Tralee Times
SELECTED IRISH HISTORICAL EVENTS
BY MONTH
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January
January 1
1801 - The Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain goes into effect
1862 - Edward Harland's Belfast shipyard assumes the name 'Harland & Wolff'
1871 - Gladstone's Irish Church Act which disestablishes the Church of Ireland takes effect
1892 - Ellis Island becomes reception center for new immigrants. The first immigrant through the gates is Annie Moore, 15, of Co. Cork
1941 - On this date and through January 3, German bombs fall on counties Carlow, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow
January 2
1602 - The Spanish force under Aguila surrenders Kinsale to Mountjoy
1880 - Parnell begins his tour of the United States on this date
1920 - Recruitment begins for the 'Black and Tans', Britain's unofficial auxiliary army
2000 - A bronze life size statue of Fungi, the Dingle dolphin is unveiled in a special millennium ceremony
2007 - Irish Becomes The 23rd Official Language Of the EU. It is accorded the status of a treaty language, which means it is regarded as an authentic
text for treaties. As from 1 January, however, all key EU legislation are translated into Irish, with provisions put in place so that Irish can be
spoken at council meetings. The move means the creation of 29 new posts in translation, revision and publication.
January 3
1940 - Emergency anti-IRA legislation is introduced in the Free State
1999 - Economic history is created with the much-heralded arrival of the euro on the international currency markets. Its first day of trading gets off
to a smooth start in Australia, at 6.00pm Irish time.
January 4
1792 - The Northern Star, newspaper of the Belfast United Irishmen, first appears on this date
1921 - Martial law is extended to counties Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford from this date
1937 - Mick O'Connell, Kerry Gaelic footballer, is born on Beginish Island, Co. Kerry
1969 - On a march from Belfast to Derry, the civil rights group People's Democracy is attacked at Burntollet Bridge
2000 - Hundreds are evacuated as west and midland farmlands are flooded
January 5
1787 - John Burke, genealogist and compiler of Burke's Peerage, is born in Elm Hall, Co. Tipperary 1881 - The trial of the Land Leaguers begins
1871 - 33 Fenian prisoners, including Devoy, Rossa, O'Leary and Luby, are released by the British in a general amnesty
1922 - Death of Kildareman Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer
January 6
1562 - Shane O'Neill submits to Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, but rebels again within months
1654 - Commissioners are appointed to allot the land of Oliver Cromwell's Connacht plantation to transplanted Irish
1794 - Frances Ball who, as Mother Mary Teresa founded the Sisters of Loretto, is born in Dublin
1839 - On this date, the Night Of The Big Wind or Oiche na Gaoithe Moire takes place; the most damaging storm in Irish history, some winds
are estimated in excess of 130 m.p.h
1898 - Colonel James Fitzmaurice, Ireland's greatest aviator, is born in Dublin
2000 - Residents in counties in the west and midlands, coping with the effects of the most devastating floods to have hit the region in fifty years,
brace themselves for another rainstorm
2003 - Farmers put 1,000 tractors on the country’s roads and head for Dublin at the start of the IFA’s five-day family farm survival campaign.
January 7
1878 - General John O'Neill, Fenian leader, dies
1922 - Dáil Éireann votes 64 to 57 to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty, creating the Irish Free State
2000 - Experts underline the important heritage value of a 19th Century relic that stands on the site of a disused copper mine. A conservation appeal
is to be launched to safeguard a unique engine house at a mountain mine in the Beara peninsula. A rare surviving symbol of Cornish type
mining technology, the structure is the primary surviving embodiment of a once thriving coppermining industry in Allihies, Co. Cork
2003 - Gardaí adopt a zero tolerance-type approach to speeding after it emerges almost half of motorists in Dublin are still breaking the law in built-up areas.
