Tralee Times
Today in Irish History
(selected events in Irish History - every effort is made
to ensure the accuracy of this information)
AUGUST
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August 1st. Lughnasa
Today is Lúghnasa; in the old days this was the Feast of the god Lúgh, a thirty-day agrarian
celebration with August 1 at the center. It is also the first day of Autumn in the Celtic Calendar
1166 - Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster and ally of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, is defeated
in battle by Rory O'Connor and forced to flee from Ireland
1714 - Following the death of Queen Anne, George I accedes to the throne. The second Irish
parliament of Anne's reign is thereby dissolved
1800 - The Act of Union dissolves the Irish parliament and transfers legislative powers to
Westminster
1822 - Irish Constabulary Act sets up county police forces and salaried magistracy
1851 - The Ecclesiastical Titles Act forbids Catholic bishops to assume ecclesiastical titles taken
from any place in the United Kingdom
1872 - Gladstone's first Land Act, decreeing that tenants who were evicted be compensated for
improvements and that tenant who were evicted for any reason other than nonpayment of rent
should also be compensated
1915 - Nationalist Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa is buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin
1931 - Seán Ó Riada, musician and composer, is born in Cork
2001 - One of Ireland's best loved actors, Joe Lynch, dies after being taken ill at his holiday home in
Spain.
August 2
1800 - The last session of the Irish parliament ends
1988 - The first Aer Lingus flight with an all-female crew departs Dublin for Shannon. The Shorts
360 commuter aircraft is piloted by Capt. Grainne Cronin and co-piloted by Elaine Egan
1998 - Renegade republicans tighten the screw on Northern Ireland's fragile peace process with a
fresh wave of incendiary attacks
1999 - Ireland's longest-serving rain observer, John Joe ‘Goggles’ Doyle retires; he has taken daily
rainfall readings in his native Tulla since 1943 for Met Eireann and earned his nickname because of
the goggles he wears when he takes his daily readings
2000 - Co. Kerry, the country’s top tourism area, claims that business is down by about 20%
because of the rail strike
2001 - Torrential rain causes flash floods in Cork, Dublin, Tipperary and other areas of the country
August 3
1823 - Thomas Francis Meagher, nationalist and transportee; journalist and lecturer; brigadier-
general on Union side in US civil war, and Governor of Montana, is born in Waterford
1916 - Roger Casement, Irish patriot, is hanged by the English in Pentonville Prison, London. He
was the last to be executed as a result of the Easter Rebellion
1998 - In a landmark deal, the Apprentice Boys of Londonderry and Catholic residents of the city's
Bogside reach agreement on a contentious parade after a weekend of tense negotiations
1999 - Continental Airlines announces increased availability of what it says are the cheapest direct
flights between Ireland and the US
2001 - Met Eireann reports that up to 22 millimetres of rain has fallen in the south. Insurance
companies believe the cost of flash-flooding in Cork and Tipperary could hit £2 million
2001 - A potentially fatal bacterium forces St. James Hospital in Dublin to close its general intensive
care unit to new admissions.
August 4
1846 - The Great Southern & Western Railway line between Dublin and Carlow opens
1878 - Birth of Margaret Pearse, teacher, politician and sister of Padraic Pearse, in Dublin
1999 - The Government abandons all plans to transform the Great Blasket Island into a State Park
and the 1,132 acre island is to remain in private ownership
2000 - The stand-off in the seven-week old train strike intensifies as Transport and Public
Enterprise Minister Mary O’Rourke refuses to intervene
2000 - Loyalists protest after Northern Ireland health minister Bairbre de Brun, a member of Sinn
Féin, refuses to fly the Union flag outside her Belfast offices to mark the 100th birthday of Britain’s
Queen Mother
2002 - Less than two months after turning professional, rookie Graeme McDowell from Portrush, Co
Antrim, wins the Scandinavian Masters.
