January 24

  • 1991 John Kelly (59), Fine Gael politician, government minister, attorney general (May–July 1987) and lawyer who wrote extensively on legal matters, notably The Irish Constitution (1980), died.
  • 1920 Percy French (65), civil engineer, watercolourist and entertainer, died from pneumonia in Formby, Lancashire.
  • 1986 By-elections were held for the fifteen House of Commons seats held by Unionists. Under the slogan ‘Ulster says no’, Unionist MPs had resigned their seats and used the elections as a referendum on the Anglo-Irish Agreement (November 1985); 418,230 votes were cast against the Agreement.
  • 1966 Indira Ghandi, daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlai Nehru, took office as prime minister.
  • 1862 Myles Byrne, United Irishman who fought at Vinegar Hill in 1798 and later for France in the Napoleonic campaigns of 1804–15, died in Paris.
  • 1973 Willie Clancy (51), acclaimed piper and folklorist, died.
  • 1974 Four members of the IRA, including Dr Rose Dugdale, made an unsuccessful attempt to bomb Strabane RUC barracks from a helicopter.