Nick Maxwell

1970 Bank strike in the Republic of Ireland (until 17 November). 1919 Professor J.P. Mahaffy (80), scholar, provost of TCD since 1914, died. 1970 In Northern Ireland the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) assumed the duties of the Ulster Special Constabulary (‘B’ Specials), now officially stood down. Over the 22 years of the regiment’s existence 192 members, … Read more

1769 Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington (‘the Iron Duke’), soldier, politician and prime minister (1828–30), born at Mornington House, 24 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, the fourth son of Garrett Wellesley, 1st earl of Mornington. 1917 Following the disaster of the second Battle of the Aisne that month, almost half of the French infantry divisions … Read more

1822 Ulysses Simpson Grant, general in the Union army and 18th president of the United States (1869–77), born in Ohio. 1521 Ferdinand Magellan (c. 40), Portuguese navigator, was killed by natives on the island of Mactan in the Philippines during the first circumnavigation of the Earth. 1920 The IRA attacked the RIC station at Ballylanders, … Read more

1937 During the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Guernica, a bastion of Republican resistance, was pounded by the German Condor Legion with high-explosive bombs and at least 3,000 incendiary bombs. Over 1,600 people were killed in the subsequent firestorm. 1900 Queen Victoria concluded her final, three-week visit to Ireland, the purpose of which … Read more

1922 Commandant O’Neill, 3rd Cork Brigade IRA, was shot dead at the home of a Protestant family in Bandon, Co. Cork. In a series of unattributed reprisals, thirteen Protestant civilians were shot dead in the surrounding area over the following four days. 1920 RIC Sergeant Cornelius Crean, brother of the explorer Tom Crean, was killed by … Read more