Irish History - November 9 - 15

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

November 9
1711 - The first Irish parliament of Queen Anne is dissolved
1791 - Napper Tandy convenes the first meeting of Dublin's United Irishmen
1875 - Sir Hugh Lane, art collector and critic, is born in Ballybrack, Co. Cork
1926 - Birth in Dublin of Hugh Leonard, pseudonym of John Keyes Byrne, playwright
1935 - Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their currach founders
1966 - Jack Lynch becomes leader of Fianna Fáil
1999 - Ireland’s most accomplished mountaineer, Pat Falvey, conquers Ama Dablam in the Himalayas
2000 - The largest prison outside Dublin, the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, goes into operation. It was built at a cost of £43m and boasts the most advanced technology and the highest standards of prisoner accommodation in the State
2000 - Martin McGuinness accuses David Trimble and Ulster Unionist cabinet colleagues of jeopardising the Good Friday Agreement’s political institutions with their ban in a bid to force progress on IRA disarmament.

November 10
1728 - Birth in Pallas, Co. Longford of Oliver Goldsmith, playwright, novelist and poet
1783 - National Volunteer convention on parliamentary reform begins at the Rotunda in Dublin
1795 - Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, student and promoter of Mexican antiquities, is born in Cork
1798 - Theobald Wolfe Tone tried and convicted of treason
1813 - Thomas Lloyd, son of John Lloyd, former MP for King's County and Innistiogue, is killed at the head of his regiment at the passage of Nivelle in south-west France
1832 - Charles Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Killowen; lawyer and Lord Chief Justice of England, is born in Newry, Co. Down
1841 - Death of Sister Catherine McAuley, founder of the order of the Sisters of Mercy
1861 - In Dublin, thousands turn out to view the coffin of Terence Bellew MacManus, Young Irelander who died in poverty in San Francisco
1879 - Padraig Pearse, Irish revolutionary and one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion, is born
1896 - Lady Mary Heath, née Sophie Catherine Pierce, pioneer aviator and athlete, is born in Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick
1902 - Leon Ó Broin, writer and public servant, is born in Dublin
1966- Fianna Fáil's Jack Lynch replaces Seán Lemass as Taoiseach
2002 - Ireland and Sunderland soccer star Niall Quinn announces his retirement from club football.

November 11
1171 - Henry II holds his court in Dublin from this date to 2 February 1172
1718 - Birth of Thomas Waite , MP and Under Secretary for the Civil Department: pillar of the Irish administration 1747-80
1873 - Birth of Daniel Daly, double Medal of Honor winner in Glen Cove, NY
1880 - Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger and son of Tipperary transportee, is hanged in Melbourne
1887 - Birth of John M. Hayes in Murroe, Co. Limerick; priest and founder of Muintir na Tíre
1918 - World War I ends
1919 - The first edition of the Irish Bulletin is published
1923 - Birth of F.S.L. Lyons, historian and biographer
1941 - Birth of Eddie Keher, Kilkenny hurler and winner of six All-Ireland medals
1998 - Paddy Clancy, Irish folk musician dies
1999 - The peace process is on a knife edge after Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble fails to get his Assembly members to support the latest proposals for a route to devolution
1999 - Dublin confirms itself as Europe’s most vibrant music capital as an estimated 300 million people tune in to the sixth MTV Europe Music Awards live from The Point
2000 - A massive fault on an ESB 110kv powerline results in a nationwide power surge, triggering the automatic shutdown sequence at the State’s only oil refinery
2002 - IRA intelligence-gathering in Belfast is smashed open by one of the biggest police investigations in Northern Ireland in the last decade
2002 - A huge temple, once surrounded by about 300 huge posts made from an entire oak forest, is discovered directly beneath the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath.

November 12
1798 - In the early morning hours on the day he is due to be executed, it is discovered that Wolf Tone has inflicted a deep wound in his neck; a French emigrant surgeon is called in, closes the wound and reports that, "as the prisoner had missed the carotid artery, he might yet survive, but was in the extremest danger." Wolf Tone on hearing this prognosis is quoted as saying: "I am sorry I have been so bad an anatomist."
1934 - Birth of John McGahern, known primarily for his novel, The Dark
1971 - RTÉ bans several patriotic ballads including Dublin In The Green and The Patriot Game
1998 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) announced it has made a commitment to an "act of decommissioning" within weeks. The announcement comes following the British Government decision to recognise the organisation's ceasefire
1998 - Prompted by the loss of more than £60m every year because of the negative impression created by the raucous vulgar nature of stag-hen parties in Temple Bar, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce announces plans to ban them
2000 - O´gra Fianna Fáil votes to support blanket ban on abortion