August 5
1888 - Philip Henry Sheridan, the son of Irish immigrants from Cavan, dies in Nonquit,
Massachusetts. He became an officer in the Federal cavalry and is infamously credited with the
phrase: "The only good Indian is a dead one"
1891 - The Land Purchase Act further facilitates tenants' purchase of acreage from former landlords
and establishes a board to purchase and redistribute land at a local level in the west
1901 - Peter O'Connor sets long jump record at 24' 11 3/4". He was born in Ashford, Co.Wicklow,
but he lived and worked as a solicitor in Waterford City for most of his life. He won his first title in
1899 at the age of 25 years and his last in 1906 - but that was the Olympic title. He was the first
IAAF ratified long jump world record holder and his remarkable world, and Irish, long jump record,
set in Ballsbridge, Dublin on this date lasted for 20 years
1999 - A unique exhibition - "75 Years of Giving" - is officially opened in in Dublin by President Mary
McAleese. It comprises a collection of treasures from museums and art galleries throughout the
country and marks the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Friends of the National Collections
of Ireland (FNCI).
August 6
1775 - Daniel O'Connell, Irish patriot, is born in Cahirciveen, County Kerry
1920 - The Dáil orders the boycotting of Belfast unionist firms
1998 - Triple Olympic champion, Michelle de Bruin, is banned for four years by FINA, the swimming's
world governing body, for tampering with a urine sample
1999 - Labour analysts at the Economic and Social Research Institute announce that the country is
heading for full employment for the first time in history
2000 - In Waterford, a team of six men, five of them former international boxers, skip their way into
the Guinness Book of Records by smashing the 24 hour relay skipping record
2001 - The chairman of the International Commission on Decommissioning, General John de
Chastelain, reveals that his members and an IRA representative have agreed on a method for
decommissioning.
August 7
1832 - The Parliamentary Reform Act increases Irish seats from 100 to 105 and introduces ten-
pound franchise in the boroughs: the electorate is increased to 1.2% of the population (county
electorate 60,000; borough electorate 30,000). 1 Irish urban dweller in 26 and one Irish rural dweller
in 116 now has the vote, as compared to 1 in 17 and 1 in 24 in England
1916 - O'Neil of the Glen, the first production released by the Film Company of Ireland, premiers at
Dublin's Bohemian Theatre
1998 - Unemployment falls for the 16th month in a row to reach its lowest level in almost eight years
2001 - British Airways begin a training programme for the crew of the Concorde aircraft at Shannon
Airport amid speculation the supersonic plane could be back in the air within the next number of
weeks
2001 - Family and close friends gather in the Spanish resort of Alicante for the cremation of one of
Ireland's best loved actors, Joe Lynch
2002 - The government announces that American Special Forces will not be allowed to use Irish
airspace or airports during any attack on Iraq.
August 8
1588 - The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English, with some Spaniards slain upon reaching
the coasts of Ireland and some survivors remaining
1781 - James Gandon moves from London to Dublin; the first stone of his Customs House is laid on
this date
1923 - The Civic Guard is renamed the Garda Siochana
1953 - The library of Alfred Chester Beatty, containing his unique collection of oriental manuscripts,
opens in Dublin
1976 - Founding of the Peace Movement in the North
2001 - The Taoiseach and Tánaiste urge Irish workers and employers not to panic as computer
giant Gateway signals a shutdown of Irish operations with 900 job losses.
August 9
1690 - First siege of Limerick begins
1850 - Irish Tenant League is founded
1971 - Internment without charge or trial is introduced in Northern Ireland; the first wave of arrests
on this date is based largely on incorrect or outdated information and causes massive resentment
among nationalists; 17 people are killed in the rioting that follows
1979 - The first Vietnamese boat people arrive in Ireland
2000 - Secondary picketing by striking train drivers, who are members of the Irish Locomotive
Drivers' Association, causes transport chaos for thousands of Dublin commuters.
August 10
1316 - Battle of Athenry. Irish rising in support of Edward Bruce of Scotland
1636 - The Annals of the Four Masters is completed
1719 - The House of Commons proposes that all unregistered priests in Ireland should be branded
on the cheek. The plan is ultimately abandoned.
