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January 9

Published in On this Day listing

1980 Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey gave his infamous ‘as a community, we are living beyond our means’ television address. Unknown to the public at the time, he owed the AIB £1.143m owing to persistent personal overspending.
1929 Brian Friel, Ireland’s leading playwright, was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone.
1916
1913 The disastrous Allied Gallipoli campaign ended after eight months with joint Allied/Ottoman Empire casualties of c. 500,000, including c. 4,000 Irish.
1913 Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president of the United States (1969–74), who resigned in disgrace in the wake of the Watergate scandal, born in California. His ancestor, James Nixon, was born in Ireland c. 1705, probably in Timahoe, Co. Laois, and emigrated to America c. 1730. Nixon visited Timahoe in October 1970.
1984 Seán MacEntee (95), founding member of Fianna Fáil and minister in all Fianna Fáil governments between 1932 and 1965, died.

On this Day

1968 Denis McCullough (85), co-founder of the Dungannon Clubs (1905) with Bulmer Hobson and director of the IRB in Ulster at the time of the Easter Rising, died.
1954 Robert Smyllie, influential editor of the Irish Times, died.
1922 The Local Government Act (NI) abolished PR for local elections and required a declaration of allegiance from persons elected to or working for local authorities.
1910 Robert Loraine, British actor and Boer War veteran, in his Henry Farman biplane became the first man to fly across the Irish Sea.
1741 Arthur Young, English agricultural theorist and traveller, and author of the acclaimed A Tour of Ireland (1780), born.
1922 The Local Government Act (NI) abolished PR, introduced by Westminster three years earlier as a ‘minority safeguard’, for local elections and required a declaration of allegiance from persons elected to or working for local authorities.
1954 Robert ‘Bertie’ Smylie (61), editor of the Irish Times since 1934, who transformed the paper from an Ascendancy viewpoint to one with a non-partisan profile, died.