Timeline Ireland
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The 3 Aran Islands are located off the west coast
of Ireland. Inishmore is the largest.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F10)(www.visitaranislands.com)
Ireland Archeology, home page of
Archaeology
Ireland
quarterly:
http://www.kerna.ie/archaeology/
Irish Aires, an Irish news blog: http://www.irishaires.blogspot.com
Irish Law History: http://www.brehon.org
National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/
Tourism: www.irelandvacations.com
3800BC-3200BC At Poulnabrone
Dolmen in County Clare, one of some 120 wedge tombs, bodies were
interred over a 600 year period that ended about 3200BC. Poulnabrone
means "cave of the quern." A quern is a hollowed out stone to grind
grain. A dolmen is a megalithic monument.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.T8) (SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T4)
300BC In Ireland 2 men were
murdered about this time. In 2005 their preserved remains were found in
a peat bog. One dubbed Clonycavan Man was about 5 feet 2 inches and
used hair gel. The other, dubbed Oldcroghan Man, stood 6 feet 6 inches.
"Oldcroghan Man was stabbed through the chest. He was then decapitated
and his body cut in half while Clonycaven Man had his head split open
with an axe before he was disemboweled.
(Reuters, 1/7/06)
c1AD Stone forts were built on the
3 Aran islands: Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Isisheer, whose total area
was 18 sq. miles. The islands are on the west coast of Ireland at the
mouth of Galway Bay.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, T8,9)
238AD Solinus wrote that the
Hibernian mother places the first morsel of food in her child’s mouth
with the point of her sword.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.11)
377 Niall of the Nine Hostages,
warlord and head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland, was
crowned king. He reportedly had 12 sons, many of whom became powerful
Irish kings themselves. In 2006 scientists in Ireland presented
evidence that he was the country's most fertile male, with more than 3
million men worldwide among his offspring.
(Reuters,
1/17/06)(www.irishclans.com/articles/famirish/niall9hostages.html)
c389 Mar 17, St. Patrick (d.461),
the patron saint of Ireland, was born. Calpurnius, his father, was a
deacon and local official who lost his son to Irish raiders when
Patrick was 16. Patrick allegedly drove all the snakes (i.e. pagans)
out of Ireland.
(HN, 3/17/99)(HNQ, 3/17/01)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.W13)
c389-461AD St. Patrick, an English missionary and
bishop of Ireland. March 17 is celebrated in his honor. He was a Celt
born in Romanized Britain and was kidnapped by Irish pirates at 16,
sold into slavery, and served for 6 years as a shepherd until he
escaped.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A16)(WUD, 1994, p.1057)(SFC,
3/17/97, p.A20)
c400AD The Celtic ruler Niall of the Nine Hostages
lived around this time.
(SFC, 7/14/97, p.E1)
c400AD People from the chiefdom Dal Riata in northern
Ireland crossed the Irish Sea and settled along the Scottish coast of
County Argyll.
(AM, 7/01, p.46)
400-500 The leap year tradition of women proposing
marriage to men began in 5th century Ireland.
(SFEC, 6/8/97, Z1 p.6)
400-1177 Ireland was made up of at least 120
chiefdoms.
(AM, 7/01, p.46)
c405 St. Patrick, aged 16, was
sold in Northern Ireland as a slave by King Niall’s men.
(WSJ, 3/15/02, p.W15)
c432 About this time Patrick was
consecrated a bishop and returned to Ireland as a missionary. This
period is covered in the 1995 book "How the Irish Saved Civilization"
by Thomas Cahill.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W12)
438 Easter, St. Patrick used the
3-leaf clover to illustrate the Trinity.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.D7)
441 Bishop Patrick allegedly
fasted for 40 days on a 2,500-foot peak later named Croagh Patrick in
county Mayo. He allegedly banished snakes from Ireland during this time.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.23)
444 St. Patrick selected the site
for the Cathedral of Armagh. It later became Ireland’s ecclesiastical
center and preceded the 360 churches that he established.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.D7)
461 Mar 17, According to
tradition, St. Patrick (b.c389), the patron saint of Ireland, died in
Saul, County Down. Some sources say he died in 493AD. He was an English
missionary and bishop of Ireland. In 2004 Philip Freeman authored "St.
Patrick: A Biography."
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.W13)(AP,
3/17/08)
c500-600 Irish monks brought an alembic from the
Middle East that was initially used to distill perfumes. They soon
applied it to spirits and produced Uisce Beatha (water of life), better
known as whiskey.
(WSJ, 8/14/02, p.D8)
546AD Colmcille, an Irish saint,
founded a monastery at Derry.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A14)
548 St. Kieran founded a monastery
at Clonmacnoise, an Irish phrase meaning "the meadow of the sons of
Nos."
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
550-1200AD The period of Irish Monasticism.
(NGM, 5/77)
563 The Irish Catholic monk
Columba (Colum Cille) arrived on the Scottish island of Iona.
(SFC, 2/10/99, p.A10)(AM, 7/01, p.51)
565 Aug 22, St. Columba reported
seeing a monster in Loch Ness.
(MC, 8/22/02)
c600 "The Navigatio Sancti
Brendani Abbatis" (Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbott) recounts a 7-year
trip to a land across the sea by the Irish saint and a band of acolytes
about this time.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.24)
600-700 Irish monastic monks founded a monastery at
Skellig Michael (Michael’s Rock) during the 7th century and for the
next 600 years the island was a center of their monastic life. In 1996
UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skellig_Michael)(Econ,
9/12/09, p.94)
615 Nov 23, Columbanus, Irish
explorer, monastery founder, poet and saint (Poenitentiale), died (aka
St. Columba).
(MC, 11/23/01)
697 An assembly was called at the
hill of Tara to put an end to the participation of Irish women in
battle.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.11)
700-800 Vikings settled the Faeroe Islands in the 8th
century replacing Irish settlers. In 1948 the group of 18 islands,
located between Britain and Iceland, became an autonomous region of
Denmark.
(SSFC, 7/29/07,
p.G8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands)
795 Vikings first raided Ireland.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
c797 The 1,200 year-old Book of
Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Gospels, was made by Irish
monks. It was later kept in the library of Dublin’s Trinity College.
The Book of Kells is a richly decorated copy of the four
gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--produced by Christian monks,
possibly in the late 700s on the Scottish isle of Iona or in the Irish
town of Kells. Joyce later used it as a model for Ulysses.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A20)(HNQ, 1/13/99)(SFEM, 5/16/99,
p.7)
840 Vikings settled in Ireland.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
842 Vikings attacked the monastery
at Clonmacnoise from bases in Ireland.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
878 Monks packed up their shrine
of Collum Cille at Iona and moved to Kells, Ireland.
(AM, 7/01, p.50)
918 There was a great flood in the
region of Clonmacnoise.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1014 Apr 23, The Battle of Contarf
ended Danish rule in Ireland but a Dane killed Irish King Brian Boru
(87).
(PCh, 1992, p.80)(MC, 4/23/02)
1014 Apr 23, Sweyn Forkbeard,
Viking king of England (1013-14), died.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1100s Bushmills Distillery in
Northern Ireland began producing whiskey.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T8)
1100-1200 Cistercian monks established an abbey on
Clare Island.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T8)
1100-1200 In Limerick a 12th century cathedral was
built.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T11)
1149 The yew tree of St. Kieran
was struck by lightning and 113 sheep taking refuge there were killed.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1170 Henry II sent his
Anglo-Norman barons to invade Ireland after he gained support from the
English pope.
(SFEM, 2/22/98, p.37)
1171 May 1, Dermot MacMurrough,
last Irish King of Leinster, died.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1178 English raiders attacked the
town of Clonmacnoise but spared the churches.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1189 Giraldus Cambrensis authored
"History of the Conquest of Ireland."
(ON, SC, p.1)
1200-1300 In Limerick a 13th century castle was built
overlooking the Shannon River.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T11)
1202 The English again attacked
the town and monastery at Clonmacnoise.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1209 In Kinnitty the Kinnitty
Castle was built. It was later converted to a hotel.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.B8)
1491 Perkin Warbeck appeared in
Ireland and claimed to be the missing Duke of York, thought by many to
have been murdered by Richard III. After winning support in France and
Scotland, Warbeck's fortunes turned and he was captured and executed in
1497.
(HNQ, 4/17/02)
1500-1600 The 1966 Disney film "The Fighting Prince
of Donegal" was set in the 16th century as Irish clans rose up against
the British.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, DB p.57)
1541 Jun 18, Irish parliament
"selected" Henry VIII as King of Ireland.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(MC, 6/18/02)
c1550-1600 Grace O’Malley led a 200-strong band on
Clare Island financed by piracy.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T8)
1552 The English again attacked
the town and monastery at Clonmacnoise and carried everything away.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1579 Jun 17, There was an
anti-English uprising in Ireland.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1580 Nov 9, Spanish troops landed
in Ireland.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1581 Jan 4, James Ussher (d.1656),
Irish prelate and scholar, Archbishop of Armagh, was born. According to
Ussher and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on
Oct 23, 4004BC, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
(WUD, 1994, p.1574)(NG, Nov. 1985, edit. p.559)(HN,
10/23/98)(MC, 1/4/02)
1588 Aug 18, A storm struck the
remaining 60 ships of the Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina
Sidonia after which only 11 were left. Many of the ships went to
Ireland where most of the Spaniards were killed by the English. 600
Spaniards wrecked in Scotland were later returned to Spain. In 1978
Niall Fallon authored "The Armada in Ireland."
(ON, 3/02, p.6)
1588 Sep 25, A heavy storm drove 3
Spanish ships onto the coast of Ireland. Francisco de Cuellar, an
officer on the galleon Lavia, spent the next 6 months evading English
forces and getting to Scotland and then the Netherlands. His letter
from Antwerp to King Philip on Oct 4, 1589, was later valued for its
descriptions of Ireland.
(ON, 5/02, p.12)
1588 Dec, Sir William Fitzwilliam,
the English Lord Deputy of Ireland, planned an attack against the
McClancy clan led by chieftain Dartry. Francisco de Cuellar and a group
of stranded Spanish Armada soldiers successfully held the clan’s
Rossclogher Castle under a 17-day siege.
(ON, 5/02, p.11)
1592 Trinity College in Dublin,
Ireland, was founded after small group of Dublin citizens obtained a
charter from Queen Elizabeth incorporating Trinity College juxta Dublin.
(www.tcd.ie/info/trinity/history/)
1595 May 28, It was a shaken and
demoralized English column that returned to its northern Irish base at
Newry.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1596 Oct 25, The Spanish fleet
sailed from Lisbon to Ireland.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1598 Aug 15, Hugh O'Neill, the
Earl of Tyrone, led an Irish force to victory over the British at
Battle of Yellow Ford.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1599 Mar 27, Robert Devereux
became Lt-general of Ireland.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1599 Sep 7, Earl of Essex and
Irish rebel Tyrone signed a treaty.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1600-1972 This period was covered by R.F. Foster in
"Modern Ireland 1600-1972" (1989).
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A22)
1602 Jan 2, Battle at Kinsale,
Ireland: English army beat the Spanish.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1603 Mar 30, Battle at Mellifont:
English army under Lord Mountjoy beat the Irish.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1608 Bushmills Distillery in
Northern Ireland acquired a license for whiskey production. They had
been producing whiskey since the 1100s.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T8)
1610 The settlement at Derry was
colonized by the English, who built a fortress surrounded by stone
walls and renamed it Londonderry.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A14)
1613 The Brazen Head pub on Bridge
St. in Dublin was licensed. It allegedly date back to 1198.
(SFEM, 5/16/99, p.7)
1625 Mar 27, Charles I (d.1649)
became the English king. He was King of England, Ireland and Scotland
until he was beheaded.
(AP, 3/27/97)(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1641 Oct 21, A Catholic uprising
took place in Ulster. Thousands of English and Scots were killed. [see
Oct 23]
(MC, 10/21/01)
1641 Oct 23, Catholics in Ireland,
under Phelim O'Neil, rose against the Protestants and cruelly massacred
men, women and children to the number of 40,000 (some say 100,000).
[see Oct 21]
(HN, 10/23/98)
1641 A Catholic uprising in Ulster
was suppressed. English Gen’l. Oliver Cromwell took away the land
rights of 44,000 Catholics in Ulster and adjacent counties.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1649 Sep 11, Oliver Cromwell
seized Drogheda, Ireland. 3,000 inhabitants were massacred and all
Catholic Churches were blown up by cannon.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1651 Oct 27, English troops
occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1653 Dec 16, Oliver Cromwell took
on dictatorial powers with the title of lord protector" of England,
Scotland and Ireland. He served as dictator of England to 1658.
(CFA, '96, p.44)(AHD, p.315)(AP, 12/16/97)(HN,
12/16/98)
1654 Apr 12, England, Ireland and
Scotland united.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1656 Feb 20, James Ussher (76),
Irish bible scholar, Anglican archbishop, died. [see Mar 21]
(MC, 2/20/02)
1656 Mar 21, Armagh James Ussher
(76), Archbishop (said world began 4004 BC), died. [see Feb 20]
(MC, 3/21/02)
1667 Nov 30, Jonathan Swift
(d.1745), English satirist who wrote "Gulliver's Travels," was born in
Ireland.
(WUD, 1994, p.1437)(HN, 11/30/98)
1681 May 17, Louis XIV sent an
expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declared
war on France.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1685 Feb 2, Charles II (54), King
of England, Scotland, Ireland (1660-85), died. He made a deathbed
conversion to the Roman Catholic faith. He had earlier ordered
Christopher Wren to build an observatory and maritime college at
Greenwich. In 2000 Stephen Coote authored the biography: "Royal
Survivor."
(WSJ, 2/28/00,
p.A36)(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon49.html)
c1685-1753 George Berkeley, Irish bishop and
philosopher. He argued that the things we see around us exist only as
ideas. This was in opposition to naive realism which held that we
perceive objects as they really are.
