1969 The Hunt report on policing in Northern Ireland recommended that the RUC be disarmed and the ‘B’ Specials disbanded and replaced by a new part-time force—later named the Ulster Defence Regiment. 1957 Fire broke out at the Windscale (now Sellafield) facility in Cumbria, the worst nuclear accident in British history. 1922 The Catholic hierarchy … Read more
1921 The Anglo-Irish conference (Treaty talks) opened in London. 1910 Henry McIlhenny, art collector and philanthropist who in 1979 donated his Donegal estate—which opened as Glenveagh National Park in 1984—to the Irish State, was born in Philadelphia. 1843 Daniel O’Connell’s campaign for repeal of the Act of Union was effectively terminated when his ‘monster meeting’ … Read more
1971 Annette McGavigan (14) was shot dead, apparently by a British soldier, during an exchange of fire between troops and the IRA in Derry’s Bogside. She was the 100th victim of Northern Ireland’s violence since 1969. 1970 A new trial of Charles J. Haughey and three others on charges of conspiring to import arms and … Read more
1771 Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, arrived in Ireland on a six-week visit. 1977 Seamus Costello (38), leader of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), was shot dead in Dublin, the first Irish party leader to be assassinated. 1974 The IRA bombed two public houses in Guildford, Surrey, killing five … Read more
1969 Cathal O’Shannon, journalist, politician and trade unionist who served as one of the workers’ representatives in the Labour Court for 23 years, died. 1936 The Battle of Cable Street, East London. A march led by Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), standing in an open-topped Rolls Royce and with … Read more