February 9

  • 1971 Five men working for the BBC were killed when an IRA bomb, intended for the security forces, exploded as they made their way in a Land Rover to inspect a transmitter on Brougher Mountain, Co. Tyrone.
  • 1996 The IRA detonated a bomb in Canary Wharf, one of London’s two main financial districts, killing two, injuring almost 40 and causing an estimated £100 million worth of damage. The bombing marked the end of their seventeen-month ceasefire.
  • 1926 Garret Fitzgerald, leader of Fine Gael (1977–87) and twice taoiseach (07/1981–02/1982, 12/1982–03/1987), born in Dublin, the son of the then minister for external affairs, Desmond Fitzgerald. His mother, Mabel McConnell, was from a Northern Protestant family.
  • 1854 Edward Carson, lawyer and Unionist leader, was born in Dublin.
  • 1563 Manus O’Donnell, lord of Tír Chonaill who was deposed and taken prisoner by his son, Calvagh, in 1555, died. A life of Colmcille, at present in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, was written under his direction.
  • 1923 Brendan Behan/Breandán Ó Beacháin, playwright and author, notably of Borstal Boy (1958), born in Holles Street Hospital in Dublin’s inner city.