(WUD, 1994, p.140)(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.W13)
1689 Mar 12, Former English King
James II landed in Ireland.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1689 Mar, In Northern Ireland the
gates of Londonderry were shut in the face of Catholic forces. The
event was later celebrated by the Protestant Apprentice Boys as the
Lundy’s Day demonstration. [see August 1, 1689]
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A26)
1689 Apr 21, William III and Mary
II were crowned joint king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1689 Aug 1, A siege of
Londonderry, Ireland, by the Catholic Army of King James II ended in
failure. The Protestants were victorious and the event led to the
annual Apprentice Boy’s March. The group is named in honor of 13
teenage apprentices, all Protestants, who bolted the city gates in
front of the advancing Catholic forces at the start of the 105-day
siege.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)(HN, 8/1/98)(AP, 8/13/06)
1690 Mar 16, French king Louis XIV
sent troops to Ireland.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1690 Jun 24, King William III's
army landed at Carrickfergus, Ireland.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1690 Jul 1, England's Protestant
King William III of Orange was victorious over his father-in-law, the
Catholic King James II (from Scot) in Battle of Boyne (in Ireland).
This touched off three centuries of religious bloodshed. Protestants
took over the Irish Parliament. This marked the beginning of the annual
Drumcree parade, held by the Loyal Orange Lodge on the first Sunday of
July. Due to calendar changes in 1752 this later became commemorated on
Jul 12.
(PC, 1992, p.265)(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A1)(SFEC,
12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A18)
1690 Jul 12, Due to British
calendar changes in 1752, the July 1, 1690, Battle of Boyne (in
Ireland) was adjusted for celebration on Jul 12.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)(AP, 7/11/05)
1691 Jul 12, William III defeated
the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1691 Oct 3, English and Dutch
armies occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/3/01)
c1696 Protestants were victorious
over Irish Catholics. King William of Orange was victorious over
Catholic King James II.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A8)
1697 Sep 30, Under the Treaty of
Ryswick, France recognized William III as King of England. The signees
included France, England, Spain and Holland.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1675)
1700 William Congreve, an
Anglo-Irishman playwright, published his last play, "The Way of the
World."
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1702 Mar 19, On the death of
William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, sister of Mary, succeeded to the
throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1713 Nov 24, Laurence Sterne
(d.1768), novelist and satirist (Tristram Shandy), was born in Ireland.
"Free thinkers are generally those who never think at all."
(MC, 11/24/01)(AP, 6/19/97)
1720 The first yacht club appeared
in Cork Harbor.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1722 Jonathon Swift, author and
pamphleteer, urged his fellow countrymen to boycott English goods and
"burn everything that came from England, except their people and their
Coals."
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1729 Jan 12, Edmund Burke
(d.1797), British politician and author, was born in Dublin. Burke
advocated consistent and sympathetic treatment of the American
colonies: "A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world
arises from words."
(V.D.-H.K.p.224)(AP, 7/20/97)(AP,
11/29/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)
1742 Apr 13, George Frideric
Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.
(AP, 4/13/97)
1752 George Berkeley (1685-1753),
Irish philosopher, wrote a poem that included the line "Westward the
course of empire takes its way." The line later inspired the founders
of Berkeley, Ca., to name their city and university after Berkeley.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
1753 Mar 17, The 1st official St
Patrick's Day was celebrated.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1755 Arthur Guinness began brewing
a dark-brown stout in the town of Leixlip, Ireland.
(WSJ, 9/12/08, p.B7)
1759 Arthur Guinness purchased
Mark Rainsford’s Ale Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, and began producing
his own recipe.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.T8)
1763 Jun 20, Theobald Wolfe Tone
(d.1798), Irish nationalist, was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1774 Apr 4, Oliver Goldsmith,
Irish poet (She Stoops to Conquer), died.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1774 Sir Francis Beaufort (d.1857)
hydrogapher, was born near Navan in Co. Meath, Ireland.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.51)
1775-1847 Daniel O'Connell, Irish political leader:
"Bigotry has no head, and cannot think; no heart, and cannot feel."
(AP, 8/12/98)
1776 Nano Nagle, a wealthy Irish
woman, founded the Sisters of Presentation. At this time it was a crime
in Ireland for a Catholic to teach or be taught.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.F11)
1777 Mar 17, The Rev. Patrick
Bronte was born on St. Patrick’s Day in County Down, Ireland. He
married Maria Branwell of Cornwall in 1812 and they had six children
that included the writers Charlotte and Emily. Mrs. Branwell died in
1821 at 38.
(WP, 1952, p.34)
1779 May 28, Thomas Moore, Irish
poet, was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1780 Sheep were introduced to
Ireland from Scotland.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.25)
1782 Jul 26, John Field, pianist,
composer (Nocturnes), was born in Dublin, Ireland.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1784 Apr 15, The first balloon
flight occurred in Ireland. [see Jun 5, 1783 in France]
(HN, 4/15/98)
1787 Robert Barker, an Irish
painter, is credited with inventing the panorama and patented the idea
in this year.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A20)
1791 The United Irishmen Society
was formed. Inspired by the French Revolution many Catholics and
Protestants took up the cause of Irish nationalism during the next
decade.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1795 The Loyal Orange Institution
was established in Portadown to proclaim Protestant ascendancy.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 7/12/99, p.A19)
1797 Jul 9, Edmund Burke (b.1729),
Irish-born British statesman, parliament leader, died. His writing
included “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” 1790.
(WUD, 1994
p.198)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)
1798 May 24, Believing that a
French invasion of Ireland was imminent, Irish nationalists rose up
against the British occupation. It was put down by the Orange yeomanry
who were enlisted by the government to restore peace. The slogan
"Croppies lie down" originated here after some of the rebel Catholics
had their hair cropped in the French revolutionary manner.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.A15)(HN, 5/24/99)
1798 May 26, British killed about
500 Irish insurgents at the Battle of Tara.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1798 Nov 1, Benjamin Lee Guinness,
Irish brewer and Dublin mayor, was born.
(HN, 11/1/00)(MC, 11/1/01)
1798 Nov 19, Theobald Wolfe Tone,
Irish nationalist (United Irishmen), died.
(MC, 11/19/01)(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)
1798 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, an
Irish rebel, was killed. He had fathered a daughter with Elizabeth
Linley (d.1792), the wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1800 The Parliament in Westminster
passed an Act of Union formally binding Ireland with England and
abolished the Irish parliament. The Act of Union entailed the loss of
legislative independence of the Irish Parliament.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1800-1850 Thomas Flanagan (d.2002 at 78),
Irish-American author, wrote a scholarly work on the Irish novelists of
this period: "The Irish Novelists: 1800-1850."
(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A19)
1803 Jul 23, Irish patriots
throughout the country rebelled against Union with Great Britain.
Robert Emmett led the insurrection in Dublin.
(HN, 7/23/98)(MC, 7/23/02)
1803 Sep 20, Robert Emmet, Irish
nationalist, was executed.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1804 A stone signal tower was
built on Clare Island as part of a series along the Irish west coast in
fear of an invasion by Napoleon.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T8)
1805 Aug 4, William Rowan
Hamilton (d.1865), Irish scientist, was born.
(HN, 8/4/00)
1812 Jun 18, The War of 1812 began
as the United States declared war against Great Britain and Ireland.
The term "war hawk" was first used by John Randolph in reference to
those Republicans who were pro-war in the years leading up to the War
of 1812. These new types of Republicans, who espoused nationalism and
expansionism, included Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Most of them
came from the agrarian areas of the South and West. In 2004 Walter R.
Borneman authored “1812: The War That Forged a Nation.”
(AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)(HNQ, 5/13/99)(WSJ,
12/16/04, p.D8)
1820-1920 Some 6 million Irish people, 90% of them
Catholic, immigrated to America.
(WSJ, 10/27/08, p.A15)
1822 Dec 26, Dion Boucicault,
Irish-US actor and playwright (Rip van Winkle), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1824-1877 Julia Kavanagh, Irish novelist: "The
slight that can be conveyed in a glance, in a gracious smile, in a wave
of the hand, is often the ne plus ultra of art. What insult is so keen
or so keenly felt, as the polite insult which it is impossible to
resent?"
(AP, 6/7/97)
1827 Catherine McAuley
(1787-1841), founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland. They
engaged chiefly in works of spiritual and corporal mercy. Frances Warde
led the sisters out from Ireland. In 2002 John J. Fialka authored
"Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America."
(WUD, 1994 p.1333)(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.M6)
1829 Daniel O’Connell, an Irish
Catholic, took a seat in the House of Commons and began to work for the
repeal of the union between Britain and Ireland. Nationalistic
sentiments became identified mainly with the Catholics.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1832 Mar 12, Charles Boycott,
estate manager who caused boycotts, was born in Ireland.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1832 Aug, In Pennsylvania 57 Irish
immigrants died of cholera after traveling there to build a railroad.
In 2009 their bones were found at a woodsy site known as Duffy's Cut,
named after Philip Duffy, who hired the immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone
and Derry to help build the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.
(AP, 3/25/09)
1837 Jan 11, John Field (54),
Irish pianist, composer (Nocturnes), died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1838 Sep 11, John Ireland, US
archbishop of St. Paul, was born in Ireland.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1839 Cesar Otway wrote "Tour of
Connacht."
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T8)
1845 Aug, The Irish potato crop
was attacked by the Phytophthora infestans fungus. It was first noticed
in County Fermanagh. It blackened the potato leaves and caused the
tubers in the ground to putrefy. In this year 40% of the crop was
infected.
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A22)(USAT, 1/15/97, p.2D)
1845 Frederick Douglas,
African-American statesman, traveled to Ireland where he received a
hero’s welcome. Irish nationalist Daniel O’Connell saw common cause
between Ireland’s quest for self-rule and the plight of American slaves.
(WSJ, 3/13/09, p.W2)
1845-1846 As Ireland’s potato crop was consumed by
blight. The nation’s peasants, who relied on the potato as their
primary food source, starved. The famine took as many as one million
lives from hunger and disease and caused mass emigration. The British
government responded to the calamity too late with too little aid, even
though eyewitnesses reported the suffering in the press.
(HNPD, 3/17/99)
1845-1850 A fungus of the genus Phytophtora caused
the Irish potato famine.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A13)
1845-1855 Some 1.5 million people left Ireland and
many of them made New York City their home.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.49)
1845-1857 Mary E. Daly, Dublin, covered this period
in her essay on potato famine relief: "The Operations of Famine Relief."
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A22)
1845-1998 This period is covered in the 3-part TV
series "The Irish in America: Long Journey Home" by Thomas Lennon.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A16)
1846 Jan 25, The dreaded Corn
Laws, which taxed imported oats, wheat and barley, were repealed by the
British Parliament in response to the Irish potato famine of
1845.
(HN, 1/25/99)(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A8)
1846 Jun 27, Charles Stewart
Parnell (d.1891), Irish nationalist hero, was born.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AHD, 1971, p.954)(HN, 6/27/98)
1846 People began starving to
death due to the potato famine.
(USAT, 1/15/97, p.2D)
1847 Nov 8, Bram Stoker, author,
was born. His novels included "Dracula" (1897). [see Nov 24]
(WUD, 1994 p.432)(HN, 11/8/00)
1847 Nov 24, Bram Stoker, Irish
theater manager and author (Dracula), was born. [see Nov 8]
(MC, 11/24/01)
1847 Nov, Dennis Mahon, mayor of
Strokestown, was shot dead in an ambush. He had thrown thousands of
poor farmers off the land during the famine and had paid to have some
1000 small farmers shipped to North America so he could establish
larger farms. He was killed after it was learned that half of the
shipped people died enroute.
(USAT, 1/15/97, p.2D)
1847 Britain passed a Vagrancy Act
to combat begging as famine swept Ireland.
(AP, 11/25/08)
1847 In Ireland a new British Poor
Law dumped the cost of relief on the already strapped Irish landlords.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1847 The potato harvest was only
10% of normal and some 3 million people (40% of the populace) lined up
for free food and soup.
(USAT, 1/15/97, p.2D)
1848 Jul 29, An Irish rebellion
against British rule was put down in a cabbage patch in Tipperary,
Ireland. Irish Nationalists under William Smith O'Brien were overcome
and arrested.
(HN, 7/29/98)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A15)
1848 In Ireland a group of
writers, poets and orators, collectively known as Young Ireland,
attempted to spark the Irish people into rebelling against Britain.
They included Thomas D’Arcy McGee (1825-1868), who had returned to
Ireland from the US to support the cause. A warrant for his arrest
forced him to return to the US.
(WSJ, 5/15/08,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_D'Arcy_McGee)
1849 Mar 7, William Alexander
Coulter (d.1936), maritime artist, was born in Glenariff, Ireland,
where his father was captain in the Coast Guard.
(www.edanhughes.com/biography.cfm?ArtistID=145)
1850 Mar 29, Ireland's SS Royal
Adelaide sank in storm and 200 people died.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1850-1859 The 1st recipe for ginger ale was created
in Ireland in the 1850s.
(SFC, 6/29/05, p.F12)
1852 Mar 4, Lady (Isabella
Augusta) Gregory, Irish playwright, was born. She helped found the
Abbey Theatre.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1852 Sep 30, Charles Villiers
Stanford, Irish organist and composer, was born.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1854 Oct 16, Oscar Wilde (born as
Fingal O'Flahertie Wills, d.1900), dramatist, poet, novelist and
critic, was born in Dublin. His work included "The Picture of Dorian
Gray." "Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it."
[see 1856-1900]
(HN, 10/16/98)(AP, 2/16/99)(MC, 10/16/01)
1854 The first lighthouse on
Fastnet rock off of southwest Ireland was completed. Work on a
replacement began in 1896. In 2004 James Morrissey authored “A History
of the Fastnet Lighthouse.”
