It Happened on this date

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22nd of December

1691 - Patrick Sarsfield and The Wild Geese sail out of Cork harbour for France



1740 - Joseph Stock, bishop and author, is born in Dublin



1761 - Dorothea Jordan born in Ireland, French comedic actress

1830 - Justin M'Carthy born in Cork, Ireland, Irish politician/novelist (Miss Misanthrope)



1863 - Michael Corcoran, Union Brigadier-General, dies at 36

1888 - Heavyweight Boxing Champion John L Sullivan challenges Jake Kilrain



1919 - "The Better Government of Ireland Bill" (Government of Ireland Act of Power) proposes two home rule parliaments, for the six north-eastern counties and the remaining 26, to come into effect in May 1920



1948 - Birth of TV presenter, Noel Edmonds



1961 - Marcus O'Sullivan (Villanova), athlete, is born in Cork



1965 - The Succession Act secures to widows a third of the estate (half if they have no children) and empowers the court to make provisions for children



1974 -The London home of the Conservative leader and former Prime Minister Edward Heath is damaged from the impact of a bomb planted by the IRA. The attack comes just hours before a Christmas truce is due to come into effect



1989 - Death of Samuel Beckett



1997 - Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam battles to save the Stormont talks from total collapse as four Ulster Unionist MPs withdraw their support for their party's continuing participation in the negotiations



1997 - The funeral of former Minister for Agriculture, Jim Gibbons, takes place in his native Kilkenny



1998 - Legislation to ensure the compilation of a full record of the country's important buildings and monuments which should be protected is circulated by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Sile de Valera



2002 - The Minister for the Marine, Dermot Ahern, warns about the possibility of a "war on the seas" as a result of the failure by the European Union to agree on a policy relating to the Irish Box fishing area.





St. Ernan of Donegal



Died about 640. He is mentioned in the Martyrology of Tallagh on 1 January. He was a nephew of St. Columba, Feilim or Feidhlimidh (St. Columba's father) being his paternal grandfather. Owing to this relationship, some writers have mistaken our saint for Ernan of Hinba, an uncle of St. Columba. His monastery in Ireland was at Druim-Tomma in the district of Drumhome, County Donegal. Adamnan relates the wonderful vision he had on the night St. Columba died (Vit. S. Col., III, 23). Ernan, with some companions, was fishing in the River Finn, in Donegal. Suddenly at midnight he beheld the whole sky brightly illuminated. Looking towards the east he perceived an immense pillar of fire shining as the sun at noonday. This marvellous light then passed into the heavens, and a great darkness followed, as after the setting of the sun. This wonderful occurrence was related to Adamnan by Ernan himself, who at the time is described as "a very old man, a servant of Christ, whose name may be rendered Ferreolus, but in Irish Ernene (of the clan Mocufirroide), who, himself also a holy monk, is buried in the Ridge of Tomma (Drumhome) among the remains of other monks of St. Columba, awaiting the resurrection of the saints". Some writers style this St. Ernan, Abbot of Druim Tomma. It is uncertain whether he visited Scotland, nevertheless he is regarded as patron saint of Killernan, in Ross-shire; and it may be that the dedications of Kilviceuen (church of the son of Eogan) in Mull, and of Kilearnadale in Jura, Argyleshire, are in his honour. In the "Scottish Kalendars", collected by Bishop Forbes, his name appears as Ethernanus, and his commemoration is assigned to 21 and 22 December (pp. 170, 222, 243).


