December 16
Published in On this Day listing- 1971 General Richard Mulcahy (85), revolutionary and politician, and founder-member of Fine Gael (1933), died.
- 1971 General Richard Mulcahy, second-in-command to Thomas Ashe in Easter Week 1916, chief-of-staff of the IRA during the War of Independence, GOC of Provisional Government military forces during the Civil War, government minister and leader of Fine Gael (1944–59), died.
- 1911 The Local Authorities (Ireland) (Qualification of Women) Act allowed women to become members of county and borough councils.
- 1965 William Somerset Maugham (91), English novelist, died.
- 2005 At a press conference in Dublin, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams announced that Denis Donaldson, their party’s group administrator in Stormont, had been a spy in the pay of MI5 for over twenty years.
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