Margarethe Zelle, known to history as Mata Hari, was executed by firing squad by the French Government on this day, October 15th, 1917, after admitting to being a spy for the German Empire. She is one of history’s best known spies. An exotic dancer and courtesan, Zelle was born in the Netherlands in 1876. She […]
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 […]
The Battle of Hastings, which decided the fate of England, was fought on this day, October 14th, 1066, between the Anglo Saxon forces of the English King Harold Godwineson, and the Norman army of the Pretender, William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy. The battle ended with a decisive victory for William, and the death of […]
On 23 May,1923, the Irish Civil War officially ended, but many republican prisoners were kept in prison by the newly-established Free-State government, with some 12,000 men and women in prison in camps such as the Curragh and Gormanstown, and in Mountjoy and Cork Jail. Conditions were generally poor for the prisoners, and Senator W.B. Yeats […]
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 […]
Charles the Great, known to history as Charlemagne, was crowned King of the Franks on this day, October 9th, 768AD. As King, he would go on, over the next 32 years, to unite most of Europe, and found the Holy Roman Empire. Successive wars brought the Kingdom of Lombardy (modern Italy) under his control, and […]
Michael Schumacher is widely regarded as one of the two or three greatest – if not THE greatest – drivers ever to have lived. But when he joined the legendary Ferrari Formula One team in 1996, he surely did not imagine that it would take five years for him to win a championship with them. […]
October 7th, 1571: The Ottoman Empire has been expanding westwards for over a century. In 1453, over a hundred years earlier, it had conquered Constantinople, and destroyed the Byzantine Empire. Now, the most powerful military force in the world, it threatens the very heart of Christian Europe. Across the continent, children are warned about the […]
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 […]
On October 5th, 1968 a Civil Rights march took place in Derry protesting gerrymandering and discrimination against the minority Catholic population. The march, organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and the Derry Housing Action Committee, had been banned by the authorities in Stormont but it was decided to go ahead in defiance. At the […]
Ten IRA and INLA hunger-strikers die between 5 May and 12 August; all but one of the men were in their twenties, the youngest, Thomas McElwee, being 23 years of age. The hunger strike had started on March 1st 1981 after years of the prisoners being on the blanket (blanket protest) and the failure of […]