St. Ernan of Hinba



Lived in the sixth century. He was uncle of St. Columba, and one of the twelve who accompanied him from Ireland to Iona. He was brother of Ethnea, St. Columba's mother, and son of Dima, the son of Noe of the race of Cathaeir Ivor (Reeves, notes, p. 263). St. Columba appointed him superior of the community which he himself had established on the island of Hinba. The identity of Hinba has not been established with certainty. It may be Canna, about four miles N. W. of Rum (ibid., p. 264); but more likely it is Eilean-na-Naoimh, one of the Gaveloch Isles, between Scarba and Mull (Fowler's Adamnan, p. 87). Hinba was a favourite place of resort for St. Columba. There he was visited by St. Comgall, St. Cannich, St. Brendan, and St. Cormac. At the request of these holy men, St. Columba celebrated Mass, during which St. Brendan beheld a luminous globe of fire above St. Columba's head. It continued burning and rising up like a column of flame, till the Holy Mysteries had been completed (Adamnan, III, xvii). On another occasion, while visiting St. Ernan's monastery in Hinba, St. Columba was favoured with heavenly visions and revelations which lasted three days and nights (Adamnan, III, xviii). The death of St. Ernan was tragic. Being seized with an illness, he desired to be carried to Iona. St. Columba, greatly rejoiced at his coming, started to meet him. Ernan likewise hastened but when he was twenty-four paces from his nephew he fell to the earth and died. Thus was the prophecy of St. Columba fulfilled, that he would never again see Ernan alive (Adamnan, I, xlv).

Source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05523a.htm

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23rd of December

December (Nollaig) 23rd

1686 - Samuel Madden, writer, economist and philanthropist, is born in Dublin



1688 - James II is deposed and flees to France

1770 - The Steelboys or Hearts of Steel, a Protestant agrarian protest movement, is involved in conflict in Ulster - 500 Steelboys release a prisoner in Belfast on 23 December


The Steelboys were a more formidable organisation, and had their strongholds in the counties of Down and Amtrim. They were for the most part Presbyterian or other dissenters from the Established Church, and, like the Whiteboys, aimed at the abolition or reduction of tithes and the restriction of the system of consolidating farms for grazing purposes.

http://iol.ie/~fagann/1798/dfender.htm

http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/E900002-001/text005.html

1864 - Death of James Bronterre O’Brien, Longford-born leader of the British Chartist movement

1900 - Noel Purcell, actor, is born in Dublin

1920 - The Government of Ireland Act enforces the secession of the six Northern Irish counties from the rest of Ireland

1950 - A bank strike that will last eight weeks begins on this date

1951 - Benito Lynch, Irish/Argentine writer (Palo Verde), dies at 66

2002 - The second 55ft section of the Spire of Dublin (better known as The Spike) is hauled into place.

Saints Day:

St. Mazota of Abernethy, Virgin

8th century. Mazota was one of a band of 19 maidens who migrated from Ireland to Scotland to found the convent at Abernathy on the Tay. Mazota seems to have been their leader (Benedictines).

"Drumoak has, for its titular Saint, Mayot or Mazota, Virgin whose feast was formerly kept on 22nd December, and whose name is perpetuated by a well, known by the name of St. Maik's Well. It is said that Garnard (Pict), being at war with the Britons, was admonished in a vision to send to Ireland for his cousin, Saint Bride (Bridget), to instruct him in the faith, and that she came bringing with her nine nuns, chief of whom was this Saint Mazota. It is further stated that the King, having been baptized, built a Cathedral which was duly consecrated, and that Saint Bride and Saint Mazota with their eight companions took up their abode there..." from the Annals of Lower Deeside

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24th of December

1601 - The Battle of Kinsale. Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell are heavily defeated by Mountjoy

http://www.kinsale-angling.com/NoFrames/Kinsale1601.htm

http://homepage.eircom.net/~earrings/battle-of-kinsale.html

http://www.libraryireland.com/JoyceHistory/Kinsale.php

1701 - Captain Thomas Bellew fights a duel with Major-General William Stewart on Christmas Eve - both men's right hands are disabled as a result of war wounds, and Bellew has served under Stewart. Stewart fires from two yards and blows Bellew's hat off, whereupon Bellew throws his pistol away, saying he does not wish to kill Stewart

1709 - Alan Brodrick, Speaker of the House of Commons, is appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench

