ON THIS DAY: 12TH SEPTEMBER 1919 Dáil Éireann was declared illegal by the British Parliament when Sinn Féin TDs refused to sit in Westminister and set up their own parliament in Dublin, Dáil Éireann The British authorities called it a ‘dangerous assembly, because of this the first Dáil had to meet in secret at different […]
The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence, Scottish rebel William Wallace and others defeated the English at Stirling Bridge. The Scots had some 300 cavalry, 10,000 infantry and the English had far greater numbers of 1,000 to 3,000 cavalry, 15,000-50,000 infantry but the Scots were victorious. The […]
Newspapers report a potato blight has hit Ireland. High rents imposed by absentee landlords meant that most people could only afford to live on small tenant farms with inferior soil that only potatoes could grow on; but the potato crop was prone to disease and the farmers did not have extra land to rotate crops. […]
ON THIS DAY: 4TH SEPTEMBER 1607 : THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS After being beaten by the English in 1603 following the nine years war, Aodh Mór Ó Néill, Earl of Tír Eoghan and Rudhraighe Ó Domhnaill, Earl of Tír Conaill (both Irish Gaelic Lords), and about ninety followers left Ulster for Europe, seeking to […]
I am not going to begin this piece with multiple qualifications, or unnecessary statements that I believe in the value and contributions of women. The message in the title and the vitality of women are self-evident. Women are great. But I am not a woman, and neither are half the population. I am sick, to […]
The September Massacres were a number of killings in Paris and other cities that occurred from 2–6 September 1792 during the French Revolution. Catholic Bishops, priests, prisoners and peasants were singled out. More than 1,000 prisoners were killed within 20 hours. By 6 September, half the prison population of Paris had been summarily executed: some […]
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, […]
We came upon Heididorf by accident, while searching for a hotel between my meeting in Salzburgand my meeting in Zug. My wife spotted the sign for Maienfeld first. Why was that name so familiar?Perhaps it was the landscape, with the Alpine peaks rushing skyward all around us, but it struck me suddenly: Heidi. Maienfeld was the village in Johanna […]
The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Irish: Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) or the Annals of the Four Masters (Annála na gCeithre Máistrí) are chronicles of medieval Irish history. They were a compilation of earlier annals, although there is some original work. They were compiled between 1632 and 1636 at a Franciscan friary near the Drowes […]
On this day 1915 – tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin leading up to Glasnevin Cemetery for the funeral of the old Fenian rebel Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. Patrick Pearse gave the funeral oration with the ending “…Ireland unfree shall never be at peace”. Photo Credit: Dublin South 1916 Centenary Committee.