1854 - A statutory provision is made for the establishment of a national gallery of paintings,
sculpture and fine arts in Ireland
1975 - Death of Robert Barton, last of the surviving 1921 Treaty signatories
1984 - John Treacy wins a silver medal in the marathon at the LA Olympics
1998 - Car clamping of illegally parked cars is introduced in Dublin
1998 - After 26 years on the air, Gay Byrne confirms he will quit his RTÉ morning radio programme
at Christmas and will give up the Late Late Show next June
August 11
1691 - A Jacobite force under Patrick Sarsfield, guided by Galloping Hogan, destroys a Williamite
siege train at Ballyneety, hampering the siege of Limerick
1894 - Dan Breen, nationalist revolutionary and politician, is born near Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary
1927 - After the Free State general election on June 9, de Valera and Fianna Fáil enter the Dáil as
the largest opposition party; the Cosgrave administration brings the Farmers' Party into government
(independent Ireland's first coalition government, though not so called)
1927 - The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) is established to control the Shannon hydro-electric
scheme and take over all existing projects for the electrification of Ireland
1979 - Disaster overtakes the Fastnet Challenge yacht race when the biggest-ever fleet of 303
vessels is caught in a vicious storm. Seventeen people lose their lives
1998 - Fine Gael warns that many farmers who are at the mercy of the worst harvesting weather for
20 years will have no incomes by Christmas unless the Government adopts a strategy to help them
out
1999 - Last almost-total solar eclipse of the century takes place in Western Europe. Cloud cover in
many parts of Ireland spoils the view, but hundreds in Croke Park, Dublin watch the phenomenon
under cloudless, blue skies
2000 - Hugh O'Flaherty's nomination to the European Investment Bank may be in jeopardy after the
bank confirms it has the power to recommend someone else for the job
2000 - The Royal Ulster Constabulary welcomes deal which will allow a low-key policing operation for
a loyalist march at the weekend in Derry.
2003 - Model plane goes transatlantic after "The Spirit of Butts Farm" - named after its testing site -
lands safely in County Galway, Ireland, 38 hours after it took off from Canada. The balsa wood and
mylar plane flies 3,039 kilometres (1,888 miles). US, Canadian and Irish engineers work together
using satellite navigation and an autopilot system overseen by engineers and radio operators using
laptop computers.
August 12
1646 - Archbishop Giovanni Rinuccini, papal nuncio to the Irish Confederate Catholics, condemns
their adherence to Ormond's peace terms for failing to fully recognize Catholicism
1652 - 'Act for the Settling of Ireland' allows for the transplantation to Clare or Connacht of
proprietors whose land is confiscated by Cromwell to meet promises to adventurers and soldiers;
also known as the "To Hell or Connacht" Act
1796 - Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin receives its first prisoners
1821 - George IV begins his visit to Ireland; he is received enthusiastically by O'Connell and others
1898 - Irish Local Government Act sets up elective county and district councils
1899 - First issue of James Connolly's Workers Republic
1920 - Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, arrested by British; he immediately goes on hunger
strike
1922 - Arthur Griffith, founder of Sinn Fein, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage
1969 - British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland after riots in Derry and Belfast
1998 - Freak twister ravages Martinstown in Co. Antrim; no injuries or fatalities are reported
1999 - Memorial service is held for the victims of the Omagh bomb attack
August 13
1881 - First issue of United Ireland, Parnellite weekly
1887 - Special committee appointed to investigate Parnell's ties to Phoenix Park murders
1898 - The first issue of Workers’ Republic
1947 - The Health Act extends the powers of county councils and provides maternity care
1999 - A new set of 30p stamps is issued by An Post to honour the Gaelic Football team of the
Millennium. It depicts the members of the An Post-GAA official Gaelic Football Team of the
Millennium as chosen by a panel of experts
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St. Muredach.
