Nick Maxwell

1782 The Battle of the Saints, off Dominica. A British fleet under Admiral George Rodney routed a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse as it sailed to join the Spanish for an attack on British Jamaica. On board the Endeavour that day was Kerryman Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (‘Eoghan of the Sweet Mouth’), one of the … Read more

1971 At its annual congress in Belfast the GAA voted to abolish Rule 27, the ban that prohibited the playing of soccer, rugby, hockey and cricket by members of the association. 1770 George Canning, Tory statesman and prime minister for the final 118 days of his life, who described himself as ‘an Irishman born in London’, … Read more

1998 The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement on the future governance of Northern Ireland was signed by the British and Irish governments and the North’s main political parties, with the exception of the DUP. 1867 George William Russell, widely known as ‘AE’, poet, mystic, editor, writer and artist, born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh. 1838 Father Theobald Mathew … Read more

1922 The anti-Treaty IRA executive appointed a seven-man army council, with Liam Lynch as chief-of-staff. 1921 William Walsh (80), prolific writer, leading intellectual in the Irish Catholic Church and archbishop of Dublin since 1885, died. 1981 In the Fermanagh–South Tyrone by-election (87% poll), IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, on the 40th day of his hunger strike, … Read more

1861 The Derryveagh evictions. Over a three-day period, John George Adair, landlord of the Gartan, Glenveagh and Derryveagh estates, evicted 244 tenants from 46 households and levelled 28 homes. The evictions became international news and were debated three times in Westminster. 1816 Sir Frederick Burton, antiquarian and watercolour painter, notably of The meeting on the … Read more