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May 24

Published in On this Day listing

1921 In the general election to the parliament of Northern Ireland, the first in the UK to be held under proportional representation, the Unionist Party won 40 seats, with Sinn Féin and the Irish Parliamentary Party taking six seats each.
1819 Birth of Queen Victoria, the last British monarch of the House of Hanover, who reigned for 63 years (1837–1901).
2007 In the general election Fianna Fáil secured 41.6% of first preference votes, leading to the appointment of Bertie Ahern to a third successive term as taoiseach.
1964 A riot during a football match at the National Stadium, Peru, led to mass panic and the deaths of over 300 people—the biggest disaster in the history of sport
1923 The Irish Civil War ended with the order by Frank Aiken, chief of staff of the anti-Treaty IRA, ‘to dump arms’.
1921 Elections to the two Irish states (Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland) set up under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act (December 1920) were held. In Northern Ireland all 52 seats were contested. Forty Unionists, six Sinn Féin and six Nationalists were returned. In the South, 124 Sinn Féin candidates and four Unionists (for Trinity College) were elected unopposed.
1818 John Henry Foley, the leading sculptor of his day, notably of the O’Connell monument (1864–82) in O’Connell Street, born in 6 Montgomery Street, Dublin.

On this Day

1820 Sir William Howard Russell, one of the first modern war correspondents, whose coverage included the Crimean War and the American Civil War, born in Tallaght, Dublin.
1969 Death of Dwight D. ‘Ike’ Eisenhower (78), American army general, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe during the Second World War and 34th (Republican) president of the United States (1953–61).
1979 The worst-ever accident in the US nuclear power industry began when a pressure valve in a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania failed to close.
1957 Jack Butler Yeats (85), painter and younger brother of W.B. Yeats, died.
1972 Eight people, seven of them young girls, died when fire destroyed the offices of Noyek’s timber merchants in Parnell Street, Dublin.
1820 William Howard Russell, the first modern war correspondent, renowned for his reports on the mismanagement of the Crimean War for The Times (London), born at Lily Vale, Tallaght, Co. Dublin.
1760 Dublin-born Margaret (Peg) Woffington, renowned beauty and leading actress on the London stage for almost two decades, died.
1973 Irish naval service vessels apprehended the Claudia, a Cypriot coaster, off County Waterford. Six men, including Joe Cahill, were arrested for conspiracy to import arms.