On This Day In History:
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

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Bloody Sunday                   JANUARY

1st 1801 - Legislative Union of the Ireland and Great Britain in the United Kingdom.
1926 -
Irish Free State broadcasting service 2RN is opened.
1957 - Two IRA men are killed in an attack on an RUC base in Brookeborough.
1973 - Ireland joins the EEC along with Denmark and Britain.
1974 - First day in office for the Northern Ireland Executive.
1990 - The Northern Ireland Fair Employment Act becomes law.

2nd 1922 - Anti-Treaty Republicans publish the newspaper Poblacht na hÉireann.
1941 -
Three Carlow women are killed in a bombing raid.

3rd 1935 - Anglo-Irish Coal-Cattle pact signed.

4th 1906 - Irish Parliamentary Party MP William O'Brien calls on nationalists to extract maximum concessions for Ireland from each British government.
1969 - Loyalists attack civil rights demonstrators in Derry.

5th 1907 - Ireland's first motor show opens in Dublin.
1911 - Protestant church leaders condemn the Catholic ne Temere decree.
1922 - De Valera offers to resign after the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty are published.

6th 1955 - National Farmers' Assocation is formed.
1961 - Seán Mac Eoin leaves Ireland to serve as General Commanding Officer of the United Nations.
1991 -
Irish EC Presidency launched.

7th 1922 - The Dáil Éireann votes narrowly to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

8th 1902 - The Great National Convention takes place in Dublin.
1952 - Peig Sayers travels to Dublin for the first time at age 81.
1968 - Northern Ireland PM Terence O'Neill and Taoiseach Jack Lynch meet in Dublin.
1979 - Betelgeuse tanker disaster.

9th 1967 - Demonstrations by the National Farmers' Association block the roads.

10th 1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Provisional Government. De Valera and supporters walk out of the Dáil Éireann.
1952 - An Aer Lingus plane crashes in Wales with the loss of twenty lives.
1970 - Huge anti-Apartheid demonstrations in Ireland as Ireland plays South Africa at rugby.

11th 1954 - The Irish Council of the European Union is formed in Dublin.
1970 - Sinn Féin splits into Official and Provisional wings.
1988 -
John Hume and Gerry Adams meet in Belfast.

13th 1847 - Irish Confedation established.
1923 -
The residence of President W.T. Cosgrave is set on fire.

14th 1965 - The Taoiseach Seán Lemass arrives in Belfast for a historic meeting with its Prime Minister Terence O'Neill.

16th 1881 - Lowest temperature ever recorded in Ireland (-19.1C, at Markree, County Sligo).
1900 -
Three lion cubs raised by an Irish red setter go on show at Dublin zoo.
1960 - A 103-year old shipping service between Cork and Glasgow comes to an end.

17th 1914 - Sir Edward Carson inspects a parade of the East Belfast Regiment of the UVF.

18th 1953 - Sinn Féin decides to contest all twelve constituencies in Northern Ireland.
1978 - Britain is found guilty in the European Court of Human Rights of inhuman and degrading treatment of internees in Northern Ireland.

20th 1992 - Peter Brooke offers to resign as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland after singing on The Late Late Show only hours after an IRA bombing.

21st 1919 - First meeting of the Dáil Éireann at the Mansion House in Dublin, where an independent Irish Republic is declared. The Anglo-Irish War begins with the shooting of two policement in Tipperary.
1946 - Work starts on a comprehensive English-Irish dictionary.

22nd 1923 - Irish becomes a subject for examination in the Civil Service.
1972 - Jack Lynch and Patrick Hillery sign the Treaty of Accession to the European Communities.

24th 1957 - Sir Alfred Chester Beatty becomes the first honorary Irish citizen.

26th 1907 - The performance of The Playboy of the Western World in Dublin triggers a week of rioting.
1944 - W. T. Cosgrave resigns as leader of Fine Gael.
1996 -  'The Mitchell principles' are proposed as conditions for talks in Northern Ireland.

27th 1995 - First formal discussions between the Taoiseach John Bruton and Gerry Adams.

29th 1887 - Pro-Unionist newspaper The Union founded in Dublin.
1932 -
Ten years of Cumann na nGaedhael rule come to an end.

30th 1913 - House of Lords rejects the Home Rule Bill.
1972 - Bloody Sunday - 13 demonstrators killed by British paratroopers in Northern Ireland.
1992 -
Charles Haughey resigns as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.

31st 1984 - Teenager Ann Lovett dies after giving birth in a religious grotto.


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Grieving relatives after the Stardust disaster                   FEBRUARY

1st 1943 - Central Bank of Ireland established.
1982 - Corporal punishment banned from schools in the Republic.

2nd 1880 - Charles Stewart Parnell addresses the United States Congress.
1972 - The British Embassy is burned in response to Bloody Sunday.

3rd 1881 - Michael Davitt is arrested.
1917 -
The father of Easter Rising rebel Joseph Plunkett wins a seat at Roscommon North for Sinn Féin.
1919 - Éamon de Valera and two others escape from prison in England.

4th 1933 - De Valera's Fianna Fáil win their first overall majority in the Dáil Éireann.
1992 -
On the day Mary Robinson becomes the first President of Ireland to visit Belfast, an off-duty RUC officer in Belfast kills three people in a Sinn Féin office before committing suicide.

5th 1992 - Loyalists kill five Catholics in a betting shop in Belfast.

7th 1991 - The IRA mortar bombs Downing Street.

8th 1929 - De Valera sentenced to one month in jail for illegally entering County Armagh.

9th 1983 - The IRA kidnap a racehorse, Shergar.
1996 -
The IRA breaks its ceasefire by bombing Canary Wharf.

10th 1922 - Treaty Bill introduced in the British House of Commons, providing the dissolution of the 'Southern Ireland' parliament and the election of a new parliament for which the Provisional Government will be responsible.
1958 - Trade Unions vote to end a 15-year split, forming the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
1972 - The IRA announce a ceasefire.

