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February 9

Published in On this Day listing

1971 Five men working for the BBC were killed when an IRA bomb, intended for the security forces, exploded as they made their way in a Land Rover to inspect a transmitter on Brougher Mountain, Co. Tyrone.
1996 The IRA detonated a bomb in Canary Wharf, one of London’s two main financial districts, killing two, injuring almost 40 and causing an estimated £100 million worth of damage. The bombing marked the end of their seventeen-month ceasefire.
1926 Garret Fitzgerald, leader of Fine Gael (1977–87) and twice taoiseach (07/1981–02/1982, 12/1982–03/1987), born in Dublin, the son of the then minister for external affairs, Desmond Fitzgerald. His mother, Mabel McConnell, was from a Northern Protestant family.
1854 Edward Carson, lawyer and Unionist leader, was born in Dublin.
1563 Manus O’Donnell, lord of Tír Chonaill who was deposed and taken prisoner by his son, Calvagh, in 1555, died. A life of Colmcille, at present in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, was written under his direction.
1923 Brendan Behan/Breandán Ó Beacháin, playwright and author, notably of Borstal Boy (1958), born in Holles Street Hospital in Dublin’s inner city.

On this Day

1968 In what became known as the ‘rivers of blood’ speech, Enoch Powell MP strongly criticised mass immigration, especially Commonwealth immigration to the UK, and the then proposed Race Relations Act.
1954 Michael Manning (25), a carter from Groody, Limerick city, was hanged in Mountjoy Jail for the murder of an elderly nurse. He was the last person to be judicially executed in the Republic of Ireland. The last judicial execution in Northern Ireland took place seven years later, in December 1961, when Robert McGladdery (26) from Newry was hanged for the murder of a local woman.
1912 Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker (65), author, notably of Dracula (1897), died.
1954 Michael Manning (25), a carter from Limerick, was hanged in Mountjoy prison for the murder of an elderly nurse. He was the last man to be judicially executed in the Republic of Ireland.