1713 - The second Irish parliament of Queen Anne sits from 25 November to this date. The Whig Alan Brodrick is elected Speaker for the second time (having served 21 September 1703 to 19 May 1710), in place of John Forster, after a stormy contest with the government's Tory nominee, Sir Richard Levinge

1810 - John O'Connell, politician, is born in Dublin


John O'Connell (1801 - 24 May 1858) was one of seven children (the third of four sons) of the Irish Nationalist leader Daniel and Mary O'Connell. He served in British Parliament as Member of Parliament (MP) for Youghal from 1832 to 1837, for Athlone from 1837-1841, for Kilkenny from 1841-1847, for Limerick from 1847-1851 and for Clonmel from 1853-57.

His brothers Maurice, Morgan and Daniel were also MPs.

1818 - In St. Nicholas Church at Oberndorf, Austria, church organist Franz Gruber, 31, composed a melody on guitar for the poem, "Stille Nacht," written earlier by pastor Joseph Mohr, 26. This evening the world heard "Silent Night" sung for the very first time.

1889 - Captain William O'Shea files for divorce, citing Parnell as his wife Kitty's lover, thus causing moral outrage and the subsequent loss of Parnell's political power

1895 - The 15-man crew of a Dun Laoghaire lifeboat crew is lost in a gale while attempting a rescue from a stricken vessel off Blackrock

1921 - Gerard Victory, composer, is born in Dublin

1942 - Psychiatrist and broadcaster Dr. Anthony Clare is born in Dublin

1997 - In one of the worst storms in living memory, seven people die and many others are injured as hurricane-force winds wreak havoc across the country


1998 - After 26 years, an exceptional era in broadcasting comes to a close on this date when Gay Byrne does his final morning radio show on RTE Radio One.

2002 - President Mary McAleese breaks her ankle in a skiing accident in Austria

The Christmas Truce - http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/truce.asp

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25th of December

1185 - Around Christmas, a crown that Henry had sought from the papacy for John's use as king of Ireland is delivered, but will never be used



1351 - William Ó Ceallaigh, chief of Uí Mhaine, holds a great Christmas feast for the bards of Ireland

1744 - Sir John Parnell, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, is born in Co. Laois

1781 - John Ward, mystic and religious writer, is born in Queenstown, Co. Cork



1808 - Stephen Cleeg Rowan, Commander (Union Navy) born near Dublin, died in 1890

http://www.rowan.addr.com/Vice%20Adm.htm

1824 - William Lawless, United Irishmen and officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, dies in Paris
1772-1824, b. Dublin; A United Irishman and later a French General, he trained as a surgeon, RCSI. Captain of the Irish Legion, 1803; distinguished at Flushing and decorated with legion d’honneur by Napoleon, 1806; promoted Col. 1813, wounded and lost a leg at Lowenberg, 1813; half-pay Brig.-General, 1814 [Restoration], resided in country house at Tours; d. Paris.



1829 - Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, bandmaster and composer, is born in Co. Dublin

1831 - Christopher Palles, judge and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland is born in Dublin

1844 - Rev. William Steel Dickson, Presbyterian minister and United Irishmen supporter, is born in Co. Antrim
http://www.alecbanmacconaill.co.uk/adobe%5C1798.pdf (Scroll to page 4 on this link)



1855 - Hall of Fame pitcher, James Galvin born, shut-out every opposing team in 1884



1860 - Patrick Dinneen (Pádraig Ó Duinnín) priest, lexicographer and editor, is born in Rathmore, Co. Kerry

1873 - Patrick Gallagher aka 'Paddy the Cope', cooperative society developer, is born in Cleendra, Co. Donegal



1881 - Sir John Greer Dill, Field-Marshalis born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jgdill.htm

1916 - Irish prisoners interned at Frongoch are released


Frongoch internment camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War. Until 1916 it housed German prisoners of war in an abandoned distillery and crude huts, but in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, the German prisoners were moved and it was used as a place of internment for approximately 1,800 Irish prisoners, among them such notables as Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith. They were accorded the status of prisoners of war. It is a common misconception that Éamon de Valera was also imprisoned at Frongoch. [1] During this time de Valera was held at Dartmoor, Maidstone and Lewes prisons.



