April 7
Published in On this Day listing- 1922 The Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Bill became law, giving the minister for home affairs authority to detain suspects and to set up courts of summary jurisdiction.
- 1719 Death of Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (67), French priest and Catholic saint (canonised in 1900) who founded the De La Salle schools.
- 1868 Thomas D’Arcy McGee (42), Young Irelander, writer, politician and one of the fathers of the Canadian Confederation (1867), was assassinated in Ottawa by a Fenian sympathiser, Patrick J. Whelan.Thomas D’Arcy McGee, former Young Irelander and one of the ‘Fathers’ who negotiated the confederation of the Canadian provinces (1867), was assassinated at his home in Canada. Patrick Joseph Phelan, former British soldier and Fenian, was subsequently hanged for his murder.
- 1861 The census, the first to inquire into religious denominations in Ireland, showed that out of a population of 5,800,000 (a decrease of 11.5% since 1851) Catholics accounted for 4.5 million and Anglicans for just under 700,000, almost two thirds of whom lived in Ulster.
- 1973 John Charles McQuaid (77), controversial archbishop of Dublin (1940–72), died.
- 1774 Oliver Goldsmith, poet, playwright and novelist, author notably of The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), born in Pallas, Co. Longford, the son of a clergyman.
- 1934 The Republican Congress, a short-lived socialist-republican movement led by Peadar O’Donnell, George Gilmore and Frank Ryan, was founded in Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
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