Irish history

[silver spoon]

I always remember as a child parts of Pearse's famous and powerful,

and emotive oration at the graveside of O Donavan Rossa.

[Rashers]

It was a powerful speech that stirred the blood.

[Rashers]

March 14

1705 - An English act permits direct export of Irish linen to American colonies

1732 - Birth of Sackville Hamilton, politician and civil servant

1738 - John Beresford, unionist politician, is born in Cork

1822 - Richard Boyle, civil engineer, is born in Dublin

1894 - William Earle "Moley" Molesworth, WWI Ace, is born

1902 - The Irish Association of Women Graduates and Candidate-Graduates, an organization open to those interested in promoting women's education, is launched

1962 - Eibhín Bean Uí Choisdeaíbh, Irish language folk song collector, dies

1973 - Liam Cosgrave is appointed president of Ireland

1985 - Schoolchildren claim to have seen a 'moving' statue in Asdee, Co. Kerry. Other reports come from Ballinspittle, Co. Cork. The faithful claim a miraculous event. Sceptics say it is an optical illusion

1984 - Gunmen shoot and wounded Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in an attack in central Belfast. He is hit in the neck, shoulder and arm as several gunmen riddle his car with about 20 bullets. Three people travelling with Mr Adams are also wounded in the shooting No-one is seriously hurt and a fourth man escapes injury

1991 -The Birmingham Six - Paddy Joe Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker - are released from jail after their convictions for the murder of 21 people in two pubs are quashed by the Court of Appeal

1998 - Former Defence and Marine Minister Hugh Coveney falls to his death from a headland near Roberts Cove, Co. Cork

2002 - Roundwood House, Mountrath, Co. Laois is the only Irish establishment to make the list of the world's top 50 restaurants published by Restaurant magazine. It places at 42.

[Rashers]

March 15

1672 - The first declaration of indulgence suspending penal laws against Catholics and dissenters is issued by Charles II

1764 - Charles O'Conor, antiquary and historian, is born in Belanagare, Co. Roscommon

1773 - Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer is performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London

1774 - Isaac Weld, author, is born in Dublin

1813 - In the British House of Commons, Sir Eyre Coote (the younger), MP for Ballynakill and Maryborough, proposes the abolition of flogging in the army

1852 - Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory (née Persse), playwright, folklorist and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, is born in Roxborough, Co. Galway

1904 - Birth of George Brent, actor, in Dublin

1878 - Sir Robert McCarrison, medical scientist and honorary physician to King George V from 1928 to 1935 is born in Portadown, Co. Armagh

1976 - The IRA is linked to a bomb that explodes on a London Underground train; the driver of the train, Julius Stephen, is shot dead while chasing a gunman who is believed to have detonated the bomb. Ten other people are injured

1993 - Kitty Linnane, leader of the Kilfenora Céili Band, dies

1998 - The US Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, confirms she will leave her post after US Independence Day celebrations in Dublin on July 4

1999 - A prominent Irish civil rights solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, is killed by a Loyalist car bomb in Lurgan, Co. Armagh

1999 - The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Jim McDaid, unveils plans to commemorate the Year 2000. Commencing on St. Patrick's Day, "The Party Starts Here," is the official title of a 21-month long series of events, which will link over 300 separate festivals

2000 - The censor lifts a ban on more than two thirds, or 400, of prohibited books following an appeal by the Labour Party. Only 187 books and about 270 magazines and newspapers now remain on the banned list

2001 - John Gilligan is found not guilty of the murder of Veronica Guerin; however, he is sentenced to 28 years in prison on drug-related crimes. The sentence is twice what most people expected and six years more than the previous longest sentence handed down for a drugs offence

2002 - Tesco's supermarket chain in Ireland announces that, unlike its British counterpart, it has no plans to start issuing the morning-after pill to Irish teenagers free of charge.

[Rashers]

March 16

1618 - Richard Archdekin, Jesuit, educator and missioner to Ireland, is born in Louvain

1640 - Charles I's second Irish parliament meets

1690 - French king Louis XIV sends troops to Ireland

1789 - Francis Rawdon Chesney, soldier and explorer, is born in Annalong, Co. Down

1815 - William Reeves, Church of Ireland bishop and antiquary, is born in Charleville, Co. Cork

1828 - Patrick Cleburne, American Civil War Confederate General, is born in Cobh, Co. Cork

1839 - John B. Yeats, painter and father of William Butler and Jack B. Yeats, is born in Tullylish, Co. Down

1865 - Irish-born Martin Murphy, one of the greatest pioneers of early California, dies