11th 1867 - Fenians try and fail to seize Chester Castle.
1925 -
A resolution is passed making divorce and remarriage illegal.
1926 - The performance of The Plough and the Stars leads to violence in Dublin.
2000 -
Devolution suspended in Northern Ireland.

12th 1939 - The Department of External Affairs recognises the government of General Franco in Spain.
1972 - Ulster Vanguard Movement is launched.
1989 - Belfast solictor Pat Finucane is shot dead by Loyalists.

13th 1966 - The Bishop of Clonfert complains about the content of The Late Late Show.

14th 1981 - Forty-eight  young people die in a fire at the Stardust Ballroom.

15th 1956 - Owen Sheehy-Skeffington calls for an end to the corporal punishment of girls.
1995 -
English football hooligans riot at Lansdown Road.

17th 1960 - The Television Bill passes through its final stages in Seanad Éireann.
1978 - Twelve people die in the La Mon restaurant bombing.

18th 1948 - John A. Costello is elected the second Taoiseach of Ireland.

19th 1901 -  Thomas O'Donnell is prevented from addressing the British House of Commons in Irish.
1987 -
Charles Haughey returns as Taoiseach.

21st 1843 - Dublin Corporation debate on the Repeal of the Act of Union.
1910 -
Sir Edward Carson becomes the leader of the Irish Unionists.

22nd 1933 - General Eoin O'Duffy is forced to resign from his post as Commissioner of the Garda Síochána.
1995 -
Taoiseach John Bruton and British PM John Major launch a framework document for Northern Ireland.

23rd 1910 - St Patrick's College, Maynooth, becomes part of the National University of Ireland.
1943 - 35 children die in a fire at St. Joseph's orphanage, Cavan.

26th 1852 - The Birkenhead, which has sailed with insufficient lifeboats, founders. Recruits to the British Army who had boarded at Queenstown stand to attention while women and children are placed in the lifeboats.
1934 -
Protest by boys at a school in Thurles over classmates wearing blue shirts (in support of the Blueshirt movement).
1992 -
Ban lifted on a 14-year-old rape victim in the Republic going to England for an abortion.

27th 1903 - Mansion House meeting welcomes a move to establish St Patrick's Day as a national holiday.
1920 - Text of the Home Rule Bill published, providing for two parliaments in Ireland.
1997 - Law providing for divorce comes into effect in the Republic.

28th 1973 - The National Coalition of Fine Gael and Labour win an  election in the Republic
1985 -
IRA kill nine RUC officers at Newry.


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The Birmingham Six celebrate their release                              MARCH

2nd 1933 - Vote to remove the Oath of Allegiance is carried.
1934 - Wearing of Uniform (Restriction) Bill carried.

3rd 1942 - Gas rationing introduced.

5th 1867 - Fenian rising in Dublin, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and Cork.
1936 -
W. T. Cosgrave again nominated President of Fine Gael.

6th 1988 -  The SAS controversially kill three IRA members in Gibraltar.

7th 1887 - The Times publishes the first in a series of article accusing Parnell of being involved in crime.
1957 -
Fianna Fáil return to power in the Republic.
1965 - Mass is said in the vernacular for the first time.

8th 1966 - Nelson's Pillar in Dublin is blown up.

10th 1932 - The new Fianna Fáil government releases 23 political prisoners.
1934 - Women banned from National Athletic and Cycling Association events.
1944 - The United States alleges that Ireland's neutrality is acting in favour of the Axis Powers.

11th 1926- De Valera resigns as President of Sinn Féin after one of his proposals is defeated.

13th 1846 - 300 tenants evicted from Ballinglass.
1944 -
The British government bans travel between Great Britain and Ireland.

14th 1984 - Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is shot and wounded.
1991 - The Birmingham Six are freed after 16 years wrongful imprisonment.

15th 1953 - 10,000 civil servants march in Dublin, demanding a just wage.

16th 1939 - De Valera is greeted by Benito Mussolini in Rome.
1953 - President Roosevelt asks the American Congress to support a United Ireland.
1964 - Seán Lemass launches 'Ireland Week' in London.
1988 -
Michael Stone kills three people at an IRA funeral.
1991 - Dublin becomes the European City of Culture.

17th 1931 - First St Patrick's Day parade in the Irish Free State.
1933 -  Éamon de Valera gives the first State reception since the foundation of the Free State.

18th 1934 - General Eoin O'Duffy addresses 2,500 Blueshirts in the Trim Market Square.
1964 - The Agricultural Ministers of the North and the Republic, Harry West and Charles Haughey, meet.

19th 1969 - Ireland receives its first loan from the World Bank.

20th 1920 - Mayor of Cork Thomas MacCurtain killed by the RIC.
1935 - The army intervenes in a bus strike by providing lorries for transport.
1941 - Bread rationing is introduced.
1979 - Huge anti-PAYE demonstration in Dublin.

21st 2001 - Ireland confirms its first case of foot and mouth disease in many years.

22nd 1949 - The Irish government leases a residence in the Phoenix Park to the United States for 99 years.
1969 - Civil rights demonstrations all over Northern Ireland.
1987 -
Irish National Lottery is launched.

24th 1968 - An Aer Lingus plane, St Phelim, crashes near the Tuskar Rock killing 57 people.

26th 1935 - 72 Republicans arrested in the Free State.

29th 1887 - Irish Crimes Act introduced in response to the National Land League's boycott of landlords.
1940 -
Fire destroys the upper part of St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

30th 1849 - Doolough Tragedy: famine victims are forced to walk through the night to appeal for famine relief, resulting in many deaths.
1939 - The Treason Bill passes its final reading at Dáil Éireann.
1979 - The Irish government ends the parity of the Irish pound with sterling.