January 8
1547 - Henry VIII suppresses the Chapter of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin; it will not be restored until 15 June 1555
1871 - James Craig, Ist Viscount Craigavon, Unionist politician and PM of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1940, is born in Belfast
1873 - Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain is founded
1916 - Evacuation of Gallipoli Peninsula in the Dardanelles is completed; there are100,000 casualties, mostly Australian, New Zealanders and Irish,
in the eight-month campaign
1922 - Arthur Griffin is elected second president of Ireland by Dáil Éireann
1979 - An oil tanker explodes at Whiddy Island oil terminal on Bantry Bay, Cork, killing at least 50 people
1999 - French, Irish, English and Dutch relatives gather at the hilltop granite memorial sculpture in Bantry's Abbey Cemetery for a wreath-laying
ceremony in memory of those who perished when the oil tanker Betelgeuse blew up at the Whiddy Island oil terminal
2000 - Thousands of acres are still flooded, roads blocked and farmyards remain under water after the River Shannon bursts its banks
2001 - All schools are to receive a CD ROM of one of the masterpieces of Western art — the Book of Kells. On behalf of the schools, the Minister
for Education and Science, Dr Michael Woods, accepts the CD ROMs from Trinity College Library in Dublin and leading internet company,
X Communications
2002 - Former Soviet leader Gorbachev sinks a pint of Guinness with Dublin Lord Mayor Michael Mulcahy in the famous Doheny and Nesbitt pub
in Baggot Street.
January 9
1642 - 30 Catholics are killed by the Scottish garrison and English settlers at Island Magee, Co. Antrim
1873 - John J. Flanagan, hammer-thrower and shot-putter, is born in Kilbreedy, Co. Limerick
1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected Taoiseach of Dáil Éireann after Eamon de Valera steps down
2001 - For the first time ever, electric power comes to the tiny islands of Inishgort and Inishlyre in Clew Bay
2002 - Former soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, accepts the honour of being named the 71st Freeman of Dublin, following in the footsteps of
Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela and members of U2
January 10
1922 - Arthur Griffith elected President of Irish Free State
1952 - An Aer Lingus aeroplane, the St Kevin, crashes in Wales with the loss of 23 lives. It is the airline's second fatal crash
2003 - Farmers drive 300 tractors into the city and hold a two-hour rally in front of Government Buildings at Merrion Square
January 11
1921 - The British government announces that any unauthorised person found in possession of arms, ammunition or explosives is liable to be executed
1970 - IRA splits into Officials and Provisionals (Provos)
2000 - Furious farmers block the entrances to all the main meat processing plants in protest against the imposition of increased veterinary inspection charges
2002 - The country's population is set for another dramatic increase after Ireland records the highest birth rate and lowest death rate of all 15 EU
member states in 2001.
January 12
1729 - Edmund Burke, orator, statesman and philosopher, is born in Arran Quay, Dublin
1765 - The Kinsale by-election caused by the death of John Folliott on this date is contested by Agmondisham Vesey and Richard Meade. Vesey wins
by 64 votes to 48, but pays a price for being elected: William Dennis, vintner, receives £80 for Mr Vesey's entertainment. Three other
innkeepers receive a total of £76 3s 6d for providing 'drink for Mr Vesey's health' and a further £14 9s for beer to the populace. His election
agent, James Dennis, spends £46 12s 2d to send a coach and post-chaise to Dublin to collect voters. Vesey spends a further £12 7s 10d on 'a
notice to disqualify John O'Grady as a Papist from voting'. Ben Hayes, fiddler, is paid £5 13s 9d. Vesey's election breakages bill amounts to
£7 8s, exclusive of fines for 'a crowd of broke heads and crakt limbs'. James Kearney (a future MP for Kinsale) spends £16 4s 3d to bring voters
to Kinsale on Vesey's behalf: this includes a post-chaise and hospitality on the four-day journey
1885 - Thomas Ashe, patriot and nationalist revolutionary, is born in Lispole, Co. Kerry
1993 - A Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition government is formed, with Reynolds as Taoiseach
1998 - Political master strokes by Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair breath new life into the Northern peace process with a blueprint for peace which
could replace the Anglo-Irish Agreement with a three-stranded government for the North
2000 - Despite the controversy over the book, Limerick people turnout in huge numbers to attend the sell out film premiere of Angela’s Ashes.
January 13
1695 - Jonathan Swift becomes Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin
1800 - Daniel O'Connell makes his first public speech, opposing Union with England
1941 - James Joyce, considered by many to be one of the most important modern authors in English because of his revolutionary approach to the novel,
dies in Zurich
2000 - It is announced that a 1,000 year old treasure trove has been discovered by a tour guide cleaning up litter from a Co Kilkenny cave.
