February 5
1811 - Maurice Lenihan, journalist and historian, is born in Waterford
1820 - Death of William Drennan; physician, poet, educator and political radical, he was one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen. He is also known as the first to refer in print to Ireland as "the Emerald Isle". Burial takes place in Clifton Street burial-ground in Belfast and, according to his will and with deliberate symbolism, his coffin is borne to the grave by three Catholics and three Protestants
1880 -The Irish Rugby Football Union is founded in Dublin
1960 - The Gael-Linn film Mise Éire - I am Ireland - with music by Seán " Reada, has its first public showing
1961 - The Sunday Telegraph begins publication
1967 - The Musicians' Union bans the Rolling Stones's Let's Spend The Night Together from Eamonn Andrews' television show
1998 - It is announced that the Ulster Democratic Party, which was suspended from the Northern talks in the wake of Ulster Freedom Fighters-orchestrated sectarian killings, will not be granted a reprieve in time for the upcoming Dublin Castle negotiations
1999 - The French arrive in force in Dublin for tomorrow's Five Nations clash at Lansdowne Road
2001 - Extra British troops are deployed in an attempt to prevent further loyalist pipe bomb attacks on Catholic homes in north Belfast
2003 - A 120-strong 12th Infantry Battalion from Sarsfield Barracks is sent to Shannon to beef up security at the airport. The troops will remain until the threat of further attacks on military planes abates
2003 - The trial of three Irishmen charged with training members of the FARC guerilla movement resumes in Bogota, Columbia.
2006 - Former Bishop of Galway Eamonn Casey returns to Ireland after 14 years in exile. The cleric fled the country after he admitted to fathering his son, Peter.
Today
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February 6
1685 - Coronation of King James II
1877 - John O'Mahoney, Irish patriot, dies in New York City
1900 - John Redmond is elected leader of the Irish Party
1918 - The silent film version of Charles Kickham's popular novel Knocknagow, about life in a Tipperary village, is shown for the first time
1933 - 2RN is superseded by Radio Athlone
1971 - In Belfast, Robert Curtis becomes the first British soldier to be killed by the Provisional IRA
1998 - The European Commission launches an investigation into the FAI's refusal to allow Wimbledon football club to move to Dublin which could trigger a revolution in Irish and European soccer
1998 - Dr Kieran McCarthy, a marine specialist in the Zoology Department at UCG expresses fears that a uniquely Irish species of fish - pollan - which is found in only four fresh water lakes is being threatened by the vigorous spread of zebra mussels
2000 - A continuity IRA bomb explodes at a County Fermanagh hotel less than 24 hours before the Ulster Unionist Party’s Ken McGuinness is due to visit
2001 - Over 8,000 homes in the south of the country are left without power after a severe electrical storm and high winds wreak havoc
2001 - For the first time in three decades, Ireland’s first Eurovision winner Dana is back in the famous contest’s spotlight as she takes to the stage to introduce the entertainers at the Dublin launch of Eurosong 2001
2002 - The jinx on famine replica ship, the Jeanie Johnston, continues as the High Court grants an order against the owners and all persons claiming an interest in the ship
2002 - Pharmacists vow to fight Health Minister Micheál Martin through the courts to stop plans for industry deregulation
2003 - The Northern Secretary, Paul Murphy, returns Johnny Adair to prison alleging he had been involved in directing terrorism, drug dealing, extortion, money laundering and procuring and distributing guns.
2011 - Renowned rock guitarist Gary Moore dies in a hotel room while on holiday in Spain. Originally from Belfast, he was a former member of the legendary Irish group Thin Lizzy. Sir Bob Geldof pays tribute saying "Moore was "without question, one of the great Irish bluesmen. His playing was exceptional and beautiful. We won't see his like again."
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History
February 7
1873 - Death in Dublin of Joseph Sheridan LeFanu. Journalist, novelist, and short story writer, he is often called the father of the modern ghost story. Although Le Fanu was one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era, he is not so widely read anymore. His best-known works include Uncle Silas (1864), a suspense story, and The House by the Churchyard (1863), a murder mystery. His vampire story 'Carmilla,' which influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula, has been filmed several times
1875 - Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, mining engineer, philanthropist, art collector and the first honorary citizen of Ireland, is born in New York
1877 - John O'Mahony, founder of the Fenian Brotherhood in US, dies in New York
1940 - Birth of Harold McCusker, unionist politician, in Lurgan, Co. Armagh
1959 - Birth of Mick McCarthy, Barnsley, Manchester City, Celtic, Olympic Lyonnais, Millwall and Republic of Ireland footballer; Millwall and Republic of Ireland manager
1991 - The IRA fires at least three mortar bombs at 10 Downing Street; they fail to detonate
1998 - A burst of Dear Old Skibbereen shatters the stillness as GAA star Michael McCarthy is laid to rest in his West Cork hometown
1999 - The British Government urges David Trimble and Gerry Adams to agree to some sort of compromise in a bid to end the paramilitary disarmament deadlock
1999 - Two Irish soldiers are hospitalized after being hit by shrapnel from a heavy 120 mm mortar explosion in crossfire between the Southern Lebanese Army and Hizbollah guerrillas
2001 - More than 3,500 passengers are affected by the cabin crew pay strike at Shannon Airport
2002 - The Cranberries announce that proceeds from their new single, Time is Ticking Out, will be donated to the Chernobyl Children's Project
2002 - One elderly woman, in line at St Patrick's Church in Ringsend, Dublin for a ,1,000 cheque for flood damage, had all her possessions with her - in just one bag. She is just one of hundreds of homeowners who benefit after the Archdiocese of Dublin donates hundreds of ,1,000 cheques to victims of the recent flooding in the city
2003 - Northern Secretary Paul Murphy says he is hopeful the Executive in the North will be up and running again by March 17 once a series of intense roundtable talks are completed.
Today
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February 8
1872 - Captain John Philip Nolan, a supporter of home rule and tenant rights, defeats Conservative William Le Poer Trench in a Co. Galway by-election
1999 - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams refuses to rule out the possibility his party will take legal action to secure the early release of Garda Det. Jerry McCabe's killers when the anger surrounding the case dies down
2000 - Boyzone's Keith Duffy is officially declared Ireland's sexiest man by a prestigious panel of judges. Keith won out over an impressive list of handsome hunks, including Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne, Fine Gael deputy Ivan Yates, actor Noel Pearson and Esat multi millionaire Denis O’Brien. Dancer supreme Michael Flatley, comedian Brendan Carroll and the inimitable Jackie Healy Rae TD also feature on the sexiest list
2000 - US President Bill Clinton makes it clear to the Irish and British Governments he is ready to become actively involved in trying to save the Northern Ireland government if needed
2000 - The Northern Ireland peace process is plunged into further crisis following the disclosure that the UVF is planning a country wide purge against the renegade LVF
2000 - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams issues a stark warning that he is ready to walk away from the Northern Ireland peace process if the Government re-imposes direct rule from Westminster
2001 - A man is injured by an explosive device amid heightening fears of fatalities in an escalating campaign of loyalist pipe bomb attacks on Catholic families in Northern Ireland
2002 - Dissident republicans are believed to be behind a bomb attack at an army training centre in Co Derry which left a civilian security guard critically injured
2003 - Deposed loyalist terror boss Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair suffers a final humiliation when a new paramilitary regime is officially installed in his west Belfast stronghold.
February 9
1731 - Birth of Sir Lucius O'Brien, opposition politician; he will eventually be described as 'a man who disagrees with the rest of mankind by thinking well of himself'
1903 - Charles Gavan Duffy, the first editor and proprietor of The Nation newspaper, dies in Nice
1932 - The Army Comrades Association is formed; later to be called the National Guard and nicknamed the 'Blueshirts'
1923 - Birth in Dublin of playwright Brendan Behan
Photo Credit: P. J. Clarkes
1926 - Birth of Irish statesman, Dr. Garrett FitzGerald. Former Prime Minister. He serves as the Prime Minister of Ireland from June 1981 to March 1982 and again from December 1982 to March 1987. During his time in office he attends more than 20 European Council meetings and at different times serves as President of the Council of Ministers and the European Council of Heads of Government. He is currently a member of the Council of State and an active Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, which comprises four of the State's seven universities. Dr. Fitzgerald is also a lecturer, consultant, company director and writer. He is the author of six books, the most recent being "Reflections on the Irish State"
1983 - A nationwide hunt begins following the kidnapping of prize stallion and 1981 Derby winner Shergar from the Aga Khan's stables in Co. Kildare
1996 - IRA ends ceasefire with London Docklands bombing, killing two and injuring 100
1998 - Claremorris show jumper, Carl Hanley receives the Irish Field National Award at the Annual Awards Ball in Dublin
1998 - Ulster Unionist rebels planning to overthrow leader David Trimble confirm there is "widespread concern" at the political direction of the party following revelations of a possible leadership challenge next month
1998 - Nationalist politicians in the North respond angrily to a consultative paper described as the most far-reaching British government review of police accountability for 30 years
2000 - Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson issues a direct appeal to the IRA to start disarming in order to save the peace process from collapse
2001 - Limerick man Michael Noonan is elected leader of Fine Gael.
