Irish History - January 20

This day in Irish History the following occurred:

January 20
1621 - Patents are granted for plantations in parts of Leitrim, King's County, Queen's County and Westmeath
1841 - James Armour, Presbyterian minister and political activist is born in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim
1902 - Kevin Barry, medical student and nationalist revolutionary, is born in Dublin
1902 - In the House of Commons, John Redmond criticizes the use of concentration camps by the British in South Africa
1916 - Secret negotiations result in alliance of the Irish Citizen Army with the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1961 - John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as president of the United States of America, becoming the first Irish Catholic to be elected to that office
1968 - Birth of Charlie Swan, jockey
1973 - Whiskey In The Jar by Thin Lizzy enters the British charts
1998 - Hope remain high that the IRA ceasefire will hold despite escalating violence in the North and Sinn Féin's implacable opposition to the Anglo-Irish blueprint
1999 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force announces plans for a second round of arms decommissioning which could include the handover of explosives
1999 - One of the world's biggest software piracy investigations identifies over 6,000 Internet sites in Ireland copying and promoting illegal software
2000 - According to a major international survey, Ireland is one of the least corrupt countries in the industrial world
2002 - Rioting erupts on the streets of north Belfast as angry mobs throw petrol bombs and blast bombs at police.

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