January 31

  • 1984 Ann Lovett (15) died while giving birth near a Marian grotto in Granard, Co. Longford.
  • 1953 The Princess Victoria, an early roll-on–roll-off ferry, en route from Stranraer to Larne, sank in hurricane-force conditions off Belfast Lough, with the loss of 133 lives. It was Ireland’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.
  • 1917 Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare.
  • 1913 Having pledged to use ‘all means which may be found necessary’ to stop Home Rule, the Ulster Unionist Council formally inaugurated the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Up to 100,000 enlisted.
  • 1923 The ferry Princess Victoria, en route from Stranraer to Larne, capsized off County Down after a wave burst unsecured bulkhead doors in the stern; 128 lives were lost and 43 survived.
  • 1984 Ann Lovett (15) died after giving birth to a boy at a grotto in Granard, Co. Longford.