Nick Maxwell

1921 Twelve Volunteers were shot dead and a further eight taken prisoner when Crown forces surrounded them in a disused farmhouse overlooking the village of Clonmult, near Midleton, Co. Cork. It marked the IRA’s greatest loss of Volunteers in a single action during the War of Independence. 1920 Robert Peary (63), explorer and US Navy … Read more

1890 Joseph Gillis Biggar, Home Rule MP for Cavan since 1874, died. The Presbyterian pork butcher from Henry Street, Belfast, who taught C.S. Parnell the technique of parliamentary obstruction, is popularly remembered for his appearance (he was a diminutive hunchback) and for his ability to talk interminably on any subject in a rasping Belfast accent. … Read more

1820 Dan Donnelly, renowned Dublin-born pugilist whose victories included one over the English champion over eleven rounds—when a round lasted until one or other was thrown or knocked to the ground—at ‘Donnelly’s Hollow’ in the Curragh, at present marked by a small obelisk, died. 1980 The Derrynaflan hoard (eighth and ninth centuries), consisting of a … Read more

1919 Mark Sykes (39), diplomat and co-author of the Sykes–Picot Pact, which carved out the post-First World War Ottoman Empire between Britain and France, died in Paris, a victim of the Spanish ’flu pandemic. 1886 ‘I decided some time ago that if Gladstone went for Home Rule, the Orange Card was the one to play. … Read more

1921 Three IRA volunteers were killed and two others wounded in an abortive attack on a train carrying British soldiers at Upton, Co. Cork. Six civilian passengers were also killed and ten wounded in the crossfire. 1970 Eoin ‘the Pope’ O’Mahony (66), barrister, genealogist and raconteur, died. 1989 The Soviet–Afghan War ended after nine years. … Read more