1996 Mícheal Ó Hehir (76), sports commentator, journalist and ‘the voice of Gaelic games’, died.
1940 James Craig, Lord Craigavon, prime minister of Northern Ireland since 1921 and the architect of the Orange state, died.
1926 The first Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis was held.
1922 Erskine Childers (52), anti-Treaty republican, arrested a fortnight earlier and found to be in possession of a revolver (a present from Michael Collins), was executed by a Free State Army firing squad while awaiting appeal.
1859 Charles Darwin’s The origin of species by means of natural selection was published.
1922 Erskine Childers (52), widely regarded as de Valera’s ‘right-hand man’, who was in custody for possession of a small-calibre pistol, a present from Michael Collins, was executed in Beggar’s Bush Barracks while awaiting the hearing of his appeal.
1972 The RTÉ Authority was replaced by the government after broadcasting a radio interview with Provisional IRA chief-of-staff Seán MacStiofáin in breach of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. The radio reporter, Kevin O’Kelly, who conducted the interview was subsequently sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for contempt of the Special Criminal Court.
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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
1992 Five Catholics were killed when UFF gunmen attacked a betting shop on the Ormeau Road, Belfast. Seven others were wounded.
1921 Katherine O’Shea Parnell (76), widow of Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–91), died at Littlehampton, Sussex. (See ‘100 Years Ago’, p. 70.)
1820 William Drennan (66), United Irishman, physician, co-founder of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (1810) and poet, author of ‘The Wake of William Orr’, died.
1992 Five Catholic men were shot dead by two UFF gunmen in an attack on Seán Graham’s bookmaker’s shop on the Ormeau Road, Belfast.
1921 Katherine O’Shea (76), wife of Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–91), died at 39 East Ham Road, Littlehampton, Sussex.
1918 The luxury liner SS Tuscania, en route from New Jersey to Liverpool with over 2,000 US servicemen, was torpedoed and sunk by a German Uboat 13km north of Rathlin Island. Around 210 servicemen and crew lost their lives.
1917 In the Roscommon North by-election, Count Plunkett, father of Joseph Plunkett (1887–1916), who was endorsed by Sinn Féin, defeated T.J. Devine (Irish Parliamentary Party) by 3,022 votes to 1,708.
2013 The McAleese report on the Magdalene laundries was published. It found ‘significant’ State collusion in the admission of thousands of ‘fallen women’ into the institutions, where they were abused and worked for nothing in conditions of slavery.