2007 - Death of author Ben Kiely, one of Ireland’s best acclaimed writers and journalists at the age of 87. Born between Drumskinny in Co Fermanagh and Dromore, Co Tyrone and a former pupil of Mount St Columba Christian Brothers School in Omagh, his career spans six decades and produces many short stories and novels, as well as his autobiography Drink to the Bird: An Omagh Boyhood.
Photo Credit: Omagh Government
2011 -The last sketch by artist Jack B Yeats, drawn while he lay dying in a Dublin nursing home, sells at auction in London yesterday for £5,760.
Roundabout Ponies far exceeded its estimate of £1,500- £2,000 at the inaugural Irish Sale at Bonhams, the New Bond Street fine art auctioneers.
February 10
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.
2011- Six confirmed dead as plane crashes at Cork airport. The Manx2 airline flight from Belfast to Cork overturned and caught fire while making a third attempt to land. The twin turboprop plane was due to arrive in Cork at about 9.45am. There was heavy fog in the area at the time.
Photo Credit: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
2011 - A painting by Irish-born artist Francis Bacon painting sells at auction at Sotheby’s in London for £23 million (,27.2 million) - more than three times the pre-sale low estimate. The triptych, Three Studies For A Portrait Of Lucian Freud, was painted in 1964 and shows Bacon’s friend and fellow artist with a variety of facial expressions. The painting was sold by a private collector and was bought by an anonymous buyer in the packed saleroom after seven minutes of intense bidding by more than 10 people from four different continents
February 11
1774 - Death of Jacob Poolem antiquary, in Growtown, Co. Wexford
1858 - The Miracle of Lourdes takes place when St Bernadette - Bernadette Soubirous - has her first vision of the Virgin Mary
1926 - Rioting greets the Abbey Theatre performance of Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars because of what is viewed as anti-Irish sentiment. Yeats tells the audience 'You have disgraced yourselves again'
Photo Credit: Culver Pictures, Inc.
1959 - Catherine White is born in Columbus Ohio, USA.
1992 - After Haughey's resignation as Taoiseach, he is succeeded by Albert Reynolds on this date
1998 - The mother of Stephen Restorick, the last British soldier killed in Northern Ireland, says she is "saddened" by the decision of a member of John Hume's party to boycott a memorial service in the Co. Armagh village where her son died
2000 - A new de Chastelain report on the IRA arms decommissioning impasse identifies a real prospect of agreement
2003 - Dissident republicans opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland warn of new bomb attacks.
Today
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February 12
1722 - Thomas Burgh, MP for Naas, and Richard Stewart, MP for Strabane, receive the first £2,000 of £8,000 from the Irish parliament for operating their colliery at Ballycastle, Co. Antrim
1782 - The right of habeas corpus is introduced in Ireland
1820 - The ships East Indian and Fanny, with about 350 Irish emigrants aboard, leave Cork for Cape Colony, carrying some of the "1820 settlers"
1848 - John Mitchel publishes first United Irishmen
1923 - Birth in Castledawson, Co. Derry/Londonderryof James Chichester-Clark, Northern Ireland Prime Minister from 1969 to 1971
1930 - The first Free State Censorship Board is appointed
1945 - Jimmy Keaveney, Dublin Gaelic footballer, is born in Dublin
1949 - Fergus Slattery, rugby player, is born in Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
1971 - Delia Murphy, ballad singer, dies
1976 - Frank Stagg, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in English prison
1989 - Patrick Finucane is murdered by Unionist assassins; Finucane, who acted as solicitor for republican hunger striker Bobby Sands was shot dead at his north Belfast home in front of his wife and children
1998 - The IRA insists that their ceasefire is still in place " despite "speculation surrounding recent killings in Belfast"
1998 - It is confirmed that Ireland has one of Europe's top economies and our ability to compete globally outstrips Germany and France
1999 - President Mary McAleese says Pope John Paul has told her, in their private meeting at the Vatican, he is considering a return visit to Ireland
1999 - Literary legend John B. Keane discloses that he is back writing again after a four-year break due to illness
1999 - A new political storm rages after Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams predicts that the North would be moving toward a united Ireland in 15 years time
2002 - Health Minister Micheál Martin vows to press ahead with further restrictions on smoking in pubs, despite opposition from publicans
2002 - Two Dublin film companies are nominated for Oscars in the Best Animated Short Film category and Donegal singer/songwriter Enya is nominated for best song with May It Be, from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack
2003 - Irish musicians are hoping their plea to stop US military aircraft refuelling at Shannon will strike the right chord with the Government. More than 50 top acts have signed an open letter which will be sent to the Taoiseach asking him to end the refuelling stopover at the airport
2003 - Mystery surrounds the identity of an artist as 24 of his paintings are launched at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Known only as “John the Painter”, he has been in psychiatric care in Cork city for more than 30 years
2003 - Talks between the Taoiseach, the British Prime Minister and Northern politicians conclude in Hillsborough Castle, Co Down.
Today
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History
February 13
1689 - William and Mary - daughter of James II - are proclaimed king and queen jointly
1820 - Leonard McNally, lawyer and English informer, dies
1871 - Joseph Devlin, Belfast Nationalist, is born
1864 - Stephen Lucius Gwynn, writer and nationalist, is born in Dublin
1898 - Frank Aiken, revolutionary and politician from Co. Armagh, is born
1938 - Larry Cunningham, country singer, is born in Granard, Co. Offaly
1956 - Birth in Dublin of Liam Brady, former soccer international
1998 - It is announced that Irish Embassy staff in Riyadh and Tel Aviv, the Saudi and Israeli capitals, are being kitted out with special suits to protect them against nuclear, biological or chemical weapons
1998 - Ireland's electricity industry, one of the last bastions of the closed market, takes a historic step towards open competition when Enterprise Minister Mary O'Rourke inspects the site of a Finnish-owned peat-fuelled generating station in Offaly
2001 - Kosovar refugees living in Tralee and Waterford celebrate their right to become Irish citizens, almost two years after they first arrived in Ireland. A total of 140 Kosovar refugees, displaced as a result of an ethnic war in their homeland, are to be allowed live in Ireland permanently on humanitarian grounds
2002 - It is announced that John Rocha is to become the first Irish designer to receive a CBE award for his long-standing contribution to the fashion industry
2003 - Nearly10,000 people are forced to find an alternative way of getting to work in Dublin when Dart services are disrupted by a major overhead line fault.
2011 - Actor, TP McKenna, well known for his stage, film and television work, dies in London following a long illness. The 81-year-old, who was born in Mullagh, Co. Cavan, died on Sunday evening. He had established himself as one of the finest and most versatile actors of his generation, on stage, television and in film, in a career spanning half a century.
Following several years on the stage he began appearing in television dramas from the 1960s including 'Dangerman', 'Adam Adamant', 'The Avengers', 'The Saint', 'Jason King', 'The Sweeney', 'Blakes 7', 'Doctor Who' and 'Minder' .
Today
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February 14
1629 - Valentine Greatrakes - or Greatorex - a physician who is known as the 'touch doctor', is born in Affane, Co. Waterford
1700 - A subsidy is authorized to Louis Crommellin for establishing a linen industry
1792 - Pianist and composer John Field gives his first public performance at the Rotunda in Dublin
1853 - The Queen Victoria sinks in a storm off Howth, with the loss of 55 lives
1856 - Frank Harris, writer and journalist, is born in Galway
1878 - Daniel Corkery, writer, critic and Irish cultural enthusiast, is born in Cork
1895 - Birth in Tipperary of Revolutionary, Sean Treacy
1951 - Alan Shatter, Fine Gael politician, is born in Dublin
1981 - The Stardust Ballroom in Artane, Dublin goes up in flames; 48 young people are killed and more than 100 are injured
1999 - The Provisional IRA calls a halt to 'rough justice' in a move which is being seen as a concession to the on-going peace process in Northern Ireland
2000 - Four Irish soldiers are killed in a tragic road accident in South Lebanon
2000 - Castlecove, Co. Kerry wins two prizes in the Nations in Bloom competition, held in Hamamatsu, Japan, overcoming challenges from cities such as Lisbon and Toronto
2000 - A joint Irish/British strategy for dealing with the difficulties left by the suspension of the Northern Ireland administration is finalised by Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister, Tony Blair
2000 - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams says politics in Northern Ireland are now in ‘‘the worst crisis of a crisis ridden process’’
2001 - The Ulster Defence Association, the largest of the Protestant paramilitary groups, breaks its silence to deny any involvement in the wave of sectarian pipe bomb attacks which have spread terror across the north
2001 - At Áras an Uachtaráin, president Mary McAleese presents the prestigious Gaisce gold medal awards to 55 young high achievers from 17 different countries
2002 - Pregnant women are advised by the Departments of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and of Health and Children to avoid contact with sheep at lambing time. The advice is issued in the context of the potential risks of contracting an infection that can occur in some ewes
2002 - The Bishop of Killaloe says he would welcome the ordination of women priests. Dr Willie Walsh made his comments amid a growing crisis within his own diocese. Just one priest is set to be ordained within the next seven years. In the same period, over a dozen priests are set to retire
2003 - Hundreds of train passengers have their travel plans disrupted by a lightning industrial action by the National Bus and Rail Workers Union in Cork. All services out of the city’s Kent Station from lunchtime until 5pm are affected.
