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Ireland and the First Crusade

At Clermont on 27 November 1095 Pope Urban II made an appeal to his French audience to cease fighting one another and to turn to the east against non-Christian enemies. […]

‘On Saint Helena’s Bleak Shore’

As the anti-Treaty military effort collapsed towards the end of 1922, thousands of prisoners fell into Free State hands, reaching 12,000 by early 1923. Such numbers placed a massive strain […]

The ‘Yellow Bellies’ and the Hurling Men of Cornwall

On Bodmin Moor in Cornwall there are three circles of standing stones known as ‘The Hurlers’. Legend has it that men of the area broke the Sabbath by playing the […]

Fenian Attack on Kilmallock Barracks, 1867

In March 1867 the Irish Constabulary was preparing to defend against a strong Fenian rising in County Dublin, which could possibly spread around the country. My great-grandfather, Head Constable Richard […]

D. A. Chart 1878–1960: Archivist, Historian, Social Scientist

Our neglect and ignorance of some important figures in early twentieth-century Ireland were highlighted recently during the transcription and publication of the Heads of Household Index to the 1851 census […]

September 12

1980 The Republic of Ireland and the People’s Republic of China exchanged ambassadors for the first time, with John Campbell taking up his post in Peking and Madame Gong Pusheng taking up residence in Dublin.
1969 The Cameron Commission report placed the blame for clashes between loyalists and supporters of NICRA and People’s Democracy over the previous year on the discriminatory policies of the Stormont regime and the RUC.
1912 Father Matthew Russell (78), founder-editor of Catholic Ireland (later Irish Monthly) from 1873, died.
1867 The Irish Constabulary was granted the prefix ‘Royal’—Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)—in recognition of its role in suppressing the Fenian Rising in March of that year.
1814 Major-General Robert Ross, from Rostrevor, Co. Down, who famously helped himself to President Madison’s dinner before torching the White House some weeks earlier, was killed in a skirmish with American militia at North Point.
1997 President Mary Robinson, approaching the end of her one term in office, resigned to take up the role of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ireland and the First Crusade

‘On Saint Helena’s Bleak Shore’

The ‘Yellow Bellies’ and the Hurling Men of Cornwall

Fenian Attack on Kilmallock Barracks, 1867

D. A. Chart 1878–1960: Archivist, Historian, Social Scientist

Personal Histories

On this Day

September 12