July 29

  • 1929 The Ardnacrusha hydroelectric station in County Clare, constructed over a period of four years by the German firm Siemens-Schuckert and employing several thousand local men and a thousand Germans, was officially opened.
  • 1969 In the Republic, the Finance Act (1969, Section 2) exempted persons deemed to have written, composed or executed works of cultural or artistic merit from income tax on gains arising from such works.
  • 1968 Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (‘Of Human Life’) reaffirmed orthodox Catholic teaching by rejecting all forms of artificial contraception.
  • 1960 Cedric Gibbons, Dublin-born art director and set decorator credited with designing the Oscar statuette (1928), died.
  • 1848 Young Ireland rebellion, Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary.