Nick Maxwell

1970 General Charles de Gaulle (79), president of France (1958–69) and great-grandson of Marie Angelique McCartan from County Down, died. 1990 Mary Robinson (46), the Labour Party nominee, was installed as the seventh president of Ireland. 1990 Mary Robinson was elected the first woman president of Ireland, with 39.9% of the vote. 1938 Kristallnacht—‘the night … Read more

1987 Eleven were killed and a further 63 injured when an IRA bomb exploded at the war memorial in the centre of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, on Remembrance Day. 1960 Nine Irish soldiers from an eleven-man patrol of the 33rd Battalion serving as a peacekeeping force with the UN in the Congo were killed in an … Read more

1831 ‘The transformation of conditions seemed a mystery to many. Social science was more successful than military force. Socialism could induce poor, ignorant Irish peasants to live in peace and harmony with each other. In their individualism, every man was for himself at the expense of every other person. Now each found his interest promoted … Read more

1971 British government figures on internment showed that since its introduction (on 9 August) there had been 882 arrests. Of these, 476 had been released, 278 interned, 112 held under detention orders and sixteen held under Section 10 of the Special Powers Act. 1812 Charles Graves, bishop and mathematician who was instrumental in the establishment … Read more

1972 Dermot Ryan became the first Catholic archbishop since the Reformation to attend a service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. 1968 At a meeting in London with Prime Minister Captain Terence O’Neill, William Craig and Brian Faulkner, Prime Minister Harold Wilson demanded reforms in Northern Ireland (see 22/11). 1914 Following the decision of the Ottoman … Read more