April 09

  • 1922 The anti-Treaty IRA executive appointed a seven-man army council, with Liam Lynch as chief-of-staff.
  • 1921 William Walsh (80), prolific writer, leading intellectual in the Irish Catholic Church and archbishop of Dublin since 1885, died.
  • 1981 In the Fermanagh–South Tyrone by-election (87% poll), IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, on the 40th day of his hunger strike, defeated the Official Unionist candidate, Harry West, by 30,493 votes to 29,046.
  • 1918 Prime Minister Lloyd George introduced the Military Service Bill to apply conscription to Ireland.
  • 1912 Rudyard Kipling’s Ulster 1912 was published in the Morning Post.