1957 - Shane McGowan, rock vocalist born (The Pogues-Red Roses For Me)

http://www.shanemacgowan.com/

1971 - Noel Hogan musician (Cranberries) born today.



1974 - Harry Kernoff, Irish artist in oils and woodcuts, dies



1999 - While most parts of the country experience heavy rain and winds, the snow capped Knockmealdown and Comeragh mountains in Co Waterford are picturesque on Christmas Day, particularly for punters who had a flutter on a White Christmas. The presence of snow in many areas costs bookmaker Paddy Power £50,000


2002 - Ireland experiences its mildest Christmas in over a decade.

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26th of December

1381 - The sudden death of Edmund Mortimer at Cork leaves the colony without effective leadership and prompts a military crisis

1820 - Dion Boucicault, dramatist and actor, is born in Dublin



1786 - Daniel Shays led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. Shay was a Revolutionary War veteran who led a short-lived insurrection in western Massachusetts to protest a tax increase that had to be paid in cash, a hardship for veteran farmers who relied on barter and didn‘t own enough land to vote. The taxes were to pay off the debts from the Revolutionary War, and those who couldn‘t pay were evicted or sent to prison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays'_Rebellion

1823 - John Cairnes, economist, is born in Castle Bellingham, Co. Louth



1950 - James Stephens, writer, dies



1998 - Thousands of homes and businesses in the northern half of the country are without electricity as hurricane-force gales and gusts of over 100 miles per hour send poles crashing to the ground and entangle wires in fallen trees. Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal are the worst affected counties



1998 - Former IRA Chief of Staff, Cathal Goulding, dies in a Dublin hospital

http://www.searcs-web.com/gould.html

2001 - Politicians from all parties join in mourning the passing of Mark Clinton, who was a major figure in Irish public life over three decades. Mr. Clinton died peacefully at Lucan Lodge Nursing Home, in Lucan, Co Dublin, on December 23, after a lengthy illness
Mr Clinton was born to a farming family at Moynalty, Kells, Co Meath, in 1915. He was known as a rugged Gaelic footballer who wore the county colours in his younger days and played on the Meath team defeated in the 1939 All Ireland by Kerry. He served as a member of Dublin Co Council from 1955 and represented various Co Dublin constituencies from 1961 until his retirement from Dáil Eireann. He also served with distinction in the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989 and his political experience was recognised by his election as vice-president of that assembly.

http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2001/12/27/story19939.asp

2007 - Joe Dolan (68), one of Ireland's first pop music stars, died from a brain hemorrhage. He had entertained audiences for decades with Vegas-style showmanship. His last Irish No. 1 came in 1997, when he re-recorded "Good-Looking Woman" with a popular fictional TV comedian, a puppet named Dustin the Turkey.



Saints Days




St. Stephen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen's_Day

In Ireland the day is one of nine official public holidays.[1]

In Irish it is called Lá Fhéile Stiofán or Lá an Dreoilín — the latter translates literally as another English name used, the Day of the Wren or Wren's Day. When used in this context, "wren" is often pronounced "ran". This name alludes to several legends, including those found in Ireland linking episodes in the life of Jesus to the wren. Although now mostly a discontinued tradition, in certain parts of Ireland persons carrying either an effigy of a wren or an actual caged wren [live or dead], travel from house to house playing music, singing and dancing. Depending on which region of the country, they are called Wrenboys and Mummers. A Mummer's Festival is held at this time every year in the village of New Inn, Co. Galway and Dingle Co. Kerry. St Stephen's Day is also a popular day for visiting family members.



