August 07

  • 1986 Peter Robinson MP, latterly first minister for Northern Ireland, was arrested in Clontibret, Co. Monaghan, after invading the village at the head of a 500-strong loyalist mob in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
  • 1972 The shooting of librarian and member of the UDR Lance-Corporal Henry Creighton (27) by the IRA near his home on the Fermanagh/Monaghan border brought the death-toll in Northern Ireland since 1969 to 500.
  • 1573 Walter Devereux, 1st earl of Essex, left Liverpool for Ireland with a c. 1,200-strong force in an unsuccessful attempt, which included the massacre of the entire population of Rathlin Island, to colonise a portion of north-east Ulster.