Nick Maxwell

2006 The MorrisTribunal report, on a range of allegations against the Garda Síochána in County Donegal (1993–9), was published. It was to bring about the biggest overhaul in policing in the history of the Irish state.   1987 Rudolph Hess (93), German Deputy Führer (1933–41), committed suicide in Spandau Prison, West Berlin.   1878 Oliver … Read more

1921 Sinn Féin members who were returned in the election to the parliament of Southern Ireland under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act constituted themselves as the Second Dáil Éireann. 1819 In the Peterloo Massacre, St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, eighteen were killed when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered … Read more

1769 Napoleon Bonaparte, statesman and military leader, born in Ajaccio, Corsica, the son of a lawyer. 1969 After three days of intense violence in Belfast, during which seven lives were lost and c. 1,800 families were forced to leave their homes, British troops were deployed. 1969 The Woodstock music festival, featuring over 30 acts, including Janis Joplin, … Read more

1598 The Battle of the Yellow Ford. Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, along with his Ulster allies and some Spanish, inflicted the heaviest defeat ever suffered by the English in Ireland. Early that morning Sir Henry Bagenal, marshal of the queen’s army in Ireland, set out from Armagh with 300 cavalry and c. 4,000 foot-soldiers … Read more

1969 The British government announced that troops were being sent to Derry ‘to take all necessary steps, acting impartially between citizen and citizen, to restore law and order. Troops will be withdrawn as soon as this is accomplished. This is a limited operation.’ Taoiseach Jack Lynch, in a television broadcast, said that ‘the Irish government … Read more