After serving 15 years in prison, the “Guildford Four” – Gerard Conlon, Patrick Armstrong, Carole Richardson and Paul Hill – are released for the wrongful conviction of the Guildford pub bombings in 1974. It is considered to be one of the biggest-ever miscarriages of justice in Britain. Despite the IRA unit responsible for the […]
ON THIS DAY: 18TH OCTOBER 1899: Death of Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (Fr. Eugene O’Growney) He was an Irish priest and scholar, and a key figure in the Gaelic revival of the late 19th century. As a young boy he was very interested in the Irish language and after being ordained a priest, became an editor […]
The Plan of Campaign was adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, organised by John Dillon and others in the Irish National League, for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords and the tyrannical regime of enforced massive rents and evictions. Dillon was among those who organised a campaign whereby tenants […]
The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper, published in Dublin in the 19th century. It was founded by Charles Gavin Duffy, Thomas Davis & John Blake Dillon who at the time were part of Daniel O’Connell’s repeal association. #gript
It was founded by the ‘Callan Curates’ Father Matt O’Keefe and Father Tom O’Shea from Cappahayden, near Callan.’ Fr Tom O’Shea’s importance is emphasised in Callan County Kilkenny: A Short Guide to its History, Monuments and People (Callan Heritage Society). In this volume, Joseph Kennedy writes: “The Callan Tenant Protection Society which was founded […]
Phelim Roe O’Neill or Féilim Rua Ó Néill – was an Irish leader, from the famous O’Neill family, who led the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster on 23 October when the Irish rebels attacked Protestant plantation settlements and took garrison towns held by the Irish Army. The Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation […]
Parnell’s newspaper, the United Ireland, attacked the Land Act and he was arrested together with his party lieutenants, William O’Brien, John Dillon, Michael Davitt and Willie Redmond. They were imprisoned under a proclaimed Coercion Act in Kilmainham Gaol for “sabotaging the Land Act”, from where the No Rent Manifesto, which Parnell and the others […]
ON THIS DAY: 12 OCTOBER 1645: Archbishop Rinuccini arrives in Ireland to offer assistance to O’Neill and the Irish Confederate Catholics in their war against English Protestant rule He wrote this letter to his brother, describing the Irish he met: “The men are fine-looking and of incredible strength, swift runners, and ready to bear every […]
Following a Catholic uprising in 1641, Cromwell and the New Model Army set sail to Ireland to defeat this coalition and reclaim Ireland for parliament. This proved to be a bloody and brutal affair, forever remembered for a series of controversial massacres. The Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland had begun, which included the destruction of Drogheda […]
ON THIS DAY: 8TH OCTOBER 1974: SEÁN MACBRIDE became the first Irish person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize MacBride was born in Paris in 1904 and remained ther until his father’s execution after the Easter Rising of 1916, when he was sent to school at Mount St Benedict’s, Gorey. In 1919, aged 15, […]
Pádraic Ó Conaire was an Irish writer who wrote extensively in the Irish Language and wrote 26 books, 473 stories, 237 essays and 6 plays. His acclaimed novel Deoraíocht has been described by Angela Bourke as ‘the earliest example of modernist fiction in Irish’. Orphaned by the age of eleven, he spent a period living […]
The Orient Express departs on its first official journey from Paris to Instanbul; It was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL). It’s routes changed many times with several routes in the past concurrently used the Orient Express name, or slight variations. Although the original Orient Express […]