June 2

1964 Eddie McAteer was elected leader of the Nationalist Party at Stormont. In February 1965 the party assumed the role of official opposition in the Northern Ireland parliament. 1994 An RAF Chinook helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, in foggy conditions, resulting in the deaths of all 25 passengers and crew on board, including … Read more

June 01

1921 The Kerry IRA ambushed a detachment of Black and Tans and RIC at Castlemaine, Co. Kerry, killing three, including an RIC district inspector. The IRA lost one Volunteer. 1984 US President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, arrived on a four-day official visit to the Republic of Ireland. 1968 Helen Keller (87), deaf-blind American political … Read more

March 05

1981 Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey announced the establishment of Aosdána (‘poet of the tribe’) to publicly honour distinguished achievement in the arts and to provide members with an annuity to free them from non-creative employment. 1940 The Katyn massacre of c. 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia was initiated by the NKVD—the Soviet secret police—with the approval … Read more

January 22

1924 James Ramsey McDonald became Britain’s first Labour prime minister. 1973 Lyndon Baines Johnson (‘LBJ’) (64), 36th US president (1963–9), died at his ranch in Johnson City, Texas. 1974 The Northern Ireland Assembly met at Stormont. Proceedings were disrupted by anti-power-sharing loyalists, eighteen of whom were removed by police. 1924 James Ramsay MacDonald (Labour) became … Read more

January 3

1521 Martin Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem for refusing to recant some 41 sentences from his various writings. 1967 John Hughes, County Tyrone-born first archbishop of the archdiocese of New York from 1850, died. Hughes laid the foundation stone of St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York (1858). 1946 … Read more