1951 Mary McAleese, barrister, journalist, academic and president of Ireland (1997–2011), born in Ardoyne, Belfast, the eldest of nine children. 1970 After serious sectarian clashes in the north of the city that afternoon, which left three Protestants dead, the Provisional IRA, in action for the first time, engaged in a five-hour gun battle with loyalists in … Read more
1972 Neil Blaney was expelled from Fianna Fáil for ‘conduct unbecoming a member of the organisation’. 1972 The Provisional IRA announced a ceasefire. 1917 The first of over one million troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under General John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, arrived in France. 1966 Peter Ward (18), a Catholic barman, was … Read more
2011 The last British troops pulled out of South Armagh. During the period 1970–97, the IRA killed 165 members of the British security forces in the area. 1870 (Robert) Erskine Childers, Sinn Féin politician and author of The riddle of the sands (1903), born in London but raised at the maternal home, Glendalough House, Co. Wicklow, along with … Read more
1922 Sir Henry Wilson, military adviser to the government of Northern Ireland, was shot dead by the IRA in London. 1921 King George V formally opened the new Northern Ireland parliament, sitting in Belfast, with an impassioned appeal for peace in Ireland. Only the Unionist MPs were in attendance. 1968 Captain Patrick J. Saul (74), … Read more
1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.