Today
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February 15
1782 - The first Dungannon Convention of the Ulster Volunteers calls for an independent Irish parliament; Grattan continues to campaign for the same objective
1793 - A third convention of Dungannon - a gathering of Volunteers from Ulster is held
1794 - The United Irishmen publish a plan for parliamentary reform, advocating universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts and the secret ballot
1850 - Sophie Bryant, Irish patriot and women's rights advocate, is born
1874 - Birth in Kilkea, Co. Kildare of Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton
1901 - Viscount Brendan Bracken, politician, publisher and British Minister of Information from 1941 to 1945 is born in Templemore, Co. Tipperary
1946 - Clare Short, British Labour politician, is born in Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh
1966 - Novelist John McGahern loses his job as a teacher at Clontarf National School because of ‘indecencies’ in his book "The Dark"
1971 - Ireland switches to decimal currency
1998 - Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness hints of the danger of an end to the IRA ceasefire if, as expected, his party is expelled from the Northern Peace talks in Dublin
1998 - Ireland has the second lowest number of workplace accidents in Europe, but employers face the highest rate of insurance claims, totalling £400m per year
1998 - According to the Small Firms Association, as many as 1,000 jobs could be lost in Ireland, following the takeover of the HCR group of chemist shops by British superchain, Boots
2000 - The National Bus and Rail union claim a high level of public support for its one day strike which forces 200,000 passengers to find alternative ways of getting to work
2000 - The IRA delivers a shattering blow to the Northern Ireland peace process by pulling out of talks with the arms decommissioning body
2000 - Bishop Cormac Murphy O’Connor succeeds the late Cardinal Basil Hume to become Archbishop of Westminster and the the new leader of 4·1 million Catholics in England and Wales
2001 - In Belfast, more than 100 members of health service union Unison stage the first in a series of "shadow of the gun" protest rallies. The public demonstration follows threats from loyalist terror groups to staff at the Mater Hospital on the Crumlin Road
2001 - Lena Hunt, a 78-year old pensioner from Limavady, Co. Derry, turns down a £250,000 offer for part of her back garden, insisting that it means more to her than money. Without the key bit of land, developers of a multi-million pound supermarket project are unable to proceed
2001 - One week after protesters call off their blockade of the ill-fated Mullaghmore interpretative centre and car park in the Burren, machinery moves in to demolish the buildings and associated facilities
2002 - Popstars group 6 grab No 1 spot in the Irish charts with their debut single "There's A Whole Lot of Loving Going On."
2008 - The first ever students of a university course for people with intellectual disabilities graduate in a ceremony at Trinity College, Dublin. The pioneering two-year course aims to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in college life. Nineteen students receive certificates in Contemporary Living.
Today
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February 16
1768 - The Octennial Act limits Irish parliaments' life to eight years
1822 - James Thomson, engineer, is born in Belfast
1886 - The Irish Catholic Hierarchy formally endorses Home Rule
1902 - Birth of singer Delia Murphy in Ardroe, Claremorris, Co. Mayo
1932 - Fianna Fáil wins the general election; de Valera succeeds Cosgrave as President of the Executive Council; Seán Lemass is Minister for Industry and Commerce
1998 - Both the British and Irish governments are united on move to expel Sinn Féin from peace talks
1998 - Michael Flatley announces that he is to make his last live appearance in Ireland this summer
2000 - Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams accuses the British Government of tearing up the Good Friday Agreement
2001 - RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan warns that the Real IRA represents a potent and a growing threat
2002 - Three republicans accused of training left-wing guerrillas in Colombia could face trial within a month. A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office in the Colombian capital Bogota confirmed prosecutors have sent their case against Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley to a federal judge
2003 - Protesters make formal complaints to the gardaí alleging offences under the National Monuments Act after archeological contractors move on to the Carrickmines Castle site to start taking apart the stone structure.
Today
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History
February 17
1896 - In the House of Commons. Horace Plunkett and W.E.H. Lecky, Irish Unionists, support John Redmond's plea for clemency for Irish political prisoners
1945 - Birth of actress, Brenda Fricker
1978 - An IRA incendiary bomb explodes at the La Mon entertainment complex in Comber Co. Down ; it kills 12 people and injures 30 others. The blast is the second worst since the present wave of troubles began in 1969
1980 - The Derrynaflan Chalice and other ancient silver and bronze pre-Christian antiquities are discovered in Co. Tipperary
1998 - Sinn Féin announces it will mount a legal challenge to the British Government's attempt to have them expelled from the multi -party talks
1998 - According to a nation-wide survey, "Morning Ireland" is the nation's favourite radio programme
1999 - Farmers with tractors and trailers move through the centres of 28 cities and towns during a National Day of Action to protest proposed reforms in the EU Common Agricultural Policy
1999 - EU governments gear up for an epic battle with the European Commission over the Brussels verdict to end duty free sales
2000 - Minister O’Donoghue unveils a raft of far reaching proposals for a new legislative initiative at a passing out ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore. He tells the 98 graduating recruits he has received Government approval to draft and bring a new Criminal Justice Bill before the Oireachtas
2001 - Two explosions near Newry force the closure of the rail line between Portadown and Dundalk
Photo Credit: Photopress, Belfast
2003 - Supermarket giant Tesco sparks a possible price war with the opening of its first petrol filling station in Killarney, Co Kerry
2003 - The famine replica ship, the Jeanie Johnston, is forced to drop anchor close to the Valentia Island, 20 hours into her 21-day voyage to Tenerife. Strong winds also lead Aer Lingus to cancel all flights to New York.
Today
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February 18
1366 - The Statutes of Kilkenny are passed in an attempt to prevent Norman settlers becoming “more Irish than the Irish themselves”
1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, is executed for high treason in the Tower of London; according to Shakespeare, he meets his death by being drowned in a butt of malmsey wine
1948 - A coalition government takes over under Fine Gael's John Aloysius Costello
1921 - Brian Faulkner, the last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland who serves from 1971 to 1972, is born in Helen's Bay, Co. Down
1922 - Joe Carr, amateur golfer, is born in Dublin
1948 - Actress Sinead Cusack is born
1964 - Death in Blackrock of novelist Maurice Walsh, author of the original story of The Quiet Man
1978: Police in Northern Ireland arrest at least 20 people in connection with the La Mon entertainment complex explosion
1982 - General election in the Republic leads to a Fianna Fáil minority government; Haughey succeeds FitzGerald as Taoiseach
1998 - A page in Irish history is written as Sinn Féin representatives walk into the Four Courts as plaintiffs rather than defendants. One journalist says "The last time Republicans walked in the front door of this building was during the Civil War when the Irregulars occupied the place"
2000 - One of Waterford’s best loved theatrical personalities, Denny Corcoran, is announced as the 1999 winner of the Waterford Crystal WLR FM Arts and Entertainment Hall of Fame Award for his lifetime contribution to theatre and music in a career spanning over four decades
2000 - The bodies of four soldiers tragically killed in a car accident in Lebanon are brought to the Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel
2002 - Hospitals nationwide are forced to cancel admissions, postpone surgery and close outpatient clinics as the highly-contagious winter vomiting virus spreads, striking patients and staff
2003 - Singer Bono is nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. It is the second year in a row that he has been nominated
2003 - Twelve men serving sentences in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin make Irish legal history when they become the first graduates of a new course on the very reason they’re behind bars - the law.
Today
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History
February 19
1904 - Birth on the Great Blasket Island of writer Muiris " Suilleabhain who is best known for his book, "Twenty Years A-Growing"
1939 - De Valera states his intention to preserve Irish neutrality in the event of a second world war
1987 - A general election in the Republic returns a Fianna Fáil government with Haughey as Taoiseach
1992 - US government deports Joseph Doherty, volunteer Oglaigh na hÉireann
1999 - Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh launches an ambitious bid to cushion the impact on Ireland of huge cuts in EU beef subsidies as the deadline for sweeping CAP reforms nears
1999 - Families of missing IRA murder victims plead with Sinn Féin
leaders to use their influence with the IRA to find out where the dead are buried
1999 - The hearing of an application by Sinn Féin for an injunction restraining the party's expulsion from the Northern Ireland negotiations resumes at the High Court
2000 - Four peacekeepers killed in an automobile accident in Lebanon - Privates Declan Deere, Brendan Fitzpatrick, Jonathan Murphy and John Lawlor - are laid to rest in their native towns
2001 - According to the latest price survey, taxes make price of Irish cars highest in the EU
2001 - A 4ft limestone rock is unveiled at the entrance to Villierstown in west Waterford which is famous for the heroic exploits and achievements of John Treacy. Weighing a massive eight and a quarter tons, the stone, which came from the nearby quarry at Cappagh, bears the surnames of all 84 families living in the village and the immediate surrounding townlands as of January 1, 2000
2003 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says a second United Nations resolution before any military action against Iraq is a political imperative. But Mr Ahern is still refusing to state whether the Government will halt the use of Shannon Airport by the US military if the Bush administration undertakes unilateral action against Saddam Hussein without UN backing.