St. Jarlath, Bishop of Tuam, Ireland

Born c. 445 at Connaught. Died c. 540. Irish nobility. Having studied under St. Benen (Benignus), he founded a monastery and college at
Cloonfush, near Tuam, which soon attracted scholars from all parts of Ireland. The fame of Cloonfush is sufficiently attested by two of its pupils, St. Brendan of Ardfert, and St. Colman of Cloyne. But, great teacher as he was, he went, through humility, to avail himself of the instruction of St. Enda at Arran about 495. He removed to Tuam about the second decade of sixth century. St. Jarlath is included in the second order of Irish saints, and on that account he must have lived to the year 540. The "Felire" of Aengus tells us that he was noted for his fasting, watching, and mortification. Three hundred times by day and three hundred times by night did this saint bend the knee in prayer, and he was also endowed with the gift of prophecy. His feast is kept on 6 June, being the date of the translation of his relics to a church specially built in his honour, adjoining the cathedral of Tuam. His remains were encased in a silver shrine, whence the church--built in the thirteenth century—was called Teampul na scrin, that is the church of the shrine.

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27th of December

1601 - Red Hugh O'Donnell leaves Ireland for Spain; Hugh O'Neill withdraws to Ulster

http://homepage.eircom.net/~earrings/red-hugh-o-donnell.html

1727 - Arthur Murphy, actor and playwright, is born in Cloonyquin, Co. Roscommon

1791 - 68 conservative members secede from the Catholic Committee, which thereby becomes more militant



1821 - Lady Jane Francesca Wilde is born in Co. Wexford. Author, poet and the mother of Oscar Wilde, she is also known as Speranza.
Note: Many sources give the year of birth as 1826 (incorrectly - she later in life verified in fact that 1821 was her birth year).

1849 - James Fintan Lalor, Young Irelander, dies

http://www.searcs-web.com/lalor.html

1899 - Paul Costello US, double sculls (Olympics-gold-1920, 24, 28)


1904 - Seamus Byrne, lawyer and playwright, is born in Dublin



1904 - The Abbey Theatre opens with productions of Yeat's "On Baile's Strand" and "Cathleen ni Houlihan", as well as Lady Gregory's "Spreading the News"



1904 - George Bernard Shaw's “John Bull's Other Island” is performed in London



1960 - Death of Elizabeth Crotty, Irish traditional musician and activist for Comhaltas Ceolteiri Eireann



1969 - Dan Breen, IRA leader during War of Independence dies

http://www.searcs-web.com/breen.html

1997 - A leading protestant paramilitary, Billy Wright, is shot dead at the maximum security Maze prison in Northern Ireland. The LVF launched a number of revenge attacks over the following weeks.



1997 - In Northern Ireland masked killers shot and killed Seamus Dillon (45), a Catholic security guard at the Glengannon Hotel. Two other bouncers and a 14-year-old bar worker were wounded. The attack was a response to the killing of Billy Wright.


2002 - A young man is executed in north Belfast as the simmering feud among loyalist paramilitaries erupts

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28th of December

1673 - Birth of Marmaduke Coghill, lawyer, judge and MP



Marmaduke Coghill born in Dublin, on the 28th December, 1673, and was admitted a fellow commoner of Trinity college in 1687; here he took his degree of doctor of civil law, and was chosen one of its representatives in parliament, which mark of respect and esteem his constituents conferred on him till the time of his decease. After rilling several important offices, he was appointed chancellor ot the Irish exchequer, in 1735, which situation he held with great repute during the rest of his life. He died of that fatal disorder, the gout in the stomach, in 1738, and was interred in St. Andrew's church-yard. In public life he was a man of unwearied diligence and clear judgment, an equally upright counsellor of the crown, and independent representative of the people. As one of the first commissioners of the board of first fruits, he may be said to have organised that body, and to have been the prime cause of all the benefits which arise to the established church in Ireland from his exertions. In private life he was universally beloved for his benevolence, affability, and sweetness of temper. His sister, Mary Coghill, erected the church of Drumcoudra, near Dublin, as a monument of respect and affection to his memory, and ornamented it with a tomb, sculptured by Scheemaker.