The priceless Viking age silver and bronze jewellery is unique - nothing like them have been found in Ireland or elsewhere
2001 - One and a half copies of the most important piece of documentation of the 20th century in Ireland, the Declaration of Independence, is sold
to a New York collector for £56,000
January 14
1937 - De Valera's new constitution, with its assertions of Ireland as a sovereign 32-county state, and its definition of Catholic morality and
"women's place" is approved
1965 - Talks between Seán Lemass, Taoiseach, and Terence O'Neill, Northern Ireland Prime Minister, take place in Belfast
2000 - Unemployment drops to its lowest level in 19 years
January 15
1800 - The last session of the Irish parliament begins on this date
1861 - Young Irelander Terence MacManus dies in San Francisco, CA
1939 - IRA Army Council and Republican survivors of 2nd Dáil Éireann declare war on England
1920 - Sinn Féin takes control of most borough and urban councils in local elections
1973 - Ireland joins the European Investment bank
January 16
1700 - Richard Levinge, an Irish MP and later a prominent Tory, is committed by the English House of Commons to the Tower of London until
11 April for speaking ill of his fellow Commissioners of Forfeited Estates
1904 - In reaction to attacks on Jews in Limerick, Michael Davitt, a leader of the Irish Land League, protests "as an Irishman and a Catholic against
this spirit of barbarous malignity"
1913 - Home Rule bill passes in the House of Commons
1920 - Percy French gives his last concert in Glasgow. He dies in Liverpool eight days later
1922 - Michael Collins takes over control of Dublin Castle from the British authorities on behalf of the new Irish state
2002 - Joe White of Rathmire, Co. Kerry becomes one of the oldest people in the country to pass the driving test. He began driving in Ireland more
than 60 years ago, went to the USA and returned last year to find his Irish license had long lapsed. It took two attempts, but the sprightly
84-year-old proved age, bad roads or fast drivers need not be a barrier to passing the test.
January 17
1649 - Marquis of Ormond James Butler and the confederates sign a peace treaty which grants toleration for Catholics in exchange for troops
1860 - Birth in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, of Douglas Hyde, playwright, folklorist, founder of The Gaelic League and the first president of Éire
2000 - A pair of King Billy’s gloves, worn during the battle of the Boyne, and the dress worn by Sinéad de Valera at the second inauguration
ceremony of her husband, President Éamon de Valera, are unlikely companions in The Way We Wore, a permanent exhibition of the clothing
and jewellery worn by Irish people from the1760s to the 1960s which opens at the National Museum, Collins Barracks.
January 18
1667 - Cattle exports to England are prohibited
1779 - Cement Patent No. 1207 is issued to Sligo-man Bryan Higgins
1831 - Daniel O’Connell is convicted of conspiracy
1913 - The Irish Transport and General Workers' Union strike ends
1997 - Death of Gerard Slevin, the Corkman who designed the EU flag
2002 - Political history is made today as the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition becomes the longest-serving government in the State. After taking
office on June 26, 1997, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's minority government is serving its 1,666th day in office.