Today
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History
February 20
1742 - James Gandon, architect and builder of the Customs House, the Four Courts and other Dublin buildings, is born in London
1794 - Birth near Clogher, Co. Tyrone of William Carleton, one of the most graphic writers about the Famine. He is best known for his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry
1874 - Gladstone resigns; a Conservative administration under Disraeli takes over
1882 - Birth of Padraic " Conaire, writer and poet, in Galway
1892 - First performance of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan
1989 - IRA bombs Tern Hill barracks in Shropshire
1973 - Two members of the British Army are shot dead by IRA snipers in an attack on a British Army mobile patrol on Cupar Street, Belfast
1975 - Hugh Ferguson, 19, chairman of the Whiterock IRSP and INLA Volunteer, is shot in Ballymurphy, Belfast by the OIRA. This incident kicks off a series of attacks by OIRA on the newly-formed Irish Republican Socialist Movement
1975 - Gerald McKeown, a 20 year old civilian, is killed by a loyalist bomb attack on Railway Bar on Shore Road in Greencastle, Belfast
1979 - A group of 11 Loyalists known as the 'Shankill butchers' were sentenced to life imprisonment for 112 offences including 19 murders. The 11 men are given 42 life sentences and receive 2,000 years imprisonment in total, in the form of concurrent sentences. The Shankill Butchers had begun killing Catholics in July 1972 and were not arrested until May 1977. The sectarian Loyalist gang operated out of a number of Ulster Volunteer Force drinking dens in the Shankill Road area of Belfast. The gang was initially led by Lenny Murphy but it continued to operate following his imprisonment in 1976. The Shankill Butchers got their name because not only did they kill Catholics but they first abducted many of their victims, tortured them, mutilated them with butcher knives and axes, and then finally killed them.
1983 - An RUC man is shot and killed by the IRA outside Warrenpoint RUC base in County Down.
1985 - In a highly controversial vote, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives
1989 - The PIRA explode three bombs at the British Army barracks at Tern Hill, Shropshire, England. A sentry spots two men acting suspiciously and the barracks is evacuated shortly before the bombs detonate. The Volunteers flee amid gunfire from the sentry, steal a car, and escape
1998 - The (Continuity) Irish Republican Army explode a large car bomb, estimated at 500 pounds, outside the RUC station in the centre of Moira, County Down. Eleven people, mostly RUC officers, receive slight injuries in the explosion
1998 - In a face-to-face meeting with Northern Secretary Mo Mowlam and Foreign Affairs Minister David Andrews at Stormont, Gerry Adams is told that Sinn Féin is suspended from the peace talks for just under three weeks
1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern agrees to a demand from Sinn Féin Leader Gerry Adams for a crisis meeting next week, amid mounting fears that IRA 'hawks' will attempt to scupper any chance of Sinn Féin's return to the talks
2001 - Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne confirms that eighty publicans are to be prosecuted for serving drink to underage customers
2002 - After intense speculation that the Abbey Theatre would move to the southside of the Liffey to a completely new location in the Dublin Docklands, Arts Minister Síle de Valera informs the board of the theatre that the government has decided it is to be redeveloped at its present location
2003 - New figures compiled by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) show that Ireland has the highest death rate from heart disease in Western Europe. Finland is second and Britain is third
2003 - Sinn Féin chairperson Mitchel McLoughlin claim claims that the deadlock in the Northern peace process will only be broken by St Patrick’s Day if the British Government delivers on the outstanding promises of the Good Friday Agreement
2003 - The European Commission is accused of abusing private citizens’ right by conceding to American pressure on a data protection controversy. Transatlantic airlines such as Aer Lingus will be forced to provide US authorities with the names, addresses, phone numbers, itineraries and credit card details of all passengers flying to the United States.
2007 - Market hits record 10,000. Share values in Dublin surge to a new record with investors pushing the Irish stock market index above 10,000 for the first time.
Today
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Irish
History
February 21
1775 - Edward Denny, MP for Tralee, commits suicide
1760 - François Thurot lands French forces at Carrickfergus in Belfast Lough, increasing English anxiety about an Irish-Catholic alliance with the French.
1822 - Birth in Dublin of Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo; Viceroy and Governor-General of India
1893 - Peadar O'Donnell, revolutionary and writer, is born in Co. Donegal
1922 - The Garda Síochána na h-Eireann - Guardians of the Peace of Ireland - is founded
1999 - Seven men, including senior figures in the Real IRA. are arrested in connection with the Omagh bombing - five in the Republic and two by the RUC in the North, in a simultaneous operation
2000 - A new survey reveals that Dubliners have more disposable income than people living in other parts of Ireland
2001 - The country's multi billion pound livestock industry is on full alert for signs of foot and mouth disease after the first outbreak in Britain for twenty years is confirmed in pigs
2001 - Ronnie Drew becomes one of the first non-sportsmen to receive a Posthouse Legend in Life award
2001 - The British and Irish Governments are considering proposals for round table talks involving the Northern Ireland parties amid growing pessimism about the peace process
2001 - Desmond O'Connell becomes the first Archbishop of Dublin in over 100 years to be installed as a Cardinal. A large Irish contingent from Church and State, along with family and friends of the Cardinal attend the installation which for the first time takes place at the front of the entrance to St Peter’s Basilica
2003 - A rare political letter written by Michael Collins fetches a record price of ,28,000 at an auction in James Adam showrooms on Dublin’s Stephen’s Green. Despite fierce bidding by the National Library, the letter is purchased by singer Enya’s manager Mickey Ryan who says he wants the letter to remain in Ireland.
2009 - Up to 120,000 people march in Dublin in protest at how the Government is handling the economic crisis
2011 - Well-known artist Paul Funge dies after a short illness. A native of Gorey, Co Wexford, he taught art in many schools including Clongowes Wood College and Newbridge College. He also lectured at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), the University of California, and Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Amsterdam. As a portrait artist, among his works are paintings of U2’s Adam Clayton, Frank McGuinness and Colm Tóibín as well as many ministers and academics.
Today
in
Irish
History
February 22
1772 - On the first occasion of his attendance after the death of his only child (a daughter), Thomas Eyre, MP for Fore, dies in the House of Commons - 'suddenly taken with an apoplectic fit and dropt down dead in his place'
1797 -The last invasion of England: Small French force commanded by Irishman William Tate lands in Wales
1832 - The first burial takes place at Glasnevin Cemetery
1886 - At Ulster Hall in Belfast, Lord Randolph Churchill gives his destructive speech which includes the incendiary comment, "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right." The speech instills fear of rule by Roman Catholics in Dublin and incites militant loyalists
1893 - Peadar O'Donnell, novelist, editor of the newspaper An Phoblacht (The Republic) and social reformer, is born in Co. Donegal
1900 - Birth in Cork of short story writer Sean O'Faolain
1921 - Cecil King, painter, is born in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow
1972 - IRA bomb kills six at Aldershot barracks in Surrey, including five women and a Roman Catholic army priest; 19 people are injured and one of these victims dies later
1995 - Death at the age of 76 of Dublin man Johnny Carey, soccer international, and one of Manchester United’s great captains
1998 - Republicans take to the streets in the first of a series of demonstrations in protest at Sinn Féin's suspension from the Northern Ireland peace talks
1998 - Opposition parties are claiming the Government may have breached the Constitution by allowing planes carrying US troops to refuel at Shannon Airport over recent weeks
1998 - Neil Jordan, director of The Butcher Boy, is awarded a Silver Bear for best director at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival
1998 - Cross-border cooperation between the Irish Marine Emergency Services and the Northern Ireland Coastguard is put to the test as emergency teams from the Ambulance Service, the RUC, Irish Marine Emergency Service, the Coastal Rescue Teams and others join forces for a spectacular drill on Carlingford Lough
1998 - Criminal and security sources confirm that the man believed to have masterminded the Omagh bomb massacre has escaped the country on a false Irish passport
1999 - Labour Party TD Pat Upton dies of a massive heart attack
2001 - Authorities begin placing a massive security cordon on sea and airports and along the 300-mile border with Northern Ireland in a determined bid to prevent animals infected with foot and mouth disease from entering the country
2001 - President Mary McAleese launches the Manchester Irish Festival and a website to provide a record of Irish family histories
2001 - The British Government unveils a £12 million aid package for victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland
2002 - A unique record of the life and times of Irish emigrant families throughout the world is launched by President Mary McAleese in Manchester. This first ever social history of emigrant activity will be set down by descendants and will detail the difficulties, frustrations and ultimate successes of ancestors in their adopted lands.
