August 17

• • 2006 The MorrisTribunal report, on a range of allegations against the Garda Síochána in County Donegal (1993–9), was published. It was to bring about the biggest overhaul in policing in the history of the Irish state.

• • 1987 Rudolph Hess (93), German Deputy Führer (1933–41), committed suicide in Spandau Prison, West Berlin.

• 1878 Oliver St John Gogarty, surgeon, wit and writer, and Olympic bronze medal-winner (literature, Paris, 1924) for his ‘Tailteann Ode’ (described by himself as ‘rather tripe’), born in Rutland Square, Dublin.
• 1922 Dublin Castle was handed over to the Civic Guard, later the Garda Síochána, after the departure of the last British troops.