August 14
1598 - High O'Neill defeats the English at the Battle of Yellow Ford
1778 - Gardiner's Catholic Relief Act is enacted and grants rights of leasing and inheritance to
those who have taken the oath of allegiance: the first rolling back of the penal laws
1850 - The Irish Franchise Act is enacted and has the effect of increasing the electorate from
45,000 to 164,000
1903 - The Land Purchase Act (Wyndham Act) is enacted and allows for entire estates to be
purchased by the occupying tenantry, subsidized by the state
1969 - First deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland
1992 - Boxer Michael Carruth wins an Olympic Gold medal in Barcelona
1998 - The Family Mediation Service, which enables separating couples to reach agreement on a
range of issues relating to their break-up, is to be expanded nationwide
1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pledges that the Stormont Agreement relating to the release of
prisoners convicted of killing gardaí has to be honoured by the Government
1998 - "The Sovereign Nation", a publication of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement is launched in
Dundalk
2000 - The Irish Locomotive Driver's Association rejects a bid to end the two-month-old rail dispute
August 15
1649 - Oliver Cromwell arrives in Ireland as Commander-in-Chief and Lord Lieutenant with an army
of 20,000, a huge artillery train and a large navy
1715 - On this date, Frederick Hamilton, former MP for Donegal, writes to George I that although the
county is well affected, 'The great scarcity of armes in ye country is beyond anything I could have
imagin'd till about three days ago that I had occasion to send some men after seven Tories that
were hunted out of Fermanagh, & in the barony of Kilmakrenan, I could not get thirty men tolerably
armed tho' I believe the country will be able to array seven thousand men'
1803 - Edmund Rice opens a school for poor boys in Waterford - precursor of the schools run by
the Christian Brothers
1843 - Daniel O'Connell holds meetings for Repeal of the Union, attended by hundreds of
thousands, at Trim and the Hill of Tara
1880 - Five people drown in Derrybeg, Co. Donegal when a chapel is flooded during Mass
1882 - Unveiling of O’Connell monument in Dublin
1917 - Birth of Jack Lynch, Taoiseach, in Co. Cork
1998 - Massive bomb explodes in Omagh shopping center; 29 people are killed and hundreds
injured
In the liturgical calendar, today is the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is also the feast
day of St. Daga, 6th century Bishop of Iniskin, Dundalk.
August 16
1793 - The Convention Act bans representative bodies set up to campaign for a change in the law, i.
e. putative rivals to the parliament
1832 - An Act is passed which allows for tithe payments to be commuted
1878 - The Intermediate Education Act grants female students the right to participate in public
examinations and to enter into careers and professions
1879 - National Land League of Mayo is founded
1882 - Charles Stewart Parnell becomes a Freeman of the city of Dublin
1892 - National Literary Society is founded
1920 - Court-martial of Terence MacSwiney, Irish Volunteer and Lord Mayor of Cork
1921 - The first Dáil Éireann is dissolved and the second Dáil convenes
1982 - Malcolm McArthur, who is wanted for the murder of a nurse named Bridie Gargan, is found in
the flat of the Attorney General, Patrick Connolly; Mr Connolly resigns on this date
2001 - Dozens of wild birds, including swans, mallard and moorhens are rounded up by animal
welfare workers after a major oil spill in the River Liffey at Palmerstown in Co. Dublin.
August 17
1878 - Birth of Oliver St. John Gogarty, writer, and the model for the ‘stately, plump Buck Mulligan’ in
Joyce’s "Ulysses"
1922 - RIC is disbanded to be replaced by the Garda Síochána
1978 - Thousands gather in Carnsore Point to protest against nuclear power
1999 - Mandate, the largest union representing bar and retail workers, demands the Millennium New
Year’s Eve off for their workers
1999 - Junior doctors threaten a period of industrial action throughout the country
2000 - The last RUC passing out parade takes place in Belfast before the force’s controversial
name change to the Police Service of Northern Ireland
2000 - President Mary McAleese leads mourners at the funeral of former Fine Gael Minister John
Boland in St Patrick’s Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin
2001 - General SemiConductor announces that its plant in Macroom, Co. Cork will close; 670 jobs
are lost.
