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May 6

Published in On this Day listing

1970 Taoiseach Jack Lynch dismissed from cabinet Minister for Finance Charles J. Haughey and Minister for Agriculture Neil Blaney. Minister for Local Government Kevin Boland resigned in sympathy with his two colleagues.
1882 Whilst strolling in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and his under-secretary, Thomas Burke, were set upon by a six-man gang wielding twelve-inch surgical knives—members of the Invincibles—and hacked to death.
2008 On his last day in office, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opened a new visitors’ centre on the site of the Battle of the Boyne in County Meath along with First Minister of Northern Ireland Revd Ian Paisley.

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.