Irish History - October 5 - 11

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

October 5
1731 - Parliament meets at the new parliament house in College Green for the first time
1873 - Leslie Montgomery, comic writer under the pseudonym Lynn C. Doyle, is born in in Downpatrick, Co. Down
1878 - New York Gaelic Society is formed
1911 - Birth of Brian O’Nolan, aka Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen in Strabane, Co. Tyrone
1923 - Birth of Philip Berrigan - militant priest, Virginia, Minn
1924 - John Joe Barry, athlete who is known as 'the Ballincurry Hare', is born
1938 - Frank Patterson, tenor, is born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
1954 - Bob Geldof, rock musician and charity organizer, is born in Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
1968 - Police clash with Derry civil rights marchers, giving birth to the civil rights organization People's Democracy
2000 - With pressure growing on Trimble to withdraw from the Northern Ireland power sharing executive, parliamentary colleague William Thompson, the West Tyrone MP is quoted as saying ‘‘He is on the skids and he cannot survive’
2000 - In one of the largest operations in the history of the State, over 150 gardaí and officers from the FBI search a warehouse and distribution center. At the centre of the investigation is a Shannon based company that is alleged to have sold counterfeit aircraft parts to aircraft maintenance and repair facilities
2000 - Ireland's ban on tobacco advertising stands despite the decision by the European Court of Justice to knock down an EU wide ban
2000 - Michael Collins who wrote The Keepers of Truth and Brian O’Doherty who wrote The Deposition Of Father McGreevy are among the six authors shortlisted for Britain’s Booker Prize
2000 - The World Windsurfing Grand Prix is held in Ireland for the first time
2000 - Midleton Distillery in Co. Cork wins the Distillery of the Year award
2001 - Former NI First Minister David Trimble announces plans to go to the House of Lords after failing to overturn a ruling that his ban on Sinn Fein ministers attending cross-Border meetings is illegal
2001 - Ten thousand rail travellers are delayed when Dublin's Heuston railway station closed because of a bomb alert
2003 - First Sunday edition of the Star newspaper is published.

October 6
1175 - Under the Treaty of Windsor, concluded on this date, Rory O'Connor recognizes Henry as his overlord and agrees to collect tribute for him from all parts of Ireland. Henry agrees that O'Connor can be king of the areas not conquered by the Normans. But O'Connor cannot control the territories of which he is nominally king, and Henry and his barons annex further land without consulting him
1216 - The union of the diocese of Glendalough with that of Dublin, having been promulgated by Pope Innocent III last year, is confirmed by Pope Honorius III
1649 - Owen Roe O'Neill dies
1798 - Grattan removed from Irish Privy Council, falsely charged with being a sworn member of United Irishmen
1891 - Death of Charles Stewart Parnell, champion of tenants rights and co-founder of the Land League; often called the "Uncrowned King of Ireland"
1901 - Birth of C. S. 'Todd' Andrews, revolutionary and public servant, in Dublin
1903 - Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton is born at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. He and Sir John Douglas Cockcroft were awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles
1928 - Death of Galway man Pádraic Ó Conaire, who was among the first writers to develop a new modern literature in the Irish language
1928 - Maeve Kyle, athlete and hockey player, is born in Kilkenny
1948 - Birth of Gerry Adams
1970 - Opening of the arms trial involving Charles Haughey
1980 - Mella Carroll, first female judge in the Republic, is appointed
2000 - It is announced that John Monks, a pig farmer from Cloughran, north Dublin who died last year, left almost £8 million in his will; he accumulated the vast sum from selling land to developers
2000 - The High Court grant gardaí the right to detain Slobodan Milosevic if he sets foot in Ireland
2002 - Some of the highest tides in a century are set to swamp the Irish coastline this week, prompting flood contingency plans in a number of high-risk areas.

