Nick Maxwell

1792 The Belfast Harp Festival, a three-day event, opened in the Exchange Rooms. Perhaps the first attempt in Ireland to actively rejuvenate Gaelic culture occurred in Presbyterian Belfast, then known as the ‘Athens of the North’, a century before the Irish Literary Revival. Organised by a committee chaired by Dr James MacDonnell, a lover of … Read more

1921 On the eve of the Truce, four off-duty British soldiers, including two from the South Staffordshire Regiment, which had been involved in several reprisal killings in the preceding weeks, were spotted by the IRA, arrested and executed without the sanction of a senior IRA officer, in Ellis Quarry, Cork. 1927 Kevin O’Higgins (35), vice-president … Read more

1921 The IRA ambushed an RIC/USC patrol in Raglan Street, West Belfast, killing one RIC officer. During a cycle of sectarian violence over the following 24 hours, some 22 lives were lost, including thirteen Catholic civilians and six Protestant civilians. 1669 Oliver Plunkett appointed archbishop of Armagh. 1917 The battleship HMS Vanguard, anchored in Scapa … Read more

1981 Donal Foley (59), deputy editor of the Irish Times, best known for his satirical column ‘Man Bites Dog’, died. 1980 Detective Garda John Morley (37) and Garda Henry Byrne (29) were killed in a shoot-out with three raiders who had stolen £35,000 from a bank in Ballaghadereen, Co. Roscommon. 1816 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, theatre manager … Read more

1812 Frederick Edward Maning, adventurer and naturalised Maori, born in Johnville, Co. Dublin. 1608 Sir Cahir O’Doherty, lord of Inishowen, in revolt against the Crown, was killed in a skirmish at Kilmacrenan, Co. Donegal. 1922 Cathal Brugha (47), on the last day of fighting between the National Army and anti-Treaty IRA in O’Connell Street, emerged … Read more