2011 - Enniskillen-born artist TP Flanagan passes away at the age of 80. For more than 60 years he shaped the face of landscape painting in Northern Ireland and was known internationally for his rural scenes of his native Fermanagh and Sligo. With his stunning watercolours and intricate brush strokes, he is described ss one of the most successful artists of his generation. Poet Seamus Heaney, who dedicated his 1969 poem Bogland to Flanagan, pays tribute saying "he was “a teacher and a friend” whose work held a “deep personal significance.”
Photo Credit: Bobby Hanvey/ John Burns Library Boston College
Today
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Irish
History
February 23
1317 - Bruce's army marches south and reaches Castleknock, within sight of Dublin. The mayor of Dublin has imprisoned the Earl of Ulster, who is suspected of being sympathetic to Bruce. The citizens of Dublin destroy some of the northern and western suburbs, to prevent Bruce from using them as a base - to the later inconvenience of the administration, as many of the buildings it uses as law courts etc. are obliterated
1649 - Giovanni Battista Rinuccini returns to Rome. Originally from Rome, he takes his doctorate in law at the University of Pisa. During the next decade he wins distinction at the ecclesiastical courts in Rome and is made Archbishop of Fermo in 1625. In 1645, Pope Innocent X sends him to Kilkenny - then the capital of Ireland - to support the Catholics with arms, money and diplomacy. His determined support of the militant anti-English faction is doomed to failure, but gains him fame and infamy in Anglo-Irish history
1713 - Nicola Hamilton, widow of Tristram Beresford MP, dies on her 47th birthday. On the day of her death, she gave a party to celebrate her 48th birthday; one of those present was the priest who had christened her. He pointed out that it was in fact her 47th birthday - she had been born in 1666, not 1665 as she had always supposed. On hearing this she turned deathly pale; she sent for her children, told them the whole story, and died later that day. The Black Mark of Lord Tyrone
1935 - Thomas Murphy, a playwright best known for his portrayal of the people in the working class rural town of Tuam, is born
1943 - Thirty -five people die in a fire at St Joseph's Orphanage, Co. Cavan
1944 - Children's allowances are introduced in the Free State
1948 - Death of John Robert Gregg, Irish inventor of the Gregg shorthand system
1965 - Roger Casement's body is returned from England to be re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin
1998 - The Sinn Féin leadership takes to the stage at a Belfast hotel rally as fears grow that the party may not re-turn to the peace talks
2000 - According to a report released by the National Roads Authority, nearly half of Irish motorists never wear a seatbelt. Men are the worst offenders, with two-thirds admitting they do not strap themselves in
2001 - Measures to prevent livestock with foot and mouth disease entering Ireland are tightened as Britain halts all internal livestock movements amid fears that the outbreak there is spreading
2001 - A major recruitment drive for the Police Service of Northern Ireland goes ahead despite the refusal of the SDLP and Sinn Féin to support the new force
2002 - It is announced that Guinness is testing a new system that will slash the waiting time for a pint of the black stuff to 30 seconds. In an effort to combat declining sales in recent years, Guinness is hoping to appeal to people not prepared to wait the 1 minute 59 seconds for the traditional pint to be poured
2003 - Daniel Day-Lewis is named Best Actor for his role in Martin Scorsese’s epic Gangs of New York, the only prize which the film takes at the British version of the Oscars.
Today
in
Irish
History
February 24
1582 - Pope Gregory XIII announces the new Gregorian calendar, replacing the Julian calendar
1692 - The Treaty of Limerick is ratified by William of Orange
1780 - A British Act opens colonial trade to Irish goods
1797 - Birth in Dublin of writer, artist, musician and songwriter, Samuel Lover. To him is attributed the romantic proposal "Come live in my heart and pay no rent"
1841 - John Philip Holland, inventor and developer of the modern submarine, born in Co. Clare
1850 - Paul Cullen is consecrated Catholic archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland
1852 - George Moore, novelist, playwright and critic, is born in Ballyglass, Co. Mayo
1920 - Dublin Metropolitan District is placed under a curfew from midnight to 5 a.m.
1948 - Birth of Dermot Earley, Roscommon Gaelic footballer and GAA administrator, in Castlebar, Co. Mayo
2000 - The Government calls for a full public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane
2000 - The North’s precarious peace process moves closer towards meltdown as Sinn Féin threatens to end their role as mediators with the IRA on decommissioning and warns of dissident republicans launching a renewed campaign of violence
2000 - A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II stolen from Edinburgh University by three inebriated Trinity College is returned
2002 - The Catholic Church and Government clash over next week's abortion referendum as a poll highlights confusion among voters. While bishops support the Government campaign for a Yes vote on the substantive issue of abortion, they question the future protection of the morning-after pill
2003 - Iarnród Éireann announces that it will not proceed with its plan to charge commuters for parking at three DART stations in Dublin.
Today
in
Irish
History
February 25
1570 - Elizabeth I is excommunicated by Pope Pious V
1852 - Death of Thomas Moore, popular poet and editor of Irish Melodies
1891 - Edward "Ned" Daly, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, is born in Limerick
1928 - Death of William O’Brien, architect of agrarian land reform
1934 - Ireland’s first ever World Cup match takes place in Dublin. The Irish draw with Belgium 4-4
1937 - The Imperial Airways flying boat Cambria is delivered to Shannon to begin the first trans Atlantic air service
1947 - The worst snow blizzard in living memory hits Ireland
1951 - Neil Jordan, writer and film director, is born
1952 - Joey Dunlop, motorcycle racer, is born in Armoy, Co. Antrim
1991 - Birmingham Six on verge of freedom. An announcement by the Director of Public Prosecution, Alan Green, says their convictions can no longer be considered safe and satisfactory. Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker were all jailed in 1975 for an IRA attack on two pubs in Birmingham in November 1974 in which 21 people died
1998 - Security is stepped up in both Belfast and Derry amid fears the cities are targeted for a new wave of bombing attacks
2000 - The faltering peace process in the North suffer a double body blow with a bomb blast at an army base in Derry and a threat by the Progressive Unionists to withdraw support for the Good Friday Agreement
2001 - British supermarket chains draw up contingency plans to source supplies of fresh meat in Ireland if the ban on livestock transport is not lifted
2001 - It is announced that the birthplace of Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator, is for sale. The historic property at Carhan just outside Caherciveen, where O’Connell was born on August 6, 1775, is being put on the market by his descendants, a local family of O’Connells
2003 - The number of Catholics worldwide has exceeded one billion for the first time, according to figures released by the Vatican
2003 - North American Airlines and Miami Airlines, both charter troop carriers for the US military, end stopovers at Shannon because of recent security breaches
2003 - The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and the Northern Secretary Paul Murphy hold two hours of talks in Dublin. The talks centre on cross border co-operation and anti terrorist measures.
Today
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Irish
History
February 26
1797 - The Bank of Ireland suspends gold payments
1854 - William Smith O'Brien, leader of the 1848 rebellion, is pardoned
1962 - Due to "lack of support", the Irish Republican Army ends what it calls "The Campaign of Resistance to British Occupation"; which is also known as the 'Border Campaign'
1978 - Film critic Ciaran Carty hails the Irish language film Poitín for its deromanticization of the west
1983 -Irishman Pat Jennings becomes the first footballer to play in 1,000 Football League matches
1998 - During talks at Downing Street, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern launches a bid to persuade British Prime Minister Tony Blair to sign up to an Anglo-Irish paper which would lay out the details of a final Northern Ireland peace settlement
1998 - An army recruitment programme to bolster the defence forces with 500 new members is officially launched with a commitment made to keep staffing levels at 11,500 by the end of 1998
1999 - During talks in Bonn, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agree to push for implementation of the Good Friday peace deal by the March 10 deadline
2001 - The Government imposes a temporary ban on the country’s 120 livestock marts as the devastating foot and mouth disease spreads in Britain. Strict procedures are also implemented in airports around Ireland to keep the disease out of the country
2001 - Blizzards, gale force winds and driving hail sweep the country, leaving many householders without electricity or heat.