31st 1976 - Sallins Train Robbery.
1978 - 6000 people protest the building of civic offices on a Viking site.
1999 -
Irish Land Commission dissolved after 108 years existence.


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Easter Rising                   APRIL

1st 1919 - Second meeting of the Dáil Éireann; de Valera is elected Príomh Aire.
1922 - British government orders the release of all Irish prisoners convicted of political offences.

2nd 1902 - John Redmond is awarded the freedom of the city of Dublin.
1925 - An Garda Síochána founded from the Civic Guard and Dublin Metropolitan Police.
1972 - Raidió na Gaeltachta goes on air.

3rd 1895 - Oscar Wilde launches a libel case against the Marquess of Queensbury.
1931 -
Floods in Cork.
1970 - Garda Richard Fallon is murdered in Dublin.
1990 -
All-party support expressed in the Republic for a motion to abolish the death penalty.

4th 1900 - Queen Victoria arrives in Kingstown and travels to Dublin.

5th 1915 - National Volunteers convene at Mansion House where John Redmond praises their response to the Great War.

6th 1927 - Dan Breen proposes that the Oath of Allegiance be removed from the Irish Free State constitution. President Cosgrave opposes this.

8th 1886 - Gladstone introduces a Home Rule Bill to the House of Commons.

9th 1912 - Orangemen converge on Balmoral Showground to declare their opposition to Home Rule.
1934 - The US Minister for Ireland, W. W. Dowell, dies at a banquet in his honour.

10th 1923 - Liam Lynch, IRA irregular, captured.
1998 - Good Friday Agreement.

11th 1912 - A Home Rule Bill is introduced to the House of Commons.
1951 - Dr Noel Browne, Minister for Health, resigns and his Mother and Child Scheme is overturned.
1966 - The Garden of Rememberance in Parnell Square is opened.
1971 - The GAA lifts its ban on members playing 'foreign games' like football, rugby and cricket.

12th 1912 - Sinn Féin oppose the Home Rule Bill.
1935 - Rath Cairn Gaeltacht established.

13th 1829 - Catholic Emancipation Act becomes law.

14th 1912 - The Belfast-built Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks.

15th 1941 - The Belfast Blitz.

16th 1970 - Ian Paisley wins a by-election in Northern Ireland.

17th 1949 - A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.
1969 - 21-year-old Bernadette Devlin is elected MP for Mid-Ulster.

18th 1918 - Military Service Bill, which includes conscription in Ireland, becomes law.
1927 - Celtic Park opens in Belfast.

19th 1887 - Gladstone delivers a speech on 'The Irish Question'.
1919 -
At their Ard-Fheis, Sinn Féin proposes an Executive Council of the Irish National Alliance which will challenge the right of any foreign parliament to make laws for Ireland.
1939 - De Valera announces that all references to Great Britain and the King will be removed from new passports.
1951 - The Northern Irish Attorney General says that 'Ireland is really ruled by Maynooth'.

20th 1879 - First of many 'monster meetings' for tenant farmers held in Irishtown, County Mayo.
1918 -
Irish Parliamentary Party meets to oppose conscription.
1954 - Michael Manning becomes the last man to be executed in the Republic of Ireland.

21st 1916 - Roger Casement arrested at Banna Strand for smuggling ammunition.
1938 - Douglas Hyde is selected as the first President of Ireland.
1965 - Liam Cosgrave becomes the new leader of Fine Gael.
1970 - The Alliance Party is founded in Northern Ireland.

22nd 1916 - Eoin MacNeill, Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers, tries to cancel all planned manoeuvres.

23rd 1916 - Military council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood meet at Liberty Hall to plan a Rising. Proclamation of the Republic signed.

24th 1916 - The Easter Rising begins.
1924 - Boundary Conference in London ends in deadlock. A Boundary Commission is established.

25th 1914 - Larne Gun Running Incident.
1916 - Martial law is declared in Dublin.
1983 - 2000 people demonstrate in Dublin against the Pro-Life Amendment Bill.

26th 1893 - Edward Carson called to the English Bar at the Middle Temple.
1904 -
King Edward VII and his Queen arrive in Kingstown.
1916 - Summary executions of three men including the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.

27th 1880 - Royal University of Ireland founded.
1916 -
Major General John Maxwell arrives in Dublin. 12,000 British troops are now fighting the Rebellion.
1921 - De Valera accuses the Sinn Féin delegation to London of having ignored the Dáil's instructions.

28th 1969 - Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill resigns.

29th 1916 - Unconditional surrender of leading rebels in the Easter Rising.

30th 1937 - New Constitution of Ireland introduced.
1952 - The Adoption Bill makes provision for the adoption of orphans and illegitimate children.


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Ulster Workers' Council                 MAY

1st 1916 - Collapse of the Easter Rising.
1943 - Sir Basil Brooke becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1969 - James Chichester Clark becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1980 -
The Derrynaflan Chalice discovered in a bog.

2nd 1945 - Éamon de Valera expresses his sympathy on the death of Adolf Hitler to the German Ambassador.
1982 -
Ireland affirms its neutrality in the Falklands war and opposes EEC sanctions against Argentina.

3rd 1916 - Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke are executed at Kilmainham Gaol for their part in the Easter Rising.
1933 - The Bill to abolish the Oath of Allegiance is passed.
1949 - The British government passes an Act guaranteeing that Northern Ireland will remain within the United Kingdom as long as the majority of its citizens want it to be.

4th 1916 - Joseph Plunkett, Michael O'Hanrahan, Edward Daly and Willie Pearse executed for their part in the Easter Rising. Chief Secretary of Ireland Augustine Birrell resigns.
1922 - Three day truce secured between both Pro- and Anti-Treaty forces.
1939 - The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland announces that conscription will not be extended to Northern Ireland.