October 7
1731 - A complaint is made to the House of Commons 'that Mr Anthony Tenison did, in a violent and notorious manner, assault John Bourke, Esq., a Member of this House, by presenting a pistol to his breast, and threatening to shoot him, on the thirtieth of December last'
1878 - Birth of Margaret (Gretta) Cousins, Irish women's rights activist.
1910.- Premiere of Percy French’s play The Immigrant’s Letter
1919 - A cabinet committee is appointed to consider Irish self government
1935 - Birth of Thomas Kineally, Irish-Australian author of Schindler’s List which was originally called Schindler's Ark
1968 - Death of Margaret Mary Pearse, Irish language educator
1998 - The Bank of Ireland announces an unprecedented 20-year fixed rate of 6·99% within the first of a wave of interest cuts that will bring Irish rates into line with Europe for the introduction of the euro on January 1
1999 - The Corrs and The Divine Comedy emerge as Ireland’s favourite music stars winning three awards each at the Hot Press Rock Awards in Dublin. U2's "Sweetest Thing" wins for "Best Single"; Westlife picks up the prize for best Irish pop act; and Robbie Williams’s sell out concert at The Point Theatre, Dublin, wins him best live performance by an international act
1999 - Ireland moves a step closer to raising the recruitment age of the armed forces from 16 to 18
1999 - Aiming to raise awareness of world poverty, The Corrs and chartered accountants KPMG jointly launch the NetAid web site
2000 - The tenants of a Dublin inner city community refuse to leave their houses after been evicted. The tenants of 28 cottages - - almost all single mothers - block access to their homes when they go up for viewing to prospective buyers
2001 - The 46th Murphy's Cork Film Festival opens with a showing of Disco Pigs which was partly filmed in the city
2002 - Police in Northern Ireland are attacked with bottles and other missiles after a crowd of youths go on the rampage through Kilkeel, Co. Down
2002 - The peace process faces its gravest crisis with the announcement that Ian Paisley’s DUP two ministers will withdraw from the government
2002 - A man is shot and critically wounded in east Belfast in what is believed to be an escalation of a bitter feud between the Loyalist paramilitary groups, the UDA and UVF.

October 8
1822 - Birth in Dublin of Richard D'Alton Williams. He is educated at Carlow Academy and studies medicine at Saint Vincent's Hospital, Dublin. He becomes a member of the Young Ireland movement and contributes poetry to The Nation under the pseudonym 'Shamrock'. In 1848, he is tried for treason for articles he publishes in the Irish Tribune, but he is successfully defended by lawyer and fellow poet Samuel Ferguson
1949 - Edith Oenone Somerville, Irish novelist, dies in Castletownshend, Co. Cork.In her late twenties, she meets her second cousin Violet Florence Martin who writes under the pseudonym Martin Ross. They become lifelong companions and literary partners, collaborating on a series of humorous novels about the rural Irish gentry. Their most important literary achievement is their novel The Real Charlotte which is published in 1894
1959 - Birth of musician Gavin Friday
1962 - Kerrygold butter is launched on the world market
1974 - Seán MacBride, President of the International Peace Bureau, Geneva, Switzerland, and President of the Commission of Namibia, United Nations, New York, USA, is awarded a half share of the Nobel Peace Prize
1998 - Minister for Defence, Michael Smith TD strongly defends his decision to close down six army barracks after several delegates stage a walk-out at the PDFORRA conference in Ennis, Co Clare
1999 - Rosmoney Shellfish of Co. Mayo is crowned as Ireland’s Best Oyster Grower in the 1999 BIM Guinness Quality Oyster Awards
1999 - On the grounds of Belfast City Hall, a six-foot statue is dedicated to the memory of the late James Magennis. He is finally honoured in his native Belfast 54 years after he was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry during the Second World War
2000 - Catholic bishops begin a three-day meeting in Maynooth during which they will attempt to reach agreement on the ordination of lay people as deacons
2000 - More than 40,000 jubilant supporters turn out to welcome the victorious Co. Kerry football team and the Sam Maguire Cup back to the Kingdom
2001 - Northern Ireland's political institutions are plunged into a new crisis as Ulster Unionists begin a phased withdrawal of ministers from the power-sharing executive
2002 - Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams claims that the raid on his party’s Stormont offices last week is a plot to throw the peace process into crisis
2002 - Catholic Bishops back the Nice Treaty, stating there is a stronger case for voting in favour than against.