August 18
1814 - Birth of David Moriarty, Catholic Bishop of Kerry and opponent of nationalism, in Kilcarah,
Co. Kerry
2000 - Guinness agrees to suspend the closure of its Dundalk plant and plans to axe 90 jobs at the
Harp Brewery
2002 - In a bid to redress the huge population imbalance, it is announced that the Government is to
scrap tough planning laws banning the building of single houses in rural Ireland.
August 19
1504 - After Ulick Burke of Clanricard seizes Galway city, Edward Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare,
goes to Connacht and defeats Burke at Knockdoe. This is the largest battle ever fought between
Irishmen, with 10,000 participants and 2,000 fatalities; however, most of the fighting is done by gall
óglach - foreign warriors - or gallowglas. As a reward, Fitzgerald is made a Knight of the Garter
1839 - Act passed for the "improvement of navigation on the Shannon"
1876 - The ship Catalpa arrives in U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia
1998 - Sonia O'Sullivan wins the 10,000m at the European championships in Budapest
1999 - The Connemara Pony Fair in Clifden- the west of Ireland's most prestigious horse festival - is
marred by brawls between two traveller groups. The violence is a result of a long running feud
between the McDonagh and Ward families
2001 - The remains of Aer Lingus chairman Bernie Cahill, who is believed to have drowned after an
accident while attending his boat, are received by Rev. Fr. Michael Nolan at St. Mary's Church in
Schull.
August 20
1860 - An expedition led by Robert O'Hara Burke, an Irish policeman, leaves Melbourne with the
intention of making the first European crossing of Australia. They will make the crossing, but Burke
and fellow-explorer, William Wills, will die on the return journey
1872 - Sectarian rioting in Belfast which began on August 15 continues through this date
1876 - The Irish Republican Brotherhood Supreme Council withdraws its support from the Home
Rule movement
1919 - The Irish Republican Army is established by the Dail Eireann
1927 - The Currency Act establishes a separate currency for the Irish Free State
1999 - The main square in Tralee rocks to the Grand Old Man of Soul, James Brown, as the 41st
International Rose Ball kicks off in the new Festival Dome
2002 - Postal deliveries in small communities across the country are delayed again on the second
day of industrial action by members of the Irish Postmasters Union.
August 21
1791 - Birth of the word ‘quiz’ (allegedly and disputed). Richard Daly, a theatre proprietor in Dublin,
makes a bet that within 48 hours he can introduce a new word into the English language. After the
evening performance, Mr. Daly distributes cards to all the staff with the word written on it, and
instructs them to write it on walls all over the city. Thus ‘quiz’ enters the language
1879 - A Vision of the Virgin Mary is witnessed by 15 villagers in Knock, Co. Mayo
1911 - Irish Women's Suffrage Federation is formed
1970 - The Social Democratic and Labour Party is founded with Gerry Fitt as leader
1978 - RTÉ broadcasts Eddie Macken on Boomerang winning the Aga Khan trophy
1983 - A train from Tralee failed near Cherryville Junction and was run into from the rear by a train
from Galway. Seven passengers die in the crash and another passenger later dies from their
injuries
1998 - A salmonella alert is issued following the deaths of five elderly people in two separate
outbreaks at a hospital and home for the aged in Co. Galway
2000 - The Catholic hierarchy confirms it is actively considering allowing lay people to be ordained
deacons in a bid to cope with the shortage of priests
2002 - Celestica Electronics sheds half of its workforce of 500 at Swords, Co Dublin.