5th 1916 - John MacBride executed for his role in the Easter Rising.
1918 - 15,000 attend an anti-conscription meeting in County Roscommon.
1941 -
When Belfast suffers its third bombing raid, Dublin sends emergency crews to assist.
1970 - The Arms Crisis. Finance Minister Charles Haughey and Agriculture Minister Neil Blaney asked to resign after suspicions that they had supplied arms to the Provisional IRA.
1981 -
Bobby Sands dies on the 66th day of his hunger strike at Long Kesh prison.

6th 1882 - Lord Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke are murdered in Phoenix Park.
1924 -
William Craig refuses to appoint a Northern Ireland representative to the Boundary Commission.
2000 -
The IRA begins to decommission its weapons.

7th 1915 - The RMS Lusitania is torpedoed by German submarines eight miles off Kinsale, bringing America into the War.
1931 - An Óige established.
1969 - Tax exemptions announced for artists and others whose work has cultural merit.
1992 -
Bishop Eamon Casey resigns following the revelation that he is a father.

8th 1916 - Eamon Ceannt, Con Colbert, Michael Mallin and Seán Heuston executed for their role in the Easter Rising.
1987 - The SAS kill eight IRA members at Loughgall.

9th 1912 - Second reading of the Home Rule Bill in the British House of Commons. A Unionist amendment is rejected.

10th 1912 - Andrew Bonar Law and Edward Carson both voice opposition to the Home Rule Bill.
1972 - A referendum on Ireland's membership of the European Economic Community sees a large majority in favour.
1973 - Erskine H. Childers wins the presidential election.

11th 1908 - British House of Commons votes in favour of the Irish Universities Bill.
1916 - During a session of the British Parliament, John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party calls for an end to the execution of the Easter Rebels.

12th 1916 - James Connolly and Seán MacDiarmada are executed for their role in the Easter Rising.
1950 - Nationalist MPs in Northern Ireland ask the Irish government to give Northern-elected representatives seats in the Dáil and Seanad.

13th 1900 - Rift in the Parliamentary Party is healed, with John Redmond and John Dillon sharing a platform together for the first time in ten years.
1919 - IRA men  Dan Breen and Seán Treacy are injured while rescuing Seán Hogan from custody in County Limerick.
1921 - Sinn Féin take 124 of the 128 seats available in the Southern Parliament.
1937 - A statue of George II in St. Stephen's Green is blown up.
1949 - Leading figures in the Republic of Ireland share a platform to protest the British government's stance on Northern Ireland.

14th 1974 - The Ulster Workers' Strike begins.

15th 1847 - Death of Daniel O'Connell.

16th 1917 - David Lloyd-George announces that he wants immediate Home Rule for 26 counties of Ireland. The remaining six counties are to be excluded for five years.
1926 - Fianna Fáil is founded by Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass.
1945 - Éamon de Valera responds to Winston Churcill's criticism of Irish neutrality.
1954 - A huge Marian Year procession is held in Dublin.

17th 1880 - Parnell elected chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
1916 -
Bishop of Limerick Thomas O'Dwyer refuses to discipline two of his curates who have expressed republican sympathies.
1974 - Loyalists bomb Dublin and Monaghan, killing 31 civilians.
1976 - Tim Severin sets off in a voyage from Dingle to America in imitation of St. Brendan.

18th 1854 - Catholic University of Ireland formally established.
1996 -
Ireland wins the Eurovision Song Contest for the seventh time.

19th 1928 - Foundation stone of Northern Ireland Parliament building laid at Stormont.
1932 - The Constitution (Removal of Oath) Bill is passed.

20th 1901 - A census shows that Ireland has a population of 4.5 million with Catholics outnumbering Anglicans and Presbyterians by three to one.
1918 - Anti-conscription meeting in Dublin.
1963 - Plans are announced for comprehensive schools and regional technical colleges.

21st 1956 -  First Cork International Film Festival.

22nd 1957 - The Minister for Education announces that married women will no longer be barred from teaching.
1971 - The 'Contraceptive Train' brings contraceptives from the North to the Republic as a protest against their illegality.
1998 -
The Good Friday Agreement endorsed by referendum on both sides of the border.

23rd 1964 - Official opening of the US Embassy in Dublin.

24th 1951 - Gardaí exchange shots with two men who try to bomb the British embassy in Dublin.

25th 1921 - Custom House in Dublin set on fire.

26th 1868 - Fenian Michael Barrett publicly executed in Clerkenwall, London.

27th 1936 - First Aer Lingus flight, going from Baldonnell to Bristol.
1941 - Winston Churchill rules out military conscription in Northern Ireland.
1960 - The last barge sails on the Grand Canal.

28th 1923 - Official end of Civil War.
1936 - Motion passed abolishing the Senate of the Irish Free State.
1970 - Charles Haughey, Neil Blaney, Albert Luykx and Captain James Kelly appear in court accused of conspiracy to import arms.

29th 1977 - Massive peace rally in Belfast.

30th 1924 - New licensing laws restrict pub opening hours and limits drinking to the over-seventeens.
1952 - Longer summer holidays for school children announced.
1983 -
Inaugural session of the New Ireland Forum.

31st 1941 - Dublin bombed by the Luftwaffe with the loss of 34 lives.


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Four Courts in Dublin shelled during the Civil War                 JUNE

1st 1944 - Fianna Fáil wins the general election.

2nd 1942 - Speed limits are introduced to reduce wear on tyres.

4th 1984 - US President Ronald Reagan addresses both houses of the Oireachtas.

7th 1921 - James Craig is elected first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1944 - Further rationing of electricity is announced.
1996 - Garda Jerry McCabe is shot dead by the IRA in Limerick.
2001 -  Ireland rejects the Nice Treaty in a referendum.

8th 1886 - Home Rule Bill is rejected, triggering riots in Belfast.

9th 1903 - University of Dublin agrees to award degrees to women.

10th 1961 - Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco are received in Dublin.
1983 -
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is elected MP for West Belfast.