Today
in
Irish
History
February 27
1495 - Garret More Fitzgerald, Eighth Earl of Kildare, is arrested in Dublin by Sir Edward Poynings, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1760 - François Thurot holds the castle and the town of Carrickfergus until this date
1792 - The Irish House of Commons is partly destroyed by fire
1841 - William Bruce, Sr., the last surviving member of the Ulster Volunteer convention of 1783, a group that fostered efforts towards reform, dies
1907 - Coslett Quin, clergyman, scholar and linguist, is born in Derriaghy, Co. Antrim
1975 - Scotland Yard announces that the man who shot dead a police officer in London on February 26 had been staying in a flat used as a "bomb factory" by the Provisional IRA
1997 - After a contentious court battle contesting the referendum, the new divorce law in the Republic is enacted
1998 - A recruitment programme to bolster the defence forces with 500 new members officially launched with a commitment made to keep staffing levels at 11,500 by the end of 1998
2000 - President Mary McAleese and former Taoiseach Charles Haughey are among the many people to pay tribute at the funeral of North Kerry Fianna Fáil TD and former minister, Tom McEllistrim
2001 - In an effort to help prevent the spread of hoof and mouth disease, the Six Nations match between Wales and Ireland is cancelled and the Government has asked the Irish racing industry not to participate in the Cheltenham racing festival this year. All horseracing, including point to point events, and all greyhound meets are also cancelled until further notice
2001 - Blizzard conditions bring parts of Leinster to a standstill; all flights are cancelled at Dublin Airport and many roads are left impassable after heavy falls of snow
Photo Credit: Charlie Collins
2002 - Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visits University College Cork where he is confronted by more than 400 angry students protesting his presence
2003 - The funeral of former chief justice and government minister Tom O’Higgins takes place at St Patrick’s Church in Monkstown, Dublin
2003 - The European Commission confirms that new cars cost, on average, are 10% more in Ireland than the lowest pre-tax prices recommended by manufacturers in other eurozone markets.
2009 - The largest bank robbery in the Republic of Ireland's history takes place at the Bank f Ireland College Green cash centre in Dublin. Ireland. Criminals engaged in the tiger kidnapping of a junior bank employee, 24-year-old Shane Travers, and force him to remove ,7.6 million (US$9 million) in cash from the bank as his girlfriend and two others are held hostage.
Today
in
Irish
History
February 28
1713 - Henry Pyne, MP for Dungarvan, aged about 24 and the father of three children, is killed in a duel with Theophilus Biddulph at Chelsea Fields, London; Biddulph will later be convicted of manslaughter
1790 - The Northern Whig Club is founded in Belfast
1799 - William Dargan, railway engineer and philanthropist, is born in Carlow
1830 - Whitley Stokes, jurist and Celtic scholar, is born in Dublin
1884 - Seán MacDiarmada, revolutionary, is born in Kiltycolgher, Co. Leitrim
1929 - Poet John Montague, best known for his volume, The Rough Field, is born
1933 - Birth of Noel Cantwell, captain of Manchester United and Irish international
1938 - Alice Taylor, writer, is born near Newmarket, Co. Cork
1944 - John O'Shea, journalist, charity worker and founder of GOAL, is born in Limerick
1955 - Premiere of Sean O’Casey’s play The Bishop’s Bonfire in Dublin
1961 - Birth in Clones, Co. Monaghan of Barry McGuigan, "the Clones Cyclone", world featherweight boxing champion (WBA) 1985-86
1973 - General election in the Republic leads to a Fine Gael-Labour coalition government; Liam Cosgrave becomes Taoiseach
1998 - Death of one of TV's best-loved comedy stars, Dermot Morgan, who played Father Ted in the hit Channel 4 show
1999 - Sinn Feín supporters rally in Belfast to urge an end to unionists delaying the establishment of a power-sharing executive
2001 - Economic disaster is threatened after the first case of foot and mouth disease for 60 years is confirmed in Meigh, South Armagh
2001 - Dublin Zoo and Fota Island in Cork are closed as a preventive measure designed to protect any animals that may be susceptible to foot and mouth disease
2002 - U2 and Enya lead the Irish victory celebrations at the Grammys in Los Angeles. Bono's boys scoop the best rock album title for All That You Can't Leave Behind, best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for Elevation, and best pop performance by a duo or group for Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of. Donegal singer/songwriter Enya wins best new age album for A Day Without Rain
2003 - Soldiers add razor wire to Shannon Airport’s perimeter fences as the army and gardaí brace for trouble at anti-war protest
2003 - Bono is made a knight of the French Legion - France’s highest award.
2011 - First steps taken to form coalition government. Negotiators from Fine Gael are sit down with Labour representatives in round one of the complex talks. Both sides accept they are under pressure from Europe to strike a deal by the end of the week.
Today
in
Irish
History
March 2
1718 - Birth of John Gore. Baron Annal, lawyer, politician and Chief Justice of the King's Bench from1764 to 1784
1871 - Gladstone gives his first speech in the House of Commons on Home Rule
1888 - Birth in Dublin of Cyril Bentham Falls, military historian and journalist
1979 - Death of hurler Christy Ring
1996 - Thomas P. O'Neill, Irish historian, dies
1998 - The Kerry Bog Pony receives its "passport," from Weatherbys, which proves pedigree and opens up sales opportunities worldwide. The passport contains height, breeding details and blood type
2001 - In measures adding to the effects of Ireland’s countrywide lock up, the United States bans Irish meat, and the Philippine government returns 1,000 plus boxes of processed Irish beef just 24 hours after France bans Irish livestock
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern presents Bill Whelan with the IMRO Lifetime Achievement Award at Dublin Castle
Photo Credit: Maxwells
2001 - Three farms in Monaghan and one in Louth are sealed off in a bid to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease
2001 - The massive beef and lamb slaughtering facility at Kildare Chilling " capable of processing almost 2,000 animals a day is closed as a precautionary measure against spreading foot and mouth disease.
Today
in
Irish
History
March 3
1592 - A charter incorporates the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, later to become known as Trinity College
1766 - Four pirates are found guilty in Dublin of murdering on the high seas Captain Cochrane, Captain Glass and others, and of plundering and scuttling the Lord Sandwich; they are executed in St Stephen's Green on this date and later hanged in chains near the Liffey; complaints from the public lead to the removal of the corpses to Dalkey Island
1831 - In the 'tithe war', 120 police move in to Graiguenamanagh to seize cattle in payment of the tithe
1918 - Birth of Sir Peter O'Sullevan, "the voice of horseracing"
1954 - Birth of Ollie Campbell, rugby player, in Dublin
1977 - Birth of Ronan Keating of Boyzone fame
1998 - Two friends, one a Catholic the other a Protestant, are shot dead, after being ordered to lie on the floor of a bar in Pontyz Pass, near Newry, Co. Down
2000 - The hearing of the longest ever action in the High Court ends after a total of 281 days spread over a number of law terms since its 1997 opening
2002 - The Government has again refused to bail out RTÉ after a new consultants' report concludes that the national broadcaster will run out of cash by next year
2002 - It is anticipated that by 2035, total forestry production in Ireland will be ,1.7 billion
2003 - According to a survey by the Dublin Institute of Technology's Tourism Research Centre, the US is the most desirable destination for Irish tourists. In second place is South Africa, while Italy is the favourite continental destination
2003 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair conduct talks at Hillsborough Castle in the latest bid to restore devolution and secure the Provisionals’ disarmament
2003 - Ambulance workers in Kilkenny abandon their fleets (responding to 999 calls only) in protest over changes in their working terms which they say are being enforced by their health board.
Today
in
Irish
History
March 4
1704 - Penal law 'to prevent the further growth of popery' restricts landholding rights for Catholics; gavelkind is reimposed on Catholics (unless the eldest son converts to Protestantism, in which case he inherits the whole); a 'sacramental test' for public office is introduced, directed mainly at Ulster Presbyterians
1771 - John Ponsonby resigns as Speaker of the Irish parliament for political reasons; Edmond Sexton Pery is elected to replace him
1778 - Robert Emmet, one of Ireland's most famous revolutionaries, is born in Dublin
1864 - Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne and advocate of Irish independence, is born in Charleville, Co. Cork
1867 - Fenian national uprising begins in Ireland
1888 - Grace Gifford Plunkett, Irish patriot, is born in Rathmines, Dublin
1902 - Ancient Order of Hibernians is revived at unity council
1916 - First Irish Race Convention is held in New York City. Serves as immediate call for the Easter Rebellion in Dublin
1923 - Birth of Sir Patrick Moore, broadcaster, astronomer and curate at the Armagh Observatory
1978 - Death of General James Emmet Dalton, aged 80 (today is also his birthday). Dalton led the bombardment of the Four Courts in what effectively is the start of the Civil War, and is with Michael Collins at Béal na mBlátha when they are ambushed and Collins is assassinated
1993 - U2 ties with REM as "best band" in a Rolling Stones magazine reader's poll
2001 - A car bomb explosion outside the BBC’s London headquarters on Wood Lane in west London is said to be part of an ongoing campaign of ‘‘murderous attacks’’ by the Real IRA
2001 - 300 sheep are destroyed and eight Irish farms are cordoned off as a precaution against foot and mouth disease. Despite 69 confirmed cases in Britain and one in the North, there is still no case of the disease in the Republic
2001 -The world’s largest car ferry arrives in Dublin Port. The £80 million Ulysses sailed from Finland following her construction for Irish Ferries. Once she has completed final sea trials the vessel will go into service on the Dublin-Holyhead route
Photo Credit: Mac Innes
2001 - After being left to rot for the last 22 years, the boat made famous for smuggling arms to the Irish Volunteers in 1914, the Asgard, is released from Kilmainham Gaol and moved to the Docklands where restoration, estimated to cost over £1 million, will take place
2002 - Fears of chaos around the country's schools prove to be unfounded as 2,500 non-teachers begin supervision and substitution duties in more than 600 schools
2003 - The North’s assembly elections look set to be delayed for weeks following failure to reach an early agreement on a deal to restore the power-sharing government.