August 22
1791 - Theobald Wolfe Tone publishes "An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland"
1798 - A French force of 1,019 men under General Humbert lands at Killala, Co. Mayo
1846 - John Keegan Casey, Fenian, poet and writer of "Rising of the Moon" is born near Mullingar,
Co. Westmeath
1850 - First Catholic Synod in Ireland since the Middle Ages in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Paul Cullen
summons the synod which runs from this date through September 10
1881 - Second Gladstone Land Act introduces the 'three Fs' - fair rent, fixity of tenure, free sale -
and sets up the Land Commission
1918 - Dublin-born WWI ace Dennis Latimer shot down. A Bristol Fighter pilot and the highest
scoring ace in 20 Squadron, Latimer shot down 28 enemy aircraft between March and August of
1918. On this date, he and his observer, Lieutenant T.C. Noel, were shot down near Westroosebeke
by a member of Jasta 7. Latimer was captured, Noel was killed
1922 - Michael Collins is assassinated. On the last day of his life, he set out from Cork in a convoy
that passed through Bandon, Clonakilty, and Rosscarbery on its way to Skibbereen. He stopped at
Woodfield, and there in the Four Walls, the pub situated across the road from the house where his
mother had been born, he stood his family and escort to the local brew - Clonakilty Wrastler. On the
return trip they again passed through Bandon. Michael Collins had only twenty minutes more to live.
Around eight o'clock, his convoy was ambushed at a place known as Beal na mBláth - the mouth of
flowers. Only one man was killed--Michael Collins. It is thought that Irregulars did the shooting, but
some say that it might have been his own men. To this day, there is controversy about what actually
happened
1933 - The National Guard is banned
1966 - The Munster & Leinster, Provincial and Royal Banks merge to form Allied Irish Banks
1977 - Cardinal Tomas Ó Fiaich becomes the 112th successor to St. Patrick as Primate of All Ireland
August 23
1170 - Strongbow, a henchman of Henry II, arrives in Waterford at the behest of Dermot
McMurrough, an event described in the Annals of Ulster as “the beginning of the woes of Ireland”
1798 - Frenchman General Humbert proclaims at Ballina, Co. Mayo, “Union, liberty, the Irish
Republic”
1887 - The Land Act gives courts the power to revise and fix rents
1920 - Violent clashes in Belfast; 30 people are killed between August 23 and August 31; Catholics
are expelled from shipyards and engineering works
1972 - Lord Killanin becomes the first Irish president of the International Olympic Committee
1995 - RTÉ reports on the closure of the Irish Press newspaper
1998 - A memorial service for the victims of the Omagh bombing is held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in
Dublin and attended by many dignitaries including President Mary McAleese
1999 - Dublin Bus opens the controversial Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor and triples travelling time
for city bound motorists
1999 - Bus Éireann announces a luxury Expressway coach hourly daily service from Limerick to
Dublin
2001 - An Bord Pleanála grants permission to build a four-lane bridge between Macken Street and
Guild Street in Dublin
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Eogan.
August 24
1210 - King John sails from Dublin for England. He had landed at Waterford in June and
campaigned in Leinster; after a short siege, he captures Carrickfergus, where the de Lacys have
made a stand. On 28 July he captures William de Braose and confiscates his lands. Hugh and
Walter de Lacy, lords of Ulster and Meath, forfeit their lands but escape to Scotland. John has
defeated the hostile Norman magnates and has established relations with various Irish kings. Cathal
Crovderg O'Connor, king of Connacht, has fought in John's army but then quarrelled with him -
O'Connor offered his son Aedh to John as a hostage, but Aedh's mother refused to allow this. The
dispute is later resolved
1798 - Generals' Cornwallis and Lake leave Dublin. Lake travels fast by road with a small force.
Cornwallis travels with the main force down the Grand Canal
1803 - James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot, dies in exile in France. Originally a small tradesman in
Dublin, he gained attention by his attacks on municipal corruption and his proposal to boycott
English goods as a reprisal for the restrictions placed on Irish commerce. He joined the Irish
volunteer army and he aided Theodore Wolfe Tone in founding the Dublin branch of the United Irish
Society. When faced with a sedition charge in 1793, Tandy fled to the United States and then to
France,where he was given the title of general. In 1798, he landed in Ireland, but when he
discovered that the French expedition of General Humbert to aid the Irish rebellion had failed, he
fled to Hamburg, where he was arrested. He was returned to Ireland, sentenced to execution, but
reprieved through French influence. His fame is perpetuated in the Irish ballad “The Wearing of the
Green”
1968 - The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marches from Coalisland to Dungannon in Co.
