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November 24

Published in On this Day listing

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.

On this Day

1920 Two RIC officers were shot dead in a public house in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, after which the RIC and Black and Tans rampaged through the town, burning business premises and houses. Two suspected republicans were bayoneted to death.
1920 Three British soldiers from the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, including Pte Harold Washington (15), were shot dead by the IRA as they collected bread from Monk’s bakery in North King Street, Dublin. Kevin Barry (18) of H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, was arrested at the scene.
1970 Leo Rowsome, celebrated piper, died suddenly in Riverstown parochial hall, Co. Sligo, while adjudicating in the ‘Fiddler of Dooney’ fiddle-playing championship.
1914 In a speech at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, the Irish Parliamentary Party leader, John Redmond, called on the Irish Volunteers to join the British army and fight wherever the war took them.
1803 Robert Emmet, United Irishman, was hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin.
1922 Four Irregulars, including Brian MacNeill, son of Eoin MacNeill, were trapped by Free State forces on Ben Bulben, Co. Sligo, and summarily executed.