Nick Maxwell Kilcorban (also rendered Kyllcarbayn, Kilcarbain or Kilcorbain) was named after an early medieval saint, Corban or Corbran of Cluana, who died in AD 732. Little is known of the saint and, while there is no physical or documentary evidence for a monastery in this period other than the toponym Kilcorban, a local tradition suggests that … Read more
British director Ken Loach is well known for his cinematic accounts of fraught historical moments, dealing with the Spanish and Irish civil wars respectively in Land and freedom (1995) and The wind that shakes the barley (2006). In his latest outing he has turned his gaze to Ireland in the 1930s, a period when post-revolutionary … Read more
1981 Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald announced a ‘constitutional crusade’ to remove ‘sectarian elements’ in the law and constitution of the Republic. 1980 The first hunger strike in the Maze Prison began when seven prisoners refused to take food in support of their demand to wear their own clothing. In mid-December they were joined by 23 additional … Read more
1871 The Great Fire of Chicago broke out, reputedly in Mrs O’Leary’s barn, when a cow upset a lantern. Over three days c. 300 lives were lost and over 100,000 residents left homeless. 1974 Seán MacBride became the first Irish citizen to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. 1967 Clement Attlee (84), Labour prime minister of the … Read more
1871 Sir Thomas Deane (79), builder and architect, notably of the National Library and National Museum in Kildare Street, Dublin, died. 1871 Sir Thomas Deane (79), builder and architect, notably of the National Library and National Museum in Kildare Street, Dublin, died. 1869 Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule, born … Read more