ON THIS DAY: 3RD DECEMBER 1974: Maguire Seven charged with possessing materials for bomb making 40-year-old Irish born Anne Maguire, from North London, was convicted of possessing nitro-glycerine, which was then allegedly passed on for use to the IRA. Her husband, Patrick Maguire, 42 was also sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Her two younger sons, […]
The Book of Kells is Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure and the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. It contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text which St Jerome completed in 384AD, intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The book is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and […]
Thomas Clarke Luby was an Irish revolutionary, author, journalist and one of the founding members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was a member of Daniel O’Connell Repeal Association whose aim was to repeal the 1801 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. He parted company with O’Connell after the repeal campaign failed, having […]
The Irish Citizen Army was founded at the height of the Dublin Lockout of 1913 to protect strikers at their demonstrations from the police. Three years later it took part, alongside the Irish Volunteers, in the insurrection of Easter 1916. Its leader James Connolly along with his second, Michael Mallin, were executed for their part […]
After the Birmingham Pub bombings the previous day, six men were arrested; Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Robert Hunter, Noel McIlkenny, William Power (Belfast-born Catholics), and John Walker who was a Derry-born Catholic. All six had lived in Birmingham since the 1960s, and were arrested on the way to a funeral in Belfast, while in custody […]
Joseph Mary Plunkett, Seosamh Máire Pluincéid, was an Irish nationalist, poet, journalist, revolutionary and a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising. Throughout his life, Joseph Plunkett took an active interest in Irish heritage and the Irish language; joined the Gaelic League and began studying with Thomas MacDonagh, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. The […]
ON THIS DAY: 21 NOVEMBER 615: SAINT COLUMBANUS (Columbán meaning white dove) died in present day Italy As an Irish missionary, he was notable for founding a number of monasteries from around 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy. He was one […]
Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone (20 June 1763 – 19 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members of the United Irishmen, and is regarded as the father of Irish republicanism and leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. He was captured in Buncrana on 3 November […]
Willie James Pearse – Uilliam Seamus Mac Piarais – was an Irish republican executed for his part in the Easter Rising. He was a younger brother of Pádraig, a leader of the rising; Willie was very devoted to Pádraig and the brothers had a very close relationship. Pearse inherited his father’s artistic abilities and became […]
On the night of 14 November 1920, during the War of Independence, 28-year-old Fr. Michael Griffin, was taken from his home – by men suspected to be Black and Tans – and was never seen again. On 20 November, his body was found in an unmarked grave in a bog at Cloghscoltia near Barna; he […]
ON THIS DAY: 12TH NOVEMBER 1971: RTÉ bans several patriotic ballads including Dublin In The Green and The Patriot Game Lyrics of the The Patriot Game Come all ye young rebels, and list while I sing, For the love of one’s country is a terrible thing. It banishes fear with the speed of a flame, […]
Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin in 1778. In 1824 she used her inheritance from an Irish couple she had served for twenty years to build a large House of Mercy where she and other lay women would shelter homeless women, reach out to the sick and dying and educate poor girls. The House on […]