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.100)
1854 Five Sisters of Presentation
(f.1776) arrived in San Francisco from Ireland to teach the children of
miners.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.F11)
1856 Jul 26, George Bernard Shaw
(d.1950), Irish-born, English dramatist, critic and social reformer
(Pygmalion-Nobel 1925), was born in Dublin. "The worst sin toward our
fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them;
that's the essence of inhumanity."
(V.D.-H.K.p.237)(HN, 7/26/98)(AP, 3/15/00)
1856-1900 Oscar Wilde, English [Irish] writer, poet
and dramatist, a rebel of every kind, ended up playing the part of a
mocking fool. He despaired of his countrymen ever waking up, but they
did, for they became enraged by his mockery and jailed him, ruining his
life. He wrote the play "The Importance of Being Ernest." He was found
guilty of violating the Criminal Law Amendment Act which prohibited
indecent relations between consenting adult males. He served 2 years in
prison where he read the whole of Dante and wrote the letter "De
Profundis," and the poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." "At every single
moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what
one has been." [see 1854]
(V.D.-H.K.p.279)(HT, 3/97, p.71)(AP, 10/10/99)
1857 Dec 17, Sir Francis Beaufort
(b.1774), Irish-born hydrogapher, died in London. In 2004 Scott Huler
authored “Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a
Nineteenth-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry.”
(NH, 11/1/04, p.51)
1858 Mar 17, The Fenian
Brotherhood, a brigade of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a
secret revolutionary group, was founded in Dublin by James Stephens.
John O'Mahony headed the IRB's American wing, popularly known as the
Fenian Brotherhood, which was composed of immigrants and Irish
Americans whose ultimate goal was to free Ireland from British rule.
(HNQ, 4/17/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian)
1858 Aug 5, Cyrus W. Field
completed the first transatlantic cable. It linked Newfoundland to
Ireland. The cable burned out after several weeks of use.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)(AP, 8/5/08)
1864 Sep 1, Roger David Casement,
Irish nationalist (Easter uprising 1916), was born.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1864 George Boole, Irish
mathematician and inventor of Boolean algebra, died.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.C3)
1865 Jun 13, William Butler Yeats
(d.1939), Irish poet and playwright, was born to an Anglo-Irish family
in a Dublin suburb. He is best remembered for his poems "Byzantium" and
"Easter 1916." He won the Nobel Prize in 1923. The first volume of his
autobiography was "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth" (1915). Richard
Ellman published a biography in 1948. The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life,
Vol. 1: The Apprentice Mage 1865-1914," by R.F. Foster covered this
period of Yeats’ life. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is his best known
poem. "Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when
may it suffice?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.365)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)(HN,
6/13/98)(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T6)(MC, 6/13/02)
1865 Sep 2, William Rowan
Hamilton, Ireland's greatest man of science who made contributions in
the study of optics and applications of algebra to geometry, died.
(Internet)
1865 Dec 20, Maude Gonne, Irish
nationalist (Irish Joan of Arc), was born.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1865-1914 The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 1: The
Apprentice Mage," by R.F. Foster covered this period of Yeats’ life.
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is his best known poem.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, BR p.6)
1865-1939 William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and
playwright. The first volume of his autobiography was "Reveries Over
Childhood and Youth" (1915). Richard Ellman published a biography in
1948. "Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when
may it suffice?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.365)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)
1866 Jun 2, Renegade Irish Fenians
surrendered to US forces.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1867 Mar 5, An abortive Fenian
uprising against English rule took place in Ireland. The unsuccessful
rebellion by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, known as the Fenians,
gave Australia it final generation of convicts. The 1999 book "The
Great Shame and the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World"
by Thomas Keneally tells the story of the Irish shipped to Australia.
(AP, 3/5/98)(SFEC, 9/26/99, BR p.1,6)
1867 Apr 10, A.E. (George William
Russell), Irish poet and mystic, was born.
(HN, 4/10/01)
1867 Jun 17, John Robert Gregg,
inventor (shorthand), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1867 Oct
31, William Parson (b.1800), 3rd Earl of Rosse and maker of large
telescopes, died. Parsons, an Irish astronomer, built the largest
reflecting telescope of the 19th century. He learned to polish metal
mirrors (1827) and spent the next few years building a 36-inch
telescope. He later completed a giant 72-inch telescope (1845) which he
named "Leviathan," It remained the largest ever built until decades
after his death. He was the first to resolve the spiral shape of
objects, previously seen as only clouds, which were much later
identified as galaxies independent of our own Milky Way galaxy and
millions of light-years away. His first such sighting was made in 1845,
and by 1850 he had discovered 13 more. In 1848, he found and named the
Crab Nebula (he thought it resembled a crab), by which name it is still
known.
(www.todayinsci.com)
1868 Apr 7, Thomas D’Arcy McGee,
Irish patriot and author, was shot and killed in Ottawa, Canada.
Patrick J. Whelan, a Fenian sympathizer, was accused, tried, convicted,
and hanged for the crime. In 2008 David A. Wilson authored Thomas
D’Arcy McGee: Passion, Reason and Politics 1825-1857.”
(WSJ, 5/15/08,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_D'Arcy_McGee)
1868 May 26, Michael Barrett,
Irish nationalist, was executed in the last British public execution.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1870 William Robinson (1838-1935),
Irish gardener and journalist, authored “The Wild Garden.” His most
famous contribution to gardening was his book The English Flower
Garden, (1883).
(www.theearthlyparadise.com/2008/02/william-robinson-and-wild-garden.html)(SFC,
11/19/08, p.G8)
1871 Apr 16, John Millington
Synge, dramatist and poet Playboy of the Western World, was born in
Ireland.
(HN, 4/16/99)(MC, 4/16/02)
1871 John Tyndall, Irish
scientist, authored “Fragments of Science.” He was in effect the first
science popularizer.
(WSJ, 4/14/07, p.P10)
1874 Dion Boucicault, Irish
playwright, authored "The Shaughraun." It was a serious picture of
oppressed Ireland and a satirical take on human folly.
(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.A20)
1880 Feb 9, James Stephens
(d.1950), Irish poet and novelist, was born. His work included "The
Charwoman's Daughter" and "The Crock of Gold." "Originality does not
consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying
exactly what you think yourself."
(AP, 5/21/99)(HN, 2/9/01)
1880 Mar 30, Sean O'Casey (d.
1964), Irish playwright, was born. "It is my rule never to lose me
temper till it would be detrimental to keep it."
(AP, 3/17/00)(HN, 3/30/01)
1880 Irish tenant farmers, seeking
rent cuts after poor harvests, staged a protest and refused to respond
to eviction notices from estate manager Charles Boycott [see 1897].
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1882 Feb 2, James Joyce (d.1941),
Irish novelist and poet was born near Dublin. He wrote "Ulysses" and
"Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man." From "Ulysses": "History,
Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." In 1998
John Wyse Jackson and Peter Costello published the biography: "John
Stanislaus Joyce: The Voluminous Life and Genius of James Joyce’s
Father."
(AP, 6/22/98)(AP, 2/2/99)(HN, 2/2/99)
1882 Oct 14, Eamon DeValera,
Taoiseach and President of Ireland (1937-48, 51-54, 57-59), was born in
NY.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1884 Jun 14, John McCormack,
Irish-US singer (Irish folksongs), was born.
(MC, 6/14/02)
1884 The Gaelic Athletic
Association was founded in Ireland to promote traditional Irish sports.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.45)
1886 Jul 13, Father Edward J.
Flanagan, catholic priest, founder of Boys Town, was born in Roscommon,
Ireland.
(AP, 7/13/07)
1886 Many islanders on Aran left
after a parish priest sent the message: "Send us boats or send us
coffins."
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.T9)
1888 Mar 10, Barry Fitzgerald,
actor (Acad Award-Going My Way), was born in Dublin, Ireland.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1890 Oct 16, Michael Collins
(d.1922), Irish revolutionist, was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1890 The Home Rule movement of the
Irish Nationalist Party led by Charles Stewart Parnell was set back
when his love affair with Katherine O’Shea was revealed in the London
Times.
(WSJ, 9/3/96, p.A14)
1891 Oct 6, Charles Stewart
Parnell (b.1846) died in Brighton, England. Irish statesman and leader
of the Irish nationalists in the British House of Commons from
1880-‘90, Charles Parnell’s popularity in Ireland was so great that he
was called "the uncrowned king of Ireland." Parnell formed a coalition
with William Gladstone, who became prime minister and introduced a bill
for Irish home rule in 1886. The bill was defeated. In 1890, as a
result of a divorce scandal, Parnell was deposed as leader of the Irish
nationalists.
(AP, 10/6/97)(HNQ, 7/20/98)
1891 Oct 11, Charles Stewart
Parnell (d.Oct 6) was buried in Ireland.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1892-1983 Dame Rebecca West, Irish author and
journalist: "Those who foresee the future and recognize it as tragic
are often seized by a madness which forces them to commit the very acts
which makes it certain that what they dread shall happen." "There is no
such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting
monologues, that is all."
(AP, 9/5/98)(AP, 4/9/99)
1895 Mar, Bridget Cleary (26)
disappeared from her home in County Tipperary. Her burned body was
found several days later. Her husband, father and several relatives and
friends were charged with murder. Prosecutors maintained that she was
burned because her husband believed her to be a changeling. In 2000
Angela Bourke authored "The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story,"
and Joan Hoff and Marion Yeates authored ""The Cooper’s Wife Is
Missing: The Trials of Bridget Cleary."
(SFEC, 9/10/00, BR p.5)
1896 Aug 28, Liam O’Flaherty,
Irish novelist, was born.
(RTH, 8/28/99)
1896 Bewley’s Oriental Cafes
opened a shop on Westmoreland Street in Dublin, Ireland. It later
became a hangout for James Joyce. It was scheduled to close in 2004.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F2)
1897 May 18, An Irish Music
Festival was 1st held in Dublin.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1897 Jun 19, Charles Cunningham
Boycott (b.Mar 12, 1832) English land agent in Ireland, died in
England. He was a faulty estate manager whose tenants "boycotted" him
into poverty; when the crops failed and the farmers went broke, he
unsympathetically gave them the choice of paying immediately or being
evicted. The farmers retaliated and his staff quit. His family was
isolated. This tactic gave us the word whose last name became part of
the English language.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Charles-Cunningham-Boycott)
1897 Dec 3, Kate O'Brien, Irish
writer (Without My Cloak), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1899 Jun 7, Elizabeth Bowen
(d.1973), Irish-British novelist and short story writer (The Death of
the Heart), was born in Dublin. "One can live in the shadow of an idea
without grasping it." "The charm, one might say the genius of memory,
is that it is choosy, chancy and temperamental: it rejects the edifying
cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chewing a
hunk of melon in the dust."
(AP, 4/19/97)(AP, 8/5/97)(HN, 6/7/01)
1900 Feb 22, Sean O’Faolain, Irish
short story writer, was born.
(HN, 2/22/01)
1900 Nov 30, Irish author Oscar
Wilde (b.1856) died in Paris.
(V.D.-H.K.p.279)(AP, 11/30/97)
1900 The US Navy commissioned its
first submarine, the USS Holland, for $150,000. It was named after the
Irish inventor John Holland. His first sub was the Fenian Ram, paid for
by Irish rebels hoping to challenge British control of the seas.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, zone 1, p.6)(WSJ, 4/28/00, p.W17)
1902 The British enacted a law
that froze the number of pubs at the existing level to help reduce
drinking.
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A1)
1903-1966 Michael O’Donovan (aka Frank O’Connor),
Irish writer, was born in Cork. His work included "The Big Fellow:
Michael Collins & The Irish Revolution."
(SFEM, 5/24/98, p.11)
1904 Jan 25, J.M. Synge's "Riders
to the Sea," premiered in Dublin. [see Feb 25]
(MC, 1/25/02)
1904 Feb 25, J.M. Synge's play
"Riders to the Sea" opened in Dublin. [see Jan 25]
(HN, 2/25/01)
1904 Apr 27, Cecil Day-Lewis,
Irish poet, father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis, was born.
(HN, 4/27/01)
1904 Jun 16, Bloomsday. The 1922
novel “Ulysses” by James Joyce was set on this day. It charts the
wanderings of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus among Dublin streets
and beaches, museums and galleries, pubs and brothels through the ebb
and tide of their memories and emotions. The "same day that the
penniless and Myopic Jimmy Joyce (22) first walked out with the
redheaded chambermaid Nora Barnacle," (20) who became his Molly Bloom.
In 1988 Brenda Maddox authored "Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom."
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C6)(SFEC, 10/31/99, BR p.7)(AP,
6/14/04)
1904 Jun 27, The 2nd Fastnet
Lighthouse was completed off of southwest Ireland.
(www.cil.ie/flat_areaEQLlighthousesAMPLighthouseIDEQL18_entry.html)(Econ,
12/20/08, p.98)
1904 Aug 20, Dublin’s Abbey
Theatre was founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded
in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory.
(HN, 8/20/00)
1904 Oct 8, James Joyce and Nora
Barnacle left together for Switzerland for a job in a Berlitz school
that never materialized. They continued on to Pola and then to Trieste
where he wrote most of "The Dubliners."
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.69)
1904 George Bernard Shaw wrote his
play "John Bull’s Other Island," a study of the Irish problem.
(WSJ, 7/29/98, p.A13)
1905 Nov 28, Arthur Griffith
formed Sinn Fein in Dublin. Sinn Fein is Gaelic for "we ourselves," but
also for "ourselves alone." This political party became the unofficial
political wing of militant Irish groups in their struggle against
British rule.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1905-1967 Patrick Kavanaugh, poet, author of "Raglan
Road," which Joan Osborne later put to the music of the song "At the
Dawning of the Day."
