July 20

  • 2011 ‘The Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism—the narcissism—that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day. The rape and torture of children were downplayed or “managed” to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and “reputation”’—Taoiseach Enda Kenny, speaking at the opening of a debate on the Cloyne Report in Dáil Éireann.
  • 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon when he emerged along with Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin from Apollo 11’s lunar module, Eagle.
  • 1996 Michelle Smyth/de Bruin won the first of three gold medals in swimming at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, making her Ireland’s most successful Olympian. Two years later she received a four-year ban from the Court of Arbitration for Sport for tampering with her urine sample.
  • 1969 The Derry Citizens’ Action Committee  was superseded by the more militant Derry Citizens’ Defence Association.
  • 1918 The British troop-ship SS Justicia, en route from Belfast to New York, sank c. 45km north-west of Malin Head after being struck several times by German torpedoes. Sixteen crewmen lost their lives.
  • 1616 Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone, died in Rome.
  • 1616 Hugh O’Neill,earl of Tyrone, died in exile in Rome.
  • 1923 The government announced that Eoin MacNeill would be the Free State representative on the Boundary Commission.
  • 1933 Eoin O’Duffy was elected leader of the Army Comrades’ Association, known as the Blueshirts, and the name changed to the National Guard.