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Three editors over four decades!

The current phase of the CIRCLE project began in 2008 with funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. But in fact the Irish Chancery Project […]

‘Pirates in our channel’ the Cromwellian navy in Ireland, 1649–53

In the 1630s King Charles I devoted considerable resources to increasing the strength of the royal navy by building large ships such as the Sovereign of the Seas. In 1642, […]

Prince Rupert’s royalist navy blockaded at Kinsale

In 1648 a revolt broke out among the fleet stationed in the Downs and a number of ships defected to the royalists in Holland. Prince Rupert (right), the king’s nephew […]

Cromwell arrives in Ireland

On 13 August 1649 Oliver Cromwell and a flotilla of around 35 ships sailed from Milford Haven to Dublin. Cromwell spent most of the voyage being seasick. A second, larger […]

April 16

1871 John Millington Synge, key figure in the Irish Literary Revival, co-founder of the Abbey Theatre and playwright, notably of The Playboy of the Western World, born in Newtown Villas, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin.
1947 The expression ‘Cold War’, a war waged through proxies, was coined by the US statesman and millionaire financier Bernard Baruch.
1917 After twelve years in exile, the leading Russian Bolshevik, Vladimir Illyich Lenin (47), arrived in St Petersburg after a week-long journey from Zurich in a sealed train.
1862 Sir Thomas Wyse, politician and diplomat and major player in the struggle for Catholic Emancipation, died in Athens.
1660 Sir Hans Sloane, physician and collector, whose natural history collection formed the foundation of the British Museum, was born at Killyleagh Castle, Co. Down.

Three editors over four decades!

‘Pirates in our channel’ the Cromwellian navy in Ireland, 1649–53

Prince Rupert’s royalist navy blockaded at Kinsale

Cromwell arrives in Ireland

Personal Histories

On this Day

April 16