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A24)
1906 Apr 13, Samuel Beckett
(d.1989), Irish (French) novelist-playwright, Nobel Prize winner in
1969, (Waiting for Godot), was born. He settled in France and wrote in
French and then translated to English. Sometimes he reversed the
process. His work included "Act Without Words" (1956), "Happy Days"
(1960-61), "Rough for Theater II" (1976), "Catastrophe" (1982) and
"What’s There" (1983). Also the prose trilogy "Molloy," "Malone Dies"
and "The Unnamable." In 1996 James Knowlson wrote his study of Beckett:
"Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett." "We are all born mad.
Some of us remain so."
(V.D.-H.K.p.369)(SFEC, 10/27/96, BR p.5)(HN,
4/13/98)(AP, 10/3/98)
1907 Jan 26, John Millington
Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” opened at the Abbey Theater
in Dublin. Many Irish nationalists found it so offensive that they
embarked on a semi-organized campaign to bring down the production.
(SFC, 12/30/06,
p.E1)(www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10167)
1907 Oct 17, Guglielmo Marconi
began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between
Nova Scotia and Ireland.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1910 Oct 28, Francis Bacon
(d.1992), English artist who painted expressionist portraits, was born
in Dublin to English parents. He had no formal training as an artist.
After earning a modest reputation in the 1920s as a modernist interior
designer, he began oil painting in 1929. He first established himself
as a major in 1944, when his now-famous triptych Three Studies for
Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion was exhibited at London’s Tate
Gallery.
(HN, 10/28/98)(MIA, www,1999)
1911 May 17, Maureen O’Sullivan
(d.1998), film actress, was born in Boyle, Ireland.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.C2)
1911 Oct 5, Flann O’Brien, Irish
novelist and playwright, was born. His work included "The Hard Life"
and "The Third Policeman."
(HN, 10/5/00)
1912 Jan 30, The British House of
Lords opposed the House of Commons by rejecting home rule for Ireland.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1912 Apr 20, Bram Stoker, Irish
theater manager, writer (Dracula), died.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1913 Eamon de Valera (31),
mathematics teacher in Dublin, joined the Irish Volunteers, a group
that was preparing to use violence to win Ireland’s independence.
(ON, 9/04, p.5)
1914 Apr 7, British House of
Commons passed the Irish Home Rule Bill.
(HN, 4/7/97)
1914 Jul 20, Armed resistance
against British rule began in Ulster.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1914 Jul 27, British troops
invaded the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and began to disarm Irish
rebels.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1914 Sep 18, The Irish Home Rule
Bill became law, but was delayed until after World War I. The
Government of Ireland Act became law. It was an act by the British
government to take effect at the end of World War I.
(WSJ,3/13/95, p.A-15)(HN, 9/18/98)
1915-1939 The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 2: The
Arch Poet," by R.F. Foster covered this period of Yeats’ life.
(WSJ, 11/13/03, p.D8)
1916 Apr 24, Some 1,600 Irish
nationalist, the Irish Volunteers, launched the Easter Rising by
seizing several key sites in Dublin, including the General Post Office.
Eemon de Valera was one of the commandants in the uprising. It was
provoked by impatience with the lack of home rule and was put down by
British forces several days later. Michael Collins, a member of Sinn
Fein, led the guerrilla warfare. 116 soldiers and 16 policemen were
slain along with 62 rebels. The 1999 novel "A Star Called Henry" by
Roddy Doyle was set in this period. Film footage of the Easter Rising
was sold at auction in 2000 for $115,000 to a private Irish resident.
(WSJ, 10/11/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(AP,
4/24/97)(SFEC, 9/19/99, BR p.1)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A30)(ON, 9/04, p.5)
1916 re: Apr 24, In "Easter"
William Butler Yeats wrote: "All changed, changed utterly: A terrible
beauty is born."
(NOHY, 3/1990, p.212)
1916 re: Apr 24, "The history
taught stopped at 1916, they didn’t deal with the war of independence
or the civil war." Thus said Neil Jordan, director of the 1996 film
"Michael Collins."
(SFC, 9/22/96, Par p.31)
1916 Apr 28, The British declared
martial law throughout Ireland.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1916 Apr 29, The Easter Rising in
Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British
authorities. Irish nationalists set post office on fire in Dublin
during Easter Uprising.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)(MC, 4/29/02)
1916 May 3, Irish nationalist
Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their
roles in the Easter Rising.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1916 Jun 29, Sir Roger David
Casement, the Irish-born diplomat knighted by King George V in 1911,
was convicted of treason for his role in Ireland's Easter Rebellion,
and sentenced to death.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1916 Jul 1, British court martial
was held for the Dublin Easter uprising.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1916 Aug 3, Roger Casement,
knighted for his service in the Congo, was hanged at London’s
Pentonville Prison for his activities on behalf of Irish independence.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1916 The 1936 film "The Plough and
the Stars" was an adaptation of a Sean O’Casey play. It starred Barbara
Stanwyck and Barry Fitzgerald and was directed by John Ford. It was
about events in Ireland leading up to the 1916 uprising.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, DB p.57)
1916-1922 Charlie Dalton later wrote the book "With
the Dublin Brigade" that covers this period.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, p.C13)
1917 Jun 15, Great Britain pledged
the release of all Irish captured during the Easter Rebellion of 1916.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1917 Eamon de Valera was released
from prison after serving 14 months for his role in the 1916 Irish
Easter Uprising. He soon won a seat in the British Parliament
representing County Clare, and was elected leader of Sinn Fein and
president of the Irish Volunteers.
(ON, 9/04, p.5)
1917 W.B. Yeats (52) married
Bertha Georgie Hyde-Lees (d.1968), his young spirit-medium (25). She
became the oracular voice of his philosophy and poetry. In 2002 Ann
Saddlemeyer authored "Becoming George: The Life of Mrs. W.B. Yeats."
(SFEC, 10/31/99, BR p.7)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M2)
1918 May 17, British authorities
arrested Irish leader Eamon de Valera and other Sinn Fein leaders on
suspicion of conspiring with the Germans.
(ON, 9/04, p.5)
1919 Jan 2, There was an
anti-British uprising in Ireland.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1919 Feb 3, Eamon de Valera, Sinn
Fein leader, and 2 other men escaped from England’s Lincoln Jail and
made their way home to Ireland.
(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1919 Apr 5, Eamon de Valera became
Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland (Dail Eireann).
(HN, 5/5/97)(MC, 4/5/02)
1919 May 1, Dan O'Herlihy, actor
(Fail Safe, Last Starfighter, Robocop), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1919 Jun 11, Richard Todd, actor
(Dorian Gray, Assassin Yangtze Incident), was born in Ireland.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1919 Jun 11, Eamon de Valera, Sinn
Fein leader, arrived in NYC where he lived until 1921 raising funds for
the nationalist cause in Ireland.
(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1919 Jun 14, Pilot John William
Alcock (1892-1919) and navigator Arthur Witten Brown (1886-1948) took
off from St. John’s, Newfoundland, for Clifden, Ireland, on the first
nonstop transatlantic flight. The flight lasted 16 hours and 28 minutes
and carried the first transatlantic airmail. They won a 10 thousand
pound prize, first offered by the Daily Mail in 1913.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Whitten_Brown)(ON, 4/09, p.1)
1919 Jul 15, Iris Murdoch
(d.1999), philosopher-novelist, was born in Dublin. She wrote 28 novels
and in 1998 published "Existentialists and Mystics," a collection of
writings from 1950 to the 1980s. Herein she tried to "recover the moral
dimension of art."
(WSJ, 2/17/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1919 Aug, The British regime
banned Ireland’s Sinn Fein.
(www.thehistorynet.com/mh/blmanagainstempire/)
1919 Sep, The British regime
banned the Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann).
(www.thehistorynet.com/mh/blmanagainstempire/)
1919 Joseph Larmor (1857-1942),
Irish mathematician, proposed that the Earth’s magnetic field was
generated spontaneously by the swirling of molten metal inside the
planet.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.81)
1920 Mar 31, British parliament
accepted Irish "Home Rule" law.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1920 Dec 23, Ireland was divided
into 2 parts, each with its own parliament. An act of British
Parliament split Northern Ireland from Ireland.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)(MC, 12/23/01)
1920 Another Government of Ireland
Act was passed by the British government. This act had a proviso that
the reunification of Ireland was an ultimate goal.
(WSJ,3/13/95, p.A-15)
1921 Feb 18, British troops
occupied Dublin.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1921 Jul 8, Great Britain and
Ireland agreed to end hostilities after centuries of strife. In
December British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London
providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same
date. Southern Ireland was granted independence and 6 counties in
Northern Ireland remained part of the UK.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.C5)(AP, 12/6/06)
1921 Aug 17, Maureen O'Hara,
actress (Miracle on 34th St), was born in Dublin, Ireland.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1921 Dec 5, The British Empire
reached an accord with Sinn Fein; Ireland was to become a free state.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1921 Dec 6, British and Irish
representatives signed a treaty in London providing for creation of an
Irish Free State a year later on the same date. The partition created
Northern Ireland. [see Jul 8] Ireland’s 26 southern counties became
independent from Britain forming the Irish Free State.
(HN, 12/6/00)(AP, 12/6/06)
1921 Dec 8, Eamon de Valera
publicly repudiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1921 Seamus MacManus authored "The
Story of the Irish Race."
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.T5)
1921 Michael Collins and statesman
Arthur Griffith set up the Irish Free State (the Republic of Ireland).
Several northern counties went over to Britain.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
c1921 Michael Collins, founder of
the Irish Volunteers (precursor to the IRA), lost a political fight to
Eamon de Valera, who went on to run the country for 50 years.
(SFC, 9/22/96, Parade p.31)
1922 Apr 14, Irish Republic rebels
occupied 4 government courts in Dublin.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1922 Jun 30, Irish rebels in
London assassinated Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern
Ireland.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1922 Aug 7, The Irish Republican
Army cut the cable link between the United States and Europe at
Waterville landing station.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1922 Aug 22, Michael Collins,
Irish politician, was killed in an ambush.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1922 Sep 9, William T. Cosgrave
replaced assassinated Irish leader Michael Collins.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1922 Oct 24, Irish Parliament
adopted a constitution for an Irish Free State.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1922 Nov 6, King George V
proclaimed Irish Free state.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1922 Dec 6, The Irish Free State
came into being under terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
(AP, 12/6/08)
1922 The Irish Republican Army
refused to accept a separate Northern Ireland under British rule.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.7)
1922 A cease-fire was established.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, p.C4)
1922 Revolutionary Erskine
Childers was killed by Irish Free State forces. His son later became
president, and his grandson a UN official.
(SFC, 4/9/96, p.A17)
1923 Feb 9, Brendan Behan, Irish
playwright and poet, was born in Dublin, Ireland. His work included
"The Hostage" and "The Quare Fellow."
(HN, 2/9/01)(MC, 2/9/02)
1923 Aug 15, Eamon de Valera was
arrested in Irish Free State.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1923 Sep 10, The Irish Free state
joined the League of Nations.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1923 W.B. Yeats wrote his poem
"Leda and the Swan."
(SFEC, 10/31/99, BR p.7)
1923 William Butler Yeats, Irish
poet, won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T6)
1924 Mar 3, Sean O'Casey's "Juno
and the Paycock" premiered in Dublin.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1924 Mar 19, Charles Villiers
Stanford (71), Irish composer, author, died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1924 Mar 29, Charles Villiers
Stanford (71), Irish composer, writer, died.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1925 Aug, The first Fastnet race,
with seven entries, was won by the Jolie Brise. The race starts off
Cowes on the Isle of Wight in England, rounds the Fastnet Rock off the
southwest coast of Ireland and then finishes at Plymouth in the South
of England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastnet_race)
1926 Feb 8, Sean O'Casey's "Plough
& Stars" opened at Abbey Theater Dublin.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1926 Apr 7, Mussolini's Irish wife
broke his Italian nose.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1926 May 16, In Ireland Eamon de
Valera founded the Fianna Fail party. It emerged from a split among
those in the Sinn Fein Party, who had rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty
of 1921.
(www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/fiannafail.htm)
1927 Mar, J.W. Dunne (1875-1949),
Irish engineer and author, published his essay “An Experiment with
Time” on the subjects of precognition and the human experience of time.
His theory suggested that in reality all time is eternally present,
that is, that past, present and future are all happening together in
some way. Human consciousness, however, experiences this simultaneity
in linear form. It was very widely read, and his ideas were later
promoted by several other authors, in particular by J. B. Priestley.
Other books by J. W. Dunne are The Serial Universe, The New
Immortality, and Nothing Dies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_with_Time)
1928 May 4, Thomas Kinsella, Irish
poet, was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1928 May 24, William Trevor, Irish
short story writer and novelist (The Old Boys, The Boarding House), was
born.
(HN, 5/24/01)
1928 Jul 4, Stephen Boyd, [William
Millar], actor (Fantastic Voyage, Ben-Hur), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1928 In Dublin, Ireland, the Gate
Theater playhouse was founded by Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(SFEM, 9/10/00, p.26)
1929 The 1st int'l. festival of
dance was held in Paris. Lucia Joyce (22), daughter of James Joyce,
qualified as one of the 6 finalists. Her beau was Samuel Beckett. Lucia
(d.1982) spent her last 30 years in a mental hospital in England. In
2003 Carol Loeb Shloss authored "Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake."
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M3)
1930 Mar 30, David Staple, joint
president of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, was born.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1932 Mar 9, Eamon De Valera was
elected Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland and pledged to abolished
all loyalty to the British Crown.
(HN, 3/9/98)(http://www.clarelibrary.ie/)
1932 Mar 23, Britain warned
Ireland that the loyalty oath was mandatory.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1932 May 20, Amelia Earhart took
off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the
Atlantic. Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down
in Northern Ireland after 13 ½ hours instead of her intended
destination, France.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(HN, 5/20/01)(AP, 5/20/07)(ON,
12/07, p.9)
1932 Jun 5, Christy Brown, Irish
novelist and poet (My Left Foot), was born.
