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April 23

Published in On this Day listing

1931 Chuck Feeney, businessman and philanthropist who gave away his fortune of $8 billion over a 38-year period, including $1.3b to projects in the Republic of Ireland and $570m to projects in Northern Ireland, born to Irish-American parents in New Jersey.
1971 C.B. (Cyril Bentham) Falls, military correspondent of The Times (1939–53), historian and author notably of The history of the 36th (Ulster) Division (1922), based on his own experiences, died.
1970 St Enda’s, Rathfarnham, the bilingual school founded by Patrick Pearse in 1908, was presented to the nation as a Patrick Pearse Museum.
1918 A general strike against conscription, organised by the Labour movement and supported by Sinn Féin, the IPP and the Catholic hierarchy, paralysed the country.
1616 William Shakespeare (52), dramatist and poet, died.
1014 The Battle of Clontarf, near Dublin. Brian Boru, claimant to the high kingship of Ireland, and his Munster forces defeated an army of Leinster Norse, supported by their kinsmen from Northumbria, the Isle of Man and the Orkneys.

On this Day

1979 ‘On my knees, I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the ways of peace … Further violence in Ireland will only drag down to ruin the land you claim to love and the values you claim to cherish’—Pope John Paul II in an address at Killineer, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
2008 ‘Night of the Guarantee’. Faced with the impending collapse of Anglo-Irish Bank, the government guaranteed the deposits, bonds and loans of all Irish-owned banks and financial institutions.
1984 The trawler Marita Anne was intercepted by the Irish navy off Fenit, Co. Kerry. It was found to be carrying over seven tons of arms and ammunition from the USA.
1979 Pope John Paul II arrived in Ireland on a three-day visit—the first pontiff to step on Irish soil.
1922 General Eoin O’Duffy was appointed Garda Commissioner amid government concerns over indiscipline in the newly formed force.