1980 General Tom Barry (83), leader of the West Cork flying column responsible for the ambushes at Kilmichael (Nov. ’20) and Crossbarry (March ’21), and author notably of Guerrilla days in Ireland (1949), died.
1850Sir Robert Peel (62), founder of the Conservative Party and British prime minister, died. In nationalist Ireland Peel would perhaps be best remembered as Daniel O’Connell’s nemesis, the man with the chilling smile ‘like the silver plate on a coffin’ who was forced to concede Catholic Emancipation (1829), who suppressed the Repeal movement and who only partially redeemed himself with his purchase of Indian meal at the outset of the Great Famine. Yet, if he had no sympathy for Irish aspirations and, when chief secretary for Ireland (1812–18), was fond of drinking the Orange toast after dinner to ‘the pious, glorious and immortal memory’ of William III—which earned him the nickname ‘Orange Peel’—he was essentially a pragmatist who mellowed over his long career and one of the last British prime ministers to put governance above party interests. Firmness and concession were the hallmarks of his Irish policies. Though he suppressed the Catholic Board (1814), he gave generous grant aid to the Kildare Place Society (1811) and provided £250,000 for relief works during the famine of 1817. And, of course, he set up the first headquarters of his Peace Preservation Force (1814)—the ‘Peelers’—in Cashel, Co. Tipperary. In 1845 he granted an annual endowment of £26,000 to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in the face of widespread opposition, and in the same year established the non-denominational Queen’s Colleges in an effort to solve the thorny question of university education for Catholics. The concession of Catholic Emancipation has been described as ‘administrative expediency’ to counter the real threat of civil disorder in Ireland, whilst the suppression of the Repeal movement was largely in response to its threat to the Union. As for the Indian meal, it proved to be the decisive factor in relieving the distress of 1845–6.
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Personal Histories
Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland,
which aims to capture the individual histories of Irish
people both in Ireland and around the world. It is hoped
to build an extensive database reflecting Irish lives,
giving them a chance to be heard, remembered and to
add their voice to the historical record.
Click Here to go to the Personal Histories page
1970 Bank strike in the Republic of Ireland (until 17 November).
1919 Professor J.P. Mahaffy (80), scholar, provost of TCD since 1914, died.
1970 In Northern Ireland the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) assumed the duties of the Ulster Special Constabulary (‘B’ Specials), now officially stood down. Over the 22 years of the regiment’s existence 192 members, mainly off-duty, were shot dead by republican paramilitaries.
1923 James Larkin returned to Ireland from the USA. A month later, his disagreements with William O’Brien of the ITGWU would split the labour movement.
2008 Bertie Ahern became the sixth Irish leader to address both houses of the US Congress.
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