1955 - Singer Ruby Murray scores five simultaneous hits in the British charts

1959 - RTÉ interviews Ireland's first ban garda, Mary Brown from Roscommon

1960 - The P & O liner Canberra (45,000 tons) is launched in Belfast

1988 - At Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast, a gunman kills three mourners and injures at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members Mairead Farrell, Daniel McCann, and Sean Savage shot dead in Gibraltar

1991 - Members of Irish Gay & Lesbian Organization march in NYC parade

1995 - Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams meets President Bill Clinton for the first time

1998 - In Washington, at the American/Ireland Fund dinner, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern bluntly tells Northern political leaders to display the courage necessary to make far-reaching compromises over the next fortnight to rescue the peace process from the dangers of failure

1998 - Beef exports from Northern Ireland are to resume after a three-year ban stemming from the BSE crisis

2000 - Hundreds of sprigs of shamrock are airlifted from Ireland by the RAF to Irish regiments of the British Army around the world in accordance with a decree issued by Queen Victoria 100 years ago. It is exactly 100 years since the queen decrees that all Irish regiments of the British Army wear a shamrock in their head dress on St Patrick’s Day to commemorate the bravery of Irish troops during the Boer War

2000 - Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, announces that more troop withdrawals are likely over the coming months

2001 - President Bush, Sinn Fein's President Gerry Adams, and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, watch Irish dancers perform at the White House in Washington. Ahern meets with Bush and discusses the 1998 power-sharing deal that has brought a tenuous peace in Northern Ireland.

2001 - Kilmainham residents protest against a planned office development in the heart of an historic part of Dublin

2001 - Irish Defense Minister Michael Smith celebrates St. Patrick's day with Irish peacekeepers at Camp Shamrock near the southern village of Tibnine

2003 - More than 1,500 performers create a Mardi-Gras atmosphere on the streets of Limerick for the 33rd International Marching Band Parade and Competition.

[Rashers]

March 17

1777 - Patrick Brontë, originally Brunty; clergyman and father of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, is born in Ballynaskeagh, Co. Down

1800 - Charles James Patrick Mahon, high-ranking soldier in Russia, Turkey, South America and France; duellist; & politician, is born in Ennis, Co. Clare

1794 - Sir Thomas Maclear, astronomer, is born in Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone

1820 - Patrick Edward Connor, Union General, is born in Co. Kerry

1852 - Patrick Sheehan, 'Canon Sheehan', priest and writer, is born in Mallow, Co. Cork

1853 - The Ossianic Society is founded to preserve and publish manuscripts of the Fionn cycle

1858 - James Stephens founds the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Dublin

1864 - Charlotte Milligan Fox, collector of folk music, is born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone

1877 - Michael O'Hanrahan, author and revolutionary, is born in New Ross, Co. Wexford

1889 - Harry Clarke, artist, known chiefly for stained-glass work, is born in Dublin

1899 - First issue of Gaelic League's An Claidheamh Soluis is published

1903 - St Patrick's Day becomes a bank holiday

1944 - Birth in Northern Ireland of Pat McCauley, rock drummer for Them

1951 -Scott Gorham, hard rock guitarist, is born

1964 - Joe Cooney, Galway hurler, is born near Loughrea

1976 - Birth in Dublin of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately

1997 - President Bill Clinton sharply increases the pressure on Northern political leaders to make concessions following a White House declaration that they will throw away a chance in a lifetime if they fail to settle an agreement by May

1998 - Frankie Curry, a top loyalist dissident, is gunned down by the UVF in revenge for the killing of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson

1999 - From Malin Head to Mizen Head, up to a million people turn out for St Patrick’s Day parades.

2001 - For the first time, Queen Elizabeth II sends a special St. Patrick's Day greeting to President Mary McAleese

2001 - Publicans in Westport, Co. Mayo call time on hen and stag parties. Bar owners in Westport, Co Mayo say the revellers are no longer welcome and will not be served in the town’s 44 pubs

2001 - Thousands of bargain hunters pack the RDS for the biggest ever Irish International Antiques and Fine Art Fair

2002 - In Dublin, an estimated 500,000 people line the parade route for the pinnacle of the €2.5 million St. Patrick's festival weekend

2003 - Two police officers and a paramedic are injured as sectarian fighting breaks out in flashpoint areas of Belfast

2003 - Snakes, sea monsters, Vikings and samba bands provide the sparkle in St Patrick’s Day celebrations around the country while the saint himself supplies the weather - warm and sunny in most areas.

Happy St Patrick's Day to all.

[cogito]

I always remember as a child parts of Pearse's famous and powerful,

and emotive oration at the graveside of O Donavan Rossa.

Fair play to ye... was there a big crowd in the cemetery ?

