March 25

• 1981 The government and Dáil Éireann condemned the decision of the IRFU to send an Irish national rugby team to South Africa.
• 1957 The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC).
• 1996 Mary Lavin, short-story writer (notably of ‘Tales from Bective Bridge’) and novelist, died.
• 1987 Lord Justice Gibson, of the Northern Ireland judiciary, and his wife were killed by an IRA car-bomb as they drove across the border to link up with an RUC escort.
• 1942 In the wake of the arrival of American forces in Northern Ireland, the northern command of the IRA, under its new commander, Hugh McAteer, resolved to take action ‘by sabotage of war industries and enemy military objectives by a semi-military force’.
• 1920 Demobilised British servicemen, recruited as reinforcements to the RIC, arrived in Ireland. They soon became known as the ‘Black and Tans’.
• 1916 Charlotte Milligan Fox, folk music collector and sister of the writer Alice Milligan, died.
• 1864 Charlotte Milligan Fox, folk music collector who founded the Irish Folk Song Society (1904) and elder sister of the writer and Gaelic League organiser Alice Milligan, died.
• 1963 Lord Brookborough retired as prime minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. He was succeeded by Captain Terence O’Neill.