The end of Gaelic Ireland
Oliver Cromwell, the butcher of Drogheda, died on this day in 1658, having suffered a painful end from a urinary tract infection that caused blood poisoning. Three years after he died, his body was exhumed and ceremonially hanged in chains, and then thrown into a pit, so that his enemies could be sure that he […]
More than 1,000 prisoners were killed within 20 hours.
Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died on this day, September 1st, 1914. With her death, her kind became extinct. The passenger pigeon was driven to extinction by humans, and because they were so easy to catch. As recently as 1850, there were almost a million pigeons in North America. But the passenger pigeon was tasty, […]
Henry VI of England came to the throne on this day, August 31st, 1422, at the age of nine months. His disastrous reign would last 39 years, until it ended with the wars of the roses. His father, Henry V, was amongst the great English Kings, finally unifying the thrones of England and France, which […]
The Zulus never had an independent country again.
Revolt
Several interesting things happened on August 25th. Most prominently, the date saw the liberation of Paris by the Allies in 1944. But that tale pales into insignificance beside the story of Hugh Glass and the Grizzly Bear. Hugh Glass was an American frontiersman, who lived most of his life in that lawless wilderness of the […]
Richard de Clare, nicknamed Strongbow invaded Ireland to continue the earlier Norman invasion of 1169. Diarmait Mac Murchada was ousted as king of Leinster by a coalition led by the High King, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. He fled Ireland and sought military assistance as he wanted to be King of Leinster, and ultimately Ireland, but had to […]
Changed small County Mayo village forever
Mickey Devine was the last man to die on the hunger strike
In 1874, a letter was sent to John Devoy, a leader with the Fenian Irish Republican Brotherhood who was living in exile in the USA. He was planning a rebellion in Ireland when informers altered the British authorities and Devoy was arrested, convicted of treason and sentenced to 15 years labour on the Isle of […]