1871 James Craig, Unionist politician and first prime minister of Northern Ireland, born in Sydenham, Belfast, the son of a wealthy whiskey distiller. 1979 An explosion on Whiddy Island, Bantry Bay, Co. Cork, killed 50 and destroyed the French tanker Betelgeuse. 1989 A Boeing 737, en route from Heathrow to Belfast, crashed on the M1 … Read more
1970 Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP since 2015 and First Minister of Northern Ireland since January of this year, born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. 03–05 1970 During a 34-hour illegal curfew on the Lower Falls Road, Belfast, during which over 100 weapons were found, clashes between Official and Provisional IRA gunmen and the British … Read more
1935 T.E.—Thomas Edward—Lawrence (46), the legendary ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, died as a result of a motorcycle accident in Dorset. For much of his adult life Lawrence was a troubled man. Though his key role in the British-inspired Arab revolt (1916) against Ottoman Turkish rule earned him international celebrity, he was torn by guilt over Britain’s … Read more
1971 ‘To speak of a right to contraception on the part of an individual … is to speak of a right that cannot even exist’—John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin (1895–1973), as quoted in the Irish Times, ‘This Week They Said’. 1970 Garda Richard Fallon (42) was shot dead as he attempted to prevent a bank … Read more
1972 The Widgery tribunal of inquiry into events in Derry on ‘Bloody Sunday’ exonerated the British army for the deaths and blamed the NICRA for organising the march. 1775 Skirmishes in Concord and Lexington marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Irishmen fought on both sides of the conflict. Up to half of Washington’s … Read more