August 22

  • 1920 RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, cited by a Cork jury as being implicated in the murder of Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain earlier that year, was assassinated in Lisburn by a four-man IRA unit from Cork.
  • 1998 The INLA announced a ceasefire, ending their 23-year campaign. During that time they killed over 140, many of whom were their own members.
  • 1997 Brendan Smyth (70), notorious priest, died in the Curragh Prison one month into a twelve-year prison sentence for child sexual abuse.
  • 1922 Michael Collins (31), commander-in-chief of pro-Treaty government forces, was kille2d in an ambush at Béal na mBláth, near Macroom, Co. Cork.
  • 1914 27,000 French soldiers were killed in a German counter-offensive—the deadliest day in the history of France.
  • 1802 George Thomas, mercenary soldier known as the ‘Rajah from Tipperary’, died at Bahrampur, having been deposed by Sikh forces assisted by the French.
  • 1922 Michael Collins (31), commander-in-chief of the National Army, was killed in an engagement with the IRA at Béal na Bláth, near Macroom, Co. Cork.
  • 1972 Nine people were killed—three members of the IRA, two lorry drivers and four customs officials—when a 50lb IRA bomb exploded prematurely at a custom clearing station at Newry, Co. Down.
  • 1983 Eight people died and over 30 were injured in a head-on train crash at Cherryville junction near Kildare station.