Tyrone in one of the first large-scale marches of the six-county civil rights movement
1990 - Brian Keenan is released on 24 August, having spent 52 months as a hostage in Beirut
1998 - Shops re-open in Omagh; among the shops to open was Wattersons, which lost three
members of staff, and the Oxfam shop, whose two teenager volunteers were also killed
1998 - Eight Navy divers are injured during an air-sea rescue display.
The men who are all members of the Navy Diving Team were taking part in a demonstration by the
Defence Forces as part of the Tall Ships festival in Dublin
1999 - Waterford Crystal is chosen to usher in the millennium in the city of New York with a gigantic
cut glass Star of Hope ball. The component parts of the six foot diameter sphere, made of 572
crystal panels each consisting of five diamond shapes, will be assembled in New York. It is planned
to hang 22 stories high over Manhattan and be lowered down a 77ft high flagpole in time for the
stroke of midnight
August 25
1170 - Richard de Clare (Strongbow) marries MacMurrough's daughter Aoife, as part of an
agreement made two years earlier
1645 - Edward Worcester, Earl of Glamorgan; aristocrat and inventor, is sent to Ireland to raise
troops for the king, and makes two secret treaties with the confederates on this date and on 20
December
1798 - Humbert takes Ballina after token resistance by Government forces
1803 - The British capture Robert Emmet
1958 - The first Rose of Tralee festival is held
1986 - ‘Hurricane Charlie’ hits Ireland and the heaviest rain-fall over a 24 hour period is recorded —
10.63 inches at Kippure Mountain, Co. Wicklow
1998 - An armada of tall ships from around the world sails away from Dublin, ending a five-day visit
August 26
1725 - Five Dublin children receive the first recorded smallpox innoculations in Ireland
1798 - Humber leaves Ballina bound for Castlebar. He takes an indirect route through the mountains
1904 - Lord Dunraven forms the Irish Reform Association to campaign for some devolution; the
following December, unionists form a United Unionist Council to resist Dunraven's plan
1913 - Also known as "The Great Dublin Lockout", the Dublin Transport Strike, led by Jim Larkin and
James Connolly, begins
1921 - Re-election of Éamon de Valera President of Dáil Éireann. He is proposed and seconded by
Commandant Sean MacEoin and General Richard Mulcahy — both of whom later line up against him
in the Civil War
1940 - German aircraft bomb a creamery at Campile, Co. Wexford; three women are killed
1998 - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair meets with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Ashford Castle, Co.
Mayo. They join forces to fight terrorism and discuss laws which will be introduced in the aftermath of
the Omagh bombing
August 27
1695 - The second Irish parliament of William III is called in Dublin; Robert Rochfort is unanimously
elected Speaker
1798 - Humbert appears outside Castlebar. The Government forces are deployed to cover the
direct route and Humbert unexpectedly appears on their flank. Humbert attacks. French advance
causes Militia to run. Government defence collapses and Humbert takes the town. Cornwallis
reaches Tullamore. Rebels assemble on Rebel hill, near Baileborough, Co Cavan
1870 - The Oceanic, a liner built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, is launched
1928 - The Galway Gaelic Theatre - afterwards called the Taibhdheare Theatre - opens with
Micheál Mac Liammóir's production of Diarmuid agus Gráinne
1937 - The first traffic lights in the Free State are installed at the junction of Merrion Square and
Clare Street
1979 - Assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten off the coast of Co. Sligo
1982 - The official police death count of the Troubles reaches 3,000 on this date with the killing of
Hugh McKibbin in Belfast
1999 - On their first official overseas visit, Prince Edward and his new bride Sophie Rhys Jones
arrive at Dublin Castle for the opening of the Millennium Gold Encounter. A total of 77 young people
from 25 countries who have won their nation’s equivalent of the Gaisce award will attend the
conference. Prince Edward is the chairperson the International Awards Association
2000 - A former member of British military intelligence reveals that weapons used by loyalist gangs
