1980 Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher held a summit meeting in Dublin Castle, after which they agreed to examine ‘the totality of relationships’ between the UK and Ireland and to establish an Anglo-Irish Committee. 1939 James Galway, the ‘man with the golden flute’, born in north Belfast, the son of … Read more
1521 Columba/Colmcille, Irish abbot and missionary to Scotland, where he founded the monastery of Iona (AD 563), born in Gartan, Co. Donegal. 1979 Charles J. Haughey defeated George Colley (44 votes to 38) to become leader of Fianna Fáil; he was elected Taoiseach on 11 December. 1985 Robert Graves, poet, novelist, critic and classicist whose … Read more
1921 The Anglo-Irish Treaty—eighteen Articles of Agreement—was signed in London at 2.10am under threat from Lloyd George of ‘terrible and immediate war’. 1982 Sixteen people—including eleven British soldiers—were killed in an INLA attack on the Droppin’ Well public house in Ballykelly, Co. Derry. 1982 Seventeen people, including eleven British soldiers, were killed by an INLA … Read more
1922 The Irish Free State Constitution Act and the Consequential Provisions Act received the royal assent; the king approved T.M. Healy as governor-general designate of the Free State. Saorstát Éireann (the Irish Free State) came into existence the following day. 1967 Michael P. O’Connor, writer and broadcaster, died. 1914 The Endurance, captained by Sir Ernest Shackleton … Read more
1971 Fifteen people, including the owner’s wife and fourteen-year-old daughter and a number of pensioners, were killed when a UVF bomb exploded at McGurk’s public house in North Queen Street, Belfast. 1971 In the first major atrocity of the Northern Ireland Troubles, fifteen people, including two children and three women, were killed when a no-warning … Read more