Irish History - January 12

This day in Irish History the following occurred:

January 12
1709 - Birth of Benjamin Burton, politician and Revenue Commissioner
1729 - Edmund Burke, orator, statesman and philosopher, is born in Arran Quay, Dublin
1765 - The Kinsale by-election caused by the death of John Folliott on this date is contested by Agmondisham Vesey and Richard Meade. Vesey wins by 64 votes to 48, but pays a price for being elected: William Dennis, vintner, receives £80 for Mr Vesey's entertainment. Three other innkeepers receive a total of £76 3s 6d for providing 'drink for Mr Vesey's health' and a further £14 9s for beer to the populace. His election agent, James Dennis, spends £46 12s 2d to send a coach and post-chaise to Dublin to collect voters. Vesey spends a further £12 7s 10d on 'a notice to disqualify John O'Grady as a Papist from voting'. Ben Hayes, fiddler, is paid £5 13s 9d. Vesey's election breakages bill amounts to £7 8s, exclusive of fines for 'a crowd of broke heads and crakt limbs'. James Kearney (a future MP for Kinsale) spends £16 4s 3d to bring voters to Kinsale on Vesey's behalf: this includes a post-chaise and hospitality on the four-day journey
1885 - Thomas Ashe, patriot and nationalist revolutionary, is born in Lispole, Co. Kerry
1887 - Molly Allgood, actress (stage name Máire O'Neill) and fiancée of Synge, is born in Dublin
1930 - Birth of Jennifer Johnston, author of How Many Miles to Babylon and The Railway Station Man
1947 - Matt Molloy of the Chieftains is born
1947 - Micheal O'Siadhail, poet and linguist, is born in Dublin
1951 - Birth of Steve Travers, surviving member of the Miami Showband massacre, and managing director of CAT Entertainments
1993 - A Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition government is formed, with Reynolds as Taoiseach
1998 - Political master strokes by Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair breath new life into the Northern peace process with a blueprint for peace which could replace the Anglo-Irish Agreement with a three-stranded government for the North
2000 - Despite the controversy over the book, Limerick people turnout in huge numbers to attend the sell out film premiere of Angela’s Ashes.

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