11th 1843 - Tuam is the location of the first of a series of Monster Meetings calling for Repeal.

12th 1986 - Two giant pandas arrive at Dublin zoo.

13th 1951 - Éamon de Valera becomes Taoiseach with a tiny majority.

14th 1928 - Amendment to the Court of Justice Bill ensures certain judges must have competency in Irish.

15th 1977 - Fianna Fáil win the general election.
1988 -
IRA kill six British soldiers in Lisburn.

16th 1871 - Westmeath Act allows detention without trial.
1904 -
James Joyce meets Nora Barnacle, and later sets Ulysses on this day.
1922 - A general election in Ireland shows 75% support the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
1997 - National University of Ireland, Maynooth, comes into existence.


18th 1969 - French President Charles de Gaulle meets President De Valera in Dublin.
1992 -
Referendum in the Republic approves the Maastricht Treaty.

20th 1890 - St George's covered market is opened in Belfast.
1936 -
 Irish government declares the IRA an illegal organisation.

22nd 1911 - Sinn Féin protest Irish participation in the coronation of King George V.
1932 - 31st Eucharistic Conference opens in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin.

23rd 1914 - Government of Ireland Bill introduced to the House of Lords.
1929 - Pontifical High Mass at Phoenix Park marks the centenary of Catholic emancipation.
1993 - Dáil Éireann passes a bill to decriminalise homosexuality.

24th 1973 - Éamon de Valera retires from office aged 90.

25th 1938 - Douglas Hyde is inaugurated as the first President of Ireland.
1945 - Seán T. O'Kelly is inaugurated as the second President of Ireland.
1959 - Éamon de Valera is inaugurated as the third President of Ireland.
1966 - Éamon de Valera is inaugurated for a second term as President.
1970 - Bishops lift the ban on Catholics attending Trinity College Dublin.
1973 - Erskine Childers is inaugurated as the fourth President of Ireland.

26th 1887 - Highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland (33.3C, measured at Kilkenny Castle).
1949 -
80,000 people attend a Pioneer Total Abstinence Society meeting at Croke Park.
1991 -
The wrongful convictions of the Maguire Seven are quashed.
1996 -
Crime reporter Veronica Guerin murdered in Dublin.

27th 1963 - US President J. F. Kennedy addresses both houses of the Oireachtas.
1998 -
The Republic of Ireland qualifies for entry into the Economic and Monetary Union of the EU.

30th 1922 - Anti-Treaty forces storm the Four Courts and take 33 prisoners.
1932 - The Tailteann Games open in Croke Park.
1981 -
Fine Gael leader Dr Garret Fitzgerald is elected Taoiseach.


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Violence on the Garvaghy Road                 JULY

1st 1892 - Edward Carson sworn in as Solicitor-General for Ireland.
1916 -
First day of the Battle of the Somme. The 36th Ulster Division sustains 5,000 casualties on this day alone.
1950 - The former British Representative, Gilbert Laitwaite, becomes the British Ambassador to Ireland.

2nd 1970 - Neil Blaney is cleared of conspiracy to import arms.

3rd 1918 - Lord Lieutenant bans Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan.
1924 - Teaching of Irish to be made compulsory in schools.

4th 1921 - James Craig refuses to attend a peace conference in Dublin because De Valera had addressed the invitation to him personally instead of using his title of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1957 - The Ne Temere boycott at Fethard-on-Sea is debated at the Dáil.

5th 1922 - Cathal Brugha refuses to surrender to pro-Treaty forces and is badly injured.
1977 - Jack Lynch is elected Taoiseach.

6th 1907 - Irish state jewels are stolen from Dublin castle.
1946 - A new republican party, Clann na Poblachta, is founded in Dublin.
1953 - Sit-down protest by the unemployed in Dublin.
1962 - First ever episode of The Late Late Show.
1997 - Violence flares at an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road.

7th 1905 - Drunkenness (Ireland) Bill debated in the British House of Commons. Irish MPs object that it is offensive.
1913 - Home Rule Bill carried in the House of Lords, despite Andrew Bonar Law's attempts to obstruct it.
1966 - A new secondary education scheme is announced.

9th 1959 - The first twelve female recruits are selected to join An Garda Síochána.

10th 1914 - Provisional Government of Ulster meets for first time in the Ulster Hall.
1917 -
Sinn Féin's Éamon de Valera is victorious at the East Clare by-election.
1927 - Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins assassinated by the anti-Treaty IRA.

11th 1901 - The Celtic, now the largest ship in the world, is launched in Belfast.
1921 - Truce in the War of Independence.
1938 - Three Cork harbour ports are returned to the Irish government.

13th 1922 - The Irish government appoints a War Council, including Michael Collins.
1962 - The Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, arrives in Dublin.

14th 1935 - Sectarian rioting in Belfast leads to five deaths.

16th 1971 - The SDLP withdraws from Stormont.

17th 1974 - The Contraceptive Bill is defeated at Dáil Éireann.

18th 1951 - The Abbey Theatre in Dublin is burned down.

19th 1997 - The IRA declares a ceasefire.

20th 1982 - The IRA kill ten servicemen in bomb attacks on two parks in London.

21st 1914 - Buckingham Palace conference to allow Unionists and Nationalists to discuss Home Rule.
1972 - Bloody Friday: nine people in Belfast killed by IRA bombs in Belfast.
1976 - The UK Ambassador Christopher Ewart-Biggs is killed by the IRA.

22nd 1848 - Habeas Corpus is suspended so that the Young Irelanders can be detained without trial.
1957 -
The Gough Monument in Phoenix Park is blown up.
1985 -
The Virgin Mary is seen to move at Ballinspittle.

23rd 1803 - Robert Emmet's attempted Rising in Dublin.
1916 -
Thousands gather at Phoenix Park to discuss British proposals to partition Ireland.

