1921 Sinn Féin members who were returned in the election to the parliament of Southern Ireland under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act constituted themselves as the Second Dáil Éireann.
1819 In the Peterloo Massacre, St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, eighteen were killed when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand parliamentary reform.
1982 Patrick Connolly, the Republic of Ireland’s attorney general, resigned after a man was arrested in his home and charged with two murders. Taoiseach Charles Haughey referred to the events as ‘grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre and unique’, which led Conor Cruise O’Brien to coin the term ‘GUBU’.
1977 Elvis Presley (42), rock-and-roll singer, actor and descendant of eighteenth-century immigrant William Presley from Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow, died in Memphis, Tennessee.
1917 The Battle of Frezenberg Ridge, part of the Battle of Passchendaele. In a disastrous attack on the German strongpoint the mostly nationalist 16th (Irish) Division and the unionist 36th (Ulster) Division suffered c. 4,000 casualties.
1911 Patrick Francis Moran, Carlow-born archbishop of Sydney since 1884 and the first Australian cardinal (1885), died.
1766 Lady Nairne, Scottish songwriter and song-collector and one-time resident of Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, born in Perthshire.
1962 Frank Gallagher (69), journalist, author and republican, who was the first editor of the Irish Press (1931–5), died.
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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
1937 During the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Guernica, a bastion of Republican resistance, was pounded by the German Condor Legion with high-explosive bombs and at least 3,000 incendiary bombs. Over 1,600 people were killed in the subsequent firestorm.
1900 Queen Victoria concluded her final, three-week visit to Ireland, the purpose of which was to encourage Irishmen to join the British Army and fight in the Second Boer War. Nationalist opposition to her visit was led by Arthur Griffith and his newspaper, The United Irishman.
1974 Nineteen Old Masters paintings were stolen from the Blessington, Co. Wicklow, home of Sir Alfred and Lady Beit by a Provisional IRA gang which included Dr Rose Dugdale.
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