1982 The New Ireland Group was founded by Senator John Robb.
1977 Maria Callas (53), internationally acclaimed Greek-American soprano, whom shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis left in favour of Jacqueline Kennedy, died of a heart attack in Paris.
1941 Sixteen Irish soldiers were killed in an explosion whilst conducting tests with anti-tank mines in the Glen of Imaal, Co. Wicklow—the worst disaster in the history of the Irish defence forces.
1937 Ten male seasonal potato-gatherers, aged 13–23 years, from Achill Island perished in a fire in Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow. The group had only arrived in the village the previous evening. The females were lodged in a cottage and the ten males in a nearby bothy, which was basically a cowshed, to sleep there on inverted potato boxes covered with straw. When the fire broke out in the early hours of the morning they found that they had no means of escape, as the door was padlocked and the windows netted with wire. By the time the alarm was raised the bothy was engulfed in flames and the roof had collapsed. Their charred remains were found huddled against a wall. Only one, a lad called John McLoughlin, could be identified. Coming less than two years after nineteen ‘tatie-hokers’, as they were called, from Arranmore Island drowned on their way back from Scotland, the tragedy once again highlighted the plight of the c. 5,000 young Irish seasonal workers who led a nomadic existence in Scotland, toiling for wages that the lowest-paid Scottish labourer wouldn’t accept—and in the most wretched conditions. The fire took a terrible toll on individual Achill families. The Mangan family lost three sons. Mary, from the same family, was amongst the females in the group. Two other families lost two sons. The subsequent inquest concluded that the ten died from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by overloading with coal of the stove or hot plate in the bothy as they slept. It also recommended that all accommodation for seasonal workers should be inspected and passed as safe and proper by the appropriate local authorities.
Above: Front page of the Irish Press of Friday 17 September 1937, reporting the tragedy.
1845 Thomas Davis, poet and Young Ireland leader, died, aged 30.
1810 Mexican independence from Spain was declared (National Day of Mexico).
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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
1980 Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher held a summit meeting in Dublin Castle, after which they agreed to examine ‘the totality of relationships’ between the UK and Ireland and to establish an Anglo-Irish Committee.
1939 James Galway, the ‘man with the golden flute’, born in north Belfast, the son of a shipyard worker.
1974 The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were formed in Dublin—breakaways from Official Sinn Féin and the Official IRA respectively.
1916 T.K. (Ken) Whitaker, economist and public servant, born in Rostrevor, Co. Down (100 today).
1864 Pope Pius IX issued the ‘Syllabus of Errors’ which cited socialism, liberalism and freemasonry as the principal evils of the modern age.
1867 In Dublin, c. 60,000 attended ‘a public funeral procession’ in honour of the Manchester Martyrs.
1860 Amanda McKittrick Ros, eccentric novelist and poet who became a cult figure amongst leading bookmen of her time, was born.
1922 Following the shooting dead of Seán Hales TD and the wounding of Deputy Speaker Pádraic Ó Máille the previous day, the government executed four prisoners, one from each province—Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Joseph McKelvey and Richard Barrett, who had been imprisoned since the fall of the Four Courts in late June.