Nick Maxwell

1966 One hundred and forty-four died—116 children and 28 adults—when a landslide of coal slag demolished a school and houses in the village of Aberfan, Merthyr Valley, South Wales. 1805 The Royal Navy, under Admiral Horatio Nelson, heavily defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, off the south-west coast of Spain. On … Read more

1870 Michael Balfe (62), composer who wrote several operas for performance at Drury Lane, most famously The Bohemian Girl (1843), died. 1999 Jack Lynch, outstanding Gaelic footballer and hurler, leader of Fianna Fáil (1966–79) and taoiseach (1966–73, 1977–9), died. 1986 General Michael J. Costello, colonel commandant in the National Army during the Civil War (1922–3) at the … Read more

1971 Most internees were transferred to Long Kesh, latterly the Maze Prison, near Lisburn, Co. Antrim. 1971 Aontacht Éireann (Unity of Ireland), political party, was founded by Kevin Boland and Seán Sherwin after they left Fianna Fáil in protest at the government’s policies on Northern Ireland. 1982 The US car-manufacturer John De Lorean was arrested … Read more

1970 Máirtín Ó Cadhain (63), perhaps the greatest modern writer in the Irish language, whose novel Cré na Cille (1949) was chosen by UNESCO for translation into several European languages, died. 1989 The ‘Guildford Four’—Patrick Armstrong, Gerard Conlon, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson—were released from prison, having served fifteen years on the strength of forced confessions for … Read more

1971 The Sunday Times alleged that brainwashing techniques were used on internees at Hollywood police barracks, Belfast. 1860 Roderic O’Conor, member of the Paul Gauguin-led Pont Aven circle of painters in Brittany in the 1890s and widely regarded as Ireland’s greatest Impressionist painter, was born in Milton, Co. Roscommon, the son of Roderick O’Conor JP, soon to … Read more