January 19
1787 - Birth in Cork of Mary Aikenhead, founder of the Irish Sisters of Charity and St. Vincent’s Hospital Dublin
1920 - IRA attacks Drombrane barracks, Co. Tipperary
1983 - The Minister for Justice, Michael Noonan, reveals that the previous Fianna Fáil administration was involved in tapping the phones of
Journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Bruce Arnold
January 20
1621 - Patents are granted for plantations in parts of Leitrim, King's County, Queen's County and Westmeath
1902 - In the House of Commons, John Redmond criticizes the use of concentration camps by the British in South Africa
1916 - Secret negotiations result in alliance of the Irish Citizen Army with the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1961 - John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as president of the United States of America, becoming the first Irish Catholic to be elected to that office
1999 - One of the world's biggest software piracy investigations identifies over 6,000 Internet sites in Ireland copying and promoting illegal software
2000 - According to a major international survey, Ireland is one of the least corrupt countries in the industrial world
January 21
1600 - Charles Blount, 8th Lord Mountjoy, becomes Lord Deputy of Ireland
1684 - Chidley Coote, future MP for Kilmallock, is granted £500 for the upkeep of six lighthouses
1793 - Louis XVI is executed in Paris; he is attended by an Irish priest, Fr. Edgeworth. Lord Edward FitzGerald is the only member of the
Irish parliament not to appear in mourning following the execution
1876 - James Larkin, organizer of Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and socialist politician, is born in Liverpool
1919- Daíl Éireann, chaired by Sean T. O’Kelly meets for the very first time at Mansion House in Dublin
1919 - Two members of Royal Irish Constabulary are shot dead by Irish Volunteers including Seán Treacy and Dan Breen in an ambush at
Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary: this is regarded as the first incident in the 'War of Independence' (Anglo-Irish War). Attacks on policemen
continue for the rest of the year
1998 - The IRA dramatically rejects the Anglo-Irish Stormont settlement plan
January 22
1901 - Queen Victoria dies; Edward VII accedes to the throne
1913 - Cardinal William Conway, Primate of All Ireland from 1963-1977, is born
1972 - Éamon Broy, agent for Michael Collins, and later Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, passes away
1972 - The Republic of Ireland signs a treaty of accession to the European Economic Community
1997 - Death of Lilly Kempson, aged 99, the last surviving participant in the Easter Rising
1998 - It is announced that up to 1 million ounces of high grade gold have been discovered in a mine in Co. Monaghan that will result in the country's
biggest ever gold mine going into production in two years time
January 23
1803 - Arthur Guinness, founder of the Dublin brewery, dies
1898 - The United Irish League, a nationalist electoral organization, is founded by William O'Brien
2001 - Irish airport charges are among the cheapest in the world, the latest independent study of the sector has found
2001 - It is announced that the State is in negotiation with a private landowner to purchase the internationally renowned Poulnabrone dolmen in the
Burren, Co. Clare
January 24
1851 - Charles Plummer, Irish language scholar and editor of ‘Lives of the Irish Saints’, is born
1920 - Death of Percy French, writer of many popular Irish songs, including the Mountains of Mourne
1933 - Fianna Fáil wins a general election
1969 - Brian Faulkner resigns from his position as Prime Minister Terence O'Neill's minister of commerce, furthering the split in the Unionist party
1974 - The official Unionist Party is founded
1978 - Eddie Gallagher and Dr. Rose Dugdale, both jailed for their part in the kidnap of Tiede Herrema, are married in Limerick prison
1999 - After months of negotiations and two special delegate conferences, Democratic Left merges with the Labour Party
2002 - Irish doctors are among the worst-paid in Europe and charge less than they need to run a viable business, according to the
Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).
January 25
1356 - The 1st Earl of Desmond dies; Kildare is his replacement as justiciar
1627 - Robert Boyle, physicist, chemist and alchemist, is born in Lismore, Co. Waterford
1777 - The Earl of Buckinghamshire, who eventually conceded free trade and some relief from the Penal Laws to Catholics and Dissenters,
is sworn in as lord lieutenant
1999 - The Government descends into chaos over allegations that European Commissioner Pádraig Flynn received a donation of £50,000
ten years ago and that the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, knew about it
January 26
1316 - At the battle of Ardscull, Co. Kildare, Edward the Bruce defeats the army of Justiciar Edmund Butler. The Scottish dead are buried
in the graveyard attached to the Dominican Priory in Athy which occupies the area on the east bank of the River Barrow. Among those
buried are two Scottish chiefs, Lord Fergus Andressan and Lord Walter de Morrey
1699 - The second session of William III's second Irish parliament ends on this date
1904 - Birth of Seán MacBride, IRA leader, politician, head of Amnesty International, and recipient of Nobel and Lenin peace prizes
1907 - Synge's Playboy of the Western World is performed for the first time at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; the audience riots because of the
bad language and negative perspective on Irish peasant life
1998 - The trial of a Dublin man accused of the murder of journalist, Veronica Guerin, is adjourned until June by the Special Criminal Court
2000 - Tánaiste Mary Harney announces that the new minimum pay rate of £4.40 per hour will apply from April 1
2001 - Motorists crossing Dublin’s East and West Links will have to pay an extra 20p following a VAT hike
2001 - AN Bord Pleanála gives the go ahead for a £35 million leisure, residential and shopping development in Limerick.
