1979 Lord Mountbatten, his nephew and a 15-year-old boy killed by an IRA bomb on their boat. That afternoon the IRA killed 18 soldiers at Narrow Water, Co. Down. 1969 The British home secretary, James Callaghan, toured troubled parts of Belfast. The following day, from an upstairs bedroom window of a house near Free Derry … Read more
1940 Three women were killed when a German bomb struck a creamery at Campile, Co. Wexford.
1971 A 15lb. Provisional IRA bomb exploded at the Electricity Board of Northern Ireland’s offices in Belfast’, killing Harry Beggs (23), a close schoolfriend of Peter Robinson, later first minister of Northern Ireland (2008–16), and injuring 35 others. Robinson disclosed years later that it was Beggs’s death that prompted him to enter politics. 1819 Alan … Read more
1920 Further sectarian violence in Belfast. By the end of the month c. 400 Catholic families had been driven from their homes and 22 people had lost their lives. 1990 Brian Keenan, a teacher from Belfast, was released after spending almost five years imprisoned in extreme conditions as a hostage of a Shi’ah militia group … Read more
1170 Richard fitzGilbert de Clare, lord of Strigoil, better known as ‘Strongbow’, landed in Waterford with a force of c. 1,200, including 200 knights. 1170 Richard Fitz Gilbert, earl of Pembroke, also known as Richard de Clare and Strongbow, Norman adventurer, landed at Passage, Co. Waterford. Two days later he took Waterford with a force … Read more