(HN, 6/5/01)
1932 Aug 2, Peter O'Toole, actor
(Lord Jim, Beckett, Lawrence of Arabia), was born in Ireland.
(HN, 8/2/00)(MC, 8/2/02)
1932 Fianna Fail, led by Irish
premier Eamon de Valera, won a majority in the Dail Eireann, the Irish
legislative assembly.
(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1937 Jul 22, Irish premier Eamon
de Valera won elections. Valera served as prime minister of Ireland
until 1948. he served again from 1951-1954, and again from 1957-1959.
(MC, 7/22/02)(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1937 Dec 29, Ireland adopted a
constitution. The Irish Free State became Eire.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1938 May 4, Douglas Hyde, a
protestant, became the 1st president of Eire.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1938 Jul 18, Douglas "Wrong Way"
Corrigan arrived in Ireland. He had left NY for Calif. [see Jul 17]
(MC, 7/18/02)
1939 Apr 13, Seamus Heaney, Irish
poet, Nobel laureate (1995), was born.
(HN, 4/13/01)
1939 Jul 27, Michael Longley,
Irish poet, was born.
(HN, 7/27/01)
1939 Sep 2, Ireland’s Taoiseach de
Valera told the lower house of parliament that neutrality was the best
policy for the country. The Irish constitution was amended to allow the
Government to take emergency powers, and then the Emergency Powers Act
1939 was passed that included censorship of the press and mail
correspondence. In 2007 Clair Wills authored “The neutral Island: A
cultural History of Ireland during the Second World War.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency)
1939 Nov 18, The Irish Republican
Army exploded three bombs in Picadilly Circus.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1939 Dec 8, James Galway, flutist
(18k gold flute, Royal Phil), was born in Belfast, Ireland.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1939 James Joyce had his book
"Finnegan's Wake" published by Viking.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.B1)
1939 William Butler Yeats,
Irish-born poet, died in Southern France at age 73. He was taken home
to Ireland in 1949. In 1999 Brenda Maddux published "Yeats's Ghosts:
The Secret Life of W.B. Yeats."
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T6)
1940 May 28, Maeve Binchy, Irish
writer (Circle of Friends, The Copper Beach), was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1940s-1950s The Magdalene Laundries were a church-run
social service for "fallen" or discarded women during this period. In
1994 Joni Mitchell recorded a song about them on her "Turbulent Indigo"
album.
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A24)
1941 Jan 13, James Joyce,
Irish-born novelist, died in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1983 Richard
Ellmann authored the 900-page "James Joyce" biography. In 1999 Edna
O'Brien authored the pocket bio "James Joyce."
(AP, 1/13/98)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.B1)
1942 May 19, Sir Joseph Larmor
(b.1857), professor of mathematics, died in Ireland. His contributions
bridged the old and the new physics. He published three papers all
entitled “A dynamical theory of the electric and luminiferous medium”
between 1894 and 1897. These papers presented his theory of the
electron, which gained further weight in 1897 when J J Thomson
experimentally identified the electron.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9y5wg)(WSJ, 10/13/06, p.A13)
1944 Jan 28, U-271 & U-571
sank off Ireland.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1944 Feb 9, U-734 and U-238 sank
off Ireland.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1944 Feb 11, U-424 sank off
Ireland.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1944 Feb 19, U-264 sank off
Ireland.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1944 Mar 10, The Irish refused to
oust all Axis envoys and denied the accusation of spying on Allied
troops.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1944 Mar 12, Great Britain barred
all travel to neutral Ireland, which was suspected of collaborating
with Nazi Germany.
(HN, 3/12/99)
1944 May 21, Mary Bourke Robinson,
first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997), was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1945 May 3, Ireland’s PM Eamon de
Valera conveyed official condolences to diplomat Eduard Hempel. Pres.
Douglas Hyde also visited German diplomat Eduard Hempel, a day after
Ireland received reports of Hitler's death. Documents confirming Hyde’s
visit were made public in 2005.
(AP, 12/30/05)
1945 Aug 31, Van Morrison, singer
(Here Comes the Night), was born in Belfast, Ireland.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1945 Kevin Roche, architect,
graduated following studies in Dublin. He pursued postgraduate work at
the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago after briefly working
for firms in Dublin and London. In 1950, he joined Eero Saarinen and
Associates, becoming the firm's principal associate from 1954 until
Saarinen's death in 1961.
(HNQ, 1/28/01)
1947 May 18, John Bruton, Prime
Minister (Republic of Ireland), was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1947 The first airport duty-free
store opened at Shannon Airport.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1948 Dec 21, The state of Eire
(formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.
(AP, 12/21/97)
1949 Feb 10, Elections in Northern
Ireland showed that at least 2/3 of the population favored continued
union with Great Britain.
(EWH, 1968, p.1166)
1949 Apr 17, At midnight 26
counties officially left the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on
O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushered in the Republic of Ireland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_in_Ireland)
1949 Apr 18, The Republic of
Ireland withdrew from the British Commonwealth and was officially
proclaimed in Dublin on the anniversary of the 1916 Easter rebellion.
King George VI sent his good wishes.
(EWH, 1968, p.1166)(AP, 4/18/97)(HN, 4/18/98)
1949 May 17, The British house of
commons adopted the Ireland Bill that recognized the independence of
the Republic of Ireland, but affirmed the position of Northern Ireland
within the United Kingdom.
(EWH, 1968, p.1166)
1950 Jul 26, George Bernard Shaw
(5.1856), Irish-born, English dramatist, critic and social reformer,
died. Michael Holroyd later authored a 3-volume biography of Shaw.
(V.D.-H.K.p.237)(HN, 7/26/98)(SFEC, 3/5/00, DB p.4)
1950 Nov 2, George Bernard Shaw
(94), Irish author (Pygmalion), died. [see Jul 26]
(MC, 11/2/01)
1951 Dec 23, Benito Lynch (66),
Irish-Argentine writer (Palo Verde), died.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1951-1954 Eamon De Valera (b.1882) served his 2nd of
3 terms as Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland.
(http://www.clarelibrary.ie/)(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1952 May 16, Pierce Brosnan, actor
(Remington Steele, Golden Eye), was born in County Meath, Ireland.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1955 Jan 20, Joe Doherty, IRA
activist (jailed in US), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1955 Norris (1925-2004) and Ross
McWhirter (1925-1975) co-created the Guinness Book of Records as a book
for settling bar bets on a commission from the Irish Guinness brewery.
(WSJ, 4/21/04, p.A1)
1956 A Vogue magazine article made
famous the wool sweaters of Aran.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.T10)
1957 Mar 5, Eamon de Valera's
Fianna Fail-party won election in Ireland. DeValera (1882-1975) was
elected Taoiseach (prime minister) and served his 3rd term as PM.
(MC, 3/5/02)(www.apostles.com/devalera.html)(ON,
9/04, p.7)
1957 Jul 8, Irish premier Eamon de
Valera arrested Sinn-Fein leaders.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1958 Jul 16, Michael Flatley,
Irish choreographer (Lord of Dance), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1959 Jun 17, Eamon de Valera was
elected president of Ireland.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1959 Sean Lemass became prime
minister of Ireland.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1961 Jul 31, Ireland formally
applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Ireland’s PM Sean Lemass made
his son-in-law, Charles J. Haughey, a Cabinet minister.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1962 Nov, The Chieftains were
founded by Paddy Moloney in northern Dublin as a traditional Irish band.
(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A16)
1962 In Dublin Gay Byrne began
hosting "The Late Late Show" on the new state run RTE TV station. Byrne
retired after 37 years.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A14)
1963 Jun 27, Pres. Kennedy spent
his 1st full day in Ireland.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1964 Mar 20, Brendan Behan (41),
Irish writer, poet, died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1964 Sep 18, Sean O'Casey, Irish
playwright (Playboy of Western World), died at 84.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1966 Mar 8, An IRA bomb destroyed
Nelson Column in Dublin.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1966 Seamus Heaney (b.1939), Irish
poet (1995 Nobel laureate), authored his collection of verse “Death of
a Naturalist.”
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.82)
1966-1973 Jack Lynch served his 1st term as prime
minister (Taoiseach).
(SFC, 10/22/99, p.B7)
1967 May 11, The United Kingdom
re-applied to join the European Community. It is followed by Ireland
and Denmark and, a little later, by Norway. General de Gaulle is still
reluctant to accept British accession.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1967/index_en.htm)
1967 Oct 10, Brendan Behan's
"Borstal Boy," premiered in Dublin.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1967 Educational reform guaranteed
the country’s youth a free secondary-school education.
(WSJ, 12/5/96, p.A16)
1968 May 25, "Unicorn" by The
Irish Rovers hit #7.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1969 Oct, The Nobel prize in
Literature was awarded to Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). He
learned of the award while on holiday in Tunisia and avoided the
ceremony.
(WSJ, 7/11/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett)
1969-1996 3,200 people have been killed in the
political struggle in Northern Ireland.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1970 In Northern Ireland the Irish
Republican Army (IRA) split between more Marxist officials and
soon-to-be dominant Provisionals.
(SSFC, 9/14/03,
p.M3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Republicanism_in_Northern_Ireland)
1970-2000 This period in Irish history was later
covered by 2007 R.F. Foster in his “Luck & the Irish: A Brief
History of Change 1970-2000.”
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.116)
1971 Samuel Beckett (1906-1989),
Irish-born playwright, authored his play "Not I." Beckett spent most of
his life in Paris and in 1969 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR
p.7)(www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc7.htm)
1972 Jan 22, Britain, Denmark,
Ireland and Norway joined the European Economic Community.
(AP, 1/22/02)
1973 Jan 1, The European Union
(EU) admitted Britain, Ireland and Denmark even though they made
chocolate containing a small percentage of vegetable fat.
(WSJ, 12/4/97,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)
1973 Feb 22, Elizabeth Bowen
(b.1899), Irish-British novelist and short story writer, died. Her
books included “A Time in Rome” (1959).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bowen)(WSJ,
6/14/08, p.W10)
1973 Mar 28, The Irish Navy caught
Joe Cahill (1920-2004) as he tried to smuggle 5 tons of Russian-made
explosives, guns and ammunition from Libya.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/5lfwh2)
1973 Shaun Herron (1912-1989),
Ireland-born author, authored “The Whore-Mother,” a novel about the
Troubles in Northern Ireland.
(WSJ, 10/28/06,
p.P12)(www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/herron_s.shtml)
1973-1974 Erskine Hamilton Childers (1905-1974)
served as the 4th president of Ireland.
(SFC, 4/9/96,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_Hamilton_Childers)
1973-1989 In north Dublin, Ireland, Ray Burke, a
Fianna Fail lawmaker, was accused in 2002 of corruption and taking some
$300,000 in payments from property developers during this period.
(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.F6)
1974 Mar 12, Billy Fox (b.1939),
Protestant Dublin MP, was assassinated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Fox_(politician))
1974 Nov 25, Irish Republican Army
was outlawed in Britain following deaths of 21. IRA bombs in British
pubs killed 28 and wounded over 200 in the last 2 months.
(MC, 11/25/01)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.A11)
1974 Eisaku Sato (b.1901), premier
of Japan, and Ireland’s Sean MacBride, president of the Int’l. Peace
Bureau, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
(www.almaz.com/nobel/nobel.html)
1975 Aug 29, Eamon de Valera
(92), Irish president (1937-59), died near Dublin. De Valera was born
in NYC (1882) and emigrated to Ireland as a child and joined the Easter
Rebellion of 1916 against British rule. He was saved from execution
because of his American citizenship, and was released under a general
amnesty in 1917.
(AP, 8/29/97)(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1975 Oct 12, Archbishop Oliver
Plunkett (1625-1681) became the 1st Irish-born saint in 700 years. He
was beheaded by Cromwell's troops.
(www.archatl.com/parishes/saintoliverplunkett_snellville.html)
1975 The film "Barry Lyndon" by
Stanley Kubrick featured the music of the Chieftains of Ireland.
(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A16)
1975 Tony Ryan (1921-2007),
Irish-born aviation entrepreneur, set up Guinness Peat Aviation with
money from Air Lingus, bankers in London and some of his own cash. GPA
rented planes to airlines around the world. Its IPO in 1992 stumbled
and General Electric Co. picked up most of the company at a bargain
price.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A17)
1976 Jul 3, Shane Lynch, Irish
singer (Boyzone), was born in Dublin, Ireland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Lynch)
1976 The rock band U2 initially
formed in Dublin when Larry Mullen Jr. posted a message on a high
school bulletin board asking for fellow musicians to form a band. Paul
Hewson, David Evans, Adam Clayton and Dick Evans responded to the ad
and it was at this stage along with Larry Mullen Jr. that the band
'Feedback' was formed.
(WSJ, 12/28/04,
p.D8)(http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~omzig/u2_the_band.htm)
1976 Iceland won a cod war and
prohibited foreign vessels from shipping within 200 miles of its
borders.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1977 Jan 23, Ireland set its
fishing zone at 200 miles.
(http://tinyurl.com/3atw5c)
1977 May 14, Capt. Robert Nairac
(29), an underground British soldier, was abducted from a border pub by
an IRA gang, taken across the border into a Republic of Ireland forest,
and shot through the head. In 2008 the Police Service of Northern
Ireland press office confirmed the arrest of Kevin Crilly (57), an IRA
veteran, on suspicion of involvement in Nairac's killing.
(AP, 5/20/08)
1977 Iris Murdoch (1919-1999),
Irish born writer and philosopher, authored "The Fire and the Sun: Why
Plato Banished the Artists." In 1994 Murdoch was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s Disease. In 1998 her husband, John Bayley, published "Elegy
for Iris."
(WSJ, 2/17/98, p.A20)
1977 In northeast Ireland mining
of a large deposit of zinc ore began at Navan. Mining employed about 1%
of the Irish labor force.
(www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/ldzc/eu/ir/p0005.htm)
1977-1979 Jack Lynch (d.1999 at 82) served his 2nd
term as prime minister (Taoiseach).
