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July 29

Published in On this Day listing

1929 The Ardnacrusha hydroelectric station in County Clare, constructed over a period of four years by the German firm Siemens-Schuckert and employing several thousand local men and a thousand Germans, was officially opened.
1969 In the Republic, the Finance Act (1969, Section 2) exempted persons deemed to have written, composed or executed works of cultural or artistic merit from income tax on gains arising from such works.
1968 Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (‘Of Human Life’) reaffirmed orthodox Catholic teaching by rejecting all forms of artificial contraception.
1960 Cedric Gibbons, Dublin-born art director and set decorator credited with designing the Oscar statuette (1928), died.
1848 Young Ireland rebellion, Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary.

On this Day

1937 During the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Guernica, a bastion of Republican resistance, was pounded by the German Condor Legion with high-explosive bombs and at least 3,000 incendiary bombs. Over 1,600 people were killed in the subsequent firestorm.
1900 Queen Victoria concluded her final, three-week visit to Ireland, the purpose of which was to encourage Irishmen to join the British Army and fight in the Second Boer War. Nationalist opposition to her visit was led by Arthur Griffith and his newspaper, The United Irishman.
1974 Nineteen Old Masters paintings were stolen from the Blessington, Co. Wicklow, home of Sir Alfred and Lady Beit by a Provisional IRA gang which included Dr Rose Dugdale.