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March 31

Published in On this Day listing

2012 Mike Nesbitt (54) was elected leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
1976 The Cork–Dublin mail train was robbed of c. £150,000 near Sallins, Co. Kildare.
1711 Eight women from nearby Island Magee were charged in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, with witchcraft. All were found guilty and sentenced to twelve months in prison and ordered to stand four times in the pillory in Carrickfergus. It was the last trial for witchcraft held in Ireland.

On this Day

1969 Robert Briscoe (75), Dáil deputy for 38 years and the first Jewish lord mayor of Dublin (1956), died.
1914 The Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland sank on the St Lawrence River after colliding with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad; 1,012 passengers and crew died.
1972 The Official IRA ordered a cessation of hostilities following the killing, four days earlier, of Ranger William Best while visiting his family.
1660 Charles II entered London, marking the restoration of the monarchy. He had been proclaimed king of Ireland on 14 May.
1917 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th president of the United States (1961–3), born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second of nine children of businessman Joe Kennedy and philanthropist/socialite Rose Fitzgerald.