The sack of Rome, considered by most historians to mark the fall of the Western Roman Empire, happened on this day, August 27th, 410AD. It was the first time in 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. The Empire had been in decline for almost two centuries, with invasions, on and off, […]
The Dublin lock-out began led by Jim Larkin. William Martin Murphy dismissed hundreds of workers who he suspected of membership of the ITGWU. William Martin Murphy, a major employer at the time, was chairman of the Dublin United Tramway Company, owned Clery’s department store, and the Imperial Hotel and controlled the Irish Independent, Evening Herald, […]
Albino Luciani, Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, was elected as Pope John Paul I on this day, August 26th, in 1978. Born in 1912, John Paul I was 65 years old at the time of his election, and in poor health. Though a popular choice amongst the Cardinals at the time of his election, he had […]
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 […]
The long history of anti-semitism in Europe reared its head again on this day, August 24th, 1349, when six thousand Jews were slaughtered in the City of Mainz, Germany, after being blamed for the bubonic plague. The Jews of Europe’s middle ages had a particularly hard time. In 1215, Pope Innocent II issued a decree […]
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 […]
Mickey Devine was the last man to die on the hunger strike started by Bobby Sands in early March. As a young man Bloody Sunday had a deep effect on him, he was there with this brother-in-law who remembered Mickey rhetorically ask “How can you sit back and watch while your own Derrymen are shot […]
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 […]
Gaius Octavius was the nephew of Julius Caesar, and his heir apparent, when the latter was brutally murdered by conspirators on the Ides of March, 44BC. At the time, Octavian (as he was then known) was twenty years old, and studying in Greece. Within 18 months, the young man had maneuvered himself into becoming one […]
On this day, in 1940, the so-called “hardest day” battle was fought, as part of the battle of Britain. On that day, the Luftwaffe made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command. But German intelligence was faulty: They believed that the British had only about 300 fighters left in service, but the RAF actually […]
On March 21st, 1612, a young girl called Alizon Device encountered a merchant called John Law, from Halifax, on the road to Pendle. She begged him to sell her some pins, but he refused, because she did not have the money. Privately, she cursed him. As luck would have it, within a few minutes, he […]
An Irish force led by Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill ambushed Sir Conyers Clifford and his men though a pass in the Curlew mountains near the town of Boyle in Roscommon.