appearance at Creggs, Co. Galway
1926 - Tim O'Keeffe, publisher, is born in Kinsale, Co. Cork
1954 - Brian Mullins, Dublin Gaelic footballer, is born in Dublin
1957 - Launch of the Royal Showband 1971 - Heath, Lynch and Faulkner meet for talks at Chequers
1973 - The first in an annual series of ecumenical conferences is held at Ballymascanlon, Co. Lout and is attended by representatives of al the main churches
1998 - Tony Blair calls for a crisis meeting with David Trimble, Seamus Mallon and Gerry Adams to try to break the deadlock which has arisen over the decommissioning of arms
1998 - Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson announce they will donate a six-figure libel payout to a memorial fund for the victims of the Omagh bomb massacre
1999 - The Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute opens in Thurles, Co Tipperary 2000 - Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams accuses David Trimble of attempting to manufacture another artificial crisis in Northern Ireland
2000 - Thirty-three years after it was made, censors lift the ban on a film adaptation of James Joyce’s epic novel Ulysses
2001 - British Airways announces it is to close its Belfast-Heathrow route with 160 job losses. BA's decision also means it will suspend its daily service to Gatwick from Shannon and Cork 2001 - Entrepreneur Denis O'Brien is ordered to leave the Oireachtas committee inquiring into the CIE rail signalling project after telling Deputy Seán Doherty he is unfit to be its chairman.

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