(SFC, 10/22/99, p.B7)
1978 Hugh Leonard (b.1926), Irish
dramatist and journalist, won the Tony Award for best play for his
comedy play: "Da" (1977).
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0094934/)
1979 Aug 27, British war hero Lord
Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in his 29-foot
sail boat in Sligo, Ireland; the Irish Republican Army claimed
responsibility. Also killed were his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas,
83-year-old Lady Brabourne, and 15-year-old John Maxwell. Thomas
McMahon (31) was the bombmaker and was jailed at Dublin’s Mountjoy
prison. He was released in 1998 as part of the Northern Ireland peace
agreement.
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)(HN, 8/27/98)
1979 Sep 29, John Paul II became
the first pope to visit Ireland as he arrived for a three-day tour.
(AP, 9/29/99)
1979 Dec 11, Charles J. Haughey
(1925-2006) was elected in Ireland as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna
Fail. He led 3 administrations 1979-1981, 1982, and 1987-1992. In 2000
he agreed to pay $1.23 million in back taxes for gifts received while
in office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Haughey)(SFC,
4/4/00, p.A12)
1979 PM Charles J. Haughey made
contraception available to married couples, with a doctor's
prescription, despite the opposition of the Catholic hierarchy.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1979 Aug 13-1979 Aug 14, A force 9
gale off the southwest coast of Ireland left 15 yachtsmen of the 28th
Fastnet Race dead.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Fastnet_race)
1979-1996 During this period Ireland’s PM Charles J.
Haughey took some 11.56 million euros in payments for favors.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.117)
1980 Dec 18, IRA's Sean McKenna
became critically ill and ended his hunger strike.
(www.pittsburghirish.org/AOHDiv32/Hungerstrike.htm)
1981 Apr 8, The short play
"Rockaby" by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish novelist and playwright,
premiered in Buffalo, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockaby)
1981 Apr 10, Imprisoned IRA hunger
striker Bobby Sands was elected to the British Parliament.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1981 May 5, Irish Republican Army
hunger-striker Bobby Sands, an elected member of the Irish Parliament,
died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland on his 66th day without
food.
(SFC, 11/15/96, p.B2)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(AP,
5/5/97)
1982 Mar 9, Charles J. Haughey was
chosen as Premier of Ireland. Haughey later admitted that he received
secret payments from businessmen, that included Ben Dunne, during a
period of national recession.
(HN, 3/9/98)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA4)
1983 Feb 8, Champion thoroughbred
Shergar was kidnapped in Ireland and never found. Lloyds of London paid
$10.6 million insurance.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_2538000/2538595.stm)
1983 Jun 18, IRA's Joseph Doherty
was arrested in NYC for illegally entering the US. The British sought
his extradition on charges relating to the death of a member of a
British commando unit.
(http://ftp.fas.org/irp/congress/1990_cr/h900803-terror.htm)
1983 Nov 24, An IRA unit disguised
as police officers seized Don Tidey, an American former chief executive
of Ireland's Superquinn grocery stores, outside his Dublin home. They
held him for more than three weeks in woods near the Irish border and
demanded the equivalent of US$7.5 million in ransom. A joint Irish
police-army search stumbled on the kidnappers' hideaway, freeing Tidey,
but the IRA kidnappers killed a police officer and soldier as they
escaped.
(AP,
3/7/06)(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch83.htm)
1983 F.S.L. Lyons, Irish
historian, died. He had taught at Dublin’s Trinity College.
(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)
1984 Jun 1, President Ronald
Reagan visited Ireland.
(DT internet 6/1/97)
1985 Nov 15, Britain and Ireland
signed an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in
governing Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/15/97)
1985 Nov 27, The British House of
Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a consultative
role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1985 Nov 28, The Irish Senate
approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/28/00)
1985 Mary Robinson resigned from
the Labor Party of Ireland after her party supported the Anglo-Irish
Agreement of this year. She opposed it on the grounds that it was
unfair to Ulster Unionists.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-12)
1985 Ryanair was founded by Cathal
and Declan Ryan (after whom the company is named), Liam Lonergan (owner
of an Irish tour operator named Club Travel), and noted Irish
businessman Tony Ryan (1936-2007), founder of Guinness Peat Aviation
and father of Cathal and Declan. The small airline, flying a short hop
from Waterford to London, grew to become one of Europe's largest
carriers.
(WSJ, 10/6/07,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair)
1986 May, A Vermeer painting,
"Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid," was among 18 paintings worth $40
million stolen from Russborough House in Blessington, Ireland. Some of
the paintings are later recovered.
(AP, 2/11/08)
1986 Jun 27, An Irish referendum
upheld a ban on divorce.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1986 Billy McCommiskey of
Baltimore, Maryland, won the all-Ireland, senior category, championship
of the button accordion. He soon teamed with Liz Carroll, the 1991
All-Ireland senior fiddle champion and singer-guitarist Daithi Sproule
to produce the self-titled album “Trian” in 1992 and “Trian II” in
1995. In 1985 McCommiskey and his Baltimore band, Irish Tradition,
recorded the album “The Times We’ve Had.”
(WSJ, 3/13/07, p.D5)
1987 Mar 10, Charles Haughey
(1925-2006), head of Fianna Fail, was elected Taoiseach of Ireland for
a 3rd term and held the position until 1992. Under his tenure ministers
took cash from property and construction interests.
(Econ, 10/16/04, Survey
p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Haughey)
1987 In Ireland the Social
Partnership Agreement was initiated. The 1st agreement, a Program for
National Recovery, included a renewable 3-year pact between government,
employers and unions that tied wage increases to the rate of growth.
(SFC, 5/26/97,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Partnership)
1987 Unemployment reached 17% with
a national deficit of $1.35 billion and out-of-control inflation.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA4)
1988 Jan 15, Sean MacBride
(b.1904), Ireland, commander of Irish Republican Army, died. He was a
founding member of Amnesty Int’l. and was awarded the Nobel peace Prize
in 1974. He wrote the Constitution of the Organization for African
Unity and the first Constitution of Ghana, the first UK African Colony
to achieve Independence.
(http://tinyurl.com/ggzwn)
1988 Mar 6, 3 IRA suspects were
shot dead in Gibraltar by SAS officers.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1988 Aug 20, Eight British
soldiers were killed by an Irish Republican Army land mine that
destroyed a military bus near Omagh, County Tyrone, in Northern
Ireland.
(AP, 8/20/98)
1988 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Irish whiskies Jameson, Paddy and Bushmills.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1988 Tony Ryan, the founder of
Guinness Peat Aviation, brought on Michael O’Leary to do whatever was
necessary to make Ryanair profitable. In 2007 Alan Ruddock authored
“Michael O’Leary: A Life in Full Flight.”
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.76)
1989 The film "My Left Foot" with
Daniel Day-Lewis a biography of disabled Irish writer Christy Brown.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, DB p.56)
1990 Apr 18, A Franco-German
proposal was made at the Dublin summit for the political union of the
12 European Community member countries.
(www.unesco.org/mitterrand/anglais/ieuroues.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/36pexa)
1990 Jul 1, The first phase of the
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) comes into force. Four Member States
(Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland) are granted an exceptional regime
given their insufficient progress towards financial integration.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1990/index_en.htm)
1990 Nov 7, Mary Robinson was
elected as 1st female president of Ireland for a 7 year term. She was
later selected as the UN commissioner for human rights.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A12)(SFC,10/31/97, p.D3)(MC,
11/7/01)
1992 Jan 30, Irish PM Charles
Haughey (1926-2006) announced his resignation. The 8-year rule by PM
Haughey ended. Later allegations arose that he had accepted cash from
Dunnes Stores while in office. There were also allegations that Dunnes
had given members of Parliament more than $5 million over 10 years. New
evidence also showed that he had authorized the 1982 phone-tapping.
(SFC, 4/23/97, p.A5)(AP, 1/30/02)(AP, 6/13/06)
1992 Feb 26, The Supreme Court of
Ireland cleared the way for a 14-year-old girl to leave the country for
an abortion.
(AP, 2/26/02)
1992 Apr 11, The IRA bombed the
London financial district killing 3.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1992 Jun 18, Ireland’s voters
overwhelmingly approving a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty for a
European union.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/ireland.htm)
1992 Oct 3, Sinead O'Connor, Irish
rock singer, ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night
Live.
(www.notbored.org/sinead.html)
1993 Mar 28, About 10,000 people
marched in Dublin, Ireland, to protest an IRA bombing that killed two
young boys.
(AP, 3/28/98)
1993 The film "In The Name of the
Father and Junior" with Daniel Day-Lewis was directed by Jim Sheridan.
It was about a man accused of an IRA bomb attack that he didn’t commit.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, Par p.5)(SFEC, 3/15/98, DB p.56)
1994 Mar 8, The IRA launch the 1st
of 3 mortar attacks on London's Heathrow Airport.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army)
1994 Apr 30, The Eurovision Song
Contest was held in Dublin’s Point Theater. The first performance of
Riverdance was held there which featured a modern form of Irish
stepdancing.
(WSJ, 3/12/96, p. A-16)
1994 Sep 6, Irish Prime Minister
Albert Reynolds and Gerry Adams, head of the IRA's political ally, Sinn
Fein, made a joint commitment to peace after their first face-to-face
meeting.
(AP, 9/6/99)
1994 Nov 17, Irish Prime Minister
Albert Reynolds resigned.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)
1994 Dec, John Bruton’s 3-party
coalition began governing after a Fiana Fail-Labor coalition collapsed.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A10)
1994 In Ireland the case against
Rev. Brendan Smyth (d.1997 at 70) led to the collapse of the government
of Prime Minister Albert Reynolds. The attorney general had delayed
processing requests from British authorities for the extradition of
Smyth, who was charged for 74 instances of sexual abuse of 20 young
people over 36 years. He was sentenced in 1997 to 12 years in Curragh
Prison.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A14)(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A24)
1995 May 10, Britain lifted a
23-year ban on ministerial talks with Sinn Fein.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1995 Nov 24, Voters in Ireland
narrowly ended a 70-year ban on divorce and approved a constitutional
amendment legalizing divorce and remarriage by 50.23%.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.A8)(AP, 11/24/00)
1995 The Chieftains of Ireland
released their album "The Long Black Veil."
(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A16)
1995 The film "Broken Harvest" was
a rural family drama set during the Irish civil war.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, DB p.57)
1995 Gerry Adams was the leader of
the Irish Republican Army's political wing.
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-1)
1995 Prime Minister Bruton did not
want to be rushed into talks on the stalled peace process in
Northern Ireland.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1)
1996 Jun 7, IRA men killed one
police officer and wounded another in a robbery attempt in Adare,
western Ireland. Detective sergeant Jerry McCabe was killed with 15
bullets from a Kalashnikov. In 1999 Pearse McCauley and Kevin Walsh
were sentenced to 14 years in prison , Jeremiah Sheehy to 12 years, and
Michael O’Neill to 11 years. O’Neill was released in 2007.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A11)(AP, 5/15/07)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 14.5%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1996 Jun 16, IRA guerrillas were
caught making dozens of new bombs when police raided an arms factory
west of Dublin. Prime Minister John Burton made the announcement ten
days later.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A9)
1996 Jun 26, In Dublin, Ireland,
reporter Veronica Guerin, who covered the city’s crime world, was shot
and killed at a traffic light ambush by 2 men on motorcycle. In Nov,
1998, Paul "Hippo" Ward (34) was convicted for the murder and sentenced
to life in prison. John Gilligan and Brian Meehan also faced murder
charges. Meehan (34), king of the Dublin cannabis dealers, was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1999. Meehan received an
additional 47 years for drug dealing and weapons possession. In 2001
Gilligan was acquitted of the murder charges but was sentenced to 28
years in prison on drug charges.
(USAT, 6/27/96, p.10A)(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A12)(SFC,
7/30/99, p.D3)(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
1997 Jan 17, A court granted the
first divorce in modern Irish history.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.A8)
1997 Feb 27, Divorce became legal
in Ireland. [see Jan 17]
(AP,
2/27/98)(www.divorceuk.com/pages/keyissues/diveire.php)
1997 May 26, It was reported that
Galway had become Europe’s fastest growing city with a rate of 12.3%.
(SFC, 5/26/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 8, Prime Minister John
Bruton was defeated in elections. Opposition leader Bertie Ahern of
Fiana Fail, a populist Dubliner, was expected to be asked to form a new
government. Fiana Fail was Ireland’s largest and traditionally most
anti-British party.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A10)(SFC, 4/11/98, p.A8)
1997 Jun 12, Mary Robinson, Pres.
of Ireland, was named the top human rights official for the United
Nations.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 26, Bertie Ahern became
the prime minister and appointed Mary Harney, leader of the right-wing
Progressive Democrats, as his assistant.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Jul 25, Rev. Brendan Smyth
(71) was sentenced to 12 years in prison for 74 instances of sexual
abuse of 20 young people over 36 years.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 20, It was reported that
a British firm has proposed a rail tunnel to link Britain and Ireland.
The 56-mile tunnel was estimated to cost $22.6 billion.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 30, Mary McAleese, a
lawyer and academic from Belfast, was elected as president to succeed
Mary Robinson.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.D3)
1997 Dec 25, A gale hit Britain
and Ireland with 100 mph winds and 4 people were killed. A French
fishing vessel was feared to have sunk off Wales.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Frank McCourt, a retired New
York schoolteacher, won the Pulitzer Prize for his memoir "Angela’s
Ashes." It was based on his childhood in Limerick from age 14-19.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T11)(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.W14)
1997 Dorothy Walker authored
"Modern Art in Ireland."
(SFEC, 2/7/99, DB p.29)
1998 Apr 10, The Good Friday
Agreement was announced 17 hours after the deadline as negotiators
reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and
bloody attacks. Gerry Adams signed for the IRA. It was to face
referendums in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland on May 22. If
approved there would be June elections to create a local governing
assembly for Northern Ireland.
