1966 One hundred and forty-four died—116 children and 28 adults—when a landslide of coal slag demolished a school and houses in the village of Aberfan, Merthyr Valley, South Wales.
1805
Above: The death of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Ship’s surgeon William Beatty, from Limavady, Co. Derry, couldn’t save him. (Getty Images)
The Royal Navy, under Admiral Horatio Nelson, heavily defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, off the south-west coast of Spain. On board Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory that day were 94 Irishmen, both officers and men. Ship’s surgeon William Beatty, from Limavady, Co. Derry, had a busy day below deck. He amputated nine arms and two legs—without anaesthetic, of course—and treated over 140 wounded men. But he couldn’t save Nelson, felled by a sniper’s bullet from the mizzen top of the French vessel Redoutable. He was at Nelson’s side when the great man expired, with considerable panache, some three hours later. Captain Henry Blackwood, from Clandeboye, Co. Down, a favourite of the admiral, was in command of HMS Euryalus. On board Victory earlier that day to receive final instructions, he was called upon to witness Nelson’s late addition to his will recognising his illegitimate daughter Horatia and asking the state to provide for his mistress, Lady Hamilton. Beatty and Blackwood were to die in their beds many years later, but not so Captain Charles Adair from Donegore, Antrim town. A great admirer of Nelson—he named his daughter Anne Nelson Adair—he commanded the Royal Marines on board Victory and was killed early in battle. It is not known what happened to his body. At best he was sewn into a hammock with cannon-balls at his feet and buried at sea, or simply thrown overboard. Still, his widow was given a generous pension of £60 per annum, twice the norm for widows of marine captains. There was no such largesse for Lady Hamilton. The second part of Nelson’s codicil was, of course, officially ignored.
1803 Thomas Russell, United Irishman, popularly remembered as The Man From God Knows Where, hanged in Downpatrick, Co. Down.
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Personal Histories
Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland,
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add their voice to the historical record.
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1567 Shane O’Neill of Tyrone was heavily defeated by Hugh O’Donnell at the Battle of Farsetmore, near Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.
1916 Éamonn Ceannt (34), Michael Mallin (36), Con Colbert (25) and Seán Heuston (25) executed.
1987At Loughgall, Co. Armagh, an eight-man IRA unit, about to attack the local RUC station, was wiped out by a 36-man SAS unit. It was the IRA’s greatest single loss of life in the recent Troubles. A passing civilian was also killed.
2007 Devolution day in Northern Ireland. Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (SF) were sworn in as first minister and deputy first minister of the Northern Ireland executive.
2007‘Devolution Day’ in Northern Ireland. DUP leader Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness (SF) took office as first minister and deputy first minister respectively in a restored Northern Ireland Assembly.
1987 The Loughgall ambush. Eight members of the East Tyrone Brigade of the IRA, including their commander, Patrick Joseph Kelly, were killed by the SAS/RUC as they attacked the part-manned RUC station in north Armagh. The East Tyrone Brigade was one of the most active and successful IRA brigades during the Troubles, with a simple strategy to create and expand ‘no-go zones’ which the RUC/British Army did not control, in the course of which they had carried out 22 attacks over the previous six months, killing seven members of the security forces. Meanwhile, Det. Chief Supt. Francis Murray—a Catholic from the Ards Peninsula, based in Portadown, who had played hurling in his youth—was determined to do his duty. Ten years earlier, whilst investigating a booby-trapped IRA arms dump in Lurgan he lost a hand, a leg and an eye, which sidelined him for three years. Returning to duty, he spent most of his time scrutinising intelligence reports until he eventually made a breakthrough; in a monitored telephone call an IRA Volunteer indiscreetly told his girlfriend about the plan for Loughgall. With permission to deploy a group of SAS personnel and RUC marksmen, he briefed them in detail—from his knowledge of previous attacks—on the IRA modus operandi before they took up positions at the station. As predicted, the IRA arrived with a stolen mechanical digger with a 200lb bomb in the bucket, which destroyed much of the base. Then, as they proceeded to their getaway van, they were mown down in a hail of 1,200 rounds, though six did manage to escape. The ambush, however, had no long-term effect on the East Tyrone Brigade, which lost 53 Volunteers during the Troubles, mostly at the hands of the SAS and UVF. Chief Supt. Murray was awarded an MBE and the Queen’s Police Medal and retired after a 32-year police career. Twenty years to the day of the ambush, Sinn Féin went into a devolved government with the DUP in Stormont.
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