January 23

• 1986 In Westminster by-elections forced by their resignations in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, fourteen of the fifteen Unionist MPs regained their seats. Seamus Mallon won a seat for the SDLP.
• 1980 Guiseppe Conlon (57), one of the ‘Maguire Seven’ whose convictions were overturned in 1991, died in Hammersmith Hospital, London, in the fifth year of a twelve-year sentence for possession of explosives.
• 1861 Katherine Tynan, author of over 160 volumes of poetry and prose and central figure in the Literary Revival, born in Dublin.
• 1918 Major Robert Gregory (38), only son of Augusta, Lady Gregory, was shot down and killed by friendly fire on the Italian front whilst serving with the Royal Flying Corps.
• 1803 Arthur Guinness, founder of Guinness’s brewery and Ireland’s first Sunday school (1786), died.