1927 Countess Markievicz, née Constance Gore-Booth (59), republican socialist, the first woman to be elected to the British House of Commons, minister for labour in the first Dáil Éireann (1919–21) and Fianna Fáil TD, died.
1984 Glenveagh National Park in north-west Donegal, covering 40,000 acres, was formally opened by President Patrick Hillery. The estate was created (1857–9) by businessman John George Adair, who also built Glenveagh Castle (1870) and is remembered today for the Derryveagh evictions (1861), when he ejected 244 of his tenants. Adair died in 1885, after which the castle fell into disrepair. Later, during the Civil War, the castle and grounds were occupied for a time by anti-Treaty forces who used it as their headquarters, and it narrowly avoided being amongst the c. 300 ‘big houses’ destroyed during that period. When the Irregulars eventually moved out, Peadar O’Donnell was told to burn it to the ground. He ignored the order. In 1929 the estate was purchased by an American academic, Professor Arthur Kingsley Porter, who disappeared, presumed drowned, four years later after spending the night in his fisherman’s hut on Inishbofin Island. The last private owner was the Philadelphia art collector and philanthropist Henry McIlhenny, whose grandfather had emigrated from nearby Carrigart during the Great Famine. He sold the lands to the State in 1975 and donated the castle and gardens six years later. All three were generous hosts. Amongst Adair’s visitors were, no doubt, his influential relations from the business and banking world, whilst the polymath George William Russell (‘AE’), equipped with his paints, regularly stayed with Kingsley Porter. McIlhenny, who spent his summers in Ireland, kept an open house there. Besides celebrities like Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, he hosted the great American composer Samuel Barber (1910–81), who had Scots/Irish ancestry, during the summer of 1952. Barber would be best remembered today for his mournful Adagio for Strings (1936).
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Personal Histories
Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland,
which aims to capture the individual histories of Irish
people both in Ireland and around the world. It is hoped
to build an extensive database reflecting Irish lives,
giving them a chance to be heard, remembered and to
add their voice to the historical record.
Click Here to go to the Personal Histories page
1864 The Royal College of Physicians, Kildare Street, Dublin, was founded. It was the first medical institution in Ireland or Britain to allow women to sit its examinations.
1970 Dr Patrick Hillery, Minister for External Affairs, visited the Falls Road, Belfast. The visit was criticised by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, as ‘an error of judgment and a serious diplomatic discourtesy’.
1988 An explosion and resulting oil and gas fires destroyed Piper Alpha, an oil production platform in the North Sea c. 120 miles north-east of Aberdeen; 167 were killed and 61 survived in what was the worst oil-rig accident in history.
1968 An archaeological team discovered a passage and burial chamber at Knowth, Co. Meath.
1946 George W.(Walker) Bush, 43rd president of the United States (2001–9), born, eldest son of Barbara and George H.W. (Herbert Walker) Bush, 41st president (1989–93).
1939 Mary Peters, Olympic gold medal-winner in the pentathlon (Munich, 1972), born in Halewood, Lancashire.
1917 The Battle of Aquaba resulted in the capture of the Red Sea port from the Turks by rebels advised by T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’).
1914 Eight days after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary was assured by Germany that it would support any action it took against Serbia. This commitment became known as the ‘blank cheque’ by which Germany pledged unconditional support for any action taken by Austria-Hungary.
1997 Citing the threat to Catholic civilians by loyalist paramilitaries, the RUC Chief Constable permitted c. 1,200 Orangemen to march along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, the last time they were allowed to do so.
1920 Nineteen were killed and over 50 wounded in four days of continuous sectarian violence in Derry.
1997 The IRA announced a restoration of its cease-fire, with a complete cessation of military operations.
1916 The Battle of Fromelles, in which a British and Australian offensive was crushed by the Germans. Over 2,000 Australians were killed or injured, making it the worst day in that country’s military history.
1986 Peter Robinson MP, latterly first minister for Northern Ireland, was arrested in Clontibret, Co. Monaghan, after invading the village at the head of a 500-strong loyalist mob in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
1972 The shooting of librarian and member of the UDR Lance-Corporal Henry Creighton (27) by the IRA near his home on the Fermanagh/Monaghan border brought the death-toll in Northern Ireland since 1969 to 500.
1976 In West Belfast, three children were killed and their mother seriously injured when a car, driven by an IRA man who was shot dead by a British soldier, careered into them. The incident led to theformation of the Peace People movement.
1917 Alderman W.T. Cosgrave (Sinn Féin) defeated John Magennis (IPP) in the Kilkenny City by-election.