[silver spoon]

Fair play to ye... was there a big crowd in the cemetery ?

That's what I like a bit of dub humour, you were joking, ha/ha.


On the other hand huge crowd,and dead quiet, remember it as if it was yesterday, young fella.

[silver spoon]

Robert Emmet

Robert Emmett was one of our great patriots,and this quote was so memorable.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/robertemme317228.html

[silver spoon]

Robert Emmett was one of our great patriots,and this quote was so memorable.


http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/qu...mme317228.html

I forgot to ask,was his epitaph ever written, and honoured ?

[Rashers]

March 18

1736 - The Irish House of Commons condemns tithe of agistment on pasturage for dry and barren cattle

1800 - Harriet Smithson, actress and wife of the composer Hector Berlioz, is born in Ennis, Co. Clare

1801 - Ambrose O'Higgins, Viceroy of Peru, dies in Lima

1825 - In accordance with the Unlawful Societies Act, the Grand Orange Lodge advises its members that further meetings would be in violation of the law

1932 - The order outlawing the IRA is allowed to lapse

1949 - Birth in Belfast of Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, snooker player and two time world-champion

1952 - Pat Eddery, jockey, is born in Blackrock, Co. Dublin

1998 - The funeral of Hugh Coveney, politician and former Lord Mayor of Cork, takes place at St Michael's Church in Blackrock

1998 - Founder and executive director of the Chernobyl Children's Project charity, Adi Roche, is awarded the Frantsysk Skrayna Order by Belarus's envoy to Britain and Ireland, Uladzimir Shchasny. It is the country's highest honour and the first time it has been given to a foreigner

1999 - The funeral of murdered human rights lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, takes place at St. Peter's Church in Lurgan

2000 - The end of a 30 year ban fails to bring huge numbers of people out to see the controversial cult movie, A Clockwork Orange

2000 - Geneva-based financier and professional gambler, JP McManus jumps almost 20 places to 13th in The Sunday Times Irish rich list, with an estimated worth of more than £300 million.

In the old Celtic calendar, today is Sheelah's Day. In ancient Ireland, it was an annual festival to honor the fertility Goddess known as Sheela-na-gig. Naked Sheela-na-gig figures appeared in Irish churches constructed before the 16th century, but most were defaced or destroyed during the prudish Victorian age.

According to some sources, the origins of "drowning the shamrock" have also been traced to this date. In the eighteenth century, William Hone reported on the celebrations surrounding Sheelah, who has been variously identified as the wife, mother, or other relative of St. Patrick - noting that, the people of the day "are not so anxious to determine who 'Sheelah' was, as they are earnest in her celebration. All agree that her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations of whisky." At the end of the day, the faithful would then take their shamrocks and drop them into their respective glasses before downing the contents.

=================================

March 19

1642 - Charles I's 'Adventurers' Act' offers confiscated Irish land in return for investment in the reconquest

1821 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Richard Francis Burton, adventurer, writer, swordsman, scholar and explorer

1824 - William Allingham, poet and diarist, is born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal

1861 - Joseph MacRory, Catholic Primate of all Ireland and cardinal, is born in Ballygawley, Co. Tyrone

1920 - Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork for Sinn Féin and inventor of the famous "Flying Column, is killed by Black & Tans disguised as policemen. The inquest into his death returns a verdict of wilful murder against the RIC, and indicts Lloyd George and the British government

1921 - Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column routs a superior force from the Essex Regiment at Crossbarry

1924 - Death of Charles Villiers Stanford, composer and author

1928 - Birth of actor Patrick McGoohan

1988 - Two British soldiers who drive into a Republican area of Belfast during a funeral procession, are seized and killed

1998 - The country's beef industry takes a further blow following strong indications from the Department of Agriculture that Co. Clare is to be included in the beef export ban to Russia

1998 - The Maze prison crisis deeps after the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) issues a death threat against warders.The terror gang warns it will specifically target prison officers working in H6 unit over allegations of mistreatment

2000 - The Irish and British governments begin an all out effort to build on the positive signal from Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, and rescue the endangered Northern Ireland peace process

2000 - As many as 250,000 people line the streets of Dublin to watch a spectacular fireworks display which caps off four days of celebration as the grand finale of St Patrick’s Festival

2000 - Thirty five bands from the United States, Japan, Northern Ireland and across the country take part in the Limerick International Marching Band Competition, Ireland's biggest band parade

2001 - Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey is in critical condition in a Dublin hospital after collapsing at his home

2001 - Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, announces that she is stepping down from her post, saying she thinks she can do more outside the "restraints" of the UN system

2003 - Co. Clare takes top honours at the CIE National Awards of Excellence.