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December 21

Published in On this Day listing

1985 The Progressive Democratic (PD) Party was founded by Desmond O’Malley. The first public meeting took place the following month.
1948 The Republic of Ireland Act repealed the External Relations Act (1936), providing for the declaration of an Irish Republic.
1917 Heinrich Boll, author of Irish journal (1957) and Nobel Laureate (1972), born in Cologne.
1866 Maud Gonne MacBride, nationalist and suffragist, born near Aldershot, Hampshire, the daughter of a British Army officer of Irish background.
1815 Mary Letitia Martin, novelist known as the ‘Princess of Connemara’, born in Ballynahinch Castle, Co. Galway.

On this Day

2011 The last British troops pulled out of South Armagh. During the period 1970–97, the IRA killed 165 members of the British security forces in the area.
1870 (Robert) Erskine Childers, Sinn Féin politician and author of The riddle of the sands (1903), born in London but raised at the maternal home, Glendalough House, Co. Wicklow, along with his cousin, Robert Childers Barton (1881–1975)
1970 The Catholic hierarchy lifted the ban on Catholics attending Trinity College, Dublin.
1919 William Martin Murphy (75), founder of Independent Newspapers and leader of the Employers’ Federation during the lockout of 1913–14, died.
1970 The Irish Catholic hierarchy lifted its ban on Catholics attending Trinity College, Dublin.
1876 The Battle of Little Big Horn, Montana, USA. Of Custer’s 604-strong 7th Cavalry, some 128 were of Irish birth, representing 29 of the 32 counties. Half of the 215 men who died with him that day were Irish.