2008: The Rev Ian Paisley signals the end of an era by announcing he will step down as leader of Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration and the Democratic Unionist Party. The news represents a huge moment in the politics and recent history of Northern Ireland, removing from the scene as it does one of its most striking figures.
Today
in
Irish
History
March 5
1389 - Thomas Mortimer is appointed justiciar
1716 - Martin Bladen, soldier, politician, civil servant, gambler and writer, is given leave in the British House of Commons to bring in a bill to continue the privilege of exporting Irish linen cloth to British plantations without the duty payable by exporters in England and Scotland. The bill eventually passes
1867 - Fenian Rising begins in Co. Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary
1911 - Birth in Portaferry, Co. Down of actor Joseph Tomelty
1998 - Dublin gangland criminal Georgie "the Penguin" Mitchell is arrested in Holland after a joint operation between Irish and Dutch police catch him red-handed stealing £4 million worth of computer parts
1998 - The remains of Dermot Morgan are received at St. Theresa's Church in his native Dublin. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tanaiste Mary Harney are among the more than 1,000 mourners
1999 - As a precautionary measure, eighteen workers at the Warner-Lambert plant in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork are taken to hospital following a chemical spillage. They are found to be unharmed and are released
2000 - The Government closes the book on the millennium bug after spending £40m preparing for a potential disaster that doesn't happen
2001 - A total of 520 farms are under investigation because of fears of foot and mouth, Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh reveals
2001 - The shortlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is announced by Lord Mayor Maurice Ahern. Six novels are in contention for the world’s richest literary prize (worth IR£100,000) for a single work of fiction, among them Colm Tóibín’s The Blackwater Lightship
2003 - In Blarney, Co. Cork, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets enthusiastically embrace a no smoking day and the Blarney Stone restaurant in the town square takes the lead by slapping a permanent ban on smoking.
In the ecumenical calendar, today is the feastday of St. Kieran, sometimes listed as 'Kevin the elder'.
Today
in
Irish
History
March 8
1574 - Captain William Martin lays siege to Grace O'Malley in Rockfleet castle
1594 - English expedition sets out from Galway to kill pirate queen, Grace O'Malley
1700 (?) - Year is uncertain, but it is on this date that Anne Bonny, née Cormac, pirate, is born in Co. Cork
1702 - William III dies when his horse stumbles on a molehill; Anne accedes to the throne of Britain and Ireland
1742 - William Crotty, outlaw of the Comeragh mountains, is tried in Waterford on this date and later hanged, drawn and quartered
1770 - Mary Anne McCracken, radical and philanthropist, is born in Belfast
1834 - General John O'Neill, Irish Fenian leader, is born
1854 - Birth in Co. Cork of Tom Horan, the greatest of the many top class Australian cricketers to be born in Ireland
1903 - Charles Gavan Duffy, Young Irelander, is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
1909 - Francis MacManus, novelist, is born
1921 - Sir James Comyn, lawyer, is born in Dublin
1925 - Paddy Devlin, socialist politician, is born in Belfast
1942 - Mary MacSwiney, Irish patriot, dies
1959 - Aidan Quinn, film actor, is born in Chicago of Irish parents
1966 - Nelson's Pillar in Dublin is blown up
1973 - IRA car bombs explode outside the Old Bailey courthouse and Scotland Yard police headquarters in London, killing one and injuring 238
1998 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force pledges full backing for DUP leader Ian Paisley in his opposition to the Stormont talks process
1999 - Pressure on Sinn Féin and the IRA to make a start on decommissioning is stepped up as the Irish and British Governments sign four new treaties in Dublin providing for the implementation of the main elements of the Good Friday Agreement
2000 - Following a round of meetings in Belfast involving Foreign Minister Brian Cowen; Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, and the principal pro Agreement parties, the two governments are to assess the situation before the St Patrick’s Day summit in the White House next week. All the parties are now looking towards President Clinton to broker a deal that will break the impasse in the peace process
2001 - Retired Archbishop of Tuam, the Most Rev Joseph Cunnane, dies after a long illness at the Bon Secours Hospital
2002 - Car owners are to benefit from new regulations which will oblige insurers to give two-week's notice of any cost changes when renewing policies.
2006 - 1916 Proclamation donated to National Museum
An original copy of the Proclamation of Independence picked up in O’Connell Street in 1916 has been donated to the National Museum of Ireland. For more on this story, please click Irish Examiner.
Today
in
Irish
History
March 9
1771 - Birth in Dublin of Thomas Reynolds, United Irishman whose information enables authorities to arrest Leinster Committee in 1798 1825 - The Catholic Association is dissolved in accordance with the Unlawful Societies Act
1914 - Prime Minister Asquith offers a compromise on Home Rule - electors in the North could vote to be excluded from an independent Ireland for six years
1932 - Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council of Ireland
1973 - The people of Northern Ireland vote overwhelmingly to remain within the United Kingdom. In a referendum on the future of the province, 591,280 people or 57% of the electorate vote to retain links with the UK. A boycott by the Roman Catholic population means only 6,463 vote in favour of a united Ireland
1982 - Charles Haughey becomes Taoiseach for the second time
1995 - Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh make a historic visit to Northern Ireland. For the first time, the Queen meets with the Roman Catholic Primate of all Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, as well as his Anglican counterpart, Archbishop Robin Eames
1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton approves a visa for Irish nationalist leader Gerry Adams to enter the United States
1998 - Justice Brian Walsh, judge on the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, dies suddenly of a stroke. On his appointment in December of 1961, Justice Walsh becomes one of the youngest Irish Supreme Court judges. He serves for 29 years - the longest by a member of the country's highest court
1999 - The European Parliament calls for the legalisation of abortion in Ireland. The opinion, passes in Strasbourg by 321 votes to 122; it carries no legislative weight but provokes a storm of political controversy
1999 - A record price for land in the South East is set in Waterford when leading city developer Noel Frisby pays £725,000 an acre for land being sold off for Telecom Eireann.
Today
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Irish
History
March 11
1605 - A proclamation declares all persons in the realm to be free, natural and immediate subjects of the king and not subjects of any lord or chief
1812 - Composer William Vincent Wallace, best known for his opera, Maritana, is born in Co. Waterford
1858 - Irish revolutionary Thomas James Clarke is born of Irish parents on the Isle of Wight
1880 - On the last day of his tour of the United States, Parnell launches the Irish National Land League of the USA
1926 - Eamon de Valera resigns as head of Sinn Féin
1929 - Erskine B. Childers, diplomat, is born in Dublin
1951 -Ian Paisley co-founds the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
1953 - Birth in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway of Mary Harney, politician, leader of the Progressive Democrats and Tánaiste
1954 - Margaret (Gretta) Cousins, Irish women's rights activist, is born
1964 - Shane Richie, actor and game-show host, is born Shane Roche to Irish parents in London
1974 - Brothers Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn break out of Mountjoy Prison. Jailed in 1973 for a £67,000 heist at a Dublin bank - the biggest to date in Irish history - during their trial they claim they are M16 spies working for the British Government against the IRA
1995 - Gerry Adams arrives in New York
2000 - Emigrant Francis O’Neill, an American police chief who carried a Chicago gangster’s bullet to the grave is honoured at the weekend in his native West Cork where Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne unveils a life-sized memorial sculpture
Photo credit: Dan Linehan
2001 - Over 1,300 people pack the Cathedral of the Assumption to pay their last respects to the former Archbishop of Tuam, Most Reverend Joseph Cunnane, at his funeral Mass
2001 - Mr. Tony Luff, founder of the Galway Swan Rescue, coordinates a rescue operation involving dozens of volunteers in Galway city to save the lives of over 60 of the famous Claddagh swans after yet another oil slick surrounds the birds - just a fortnight after four are killed in a previous spill
Photo Credit: Andrew Downes
2002 - Limerick-born Michael Collins, author of The Keepers of Truth, is named as one of seven writers competing for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2002, worth ,100,000
2002 - Customs officers smash the biggest illegal oil laundering operation ever discovered in the State.The plant, near Dundalk, Co Louth, had the capacity to launder up to 300,000 litres of oil a week.