who rampaged through Belfast's Shankill district the previous week were provided by British
intelligence as part of a plan to defeat the IRA
2001 - Opponents claim that the introduction of tolls on the planned Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock
motorway will cost commuters to Dublin an extra £20 a week; they outline their objections at an oral
inquiry in Mullingar to plans by the National Road Authority to charge car users £1.65 to use the new
35 kilometre road
2001 - The newly restored century-old trading schooner, Kathleen & May arrives in Youghal after a
24-hour historic voyage from England to Ireland
August 28
1170 - Richard de Clare marries Aoife Ní Mhurrachadha and sets a precedent for Norman rule in
Ireland
1710 - A board of trustees for linen manufacture is established
1798 - Cornwallis reaches Athlone; Humbert entrenches in Castlebar
1860 - Napier's and Deasy's Land Acts are passed
1872 - The first horse drawn tram cars enter service in Belfast
1877 - Charles Stewart Parnell becomes president of Home Rule Confederation
1929 - "Health And Efficiency" becomes the very first publication banned by the Irish Free State
1975 - Willie John McBride retires from international rugby
1998 - The Real IRA and the 32 County Sovereignty Committee are to be placed on an international
terrorist list by the US Government. An FBI clampdown on American supporters of both groups is
also planned
1998 - The Northern Ireland Assembly heads for its first major crisis after a confidential document
discloses that senior Ulster Unionists warned the British government they could no longer endorse
the Good Friday agreement
1998 - One of the largest passing-out parades for the Defence Forces in recent years takes place;
86 recruits receive their two-star private rating at a ceremony in Gormanston Army Camp, Co Meath
2000 - Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy faces calls for his resignation as former judge Hugh O’
Flaherty withdraws his controversial nomination for vice-presidency of the European Investment
Bank.
August 29
1798 - Cornwallis reaches Tuam
1844 - Death of Edmund Ignatius Rice, founder of the Irish Christian Brothers Order
1890 - The Science & Art Museum and The National Library of Ireland open
1975 - Death of Eamon de Valera
2000 - Irish Travellers are granted the same legal protection as other ethnic minority groups by a
judge in London
2002 - According to Transparency International’s annual corruption index, Ireland has slipped five
places and is now perceived as the third most corrupt country in Europe.
August 30
1559 - Lord Sussex, is sworn in as Lord Deputy
1690 - First siege of Limerick ends
1708 - Penal Laws passed in 1695 restricting Catholics rights are strengthened for the second time
1709 - All registered Catholic priests in Ireland are required to renounce the claims of the Stuarts to
the thrones of England and Ireland — only 33 out of 1,089 comply
1841 - The Cork Examiner, now The Irish Examiner, hits the streets for the first time
1875 - National synod of Catholic bishops begins at Maynooth; they renew condemnation of
Queen's Colleges and condemn Trinity College
1911 - The Chamber of Commerce calls for Ireland to adopt Greenwich Mean Time — 25 minutes
behind Irish Standard Time
2000 - SDLP leader John Hume, announces his intention to quit as a Stormont Assembly member
2002 - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson accuses the United States of
trying to scale back plans to save the world’s poorest people.
August 31
1767 - Birth in Belfast of Henry Joy McCracken, United Irishman and leader of Ulster insurgents in
1798 rebellion
1803 - French "Irish Legion" organized in Brittany
1994 - IRA announces a cease-fire
2000 - First Minister David Trimble is understood to be involved in secret talks with the Ulster
Volunteer Force in an attempt to resolve the bloody loyalist feud raging on the streets of Northern
Ireland
2000 - Former SDLP Derry Mayor Annie Courtney is to replace John Hume as an Assembly member
for Foyle
2000 - The world’s largest fishing vessel arrives in Dublin after completing its maiden voyage from
Norway. "Atlantic Dawn", which took over two and a half years to build in a Norwegian shipyard, cost
Irish owner Kevin McHugh £50 million
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Aidan.