Nick Maxwell

1940 Three women were killed when a German bomb struck a creamery at Campile, Co. Wexford.

1971 A 15lb. Provisional IRA bomb exploded at the Electricity Board of Northern Ireland’s offices in  Belfast’, killing Harry Beggs (23), a close schoolfriend of Peter Robinson, later first minister of Northern Ireland (2008–16), and injuring 35 others. Robinson disclosed years later that it was Beggs’s death that prompted him to enter politics. 1819 Alan … Read more

1920 Further sectarian violence in Belfast. By the end of the month c. 400 Catholic families had been driven from their homes and 22 people had lost their lives. 1990 Brian Keenan, a teacher from Belfast, was released after spending almost five years imprisoned in extreme conditions as a hostage of a Shi’ah militia group … Read more

1170 Richard fitzGilbert de Clare, lord of Strigoil, better known as ‘Strongbow’, landed in Waterford with a force of c. 1,200, including 200 knights. 1170 Richard Fitz Gilbert, earl of Pembroke, also known as Richard de Clare and Strongbow, Norman adventurer, landed at Passage, Co. Waterford. Two days later he took Waterford with a force … Read more

1920 RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, cited by a Cork jury as being implicated in the murder of Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain earlier that year, was assassinated in Lisburn by a four-man IRA unit from Cork. 1998 The INLA announced a ceasefire, ending their 23-year campaign. During that time they killed over 140, many of … Read more