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November 17

Published in On this Day listing

2001 The GAA voted to abolish its controversial Rule 21, which had prevented members of the British Army and the PSNI from playing their games.
2001 The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) dropped Rule 21, which barred members of the British security forces from participation in their games.
1994 Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was forced to resign over the Brendan Smyth extradition case and the appointment of Harry Whelehan to the presidency of the High Court.
1974 Erskine Hamilton Childers (68), president of the Republic of Ireland since 25 June 1973, died suddenly.
1970 The bank strike in the Republic of Ireland, which began on 30 April, ended.
1922 Four ‘Irregulars’, James Fisher, Peter Cassidy, John F. Gaffney and Richard Twohig, were executed at Kilmainham gaol, Dublin, the first of 77 Republicans executed by the Free State authorities during the Civil War (1922–3).
1917 Auguste Rodin (77), French sculptor, notably of ‘The Kiss’ (1889) and ‘Le Penseur/The Thinker’ (1902), died.

On this Day

1920 Units of Cork No. 2 (North) Brigade led by Liam Lynch and Ernie O’Malley captured the military barracks in Mallow, Co. Cork, the only one captured during the War of Independence, and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition. Mallow was sacked in reprisal.
2001 Martin O’Hagan (51), investigative journalist who specialised in exposing paramilitary drug-dealing gangs, was assassinated by loyalists near his home in Lurgan, Co. Armagh.
1966 The ‘Tricolour riots’, the worst disturbances in Belfast for over 30 years, began when the RUC, under the terms of the notorious Flags and Emblems Display Act (1954), forcibly removed a tricolour from a window at the election headquarters in Divis Street of Liam McMillan, Republican (Sinn Féin) candidate in the impending Westminster election.
The Ulster Orchestra was founded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
1920 The IRA, led by Liam Lynch and Ernie O’ Malley, captured the military barracks in Mallow, Co. Cork—the only military barracks captured by the IRA during the War of Independence. Crown forces sacked the town in reprisal.
1912 In a demonstration of their hostility to the proposed Third Home Rule Bill, over 200,000 unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson, signed the ‘Solemn League and Covenant’.