1970 ‘For God’s sake, bring me a large Scotch’—Reginald Maudling, British Home Secretary, on his flight back to London after his first visit to Northern Ireland.
1916 Battle of the Somme. In the first two days 5,500 men of the 36th (Ulster) Division were killed or wounded.
1916 The Battle of the Somme began. Inthe bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army, 19,240 British soldiers were killed, including c.2,000 Irishmen.
1867 Thomas Francis Meagher (44), Young Irelander, soldier and latterly acting governor of Montana Territory, mysteriously disappeared from a steamer on the Mississippi.
The British North America Act established Canada as a federal dominion.
1690 Battle of the Boyne, the first major battle in the Williamite Wars (1689–91).
1690 The Battle of the Boyne. The scene that morning near the village of Oldbridge was quite a spectacle. On the northern bank was King William, Prince of Orange, who had accepted the English throne two years earlier on the invitation of England’s Whig political élite. His 36,000-strong army was an international one that included Dutch and Danish veterans of Continental campaigns along with Germans, French Huguenots and, of course, Ulster Protestants, the latter referred to as ‘skirmishers’ and described as ‘half-naked with sabre and pistols hanging from their belts’. On the southern bank was King James II, until recently king of England, Scotland and Ireland, who had been deposed two years earlier in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. He hoped, with the support of Louis XIV of France, to use Ireland as a springboard to recover his crowns. His army of c. 23,500 was considerably weaker than the Williamites, consisting of Irish and French regiments and c. 6,000 cavalry, one unit of which was led by Patrick Sarsfield. His infantry, however, were poorly trained, many armed only with scythes. The battle was merely a sideshow in the wars against Louis XIV, the first test of the Grand Alliance—led by the Dutch United Provinces and including the Papal States under Pope Alexander VIII—formed just six months earlier to oppose the expansionist policies of France, at the time the world’s greatest power. The Williamite victory was down to tactics, superior firepower and sheer weight of numbers. Casualties were light, c. 2,000 dead, three quarters of whom were on the Jacobite side. Amongst them was William’s second-in-command, Frederick Herman (75), Duke of Schomberg.
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Personal Histories
Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland,
which aims to capture the individual histories of Irish
people both in Ireland and around the world. It is hoped
to build an extensive database reflecting Irish lives,
giving them a chance to be heard, remembered and to
add their voice to the historical record.
Click Here to go to the Personal Histories page
1806 Patrick Cotter (46), giant, died. Born in Kinsale, Co. Cork, Cotter was just eighteen when he began exhibiting himself in England as Patrick Cotter O’Brien, ‘a lineal descendant of the old puissant King Brien Boreau’. It was recorded that Cotter ‘had less imbecility of mind than the generality of overgrown persons’ but also had ‘all the weakness of body by which they are characterized. He walked with difficulty, and felt considerable pain when rising up or sitting down.’ He also feared that his remains would be taken by grave-robbers and sold to anatomists. Retiring after some five years on the road, he directed that his casket be encased with lead and interred in a grave secured with iron bars. Thus they remained undisturbed for over a century before being reinterred in a crypt at the Jesuit chapel in Trenchard Street, Bristol, where they still rest. It was established then that he was 8ft. 1in. tall at the time of his death, the first of only seventeen people in medical history to stand at a verified height of 8ft or more.
1966 The first episode of Star Trek, ‘The Man Trap’, was broadcast, in which Captain Kirk faced an alien desperate to suck the salt out of human bodies.
1812 ‘Honest John’ Martin, Young Irelander and Home Rule MP, born in Loughorne, Newry, Co. Down.
1798 The Rising in Connacht ended with the defeat of Jean Joseph Humbert’s French/Irish forces by Crown forces under Lord Lieutenant Cornwallis at the Battle of Ballinamuck, Co. Longford.
1944 The SS Empire Heritage, en route from New York to Liverpool with a cargo of war supplies, was struck by two German torpedoes some fifteen miles off Malin Head, Co. Donegal, with the loss of 113 lives.
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