Source: http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA4...X_&output=text

Biographia Hibernica: a biographical dictionary of the worthies of ..., Volume 1 By Richard Ryan



1795 - Lord Gosford, Governor of Armagh declares the Orange Order a "lawless banditti"



1880 - The trial of Parnell and others for conspiracy begins on this date



1883 - St John Greer Ervine, playwright, author, critic and manager of the Abbey Theatre from 1915 to 1916, is born in Belfast



1918 - Sein Fein wins 73 of 108 seats in all-Ireland election.



1918 - Countess Markievicz declared to be the first woman elected to the House of Commons.



1923 - George Bernard Shaw's "St Joan" premieres in New York NY



1997 - The British government orders the deployment of the SAS in Mid-Ulster in a bid to thwart another Loyalist Volunteer Force outrage as IRA commanders in Tyrone meet in emergency session in an effort to keep the lid on the Provo ceasefire



Saints Day:



St. Maughold, Apostle of the Isle of Man

(Maccul, Macaldus, Mawgan, Morgan)



Died c. 488.

Saint Maughold was an Irish prince and reputedly a captain of robbers who was converted by Patrick. Upon his conversion, he became a new man by putting on the spirit of Christ. One version of the legend says that Patrick told him to put to sea in a coracle without oars as a penance for his evil deeds. Another says that he set sail in order to avoid the temptations of the world. In both stories, he retired to the Isle of Man (Eubonia) off the coast of Lancashire, England.

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29th of December

1766 - Richard Dawson, MP for Monaghan Borough, dies on this date. Before his death, his bank - Wilcox & Dawson of Dublin, which was established in 1747 - closes with debts thought to amount to £192,000



1829 - Fr. John B. Bannon, Confederate Army Chaplain, is born in Co. Leitrim

http://www.battleofchampionhill.org/history/bannon.htm

http://www.pricecamp.org/kelly.htm

1864 - The National Association of Ireland is founded in Dublin, backed by the Catholic hierarchy and intended to foster cooperation with English radicals to promote disestablishment of the Church of Ireland



1876 - The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language is formed in Dublin



1902 - Birth of Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford; theatrical producer and dramatist



1932 - Eileen Desmond, Labour politician, is born in Kinsale, Co. Cork



1937 - Ireland adopts constitution (Irish Free State becomes Eire) Éire is the nominative form in modern Irish of the name for the goddess called Ériu in Old Irish, a mythical figure who helped the Gaels conquer Ireland as described in the Book of Invasions.

1997 - Secretary of State Mo Mowlam holds day-long crisis talks with security chiefs and prison officials amid renewed calls for her resignation and fears that breakaway loyalist and republican terror bosses will ruthlessly exploit any political vacuum


1998 - Battered by gale-force winds and torrential rain, The Isle of Man ferry runs aground in Dublin Bay


1998 - More than 12,000 families across the country face their fifth day of candle-light and cold meals as the painstaking process of repairing storm-damaged electricity lines drags on


2000 - One of the coldest spells to grip the country in decades continues



2001 - Singer Daniel O'Donnell is awarded an honorary MBE in the Queen's honours list for his decades of service to the music industry. Fashion designer John Rocha is awarded a CBE.



2006 - Sinn Fein leaders voted to convene an emergency conference and confront a pivotal issue in Northern Ireland peacemaking, whether the IRA-linked party should support the police.



1809 - William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) British PM (1868-74, '80-86, '92-94) He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer and a champion of the Home Rule Bill which would have established self-government in Ireland.

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30th of December

1691 - Robert Boyle, pioneer chemist and physicist dies

1828 - Mark Perrin Lowrey, Brigadier-General (Confederate Army) (Scots-Irish) born today, died in 1885



1830 - William Lewery Blackley, cleric and social reformer, is born in Dundalk, Co. Louth



1869 - Philadelphia Knights of Labor forms



1883 - Lester Patrick, NHL pioneer born



1997 - Key files from the Department of Defence, the Department of Justice and the Office of the Attorney General relating to the Arms Crisis of 1970 are discovered to be missing from the State archives



1997 - Thousands of loyalists pack the streets of Portadown for the funeral of LVF commander Billy Wright



2002 - To mark the 400th anniversary of the exodus of the O’Sullivan Beare clan from West Cork to Leitrim, a group of 40 people begins walking the entire 260-mile route which will take them through 11 counties and about two weeks to complete.

