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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. […]
He joined the Gaelic league as he believed that the language must be preserved
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 […]
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 […]
Born in 1550, Aodh Mór Ó Néill (Hugh O’Neill) was born to the Clann Uí Néíll , the ruling noble family in Tír Eoghain. He was the second son of Feardorcha Ó Néill and grandson of Conn O’Neill, the first Earl of Tyrne. At the age of nine he became a ward of Giles Hovenden, […]
Irish Harps go back 1000 years
He made the point that Irish nationalists had no need of Marxists to whom nationalism is anathema, to educate them on anything.
He was uncle to a prominent fenian Peter O’Neill who was born two years earlier in 1832.
Having been crowned King of England, Scotland, and Ireland some 14 months earlier, on April 11th, 1689, William III of England landed in Ireland on this day to confront the Jacobite supporters of his father in law, the deposed King James II. A short military campaign that followed would lead to the Battle of the […]
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