November 13
867 - Death of Pope Nicholas I
1643 - Charles I appoints James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormond as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1726 - At Clonmel, Joseph Slattery, MP for Blessington, dies from wounds received in a duel with Stephen Moore, MP for Fethard
1923 - Leonard Boyle, priest and palaeographer, is born in Donegal
1998 - Paddy Clancy of the Clancy Brothers is laid to rest in Faugheen cemetary, Carrick-on-Suir
1999 - Environmentalists warn that Killarney’s picture postcard Lough Lein is in danger from pollution
2000 - A report on the status of the Irish language in Loughrea Co. Galway indicates there are Irish speakers in 362 of the 500 households who returned questionaires. The report also shows 91% of the town’s people want Irish language names for housing estates and 88% want more Irish used in signposts and public notices. All Irish education was also overwhelmingly accepted with 91% supporting the recently opened Gaelscoil Riabhach
2000 - Clamping of illegally parked vehicles goes into effect for the first time in Galway city centre
2000 - Former Secretary of State Dr Mo Mowlam is chosen Ireland’s International Person of the Year. She secures the accolade for her enormous contribution to the quest for peace
2001 - RTÉ announces it is to become the first broadcaster in Europe to provide an on-screen aid to warn viewers of programmes containing sex, violence or foul language
2001 - Irish troops walk out of the gates of Camp Shamrock - ending more than two decades of peacekeeping duty in Lebanon.The camp is handed over to a contingent of troops from Ghana
2002 - A major fire in a Dublin industrial complex continues to blaze more than 16 hours after flames are first spotted
2002 - The Irish and British governments invite the north's political parties to take part in talks at Stormont to try to ease the crisis in the peace process
In the liturgical calendar, it is the Feast day of St. Kilian of Aubigny. In the 7th century, he becomes the only Irish person in the entire history of the Church to be offered the Papacy; he declines the honour.

November 14
1669 - St. Oliver Plunkett becomes Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
Image: Head in bronze by Peter Grant
1832 - Birth near Letterkenny, Co. Donegal of Stopford Brooke, chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria, writer and literary critic
1873 - Michael Healy, stained-glass artist, illustrator and painter, is born in Dublin
1907 - Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, Irish arctic explorer, dies
1913 - Official founding date of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers
1918 - Seumas O'Kelly, playwright, novelist , short story writer , and journalist, dies
1921 - Roy McFadden, poet, is born in Belfast
1923 - W.B. Yeats receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
2000 - Teachers begin the first of eight planned days of industrial action. More than 4,200 teachers take to the picket lines in Dublin in pursuit of their 30% pay claim. Over 620 secondary schools are closed as a result of the strike
Image: Esther Griffin on picket line duty outside St. Marys Secondary School, Mallow, Co.Cork. 2000 - Irate business leaders renew calls for competition on the railways as up to 50,000 commuters are left stranded by the 24 hour strike involving 138 train signal staff
2002 - Restoration work on a fountain built near Dublin in memory of Queen Victoria is halted following threats made by suspected republican paramilitaries against men carrying out the job
2002 - Ireland's first cancer patient retreat and help centre opens outside Mullingar in Co. Westmeath
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Laurence O’Toole, the first Archbishop of Dublin and the city’s patron saint. It is on this date in 1180 that he dies at Eu in Normandy.

November 15
1881 - William Pearse, brother of Patrick, is born in Dublin
1923 - Birth of Tom Clifford, rugby player, in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary
1945 - Petrol for private cars goes on sale in the State again for the first time since before the War
1968 - Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE) retires its last dray horse
1985 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) at Hillsborough Castle. It it is considered to represent the most significant development in the relationships between Britain and Ireland since the partition settlement in 1920. The Agreement is an international treaty lodged at the United Nations and supported by the House of Commons and Dáil Éireann
1998 - Bridget Dirrane, who was imprisoned with Kevin Barry and who canvassed for John F. Kennedy in the United States, celebrates her 104th birthday with news that she is to be featured in the new edition of the Guinness Book of Records. Earlier this year, Bridget received an honorary Master of Arts degree from NUI Galway which makes her the oldest person in the world to be awarded a degree
1999 - Gardaí order the cancellation of a lecture by British revisionist historian David Irving after 600 anti-fascists stage a protest at the University of Cork
2000 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is placed in a political minefield on the abortion issue as a Dáil committee fails to agree on the way forward. He now faces demands from the four Independents to hold a referendum on the issue
2000 - The Northern peace process is plunged into crisis when Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams announces the party will mount a legal challenge to David Trimble’s ban on its ministers attending North South meetings
2001 - Jacob's Bakery celebrates its 150th anniversary with the launch of a book detailing its history, "Jacob's Bakery - Limited Twiglets." The author, Séamas O´ Maitiú, jokes that the working title was Quaker Bakers go Crackers. The famous bakery was founded in 1851 by two Quaker brothers from Waterford, William and Rober Jacob
2002 - The number of people on waiting lists for local authority houses is set to soar following government spending cutbacks. Fresh figures show the number of applicants waiting for social housing has reached 50,000 - a 25% increase in just three years
2005 - The only remaining medal from the first All-Ireland, one of the rarest pieces of GAA memorabilia goes up for auction at Sotheby's in London.

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