Nick Maxwell

1921 The Northern Ireland government assumed control of the RIC and responsibility for law and order under Minister for Home Affairs Dawson Bates. 1819 George Eliot (pen-name of Mary Ann Evans), one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, notably of Middlemarch (1871/2), born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. 1968 Captain Terence O’Neill, prime minister of Northern … Read more

1920 Bloody Sunday in Dublin. Fourteen British army officers, three IRA Volunteers and thirteen civilians were killed in three separate incidents, the bloodiest day in the bloodiest month of the War of Independence. 1974 The IRA bombed two city-centre pubs in Birmingham, killing 21 people and injuring over 160. 1920 ‘Bloody Sunday’. Eleven British intelligence agents … Read more

1984 Following a meeting in London with Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rejected the three options of the New Ireland Forum in her notorious ‘Out! Out! Out!’ speech. 1924 Cardinal Michael Logue, archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland since 1887, died. 1918 Brendan Corish, leader of the Labour Party (1960–77) and Minister for Health … Read more

1969 Joseph Kennedy (81), businessman, investor, politician and father of the brothers John F. (1917–63), Robert (1925–68) and Edward (1932–2009), died. 1860 Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist, composer, diplomat and third prime minister of the Republic of Poland (Jan.–Dec. 1919), was born. 1809 Thomas ‘the Chevalier’ O’Gorman, officer in Louis XV’s Irish Brigade, wine merchant and … Read more

2001 The GAA voted to abolish its controversial Rule 21, which had prevented members of the British Army and the PSNI from playing their games. 2001 The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) dropped Rule 21, which barred members of the British security forces from participation in their games. 1994 Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was forced to resign over … Read more