24th 1990 - The IRA kill three policemen and a nun in a bomb attack.

25th 1917 - Irish Convention meets for the first time.
1957 - A boy who was beaten at school is awarded £100 compensation.

26th 1914 - Erskine Childers and his wife land 2,500 guns for the Irish Volunteers at Howth.

28th 1927 - Ireland's first automatic telephone exchange opens in Dublin.
1957 - The Carlisle Monument in Phoenix Park is blown up.

29th 1848 - The Young Ireland rebellion in County Tipperary is a failure.
1915 -
 Republicans under Patrick Pearse take over the Gaelic League at its Dundalk Conference, forcing the resignation of Douglas Hyde.
1959 - The Department of Transport and Power is established.

31st 1893 - Gaelic League established by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill.
1947 -
The Soviet Union blocks Ireland's entry into the United Nations.
1969 - The halfpenny is withdrawn from circulation.
1972 - Operation Motorman begins in Northern Ireland.
1975 - Three members of the Miami Showband are killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force.


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Boy in gas mask at the Battle of the Bogside                 AUGUST

1st 1906 - The Catholic hierarchy rule out mixed education at Trinity College, Dublin.
1915 - Funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, at which Patrick Pearse gives an oration.
1969 - A huge rally outside the GPO in Dublin protests events in Northern Ireland.
1980 - Eighteen people die in the Buttevant Rail Disaster.

3rd 1916 - Roger Casement hanged for treason.

5th 1969 - Severe sectarian rioting in Belfast.

7th 1957 - A war memorial in Limerick is blown up.
1986 -
Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the DUP, is arrested for illegal assembly after a Loyalist mob takes over a village in County Monaghan.

8th 1980 - Ten people die in a hotel fire at Bundoran.

9th 1971 - Internment without trial is introduced in Northern Ireland.

11th 1927 - Fianna Fáil TDs join the Dáil for the first time.
1950 - At a meeting of the European Consultative Assembly in Strasbourg, Irish representatives vote against the European army proposed by Winston Churchill.

12th 1898 - James Connolly publishes the first copy of the Workers' Republic newsletter.
1946 -
A plane carrying 23 French Girl Guides crashes in the Wicklow Mountains.

13th 1931 - Business resumes in the Four Courts following damage caused in the Civil War.
1969 - The Taoiseach Jack Lynch says on television that Ireland 'can no longer stand by' given the situation in Northern Ireland.
1995 -
Gerry Adams tells a rally in Belfast that the IRA 'haven't gone away'.

14th 1903 - Wyndham Land Act passed, offering incentives to landlord to sell their estates.

15th 1838 - Government introduces relief work and a reduction in tithes for the poor.
1843 -
Repeal meeting at Tara.
1969 -
A  night of violence and arson in Belfast. Sinn Féin calls for UN intervention and the boycott of British goods.
1998 -
Real IRA bomb at Omagh kills 29 people.

16th 1879 - Land League of Mayo founded at Castlebar.
1969 -
 British soldiers are deployed in Belfast.
1982 -
The Attorney General Patrick Connolly resigns after a wanted killer is found at his house.

17th 1922 - Dublin Castle is formally handed over to the IRA by the British.
1969 - Northern Ireland protesters clash with the Garda Síochána in Dublin.

18th 1911 - The British House of Lords loses its veto power beyond two years, making Home Rule possible.

19th 1989 - 10,000 people march in Dublin calling for Britain's withdrawal from Northern Ireland.

20th 1888 - Christian Brothers College founded in Cork.

21st 1962 - Former US President Eisenhower arrives in Belfast.
1970 - The Social Democratic and Labour Party is founded in Northern Ireland.

22nd 1922 - Michael Collins is killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth.

23rd 1921 - Stormont Castle agreed as the Parliament building for Northern Ireland.

27th 1928 - Ireland becomes a signatory of the Kellogg Peace Pact.
1969 - The B-Specials begin to hand over their guns. British Home Secretary James Callaghan visits Belfast.
1979 - The IRA kill Lord Mountbatten, his grandson and the grandson's friend; on the same day, an IRA ambush at Warrenpoint kills 18 British soldiers.

28th 1835 - St. Vincent's Ecclesiastical Seminary opened at Castleknock.
1930 -
Rembrandt painting found in an Irish cottage is authenticated.

31st 1994 - IRA announces a ceasefire.


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St Enda's School                 SEPTEMBER

1st 1913 -  Protest by locked-out workers lead to serious riots in Dublin.
1939 - A state of emergency is declared by the Irish government.
1974 - Transition Year is introduced as a pilot scheme in three schools.
1994 - Transition Year is introduced to all secondary schools.

2nd 1933 - United Ireland Organisation founded. It is to adopt the name of 'Fine Gael'.

3rd 1939 - The Emergency Powers Act comes into force as Britain declares war on Germany.

4th 1907 - Sinn Féin disrupt an Irish Parliamentary Party meeting.
1967 - CIÉ, a scheme for free school transport for older students, is introduced.

5th 1926 - 48 people die in a temporary cinema in Dromcolliher when it catches fire.
1954 - KLM Flight 633 crashes leaving Shannon airport, killing 27 people.

6th 1899 - The Countess of Shaftesbury laid the foundation stone of St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast.
1994 - John Hume, the Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and Gerry Adams meet to pledge support for
democracy.

8th 1893 - Second Home Rule Bill rejected by the Lords.
1908 -
Patrick Pearse founds St Enda's school.
1921 - David Lloyd George makes a final offer to Éamon de Valera.

9th 1887 - Three men killed by the police at an Irish National League demonstration at Mitchelstown.
1922 -
First meeting of the Provisional Parliament (Third Dáil).

10th 1928 - Irish pound issued.

12th 1919 - The Dáil Éireann is declared illegal.
1938 - Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Assembly of the League of Nations.
1997 -
Mary Robinson resigns as President of Ireland to take up a post at the United Nations.

