Nick Maxwell

1859 Above: A contemporary depiction of the wreck of the Royal Charter on 26 October 1859. The Royal Charter, a steamship that also carried sail, en route from Melbourne to Liverpool, was wrecked in a violent storm off the northern coast of Anglesey. On board were 450 passengers and crew, including many miners returning from the diggings in … Read more

1920 Terence MacSwiney (41), lord mayor of Cork, died after 74 days of hunger strike in Brixton Prison, London. 2002 Richard Harris (72), actor and Oscar nominee for This sporting life (1963) and The field (1990), died. 1968 The New University of Ulster in Coleraine, Co. Derry, Ireland’s first new university in over 50 years, … Read more

1878 Paul Cullen, Ireland’s first cardinal and the principal architect of modern Catholicism in Ireland, died.

1921 John Dunlop (81), Scottish-born veterinary surgeon based in Belfast, who invented the pneumatic tyre (1887) in response to his son’s plea to make his solid-tyred bicycle go faster, died. 1960 Seamus MacManus (91), poet, historian and novelist, died. His wife, the writer Ethna Carbery, died suddenly just a year after their marriage (1902). 1969 … Read more

1966 The British spy George Blake was sprung from Wormwood Scrubs prison by Limerickman Seán Burke. 1935 Sir Edward Carson, Unionist leader, died. 1641 The Rising in Ulster began when Sir Phelim O’Neill took over Charlemont Fort, Co. Armagh. 1811 Franz Liszt, international piano virtuoso, inventor of the master class and prolific composer, born in … Read more