ON THIS DAY IRISH HISTORY

[THE FUGITIVE]

    

Today
in
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 â,¬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.

[THE FUGITIVE]

    

Today
in
Irish
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.

[THE FUGITIVE]

Today
in
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.

[THE FUGITIVE]

    

Today
in
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.

[THE FUGITIVE]

    

Today
in
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.

[THE FUGITIVE]

Today
in
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