ON THIS DAY: 12 AUGUST 1652: English Parliament under Cromwell passes the Act for the Settlement of Ireland (1652) Cromwell was in Ireland from 15 August 1649 to 26 May 1650. As Olivercomwell.org – a charity founded to advocate for Cromwell writes: “He accomplished a more complete control of Ireland than had been achieved under […]
From the 9th to the 11th of August 1971, ten civilians, including a 13 year old boy and a Catholic priest, were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment of the British Army in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast. The three days of terror became known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. Just days after […]
J. Thomas Schipp and Abraham Smith were lynched in Indiana, on this day, August 7th, 1930. To date, they are the last known victims of lynching in the United States. Arrested on suspicion of murder, rape, and robbery the night before, Schipp and Smith were taken from their jail cells by an angry, all-white mob, […]
The Holy Roman Empire, founded in the 700’s, was formally dissolved on this day in 1806 by the Austrian Emperor Francis II. It had dominated European politics for a thousand years. The Empire was founded by the Carolingian dynasty of Charlemagne. In modern terms, it was not really an Empire at all, but a federation. […]
The great heathen army that invaded England (and Ireland) in 865AD came, according to legend, in response to the execution of Ragnar Lothbrook by King Aelle of Northhumbria. Whether that is true, or false, it was the largest invasion that these islands had seen since Roman Times. For 45 years the Vikings dominated Northern England, […]
“Ireland has wronged no man, has injured no land, has sought no dominion over others. Ireland is treated today among other nations of the world as if she was a convicted criminal. If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel and shall […]
Have you ever heard the phrase “lose the battle but win the war”? The opposite happened to the Roman triumvir Mark Antony on this day in 30BC. Having been defeated at the Battle of Actium, Anthony and Cleopatra retreated to Alexandria, which was soon besieged by the forces of Octavian. For the whole month of […]
By July 29th, 1848, most of Ireland had been truly devastated by the Great starvation. Outside of Ireland, Europe was being convulsed with revolutions. In France, King Louis-Philippe was overthrown, to make way for the second republic. Revolutions seeking the vote, and liberalisation, broke out in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and elsewhere. Inspired by these […]
The British statesman, Thomas Cromwell, was beheaded on this day in 1540. It was a messy affair – the executioner was drunk (some say, because Cromwell’s enemies spiked his drink to make the execution worse) and it took three swings of the axe to remove Cromwell’s head. It was a spectacular fall from grace: Cromwell […]
Most people have come across an incident of the German people being called “the hun” – a derogatory nickname applied to the German army by allied soldiers in both world wars. But where did the nickname come from? On July 27th, 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor (he was deposed at the end […]
ON THIS DAY, July 26th 1914, hundreds of Irish Volunteers met the Asgard at Howth and took deliverance of 900 guns and ammunition which would arm the rebels of 1916. The need to arm the Irish Volunteers had gained a fresh urgency after the Ulster Volunteer Force landed almost 25,000 rifles and between 3 and […]
The rebellion was crushed and he was captured then tried and executed for high treason against the British king George III of Great Britain Emmet’s speech to the court [The Speech from the Dock] could be regarded as the last protest of the United Irishmen: ‘ I have but one request to ask at my […]