1969 The Hunt report on policing in Northern Ireland recommended that the RUC be disarmed and the ‘B’ Specials disbanded and replaced by a new part-time force—later named the Ulster Defence Regiment.
1957 Fire broke out at the Windscale (now Sellafield) facility in Cumbria, the worst nuclear accident in British history.
1922 The Catholic hierarchy issued a joint pastoral condemning Republican resistance to the Free State—‘A republic without popular recognition behind it is a contradiction in terms’.
1918 Over 500 people, mainly soldiers, died when the RMS Leinster was sunk by German torpedoes one hour out of Dún Laoghaire.
1918 The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company’s RMS Leinster was torpedoed by a German U-boat one hour out of Kingstown/Dún Laoghaire; 501 of the 771 on board died.
1797 Thomas Drummond, engineer and under-secretary for Ireland (1835–40) who implemented a number of significant reforms, born in Scotland.
1922 The Catholic hierarchy issued a joint pastoral condemning Republican resistance to the Free State: ‘A republic without popular recognition behind it is a contradiction in terms’.
1982 ‘If I saw Mr Haughey buried at midnight at a cross-roads, with a stake driven through his heart—politically speaking—I should continue to wear a clove of garlic round my neck, just in case’—Conor Cruise O’Brien in the Observer.