13th 1845 - Gardener's Chronicle announces that the potato blight has appeared in Ireland.

14th 1921 - Sinn Féin put together a delegation to meet Lloyd George in London; it includes Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith.

17th 1913 - Edward Carson declares that a Provisional Government will be set up if Home Rule is enacted.

18th 1867 - Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy escape while being transferred to jail in Manchester.
1922 -
Constitution of Saorstát Éireann Bill introduced by W. T. Cosgrave.

19th 1923 - Fourth Dáil meet for the first time at Leinster House.

20th 1803 - Execution of Robert Emmet.

22nd 1959 - First conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which is not recognised by Northern Ireland.

23rd 1992 - The IRA destroys Belfast's forensic science laboratory.

25th 1971 - Rally in Dublin in support of civil disobedience in Northern Ireland.

26th 1932 - Éamon de Valera gives his inaugural speech as President of the League of Nations.

27th 1913 -  12,000 Ulster Volunteers parade at Balmoral to protest Home Rule.

28th 1912 - 'Ulster Day' on which the Ulster Covenant is signed.

29th 1979 - Pope John Paul II arrives in Ireland for a three-day visit.

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Results of the IRA bomb at the Grand Hotel                 OCTOBER


1st 1812 - English balloonist James Sadler attempts to cross the Irish Sea in a balloon. He fails and almost drowns.

2nd 1957 - The Voluntary Health Insurance Board is launched.

3rd 1938 - Britain's last remaining forts in the twenty-six counties are handed back to Ireland.
1940 - The German government announced it was willing to compensate Ireland for bombs dropped on Dublin.
1970 - US President Nixon arrives in Ireland.
1975 - Businessman Tiede Herrema is kidnapped by the IRA.

5th 1968 - Police in Derry baton-charge a civil rights march.

6th 1891 - Death of Charles Stewart Parnell.
1980 -
Mella Carroll becomes Ireland's first female high court judge.

7th 1843 - Daniel O'Connell succumbs to government pressure and bans a Monster Meeting at Clontarf.

9th 1932 - Shots fired at a Cumann na nGaedhael meeting in Limerick.

10th 1918 - RMS Leinster is sunk by a German submarine with the loss of around 500 lives.
1957 - Fire at Windscale Nuclear Power Station in England, believed to have caused birth defects in Ireland.
1969 - The Hunt Committee report recommends an unarmed police force in Northern Ireland.
1977 - Mairéad Corrigan and Betty Williams win the Nobel Prize for Peace.

12th 1940 - The Kerry Head ship is bombed with the loss of twelve lives, months after surviving another attack.
1975 - Oliver Plunkett is canonised.
1984 -
The IRA kill five people on an attack on a Brighton hotel during the Conservative Party Conference.

13th 1994 - Loyalist paramilitary groups announce a ceasefire.

18th 1880 - Ballycastle railway opens between Ballymoney and Ballycastle.
1881 -
"No Rent" manifesto issued by Irish National Land League.

19th 1881 - Irish National Land League proclaimed illegal.
1989 -
Three of the Guildford Four are released.

21st 1879 - Irish National Land League founded at Dublin.

22nd 1884 - Alice Walkington becomes the first woman to be awarded a degree in Ireland.
1976 -
President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh resigns over a furore about the Emergency Powers Bill, which led to the Minister for Defence describing him as a 'thundering disgrace'.

23rd 1911 - 70,000 Unionists march against Home Rule.
1970 - Charles Haughey, James Kelly, Albert Luykx and John Kelly are acquitted of conspiracy to import arms.

24th 1990 - The IRA forces three men to act as suicide bombers, resulting in seven deaths.

25th 1917 - De Valera becomes the President of Sinn Féin.
1920 - Lord Mayor of Cork Thomas MacSwiney dies on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.
1968 - The New University of Ulster is opened.

27th 1913 - James Larkin of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union sent to prison for seditious language.

30th 1939 - More than two dozen air-raid sirens are tested across Dublin.

31st 1909 - The Royal University of Ireland is dissolved.
1973 - Three IRA prisoners escape from Mountjoy Prison in a hijacked helicopter.
1990 - Brian Lenihan is sacked from government over dishonesty allegations.
1996 -
First Irish language TV station, Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG), is launched.

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Kevin Barry                                 NOVEMBER


1st 1883 - Mater Infirmorm Hospital in Belfast takes in its first patients.
1920 -
18-year-old Kevin Barry executed for killing a British soldier.

3rd 1841 - Foundation stone is laid for St. Malachy's Church in Belfast.

4th 1957 - Éamon de Valera attends the coronation of Pope John Paul XXIII.
2001 -
Police Service of Northern Ireland established.

5th 1992 - The Irish government loses a vote of confidence and the Dáil is dissolved.

7th 1924 - Amnesty declared for politically motivated crimes committed during the Civil War.
1940 - Éamon de Valera lets it be known that Irish ports will not be handed over to the British.
1990 -
Mary Robinson is elected seventh President of Ireland.

8th 1949 - Street names in any language other than English are banned in Northern Ireland.
1960 - Nine Irish soldiers serving with the United Nations are killed in the Congo.
1987 -
The IRA kill eleven people at a Rememberance Service in Enniskillen.

9th 1907 - The Irish International Exhibition ends after six months.
1919 - Labour leader James Larkin arrested in New York for attempting to overthrow a government.

10th 1966 - Jack Lynch receives his seal of office as the new Taoiseach.

11th 1997 - Mary McAleese inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland.

12th 1957 - Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy is banned by censors.

13th 1991 - Defence Secretary Jim McDaid resigns following criticism of his attending an IRA funeral.

14th 1866 - St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast is dedicated.
1923 -
William Butler Yeats is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

15th 1985 - Taoiseach Charles Haughey and British PM Margaret Thatcher sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

16th 1994 - The Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition collapses.