October 9
1651 - The Navigation Act provides that goods imported to any Commonwealth lands shall be carried in English ships only
1849 - First tenant protection society established at Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
1913 - Birth of golfer Harry "The Brad" Bradshaw near Delgany, Co. Wicklow
1968 - Champion racehorse, Arkle, is retired to see out the rest of his days in Bryanstown, Kildare
1974 - Death of poet and playwright Padraic Fallon. He was born in Athenry, Co Galway in 1905. His only collection during his lifetime, "Poems" was published a few months before his death
1978 - Birth of Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne in Dublin. Better known as Nicky Byrne, singer with the boyband Westlife
2000 - The Dinn Ri, Carlow Town, Co. Carlow, scoops the Black & White Pub of the Year Award for a third time
2001 - Nearly 450 jobs are lost as the economic fallout from the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US continues to hit home. More than 1,600 workers at Waterford Crystal are also preparing for a complete shutdown next week for five days
2002 - SDLP Leader Mark Durkan urges the British and Irish Governments to do everything possible to minimise the damage to the Good Friday Agreement. Following talks in Downing Street with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Durkan acknowledges that the power-sharing government in Stormont may have to be suspended after allegations of an IRA spy ring operating within the Northern Ireland Government
2003 - The famous cranes at Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyard, which dominate the city's skyline, are listed as historic monuments to ensure their preservation.

October 10
1084 - Patrick, Bishop of Dublin, dies in a shipwreck
1711 - The Linen Board meets for the first time
1771 - During his visit to Ireland, Benjamin Franklin attends a meeting of the House of Commons on this date
1790 - Birth in Co. Tipperary of Fr. Theobald Matthew, “The Apostle of Temperance” and campaigner against alcohol
1819 - Birth in Templemore, Co. Tipperary of Charles Stanley Monck, the first Governor General of Canada
1865 - Magee College is opened as a combined arts and Presbyterian theological college in Derry/Londonderry
1899 - Irish Transvaal Committee is formed to aid Boers against the English
1899 - Eoin O Grownley, Irish language scholar, dies
1969 - The Hunt Committee Report on Ulster police recommends abolition of the B-special troops and the creation of the Ulster Defence Regiment
1971 - Birth in Cork of Roy Keane, football player for the Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and the Republic of Ireland
1981 - The Fureys reach no. 14 in the British charts with When You Were Sweet Sixteen
1990 - RTÉ reports on the closure of Phoenix Park Racecourse
1998 - THE IRA and Sinn Féin embark on a series of secret talks with Protestant churchmen and community leaders in a bid to prevent the peace process and the new Northern Ireland Assembly foundering
2000 - Taooiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair signal the start of a concerted attempt to rescue the faltering Northern Ireland peace process
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern joins the ranks of the publicly contrite world leaders when he finally apologises to three journalists for the tapping of their telephones in the early '80s
2002 - After 22 years at the National Museum in Dublin, an eighth-century silver chalice, silver paten and stand and a decorated bronze strainer ladle are returned to their original resting place at the monastic site of Derrynaflan, near Littleton Bog, Co Tipperary.

October 11
1649 - Massacre at Wexford when the town falls to Cromwell
1703 - John Asgill, newly elected MP for Enniscorthy, is expelled from the Irish parliament on this date on account of a pamphlet he published in Dublin in 1698, arguing that man may pass into eternal life without dying. The pamphlet is burned by the common hangman. He will spend much of the rest of his life in prison in England, for blasphemy or for matters arising from land speculation in Ireland
1741 - Birth of James Barry, painter, in Cork
1921 - Anglo-Irish negotiations open with Griffith and Collins leading the Irish delegation
1922 - The Irish Constitution for the Free State, drafted by the Thomas Cosgrove Dáil, is adopted
1974 - Adoption of the Celtic League American Branch
1999 - Hospitals begin scaling down their services after nurses vote overwhelmingly to go on strike
1999 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pays tribute to Mo Mowlam’s courage and understanding after it emerges that she is leaving her Northern Ireland post
2000 - In an historic move, Ireland’s Bishops vote at the autumn meeting of the Irish Bishop’s Conference in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth to seek the permission of Pope John Paul II to establish a Permanent Diaconate in Ireland. What this means is that Irish men will be ordained as deacons in the Catholic Church within the next five years and will have powers to officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals
2002 - Eamon Dumphy announces he will quit his popular radio drive-time show “The Last Word” on Today FM
2002 - Geraldine Kennedy is appointed editor of The Irish Times and becomes the first female editor of a national daily newspaper In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St. Chainnigh.

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