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January 28

Published in On this Day listing

1970 Gerard Sweetman (61), Fine Gael politician and Minister for Finance (1954–7), was killed in a car crash in County Kildare.
1939 W. B. Yeats, poet, died at Roquebrune, France.
1918 Lt.-Col. John McCrae (45), Canadian surgeon and poet, who composed In Flanders Field (05/1915), died of pneumonia in Boulogne.

That field of glory. The story of Clontarf, from battleground to garden suburb
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Darkest Dublin: The story of the Church Street disaster and a pictorial account of the slums of Dublin in 1913
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On this Day

1914 The Britannic, the third and largest ocean liner of the White Star Line and sister ship to RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, was launched in Belfast. She was sunk by an underwater mine in the Aegean Sea in November 1916—the biggest ship lost during the First World War.
1962 The IRA announced the termination of their campaign, ‘Operation Harvest’, in Northern Ireland. Over a period of almost six years, twelve IRA volunteers and six RUC officers had been killed.
1930 The National Monuments Act, providing for the protection and preservation of national monuments and the preservation of archaeological objects in Saorstát Éireann, was passed. The act was extended to include underwater archaeological sites in 1987.

1971 In an interview with the BBC, Taoiseach Jack Lynch stated that the constitutional claim by the Republic to jurisdiction over the six counties of Northern Ireland was fundamental and could not be abandoned.
1976 Secretary of State Merlyn Rees announced the ending of special- category status for political prisoners in Northern Ireland.

1939 Thomas Casement (76), Boer War and First World War veteran and brother of Sir Roger Casement, was found drowned at Baggot Street bridge, Dublin.
1988 Three members of an IRA active service unit were shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar (see 16th).
1987 The Herald of Free Enterprise, a roll-on-roll-off ferry, capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, killing 193 passengers and crew.
1918 John Redmond (62), leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party since 1900, died.
John Redmond (62), leader of the Home Rule Party since 1900, died.

2009 Two British soldiers were shot dead by the Real IRA outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim town.
1967 Minister of Home Affairs William Craig banned commemorations in Northern Ireland to mark the centenary of the Fenian Rising. He also banned Republican Clubs, which he described as a front for the IRA.
1936 German troops occupied the Rhineland in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, which designated it a ‘demilitarised zone’.

1981 The ‘Friends of Ireland’ organisation, to support initiatives for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, was launched by leading members of the US Congress.