17th 1890 -  Captain Willie O'Shea divorces Kitty O'Shea, naming Charles Stewart Parnell as co-respondent.
1926 -
Following the killing of two gardaí, President W.T. Cosgrave introduces the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Bill.
1948 - The Republic of Ireland Act 1948, aimed at repealing the External Relations Act of 1936, is introduced in Dáil Éireann.

19th 1913 - Irish Citizen Army founded by James Connolly to protect workers in the general lockout.
1971 - An Taoiseach Jack Lynch holds talks with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

20th 1936 - General Eoin O'Duffy leads 600 men to fight for Franco in Spain.

21st 1920 - Bloody Sunday. Following the assassinations of 14 undercover British agents by Michael Collins' men,  British forces kill 12 people at a GAA football match at Croke Park.
2001 - GAA abolishes 'Rule 21' so that members of the security forces and British army can play.

22nd 1932 - Prince of Wales opens the new parliament building in Belfast.

23rd 1867 - William O'Mera Allen, Michael Larkin and William O'Brien are executed at Manchester.


24th 1922 - Erskine Childers is executed for the possession of a gun which Michael Collins had given him as a Christmas present.
1995 -
A referendum in the Republic narrowly passes in favour of allowing divorce.

25th
1890 - Charles Stewart Parnell re-elected leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
1892 -
Douglas Hyde delivers a lecture to the Irish National Literary Society on 'the necessity of de-anglicising the Irish people'.
1913 - Irish Volunteers founded.
1948 - The Republic of Ireland Act is passed in Dáil Éireann.

26th 1998 - Tony Blair becomes the first British Prime Minister to address the Oireachtas.

28th 1863 - First edition of The Irish People.
1905 -
Sinn Féin founded.
1913 - Andrew Bonar Law addresses a huge Unionist rally in the Theatre Royal in Dublin, encouraging Ulster to resist Home Rule.
1920 - Flying column led by Tom Barry kills 16 Auxiliaries at Kilmichael in County Cork.

29th 1955 - Bord na gCon set up under the Greyhound Racing Bill.
1979 - Taoiseach Jack Lynch greets EEC heads of government in Dublin.
1999 -
Ten designated ministers appointed to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

30th 1947 - A sixty day transport strike ends in Dublin.
1956 - Petrol rationing is introduced in response to the Suez Crisis.


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McGurk's bar bombing                   DECEMBER

2nd 1999 - Irish government ratifies changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution.

3rd 1925 - The Boundary Commission recommends no change to the border.

4th 1967 - The first independent computer in Ireland is introduced at Shannon Airport.
1971 - 15 people die in the bombing of McGurk's Bar.

6th 1890 - 44 members of the Irish  Parliamentary Party walk out in protest at Parnell's leadership.
1921 -
Treaty signed in London, allowing for the creation of a 'Free State' in a partitioned Ireland.
1922 - Irish Free State officially comes into existence.
1976 - Dr Patrick Hillery becomes the Sixth President of Ireland.
1982 -
The INLA kill 17 people with a bomb attack on the Droppin Well Inn.

7th 1979 - Charles Haughey is elected leader of Fianna Fáil.

8th 1933 - Blueshirts banned by the Irish government.
1980 -
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first British PM to visit Ireland since independence.

9th 1973 - The Sunningdale Agreement.

10th 1974 - Seán MacBride wins the Nobel Prize for Peace.

11th 1920 - British forces set fire to the centre of Cork.
1979 - Charles Haughey becomes Taoiseach.
2000 - President Clinton arrives in Dublin.

12th 1928 - First Irish coinage issued.
1936 - Following the abdication of King Edward VIII, the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act is passed to abolish the crown and role of the king in consitutional law.
1955 - Cork Opera House is destroyed by fire.

13th 1867 - Attempted rescue of Richard O'Sullivan Burke from Clerkenwell Jail results in twelve civilian deaths.
1922 -
Oireachtas meets for the first time.
1972 - President Éamon de Valera signs documents covering Ireland's entry into the EEC.

14th 1955 - Ireland is admitted to the United Nations.

15th 1844 - St. Malachy's Church in Belfast is dedicated.
1993 -
Downing Street Declaration issued by Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and British PM John Major.

16th 1921 - The British House of Parliament accepts the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

18th 1946 - The Irish government announces the release or 24 internees, including Brendan Behan.
1953 - The Censorship Board bans almost 100 publications.

19th 1974 - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh becomes the fifth President of Ireland.
1981 -
The Dublin-registered Union Star sinks on its maiden voyage with sixteen casualties.

20th 1961 - Robert McGladdery becomes the last man to be legally executed in Northern Ireland.

21st 1916 - Announcement made at the British House of Commons that all prisoners from the Easter Rising will
be released.
1948 - President Seán T. O'Kelly signs the Republic of Ireland Bill at a ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin.

23rd 1895 - Opening of Grand Opera House in Belfast.
1939 -
Ammunition is stolen from the national arsenal at Phoenix Park by the IRA.

24th 1889 - Charles Stewart Parnell publicly accused of adultery.
1895 -
Fifteen people die in the Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster.

25th 1945 - In his presidential address, Seán T. O'Kelly calls on the young to support the Irish language.

27th 1997 - LVF leader Billy Wright shot dead in prison by the INLA.

28th 1821 - Four lifeboat men drown while rescuing the brig of the crew Ellen of Liverpool at Sandycove.
1918 -
Sinn Féin win a landslide victory in the Irish general election.

29th 1908 - The Irish Transport Workers' Union is founded with James Larkin as general secretary.
1937 - The Constitution of Ireland comes into force.
1967 - A new redundancy payments scheme is announced.

31st 1909 - Harry Ferguson becomes the first person to fly in Ireland, using his own monoplane.
1961 - Teilifís Éireann goes on air.
1998 - The punt is traded for the last time and the Euro is launched.


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