1711 – The first Irish parliament of Queen Anne is dissolved.
1791 – Napper Tandy convenes the first meeting of Dublin’s United Irishmen.
1875 – Birth of Sir Hugh Percy Lane. He is best known for establishing Dublin’s Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (the first known public gallery of modern art in the world) and for his remarkable contribution to the visual arts in Ireland. He died on board the RMS Lusitania.
1893 – Birth of Liam Lynch. He was an officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the commanding general of the Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War.
1919 – James Larkin is arrested in New York.
1922 – Anti-Treaty fighters in Dublin attack Portobello barracks. One Anti-Treaty fighter is killed.
1922 – William Ahearne shot as an alleged spy by the Anti-Treaty IRA and dumped in Bishopstown, Cork.
1922 – A Free State sergeant is accidentally shot by a sentry in Cahersiveen, Kerry.
1922 – There are simultaneous night attacks on Wellington and Portobello barracks in Dublin by Anti-Treaty fighters. In 20 minutes of firing, one Free State soldier is hit in the head. Two civilians are found shot dead in Rathmines, near Portobello – it is presumed killed in the crossfire.
1926 – Birth in Dublin of Hugh Leonard, pseudonym of John Keyes Byrne, playwright.
1935 – Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their currach founders.
1957 – Death of Peter O’Connor. He was an Irish athlete who set a long-standing world record for the long jump and won two Olympic medals in the 1906 Games.
1960 – Robert McNamara is named president of Ford Motor Co., the first non-Ford to serve in that post. A month later, he quit to join the newly-elected John F. Kennedy administration.
1960 – John Fitzgerald Kennedy elected President of the United States of America.
1966 – Jack Lynch becomes leader of Fianna Fáil.
1968 – Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting led a Loyalist march to the Diamond area of Derry.
1974 – There were a number of attacks by Loyalist paramilitaries on Catholic civilians. Two Catholic civilians were shot dead at their workplace near Templepatrick, Co Antrim, by the Protestant Action Group (PAG), which was a covername for the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). In addition Billy Hull, a former leader of the Loyalist Association of Workers (LAW), and Jim Anderson, a former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) leader, were shot and wounded in attacks by Loyalist paramilitaries.
1974 – The Ministry of Defence in London stated that the names of British soldiers killed during the conflict in Northern Ireland would not be added to war memorials. The reason given was that the conflict in Northern Ireland was not classified as a war.
1981 – During a speech in the House of Commons British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, said that: “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom; as much as my constituency is.” This statement was subsequently often quoted as: “Northern Ireland is as British as Finchley”.
1982 – Garry Ewing (31), an RUC officer, and Helen Woodhouse (29), a Protestant civilian, were killed by a booby trap bomb attached to Ewing’s car by the IRA at the Lakeland Forum Leisure Centre in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
1996 – Loyalists, who were involved in a weekly picket of the Catholic church in Harryville in Ballymena, injured a six-year old Catholic boy when they threw stones at those leaving the service.
1997 – The body of Raymond McCord (22), a Protestant civilian, was discovered at Ballyduff quarry, near Belfast. Loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for the killing. Raymond McCord (senior) led a high-profile campaign to uncover the circumstances of his son’s killing. The matter was investigated by the Police Ombudsman who issued a statement and report on 22 January 2007.
1997 – During a radio interview on the tenth anniversary of the Enniskillen bomb which killed 11 people on 8 November 1987, President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, said he was “deeply sorry about what happened”.
1999 – A pipe-bomb with a jar of nails attached to it was discovered on the windowsill of a house in Dromara Street, off the mainly Nationalist lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast. One woman was in the house at the time. The device was later made safe by an Army bomb disposal team. The attack was carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries.
1999 – Ireland’s most accomplished mountaineer, Pat Falvey, conquers Ama Dablam in the Himalayas.
2000 – The largest prison outside Dublin, the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, goes into operation. It was built at a cost of £43m and boasts the most advanced technology and the highest standards of prisoner accommodation in the State.
2000 – Martin McGuinness accuses David Trimble and Ulster Unionist cabinet colleagues of jeopardising the Good Friday Agreement’s political institutions with their ban in a bid to force progress on IRA disarmament.
2014 – Death of Fianna Fáil politician, Joe Walsh. Born in Ballineen, Co Cork, he was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork South–West and was first elected as a TD at the 1977 general election. He lost his seat in 1981 but regained it again in 1982 and served as a TD until retiring at the 2007 general election. He served as Minister for Agriculture and Food on two occasions (1992–1994 and 1997–2004).
2019 – The funeral of community activist and peacemaker Fr Des Wilson at Corpus Christi Church in west Belfast. Fr Wilson, who died at the age of 94, was well-known for setting up the Springhill Community House in Ballymurphy and educating young disadvantaged people. Hundreds turned out for his funeral on Saturday morning.
2021 – Death of Austin Currie, civil rights activist and politician on both sides of the border. He died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Derrymullen, Co Kildare. He had just celebrated his 82nd birthday.
Image | Knocknashee, Ox Mountains, Co Sligo | Gareth Wray Photography
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