Nick Maxwell

1170 Richard fitzGilbert de Clare, lord of Strigoil, better known as ‘Strongbow’, landed in Waterford with a force of c. 1,200, including 200 knights. 1170 Richard Fitz Gilbert, earl of Pembroke, also known as Richard de Clare and Strongbow, Norman adventurer, landed at Passage, Co. Waterford. Two days later he took Waterford with a force … Read more

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 … Read more

1970 The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) was founded by a coalition of political figures who had been prominent in the civil rights struggle of the late 1960s. The first leader was the West Belfast MP Gerry Fitt. 1976 The remains of William Joyce, ‘Lord Haw Haw’, Nazi propagandist executed for treason in 1946, … Read more

1919 In Dáil Éireann, a motion proposed by Cathal Brugha that its members, its officials and the Irish Volunteers swear allegiance to the Dáil and the Irish Republic was passed. The Irish Volunteers thereby became the standing army of the Irish Republic—the Irish Republican Army (IRA). 1988 Eight soldiers from the Light Infantry Regiment, aged … Read more

1908 In one of Britain’s worst mining disasters, a gas explosion ripped through the Maypole colliery in Wigan, Lancs., starting a fierce fire that led to further explosions. Though 76 miners lost their lives, it could have been substantially worse: over 500 miners from the day shift had finished work a short while earlier. The … Read more