(SFC, 4/11/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/10/99)(SSFC, 9/14/03,
p.A1)
1998 Apr 22, In Ireland
legislation was passed for a May 22 referendum on the Northern Ireland
peace agreement. Northern Ireland voters would also vote on the
referendum. A constitutional amendment would result in which Ireland
would renounce its claim on the territory of Northern Ireland.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A12)
1998 May 22, A vote on the
referendum on the Northern Ireland peace agreement was held in Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Voters showed 71% support in
Northern Ireland and 94% support in the Republic of Ireland.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A1)(SFEC,
5/24/98, p.A1)
1998 May 23, Official returns
showed two convincing "yes" votes for the Northern Ireland peace
accord: a surprisingly strong 71.1 percent in British-linked Northern
Ireland, and 94.4 percent in the Republic of Ireland.
(AP, 5/23/99)
1998 Jul 10, Police in England and
Ireland arrested 9 people and thwarted a plot to bomb central London.
The arrested were members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, a
hard-line dissident Catholic group opposed to the peace settlement that
was led by Bernadette Sands. Her husband, Michael McKevitt, was the
reputed leader of the Real IRA.
(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A8)(SFC,
8/20/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 19, The Irish government
announced plans to sharply tighten its anti-terrorist laws.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 17, The Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to John Hume, head of the Irish Catholic Social Democratic
and Labor Party, and to David Trimble, leader of the Protestant Ulster
Unionist Party.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.D1)
1998 Oct 29, The deadline for the
creation of a new North-South Ministerial Council faced delay due to a
dispute over disarmament. An estimated 100 ton arsenal including
several tons of Semtex was still hidden on both sides of the border.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A8)
1998 The Irish black comedy film
"I Went Down" starred Peter McDonald and Brendan Gleeson. It was
directed by Paddy Breathnach.
(SFC, 7/1/98, p.E3)
1998 The Irish film "Walking Ned
Devine" was about two men on a quest to collect lottery winnings.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, DB p.50)
1999 Jan 1, Ireland along with 10
other European Union nations made the transition to the new Euro
monetary system.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 8, Iris Murdoch (b.1919),
Dublin-born novelist, died. Her husband, John Bayley, published "Iris:
A Memoir of Iris Murdoch" in 1998. It was published in the US as "Elegy
for Iris."
(SFC, 2/9/99,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)
1999 Feb 29, In Ireland and
Northern Ireland police arrested 7 men associated with the 1998 Omagh
car bombing that killed 29 people.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A14)
1999 Oct 20, Jack Lynch, former
prime minister, died at age 82.
(SFC, 10/22/99, p.B7)
1999 Dec 1, Ireland joined NATO's
Partnership for Peace program.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 13, Ireland and Northern
Ireland began cross-border cooperation with a meeting in Armagh. Twice
yearly summits called the North-South Ministerial Summit represented
the first political link since partition in 1920.
(SFC, 12/14/99, p.A12)
1999 Thomas Keneally authored "The
Great Shame and Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World." It
was a 700-page survey of Irish writers, revolutionists and common folks.
(SFEC, 10/24/99, Par p.9)
1999 Legislation established that
anyone born in Ireland, north or south, could claim Irish citizenship.
(Econ, 6/5/04, p.49)
1999 In Ireland a corruption
tribunal identified over $10 million in lavish gifts that former PM
Haughey had received from businessmen and the way his bank had
cancelled a large chunk of his overdraft.
(Econ, 6/24/06, p.101)
2000 Jan 2, Patrick O'Brian, (born
in England as Richard Patrick Russ), celebrated novelist, died at age
85 in Ireland while writing his 21st novel set during the Napoleonic
wars. His 1st Aubrey and Maturin novel was "Master and Commander,"
begun in 1969 was published in 1970. His first novel was "The Golden
Ocean" written in 1956.
(SFC, 1/8/00, p.A19)(WSJ, 11/7/03, p.W15)
2000 Jul 21, Former Prime Minister
Charles Haughey took the witness stand in a corruption probe. He was
accused of soliciting $12 million in bribes while in office for 3 terms
in the 1980s and 1990s.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B6)(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A11)
2000 Sep 15, Truckers across
Europe blocked highways to protest high fuel costs. Protests hit Spain,
Germany, Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A10)
2000 Dec 12, Pres. Clinton spoke
at the northern Irish border town of Dundalk and urged the protection
of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B2)
2001 Mar 22, A case of
foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in County Louth, on the border
with Northern Ireland. 40,000 cattle were destroyed.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D5)(WSJ, 3/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 29, Michael McKevitt (51)
was arrested in Dundalk for his membership and leadership role in the
Real IRA.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 8, Irish voters rejected
the EU’s Nice treaty to pave the way for 12 new members. The Irish
reportedly feared immigrants in search of jobs and participation in an
EU Rapid Reaction Force.
(SFC, 6/9/01, p.A9)(Econ, 3/17/07, SR p.10)
2001 Dec 8, The bodies of 8
illegal immigrants, including 3 children, were found in a shipping
container in Wexford. 5 people were still alive.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A16)
2002 Jan 30, In Ireland the Roman
Catholic Church agreed to pay $110 million in cash and property to
Irish children sexually abused by priests, nuns and other church
officials in past decades. There were as many as 7,000 potential
claimants for payouts ranging from $43k to 260k.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A9)(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A16)
2002 Mar 7, Irish voters narrowly
rejected an abortion proposal that would have tightened a near total
ban.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 22, Thomas Flanagan
(d.2002 at 78), Irish-American author, died in Berkeley, Ca. His novels
included a trilogy on Ireland: "The Year of the French" (1979), "The
Tenants of Time" (1988), and "The End of the Hunt" (1994). He also
authored: "The Irish Novelists: 1800-1850."
(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A19)
2002 May 17, In Ireland national
elections the Fianna Fail Party of PM Bertie Ahern won 80 of the 166
seats in Parliament. Another coalition with the conservative
Progressive Democrats was expected. IRA-allied Sinn Fein won 5 seats.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A18)(SFC,
5/20/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 5/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 11, Sir Paul McCartney
and his new wife, former model Heather Mills, were married in a lavish
Irish wedding in Glaslough.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jul 16, The Irish Republican
Army issued an unprecedented apology for hundreds of civilian deaths
over 30 years.
(AP, 7/16/03)
2002 Oct 19, Irish residents
endorsed the European Union's plans to expand eastward. 63 percent of
voters in the referendum approved the expansion proposal, which will
admit up to 12 new members and bring the EU's membership to almost 500
million.
(AP, 10/21/02)
2002 Oct 25, Richard Harris (72),
Irish film actor, died in London. His work included appearances in over
80 films.
(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A2)(AP, 10/25/07)
2002 Oct 30, Senior Sinn Fein-IRA
figure Martin McGuinness declared his war has ended in a documentary
broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corp.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 R.F. Foster authored "The
Irish Story."
(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)
2003 Nov 17, Donald Jordan (58),
historian, died in Berkeley, Ca. His books included "Land and Popular
Politics in Ireland: A Study of 19th Century Irish Land Policies."
(SFC, 11/29/03, p.A20)
2003 Dec 6, In the beach resort of
Sanya, China, Miss Ireland, 19-year-old Rosanna Davison, won the Miss
World competition. Second place went to Miss Canada, Nazanin
Afshin-Jam, while the host country's Miss China, Guan Qi, took third.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Richard English authored
"Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA."
(SSFC, 9/14/03, p.M3)
2004 Feb 18, Ireland's government
announced plans to ban smoking in all enclosed workplaces as of March
29.
(SFC, 2/19/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 29, Ireland outlawed
smoking in workplaces, imposing the strictest anti-tobacco measure ever
adopted by any country on earth.
(AP, 3/29/04)
2004 Jun 11, Irish voters have
overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to tighten their
liberal citizenship laws.
(AP, 6/12/04)
2004 Jun 25, Pres. Bush stopped in
Ireland to meet with EU leaders, while on his way to Turkey for a
summit with NATO leaders. Thousands of protesters demonstrated against
his actions in Iraq.
(SFC, 6/26/04, p.A3)
2005 Jan 1, Ireland's 2nd city of
Cork became the European capital of culture for 2005, offering up a
program of theatre, music, art, literature as well as sporting and
other events.
(AFP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Ireland was forecast
for 4.9% annual GDP growth with a population at 4.1 million and GDP per
head at $48,250.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.88)
2005 Jan 25, Irish Prime Minister
Bertie Ahern prepared to meet with Sinn Fein leaders, in his first
talks with the IRA-linked party since the Dec 20 bank theft.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Feb 20, The Irish government
identified 3 top Sinn Fein figures, including Gerry Adams, as members
of the IRA command.
(SFC, 2/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 28, Ireland enacted a law
outlawing English on road signs and official maps on much of the
nation’s western coast, where many people speak Gaelic.
(SFC, 3/29/05, p.A2)
2005 May 23, In Ireland a bus full
of high school students collided with two cars northwest of Dublin on
and tipped over into a ditch, killing five teenage girls and injuring
50 people.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 26, Police killed 2
gunmen in a Dublin post office, the first fatal shootings by Ireland's
largely unarmed force in five years.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 Jun 7, Irishman Bob Geldof
urged people to sail to France "in their thousands" and bring activists
back to Britain to press world leaders into doing more to end poverty
in Africa at their July summit in Scotland.
(AFP, 6/7/05)
2005 Aug 5, It was reported that 3
men linked to the Irish Republican Army, who were convicted of training
rebels in Colombia, have returned surreptitiously to Ireland, eight
months after going on the run. Colombia demanded their extradition.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Sep 8, Wyeth Co. officially
opened a $2 billion Irish production facility, a move that will make
the US company the biggest pharmaceutical employer in Ireland.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 23, Sinn Fein and Irish
government leaders said the outlawed Irish Republican Army is ready to
dispose of its stockpiled arms in a long-sought peace move, possibly
within the next week, after their first meeting in eight months.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Oct 11, Irish author John
Banville beat higher profile favorites to become the surprise winner of
Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. His 14th novel "The
Sea" was described by the judges as "a masterly study of grief, memory
and love recollected".
(AP, 10/11/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.91)
2005 Nov 13, In Dublin, Ireland, 2
men wearing bulletproof vests were shot to death at point-blank range
in what police said was the latest bloodshed in a five-year turf war
between drug-dealing gangs. The attack raised to 18 the number of gun
killings within Ireland's criminal underworld this year.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Dec 9, In Ireland more than
10,000 labor union members protested in Dublin and other cities over
shipping company Irish Ferries' plan to replace its workers with
Latvians making $4.25 an hour, half the local minimum wage. It was the
country's most bitter industrial showdown in decades.
(AP, 12/09/05)(WSJ, 12/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 14, Irish Ferries and
Ireland’s largest labor union reached a deal over plans to replace 543
Irish workers with lower paid EU employees. Irish Ferries will reflag
ships to avoid the jurisdiction of Irish employment law.
(WSJ, 12/15/05, p.A16)
2006 Jan 24, Biotechnology company
Amgen Inc. said it will build a manufacturing plant in Ireland to
supply its growing European customer base.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Feb 1, A joint British and
Irish report said the Irish Republican Army has halted violence but is
still gathering intelligence on enemies and remains deeply involved in
organized crime.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Mar 7, The Irish Supreme
Court ruled that Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, a legendary Irish Republican
Army figure who in 1983 oversaw the biggest prison breakout in British
history, should stand trial for kidnapping.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 9, More than 300 police
backed by British and Irish troops mounted dawn raids on the home turf
of Thomas "Slab" Murphy, reputedly the Irish Republican Army's veteran
chief of staff and its most lucrative smuggler.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 30, John McGahern (71),
Irish writer, died in Dublin. His stark depiction of love and despair
in repressive rural Ireland made him one of his country's most
acclaimed fiction writers.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/books/31mcgahern.html)
2006 Apr 3, PM Bertie Ahern
pledged that Ireland will legalize civil partnerships for gay couples,
as he opened new offices for the country's main gay rights group.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 4, Denis Donaldson (55),
former British agent inside Sinn Fein, was killed by shotgun blasts in
northwest Ireland.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 May 16, Irish rock star Bono
began a new African tour in Lesotho where he planned to unveil a new
initiative to fight AIDS in its ailing textile industry.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 20, Irish police removed
Afghan hunger-strikers from a Dublin cathedral, where some 40
protesters gathered on May 15 demanding asylum and warning they would
kill themselves if officers came near.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 31, A Dublin jury
convicted Rev. Daniel Doherty, a Roman Catholic priest, of raping a
13-year-old girl in 1985.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 2, Ireland passed an
emergency bill on under-age sex, and the Supreme Court ordered a man at
the center of the controversy to be reimprisoned for having sex with a
12-year-old girl.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 13, Charles Haughey (80),
former Irish prime minister, died following a long battle with cancer.
He served 4 terms as Ireland's PM (1979-1982 and 1987-1992) in a career
overshadowed by ethical questions. He preached austerity, yet practiced
prodigality.
(AP, 6/13/06)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.101)
2006 Jun 27, The Cabinet of PM
Bertie Ahern agreed to use the Republic of Ireland's Gaelic name, Eire
(pronounced AIR-uh), during EU summits.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jul 1, The cost of an average
house in Ireland was reported to be $380,000 (€300k).