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31st of December

1602 - The O’Sullivan Beara’s are driven out of West Cork by the English who had defeated the combined Spanish and Irish forces at the Battle of Kinsale. Dónal Cam O’Sullivan, chieftain of the clan, begins the long march to Leitrim on this date, where he hopes to gain sanctuary with the O’Rourke’s of Breffni. Accompanying him are 1,000 men, women and children representing the first large-scale exodus of people from the Castletownbere region


Dónall O'Sullivan Beare and his clan began their epic march to Ulster. O'Sullivan had supported O'Neill in his fight against Elizabethan England's attempts to destroy Gaelic Ireland once and for all. The cause O'Neill and O'Sullivan fought for was probably doomed after O'Neill's defeat at Kinsale in 1601, but the fight went on, nonetheless. In 1602, O'Sullivan and men were besieged in their County Cork stronghold; in the end their only hope was to somehow make their way to Brian O'Rourke in Leitrim and from there join with O'Neill in the north and unite to continue the contest.To do so they would have to fight their way through the English and other Irish clans who had submitted. On December 31, O'Sullivan and about 1,000 of his clan, more than half of them female dependents of his soldiers, departed from Glengariff to begin their heroic journey through enemy territory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B3nall_Cam_%C3%93_S%C3%BAilleabh%C3%A1in_B%C3%A9irre

1728 - Sylvester O'Halloran, surgeon, founder of Limerick Infirmary, and antiquary, is born in Limerick



1759 - Brewery is leased at St. James Gate, Dublin by Arthur Guinness



1775 - General Richard Montgomery dies fighting the British.


Richard Montgomery (December 2, 1738 – December 31, 1775) was an Irish-born soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a brigadier-general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and he is most famous for leading the 1775 invasion of Canada.



1783 - Commodore Thomas Macdonough, hero of the War of 1812, whose family was from Dublin, was born in the Delaware town then known as "The Trap," but now renamed in his honor, "McDonough." Thomas joined the U.S. Navy in 1800 as a midshipman and spent the first years of his naval career fighting pirates, including the famous Barbary Pirates > operating out of Tripoli. When the War of 1812 broke out, Macdonough, then a lieutenant, was made the commander of all the Navy's forces on Lake Champlain, an extremely important post due to the threat of British invasion from Canada. The opposing sides built their fleets on the Lake through most of 1813. In August of that year, British General Sir George Prevost began his invasion from Canada. Moving along the western edge of Lake Champlain, he hoped to use the guns of his fleet to help cover his advance. The British army outnumbered the Americans better than two to one, but Pervost needed to use the Lake to supply his army, thus the fleet of Thomas Macdonough became a prime target of the British fleet on Lake Champlain. The two fleets were fairly evenly matched, but the guns of the British ships had an advantage in range. Macdonough came up with a brilliant plan to negate this advantage. He anchored inside Plattsburgh Bay in such a manner that the British couldn't fire at them from long range and had to come around Cumberland Head and approach them head on, presenting their bows to the American guns. From there it became a close-range slugging match, more to the liking of the Americans. On board his flagship, the Saratoga, Macdonough fired the first shot, hitting the Confiance, the flagship of Captain George Downie, commander of the British fleet. Macdonough continued to work the gun through the fierce 2 ½-hour battle. Twice his men were sure he had been killed as he was knocked out and lay on the deck. But twice he rose and returned to action. Finally, with Capt. Downie dead, and their ships devastated, the largest ships of the British fleet struck their colors, and their gunboats ran for home. On land, General Pervost had engaged the American land forces as the British fleet attacked. When it became apparent the American fleet was victorious, Pervost knew that further movement south was futile; he broke off the attack and retreated toward Canada. Thomas MacDonough's fleet had ended the British invasion; it was one of the greatest victories in history of the U.S. Navy. For his enormous contribution to the momentous victory, Congress had a medal was stuck in MacDonough's honor, and New York and Vermont presented him with huge tracks of land. Thomas Macdonough continued his Navy career after the war. On November 10, 1825, he died of consumption aboard ship while commanding the U.S.S. Constitution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_MacDonough

