January 11

1972 Pádraic Colum (90), poet, novelist, dramatist and leading figure of the Irish Literary Revival, died in Enfield, Connecticut. 1970 Following disagreement over the issue of parliamentary abstention, Sinn Féin split into Official and Provisional Sinn Féin, mirroring the split in the IRA a month previously. 1970 During its Ard-Fheis in Dublin Sinn Féin splits … Read more

January 10

1922 Arthur Griffith was elected president of Dáil Éireann. 1920 The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva. It was superseded by the United Nations on the same date in 1946. 1970 An estimated 6,000 attended an anti-apartheid demonstration outside Lansdowne Road as Ireland played South Africa in rugby. 1984 Seán MacEntee (95), … Read more

January 9

1980 Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey gave his infamous ‘as a community, we are living beyond our means’ television address. Unknown to the public at the time, he owed the AIB £1.143m owing to persistent personal overspending. 1929 Brian Friel, Ireland’s leading playwright, was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. 1916 1913 The disastrous Allied Gallipoli campaign … Read more

January 7

1922 Dáil Éireann approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty (64–57). 1928Francis Ball, historian, author notably of The Judges in Ireland, 1221–1921 (1926), an important source since the documents on which it was based were destroyed when the Public Record Office was blown up in 1922, died. 1922 Dáil Éireann approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64 votes to … Read more

January 6

1821 William Putnam McCabe (c. 46), a United Irishman noted for his ability to elude arrest by his powers of disguise and mimicry, who later settled in France and founded a cotton factory, died. 06/1834 Richard Martin (79), landowner and politician, died. Residing in Dangan House, some four miles upstream on the Corrib from Galway … Read more