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.48)
2006 Jul 19, A government report
said Ireland's population has surged this year to a modern high of more
than 4.2 million people largely because of immigrants from the newest
EU nations.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 25, Israeli troops sealed
off the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in fierce fighting
in south Lebanon. Warplanes struck Nabatiyeh and destroyed a house
killing seven people, four from the same family. Guerrillas fired
rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl. An Israeli airstrike killed
4 UN observers at a UNIFIL post in southern Lebanon. The observers were
from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. Irish observers had warned
that airstrikes were too close. UNIFIL was created in 1978 after
Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there
ever since.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 18, Steorn, an Irish
company, said it has developed technology that it claims produces free
energy. The company said its discovery is based on the interaction of
magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant
energy.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Ireland the
government and directors of the state-owned airline announced that Aer
Lingus Group PLC expects to raise more than $500 million by selling
stock for the first time in a public offering next month.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Sep 29, Ireland’s PM Bertie
Ahern faced mounting pressure to explain why he received money from
Irish businessmen in England, a scandal threatening to torpedo his
leadership after nine years in power.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Dec 6, Egypt’s Pres. Hosni
Mubarak arrived in Dublin at the start of a five-day European tour that
will also include France and Germany. He said renewing the Middle East
peace process is top of his agenda.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 19, An official report
into Ireland's biggest political scandal said former PM Charles Haughey
received more than $15 million in secret payments and lied about his
knowledge of the funds.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2007 Jan 23, Bertie Ahern,
taoiseach of Ireland, launched a $238 billion national-development plan
for the economy over the next 7 years.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.54)
2007 Mar 17, Lithuanian musicians,
drum-beating Punjabis and West African dancers used Dublin's St.
Patrick's Day parade to celebrate their place in a booming Ireland that
has become a land of immigrants.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Apr 4, In Northern Ireland
protestant leader Ian Paisley shook hands with Irish PM Bertie Ahern in
public for the first time, marking another small step on the path to
peace.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 22, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were announced on Earth Day. The winners included
Julio Cusurichi of Peru for his work to fight illegal logging; Willie
Corduff of Ireland for his work to halt an energy project that
disregarded local and environmental concerns; Sophia Rabliauskas of
Canada for her work to help protect the boreal forest in Manitoba; Orri
Vigfussen of Iceland for his work on the North Atlantic Salmon Fund;
Ts. Munkhbayar for his work against unregulated mining in Mongolia; and
Hammerskjoeld Simwinga for his work in organizing microloan programs in
Zambia.
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.E1)
2007 May 15, PM Bertie Ahern
became the first Irish leader to address the joint houses of the
British Parliament.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2007 May 24, In Ireland voters
began casting their ballots in an election that analysts say is likely
to return PM Bertie Ahern to power, but with new, left-wing partners in
government. An exit poll gave his Fianna Fail party a surprisingly
strong lead in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/24/07)(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 Jun 3, Pope Benedict XVI
named four new saints from France, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland at
a ceremony in St. Peter's Square. Among those honored was Sister Marie
Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, a French nun who in 1839 founded the
Religious of the Assumption to educate young girls; the Rev. George
Preca of Malta, who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine in 1932
as a group of lay people who teach the faith to others; the Rev. Szymon
z Lipnicy of Poland, a Franciscan monk who comforted Poles afflicted by
the plague that broke out in Krakow from 1482-83 and died of it
himself; and the Rev. Charles of St. Andrew (Dublin), who was born
Karel Van Sint Andries Houben in the Netherlands in 1821.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 13, Ireland’s
environmentalist Green Party, perennial outsiders in Irish politics,
voted to join the next government and extend PM Bertie Ahern's 10-year
run in power.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Aug 1, Tommy Maken (74),
Irish-American folk musician who performed for years with the Clancy
Brothers, died in Dover, NH.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.B5)
2007 Sep 3, Ireland’s government
said almost all the children who could not find elementary school
places in a Dublin suburb this year were black.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Tony Ryan (b.1936),
Irish-born aviation entrepreneur and co-founder of Ryanair (1985), died.
(WSJ, 10/6/07,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair)
2007 Oct 16, Anne Enright, Irish
author, won the Man Booker prize for her novel “The Gathering.”
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 25,
Irish PM Bertie Ahern gave himself a hefty pay increase, putting
his salary higher than both President Bush and British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Nov 29, The European
Parliament voted to allow Britain and Ireland to keep some of their old
imperial measurements so pubs can still serve pints and road signs can
show miles instead of kilometers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 13, Ireland's government
announced it will organize new nonreligious primary schools in the
capital, a move that reflects growing immigration and declining church
power in this traditionally Roman Catholic nation.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 26, Joe Dolan (68), one
of Ireland's first pop music stars, died from a brain hemorrhage. He
had entertained audiences for decades with Vegas-style showmanship. His
last Irish No. 1 came in 1997, when he re-recorded "Good-Looking Woman"
with a popular fictional TV comedian, a puppet named Dustin the Turkey.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2008 Jan 13, Irish PM Bertie Ahern
arrived in Cape Town as part of a five-day visit to South Africa and
Tanzania.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 22, In Lithuania Michael
Campbell (35), a prominent IRA dissident, was arrested along with a
female companion in a sting operation while allegedly trying to
purchase weapons and explosives.
(www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/24/northernireland.uknews4)
2008 Apr 2, Irish PM Bertie Ahern,
one of Europe's longest serving leaders, announced that he will resign
next month amid growing pressure over alleged financial irregularities.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 14, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel arrived in Dublin to discuss a European Union reform
treaty that still bemuses most Irish voters ahead of a June referendum
that will determine the pact's fate.
(Reuters, 4/14/08)
2008 May 7, In Ireland Finance
Minister Brian Cowen was elected new prime minister, and he pledged to
keep the country on its pro-European course through choppy economic
waters.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 19, In Ireland UN chief
Ban Ki-Moon called for a "visionary" global deal to ban cluster bombs,
as delegates from over 100 countries opened a conference aimed at
outlawing the lethal weapons.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 21, Brian Keenan (66), a
commanding figure during the Irish Republican Army's long march from
war to peace, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 28, In Ireland diplomats
for over 100 nations agreed on a treaty to ban current types of cluster
bombs. The talks did not involve the biggest makers and users, which
included the US, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. Nations
were expected to sign the document in December in Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A3)
2008 May 30, Diplomats from 111
nations, meeting in Ireland, formally adopted a landmark treaty banning
cluster bombs after futile calls for participation by the weapons'
biggest makers and users, particularly the United States. Participants
planned to sign the treaty in the Oslo, Norway, in December. It would
go into effect in mid-2009.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 13, Substantial election
returns showed that Ireland's voters have rejected the EU reform
treaty, a blueprint for modernizing the 27-nation bloc that cannot
become law without Irish approval. A majority of voters appeared
determined to register their opposition to the growth of a continental
government that would erode Ireland's sense of independence.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Oct 5, Germany joined Ireland
and Greece in guaranteeing all private bank accounts, putting Europe's
biggest economy at odds with calls for a unified European response to
the global financial meltdown.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Nov 25, It was reported that
Ireland plans to impose tough new penalties on beggars for the first
time since the Potato Famine 160 years ago.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Dec 6, The Irish government
ordered the recall of all pig meat products made in the Republic of
Ireland after dioxins were discovered in slaughtered pigs thought to
have eaten contaminated feed.
(AFP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 9, Ireland's farm
minister said Irish cattle have tested positive for chemicals which
have triggered a cancer scare previously confined to pork.
(AFP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 12, European Union
leaders agreed to give concessions to Ireland so it will hold a new
referendum on the EU's stalled Lisbon reform treaty, which aims to make
the 27-nation bloc a stronger player on the world stage.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 18, Conor Cruise O’Brien
(89), Irish diplomat and man of letters, died. His books included “To
Katanga and Back” (1962) and “Religion and Politics”
(1984).
(SSFC, 12/21/08, p.B6)
2008 Dec 23, The director of an
Irish security company was forced to steal euro1.2 million ($1.7
million) from his own company and deliver it to an armed gang that had
kidnapped his wife and daughter.
(AP, 12/23/08)
2008 Jay P. Dolan authored “The
Irish Americans: A History.”
(WSJ, 10/27/08, p.A15)
2008 R.F. Foster authored “Luck
and the Irish: A Brief History of Change from 1970.”
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.W8)
2009 Jan 8, Dell Inc. announced
that it is moving its Irish manufacturing operations to Poland by 2010,
as part of a cost cutting measure that will result in the loss of some
1,900 Irish jobs.
(WSJ, 1/9/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 15, The Irish government
nationalized Anglo Irish Bank after its chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick,
failed to disclose some €83 million in personal loans.
(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.54)(www.gavinsblog.com/2009/01/15/anglo-irish-bank-nationalised/)
2009 Jan 19, Patrick Rocca (42),
Irish property tycoon, was found dead of apparent suicide at his home
near Dublin.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.A13)
2009 Feb 14, Irish authorities
learned about an oil spill through surveillance carried out by the
European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal. Irish military
aircraft flew over the area and saw the Russian aircraft carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov, a Russian oil tanker, and a Russian oceangoing tug
near the slick. this was the biggest oil spill in the waters around
Ireland in the last ten years.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 20, Christopher Nolan
(43), an Irish poet and novelist, died in Dublin. He had refused to let
cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing. Using a "unicorn stick"
strapped to his forehead to tap the keys of a typewriter, Nolan
laboriously wrote out messages and, eventually, poems and books as
well. His autobiography, "Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of
Christopher Nolan," won the prestigious Whitbread Award in 1988.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 21, In Ireland around
100,000 people filled the streets of Dublin in protest at the
government's handling of the country's economic crisis.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 27, In Ireland the family
of banker Shane Travers was freed uninjured after he delivered millions
of euros stolen from his own branch. A gang had taken his family
hostage and threatened to kill them unless he cooperated. Irish media
put the amount at euro7 million ($9 million). The next day police
recovered millions in stolen cash and interrogated seven suspected
robbers.
(AP, 2/27/09)(AP, 2/28/09)(SFC, 2/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 17, Police in the
Republic of Ireland made public-order arrests from St. Patrick’s Day
festivities that easily exceeded 200, typical for recent years.
Inebriated mobs annually turned districts of Dublin and Belfast into a
nightmare.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Ireland about 15
masked men armed with steel bars, chains and nail-studded clubs
ransacked a Shell pipeline site, in the latest trouble for Ireland's
most controversial energy project. Shell has spent four years battling
opponents of the project in both the courts and on the ground in rural
County Mayo, where the global energy giant has government permission to
pump natural gas from an untapped field 80 kilometers (50 miles) out in
the Atlantic. It was the first time a paramilitary-style gang has
attacked a Shell site in Ireland.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 May 8, In Ireland Dr. Yuri
Melini (47), a leading Guatemalan environmentalist who recently
survived an assassination attempt, won a human rights award for his
efforts to stop the rapid growth of mines in his mineral-rich nation.
Melini received the annual Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders
at Risk in a Dublin City Hall ceremony.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 20, Ireland’s High Court
Justice Sean Ryan unveiled a 2,600-page final report of Ireland's
Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, which is based on testimony
from thousands of former students and officials from more than 250
church-run institutions. The nine-year investigation into Ireland's
Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized
thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades, and
government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and
humiliation.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 Jun 26, Ireland recognized
the legal rights of same-sex couples for the first time in a civil
partnership bill that gave people in long-term relationships many of
the statutory rights of married couples.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 27, In Ireland some
12,000 people marched in this year’s Gay Pride Parade in downtown
Dublin.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 3, In Sudan gunmen
kidnapped an Irish and Ugandan women from the office of the Irish aid
group Goal in the North Darfur city of Kutum. A Sudanese watchman was
also seized before being released later. Arab tribes supported by the
government were implicated. Sharon Commins (33) and her Ugandan
colleague, Hilda Kuwuki (42), were released on Oct 18.
(AFP, 7/4/09)(AP, 10/18/09)(AFP, 10/24/09)
2009 Jul 8, The Irish government
said Irish voters who rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty last year will be
asked to vote again Oct. 2 on the long-delayed blueprint for reform.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 29, Ireland said it has
agreed to accept two inmates from the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba
within the next two months.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 31, The Irish Times
newspaper won a long-running legal battle to protect the identity of a
key source who provided documents showing that former PM Bertie Ahern
was under investigation for corruption. Colm Keena and Geraldine
Kennedy had refused to comply with an October 2007 High Court judgment
ordering them to identify their source for the confidential documents
from a fact-finding tribunal into political corruption. The scandal
spurred Ahern to resign in May 2008 after 11 years in power.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 20, Drug developer Warner
Chilcott, which focuses on women's healthcare and dermatology,
completed its move to Ireland from Bermuda.
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Sep 24, Ireland, the first
nation to tax plastic bags as a way to stop them littering the
countryside, announced plans to double its levy to a 44 euro cents (59
US cents) per bag.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 27, Two Uzbeks, including
Oybek Jabbarov (31), freed from the Guantanamo Bay prison arrived in
Ireland. Amnesty International appealed to other EU nations to deliver
on pledges to give new homes to US terror detainees.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Oct 2, Ireland voted 67% to
33% in favor of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, overturning a previous no vote
and taking a key step towards ending the 27-nation bloc's deadlock.
(AFP, 10/3/09)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.25)
2009 Oct 6, In Ireland the Rev.
Aengus Finucane (77), a Roman Catholic missionary, died. He braved the
civil war in Biafra (1967-1970) as a pioneer of Irish aid efforts
worldwide. That aid effort, initially known as Concern Africa,
shortened its name to Concern in 1970 as it gained ambitions to provide
food, medical support and education in many of the world's poorest
countries. He served as the charity's chief executive from 1981 to 1997.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 10, Stephen Gately (33),
a singer with the Irish boy band Boyzone, died while visiting Spain’s
island of Mallorca. He made headlines a decade ago when he came out as
gay. An autopsy revealed that he died of excess fluid in his lungs due
to acute pulmonary edema.
(AP, 10/11/09)(AFP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 18, In Sudan Irish
national Sharon Commins and Ugandan Hilda Kawuki, who worked for Irish
charity GOAL, were freed. They had been kidnapped on July 3 at
gunpoint. The Irish Times newspaper reported on Oct 24 that a
150,000-euro (225,000-dollar) ransom was paid to secure the release of
two aid workers in the western Darfur region.
(AFP, 10/24/09)
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