1804 - Francis Mahony, 'Father Prout, priest and humorist, is born in Cork

1820 - Novelist Mary Anne Sadlier, née Madden, is born in Cootehill, Co. Cavan



1862 - From December 31 to January 2, 1863, Irish-born Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne commanded a division at Murfreesboro (Stone's River) >, Tennessee, site of one of the fiercest battles of the Western theater of the American Civil War. In early December 1862, the transfer of Confederate Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner had created a vacancy for a division command in Braxton Bragg's Army of the Tennessee. There was no man in that Army who could breath a word against the promotion of Patrick Ronayne Cleburne to that post, nor the promotion to major general that went with it. Usually the months of December and January were quiet times, with soldiers in winter camps, but Federal Gen. William S. Rosecrans intended to drive Bragg's army from Tennessee, winter or no. Bragg awaited his advance along Stone's River, just west of Murfreesboro. On the morning of the 31st, Cleburne's division was on the Confederate left. Attacking at dawn, Cleburne fell on the corps of Federal Gen. Alexander McCook, which held the Federal right, and drove the corps from the field. Federal Gen. Thomas Crittenden, observing from a distance, said it was the first time the Army of the Cumberland had ever seen such panic. A second line was formed by the Federals, but Cleburne's men drove them as well. They continued to drive the enemy until they ran out of ammunition and energy. Later, Confederate Corps commander William Hardee expressed his belief that if a fresh division had followed up Cleburne's, Rosecrans entire army would have been routed. Night fell, however, and the two armies brought in the New Year sleeping on their arms. Rosecran's army was badly whipped, but it stayed put on January 1st. Bragg was cautious and only probed to discover if the Federals were still there. The Federals had fortified their position to the west of the river, in front of Cleburne; Bragg decided to attack them east of the river. This attack, by Breckinridge, was successful at first, but was then met by 58 Federal artillery pieces and shredded. Bragg would retreat the next day. Though his army had abandoned the field, Cleburne's performance in his first battle as a major general had been outstanding. His eventual rise to corps command seemed certain, but factors away from the battlefield would prevent that.

http://www.civilwarhome.com/clebunbi.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Cleburne

1909 - In Hillsborough, Co Down. Harry Ferguson's plane made out of spruce wood and linen made the first flight in Ireland.



1918 - Kid Gleason replaces Pants Rowland as White Sox manager

For more on Kid Gleason - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Gleason



1930 - The appointment of Letitia Dunbar-Harrison as Mayo County Librarian leads to controversy, for reasons related to her lack of Irish-language skill, her disregard of local patronage, and the fact that she's a Protestant; Mayo County Council is dissolved by ministerial order on this date

1936 - William F Ellison Irish clergyman/astronomer, dies at 72



Revd William F.A. Ellison's directorship of the Armagh observatory covered the period 1918 to 1936. Widely respected as a competent telescope maker, he wrote several books and articles on the subject. He wrote a substantial contribution to the Amateur Telescope Making series. Ellison was a highly regarded planetary observer, in particular of Mars, and visual double star observer. According to Patrick Moore, he appears to have been one of the few people to have observed an eclipse of Saturn's satellite Iapetus by the shadow of Saturn's outer, A, ring on 28 February 1918.

Source: http://www.arm.ac.uk/archive-exhibit/2.html



1961 - Radio Éireann's television service begins transmission on this date



1975 - The Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act establishes the right to equal pay for equal or like work and provides a system whereby this right may be attained and enforced