Irish History - February 10

This day in Irish History the following occurred:

February 1o
1844 - Daniel O'Connell is convicted of "conspiracy," fined and sentenced to 12 months in prison
1852 - William O'Brien, writer and nationalist, is born in Mallow, Co. Cork
1889 - Richard Piggott is exposed as forger of 'Times' Phoenix Park letters
1907 - Death of Dublin- born journalist, Sir William Howard Russell
1926 - Danny Blanchflower, footballer, is born in Belfast
1965 - The Lockwood Committee Report on higher education in Northern Ireland is published
1998 - It is feared that a new wave of tit-for-tat sectarian terror will hit the North after the murder of Robert Dougan, a leading loyalist, outside a textile company near Belfast
1998 - Suspected SLVF leader, Mark "Swinger" Fulton, survives a murder attempt in Portadown, Co. Armagh
1998 - Northern Secretary Mo Mowlam and Ulster Unionist security spokesman Ken Maginnis agree to bury the hatchet in their bitter personal row, which threats to overshadow the Stormont talks process
1998 - Republican and security sources in the North clash amid allegations that IRA members behind the murder of top Belfast drugs dealer Brendan Campbell and fears it could lead to Sinn Fein's expulsion from the Stormont talks
1999 - Bertie Ahern's minority Coalition suffers another blow to its stability when Fianna Fáil backbencher, Beverly Cooper-Flynn, chooses to back her father, Padraig Flynn, rather than the Government in a crucial Dáil vote
1999 - A potentional major tragedy is averted when over 100 mine-workers ar lifted to safety after a fire 1,150 feet below the ground at Tara Mines, Navan
2000 - David Trimble meets with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin
Photo Credit: Maxwells/Dublin
2002 - Children from Belfast's troubled Holy Cross school arrive in Connemara for what promises to be a welcome break. The three-day holiday is a gift from the proprietor of Peacockes Hotel at Maam Cross in Galway
2003 - A dissident republican bomb attack on Enniskillen prompts calls for the British government to put on hold any plans to scale down army installations in the North.

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