January 27
1885 - Charles Stewart Parnell turns the first sod for the West Clare Railway
1975 - Mother Mary Martin, founder of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, dies in Drogheda
January 28
1610 - The crown and the Irish Society of London, a consortium of city companies, agree to carry out the plantation of Derry
(hence Londonderry), Coleraine and part of Tyrone
1635 - The City of London and the Irish Society of London are found guilty of mismanagement and neglect of Derry/Londonderry plantation;
they are sentenced to a fine of £70,000 and forfeiture of Derry/Londonderry property
1786 - By charter, the Irish Academy becomes the Royal Irish Academy
1807 - Birth in Co. Wexford of Sir Robert McClure, polar explorer and discoverer of the North-West Passage
1818 - The Iberno-Celtic Society is founded to preserve and publish the best ancient Irish literature
1939 - Death of William Butler Yeats
1941 - The Emergency Powers Act provides for the censorship of press messages to places outside the Free State
1981 - Daniel O’Donnell makes his first professional appearance, at a club in Thurles as part of his sister Margo’s band
2000 - Nobel Peace laureate, John Hume, issues a plea to the IRA for a last minute gesture on decommissioning to ensure the Northern Ireland
peace process does not founder
2001 - Mighty Munster moves a step closer to Heineken European Cup rugby glory when they defeat Biarritz 38-29 in the quarter final
2002 - Winds of up to 90mph leave 3,000 homes in the west and north-west without power supply for several hours
2003 - It is announced that actor Peter O’Toole, nominated seven times for an Oscar for his work in films as diverse as the historical epic
Lawrence of Arabia and the nostalgic comedy My Favourite Year, will receive an honorary Academy Award at this year’s Oscar ceremonies.
January 29
1768 - Oliver Goldsmith's ‘The Good-Natured Boy’ is first performed at London's Covent Garden
1998 - Former Taoiseach Jack Lynch is rushed to Accident and Emergency at the Meath Hospital, Dublin shortly before 10pm.
His condition is described as not life-threatening
1999 - The future of the Apple computer plant in Cork is thrown into doubt with the news that up to 600 jobs are expected to be lost
January 30
1845 - Birth of Kitty O'Shea, mistress and later, the wife of Parnell
1864 - The National Gallery of Ireland opens
1900 - The Irish Party reunites ten years after it split
1920 - Tomás MacCurtain is elected Lord Mayor of Cork for Sinn Féin
1947 - Jim Larkin, Irish labor leader dies
1972 - In what is to become known as Bloody Sunday, the British Army kills 13 civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside district of Londonderry.
A 14th marcher later dies of his injuries
1990 - Haughey resigns as Taoiseach
1998 - Buried in the sand at Lahinch for almost 100 years, the ship-wrecked Elizabeth McClean emerges to allow a salvage operation to take its
valuable cargo. The 58-foot schooner, laden down with Liscannor stone, sank off the Clare coast in 1904, bound for Glasgow
2002 - Figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that Dubliners have more money to spend than everyone else in Ireland with people in
Laois, Offaly and Kerry having the least
2002 - Publicans warn Health Minister Micheál Martin not to proceed with a proposed ban on smoking in pubs after he announces changes to
tough anti-tobacco laws, which will allow him to ban smoking in all or part of licensed premises
January 31
1800 - William Pitt, 'the younger', Prime Minister of Britain, advocates the union of Britain and Ireland
1881 - Anna Parnell sets up the Committee of the Ladies' Land League in Dublin
1913 - The Ulster Volunteer Force is founded by the Unionist Council, posing a threat to the legitimate government
1953 - The Princess Victoria, a British Railways car ferry steamer, bound for Larne in Northern Ireland, sinks in the Irish Sea in one of the worst
gales in living memory, claiming the lives of 128 passengers and crew. Among the passengers who perish are the Northern Ireland Finance
Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Major J. M. Sinclair, and Sir Walter Smiles, the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down
1999 - The end of an era in maritime history is reached as the high-tech world takes over from the old, manually-operated morse code radio services.
For over 100 years, the dot-dash-dot system operated by radio officers served shipping well, but is now superseded by a state-of-the-art
communications network. Marine Minister Michael Woods marks the historic occasion at at Valentia Coast Radio Station, Co. Kerry, as the use
of Morse ends in this country, Belgium, Denmark and Iceland
2000 - President Bill Clinton and Northern Ireland peace envoy George Mitchell are among those nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
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