March 22
1918 Captain W.A. Redmond (IPP), son of John Redmond, was defeated Dr V.J. White (Sinn Féin), by 1,242 votes to 745, in the Waterford City by-election.
On this Day listing
On this Day
BY AODHAN CREALEY MARCH 03/1947 Carol Reed’s film noir Odd Man Out, set in post-war Belfast with James Mason in the title role, opened in the city’s Classic cinema, off Royal Avenue. A large number of RUC men, in uniform and in plain clothes, were on duty outside, partly because Inspector General (Chief Constable) Sir … Read more
February 04
1992 President Mary Robinson became the first Irish president to visit Belfast. 1177 John de Courcy and his legendary ‘twenty-two mailed horsemen’, fellow knights in Henry II’s Dublin garrison, set out to invade Ulster. With guides and c. 200 foot-soldiers from the native Irish, he passed through Meath, proceeded through the Moyry Pass into Ulster and … Read more
November 30
1670 John Toland, deist and writer on political philosophy and philosophy of religion whose best-known work, Christianity not mysterious (1696), was considered atheistic and subversive by the Irish parliament and ordered to be burnt by the hangman, born in Inishowen, Co. Donegal. 1967 Patrick Kavanagh (63), poet, died. 1667 Jonathan Swift, poet and satirist, born at 7 … Read more
November 10
1939 Charlotte Despard, née French (95), suffragette, socialist and philanthropist, died when she fell down the stairs in her home in Whitehead, Co. Antrim. Considering that they were polar opposites on the political spectrum, it is remarkable how Madame Despard, as she was popularly known, remained on close terms with her younger brother, Sir John … Read more