Today
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History
March 12
1295 - Richard de Burgh is released by the council in parliament at Kilkenny
1685 - George Berkeley, philosopher, physicist, mathematician, Dean of Derry and Bishop of Cloyne, is born in Dysart Castle, Co. Kilkenny. The university town of Berkeley in California is named in his honour
1689 - James II lands at Kinsale and proceeds to Dublin
1832 - Birth of Capt. Charles Boycott, despised English estate manager in Ireland, from whose name the word 'boycott' is taken
1873 - Gladstone's Irish University Bill is defeated
1875 - After being barred as an undischarged felon from taking his seat as elected MP for Tipperary, John Mitchel is re-elected on this date. He dies eight days later
1798 - Having been betrayed by Thomas Reynolds, the Leinster Directory of United Irishmen leaders is arrested
1860 - Michael O'Hickey, professor of Irish and Irish-language campaigner, is born in Carrickbeg, Co. Waterford
1930 - Pat Taaffe, jockey and trainer, is born in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin
1944 - Britain bans all travel to and from Ireland in an effort to prevent news of Allied preparations for the invasion of France reaching the Germans
1974 - Billy Fox, MP for Co. Monaghan, is assassinated
2000 - National Tree Week ends with a mass planting of 5,000 trees at Corkagh Park in Clondalkin
2001 - Department of Agriculture vets are investigating another suspected case of foot and mouth in the North. Tests are carried out on a sheep taken from a farm in Augher to an abattoir in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, for slaughter.
Today
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Irish
History
March 14
1705 - An English act permits direct export of Irish linen to American colonies
1732 - Birth of Sackville Hamilton, politician and civil servant
1738 - John Beresford, unionist politician, is born in Cork
1822 - Richard Boyle, civil engineer, is born in Dublin
1894 - William Earle "Moley" Molesworth, WWI Ace, is born
1902 - The Irish Association of Women Graduates and Candidate-Graduates, an organization open to those interested in promoting women's education, is launched
1962 - Eibhín Bean Uí Choisdeaíbh, Irish language folk song collector, dies
1973 - Liam Cosgrave is elected Taoiseach of Ireland
1985 - Schoolchildren claim to have seen a 'moving' statue in Asdee, Co. Kerry. Other reports come from Ballinspittle, Co. Cork. The faithful claim a miraculous event. Sceptics say it is an optical illusion
1984 - Gunmen shoot and wounded Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in an attack in central Belfast. He is hit in the neck, shoulder and arm as several gunmen riddle his car with about 20 bullets. Three people travelling with Mr Adams are also wounded in the shooting No-one is seriously hurt and a fourth man escapes injury
1991 -The Birmingham Six - Paddy Joe Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker - are released from jail after their convictions for the murder of 21 people in two pubs are quashed by the Court of Appeal
1998 - Former Defence and Marine Minister Hugh Coveney falls to his death from a headland near Roberts Cove, Co. Cork
2002 - Roundwood House, Mountrath, Co. Laois is the only Irish establishment to make the list of the world's top 50 restaurants published by Restaurant magazine. It places at 42.
Today
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Irish
History
March 15
1672 - The first declaration of indulgence suspending penal laws against Catholics and dissenters is issued by Charles II
1764 - Charles O'Conor, antiquary and historian, is born in Belanagare, Co. Roscommon
1773 - Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer is performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London
1774 - Isaac Weld, author, is born in Dublin
1813 - In the British House of Commons, Sir Eyre Coote (the younger), MP for Ballynakill and Maryborough, proposes the abolition of flogging in the army
1852 - Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory (née Persse), playwright, folklorist and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, is born in Roxborough, Co. Galway
1904 - Birth of George Brent, actor, in Dublin
1878 - Sir Robert McCarrison, medical scientist and honorary physician to King George V from 1928 to 1935 is born in Portadown, Co. Armagh
1976 - The IRA is linked to a bomb that explodes on a London Underground train; the driver of the train, Julius Stephen, is shot dead while chasing a gunman who is believed to have detonated the bomb. Ten other people are injured
1993 - Kitty Linnane, leader of the Kilfenora Céili Band, dies
1998 - The US Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, confirms she will leave her post after US Independence Day celebrations in Dublin on July 4
1999 - A prominent Irish civil rights solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, is killed by a Loyalist car bomb in Lurgan, Co. Armagh
1999 - The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Jim McDaid, unveils plans to commemorate the Year 2000. Commencing on St. Patrick's Day, "The Party Starts Here," is the official title of a 21-month long series of events, which will link over 300 separate festivals
2000 - The censor lifts a ban on more than two thirds, or 400, of prohibited books following an appeal by the Labour Party. Only 187 books and about 270 magazines and newspapers now remain on the banned list
2001 - John Gilligan is found not guilty of the murder of Veronica Guerin; however, he is sentenced to 28 years in prison on drug-related crimes. The sentence is twice what most people expected and six years more than the previous longest sentence handed down for a drugs offence
2002 - Tesco's supermarket chain in Ireland announces that, unlike its British counterpart, it has no plans to start issuing the morning-after pill to Irish teenagers free of charge.
Today
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Irish
History
March 19
1642 - Charles I's 'Adventurers' Act' offers confiscated Irish land in return for investment in the reconquest
1821 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Richard Francis Burton, adventurer, writer, swordsman, scholar and explorer
1824 - William Allingham, poet and diarist, is born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal
1861 - Joseph MacRory, Catholic Primate of all Ireland and cardinal, is born in Ballygawley, Co. Tyrone
1920 - Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork for Sinn Féin and inventor of the famous "Flying Column, is killed by Black & Tans disguised as policemen. The inquest into his death returns a verdict of wilful murder against the RIC, and indicts Lloyd George and the British government
1921 - Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column routs a superior force from the Essex Regiment at Crossbarry
1924 - Death of Charles Villiers Stanford, composer and author
1928 - Birth of actor Patrick McGoohan
1988 - Two British soldiers who drive into a Republican area of Belfast during a funeral procession, are seized and killed
1998 - The country's beef industry takes a further blow following strong indications from the Department of Agriculture that Co. Clare is to be included in the beef export ban to Russia
1998 - The Maze prison crisis deeps after the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) issues a death threat against warders.The terror gang warns it will specifically target prison officers working in H6 unit over allegations of mistreatment
2000 - The Irish and British governments begin an all out effort to build on the positive signal from Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, and rescue the endangered Northern Ireland peace process
2000 - As many as 250,000 people line the streets of Dublin to watch a spectacular fireworks display which caps off four days of celebration as the grand finale of St Patrick’s Festival
2000 - Thirty five bands from the United States, Japan, Northern Ireland and across the country take part in the Limerick International Marching Band Competition, Ireland's biggest band parade
2001 - Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey is in critical condition in a Dublin hospital after collapsing at his home
2001 - Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, announces that she is stepping down from her post, saying she thinks she can do more outside the "restraints" of the UN system
Photo Credit: Laurent Gillieron, AP
2003 - Co. Clare takes top honours at the CIE National Awards of Excellence.
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast of St. Joseph.
Today
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Irish
History
March 24
1603 - James VI of Scotland comes to the throne of England, as James I, following the death of Elizabeth I on this date
1796 - The Insurrection Act imposes curfews, arms searches, and the death penalty for oath-taking
1866 - Birth in Co. Cork of light-heavyweight boxing champion, Jack McAuliffe
1909 - Death in Dublin of John Millington Synge. The plays of Irish peasant life on which his fame rests are written in the last six years of his life. In 1904, Synge, Yeats and Lady Gregory found the famous Abbey Theatre. Two Synge comedies, The Well of the Saints (1905) and The Playboy of the Western World (1907), are presented by the Abbey players. The latter play creates a furor of resentment among Irish patriots stung by Synge's bitter humor.
1945 - Birth of actor Patrick Malahide; born Patrick G. Duggan, to Irish parents living in England
1953 - Queen Mary dies at 86
1958 - Dawson Stelfox, architect and mountaineer, is born in Belfast
1968 - An Aer Lingus plane, the St. Phelim, crashes into the sea near Tuskar Rock, Co. Wexford, with the loss of all 61 passengers and crew
1972 - Stormont parliament and government are suspended and direct rule from London is introduced; William Whitelaw becomes Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
1995 - For the first time in 25 years, Britain halts all routine army patrols in Belfast
1998 - The Prison Service in Northern Ireland confirms that five Loyalist Volunteer Force prisoners are now on hunger strike at the Maze jail to protest a security crackdown following the savage murder of loyalist remand prisoner David Keys
1999 - Anti-blood sports groups call on Minister Silé de Valera to refuse to renew a licence to the country's last remaining stag hunt
2000 - Dubliners face traffic chaos as the bus drivers’ dispute threatens to escalate into an all out strike
2002 - Twenty-one whales are rescued after stranding themselves on a Kerry beach; with the other whales forming a circle around her, rescuers are thrilled to observe one of the whales giving birth minutes after being pulled back out to safety
2003 - Veteran actor Peter O’Toole is awarded an honorary Oscar for a career which has spanned more than 40 years.
2010 - President Mary McAleese pays tribute to fallen Irish at Gallipoli while on a state trip to Turkey in what is being seen as the first official recognition of the huge loss of Irish lives in the first World War.
Photo credit: The Great War