Today in Irish History

[Rashers]

August 23

1170 - Strongbow, a henchman of Henry II, arrives in Waterford at the behest of Dermot McMurrough, an event described in the Annals of Ulster as “the beginning of the woes of Ireland”

1742 - Birth of Walter Hussey (Burgh), lawyer, politician and orator

1798 - Frenchman General Humbert proclaims at Ballina, Co. Mayo, “Union, liberty, the Irish Republic”

1887 - The Land Act gives courts the power to revise and fix rents

1908 - Birth in Dublin of Mervyn Wall, writer who wrote under the pseudonym of Eugene Welply

1912 - Birth of Irish American actor Gene Kelly

1920 - Violent clashes in Belfast; 30 people are killed between August 23 and August 31; Catholics are expelled from shipyards and engineering works

1953 - Birth of John Rocha, fashion designer, based mainly in Dublin since the late seventies

1972 - Lord Killanin becomes the first Irish president of the International Olympic Committee

1995 - RTÉ reports on the closure of the Irish Press newspaper

1998 - A memorial service for the victims of the Omagh bombing is held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and attended by many dignitaries including President Mary McAleese

1999 - Dublin Bus opens the controversial Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor and triples travelling time for city bound motorists

1999 - Bus Éireann announces a luxury Expressway coach hourly daily service from Limerick to Dublin

2001 - An Bord Pleanála grants permission to build a four-lane bridge between Macken Street and Guild Street in Dublin

[Rashers]

August 24

1210 - King John sails from Dublin for England. He had landed at Waterford in June and campaigned in Leinster; after a short siege, he captures Carrickfergus, where the de Lacys have made a stand. On 28 July he captures William de Braose and confiscates his lands. Hugh and Walter de Lacy, lords of Ulster and Meath, forfeit their lands but escape to Scotland. John has defeated the hostile Norman magnates and has established relations with various Irish kings. Cathal Crovderg O'Connor, king of Connacht, has fought in John's army but then quarrelled with him - O'Connor offered his son Aedh to John as a hostage, but Aedh's mother refused to allow this. The dispute is later resolved

1747 - Birth in Dublin of William La Touche, founder of the Bank of Ireland

1798 - Generals' Cornwallis and Lake leave Dublin. Lake travels fast by road with a small force. Cornwallis travels with the main force down the Grand Canal

1803 - James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot, dies in exile in France. Originally a small tradesman in Dublin, he gained attention by his attacks on municipal corruption and his proposal to boycott English goods as a reprisal for the restrictions placed on Irish commerce. He joined the Irish volunteer army and he aided Theodore Wolfe Tone in founding the Dublin branch of the United Irish Society. When faced with a sedition charge in 1793, Tandy fled to the United States and then to France,where he was given the title of general. In 1798, he landed in Ireland, but when he discovered that the French expedition of General Humbert to aid the Irish rebellion had failed, he fled to Hamburg, where he was arrested. He was returned to Ireland, sentenced to execution, but reprieved through French influence. His fame is perpetuated in the Irish ballad “The Wearing of the Green”

1962 - Death of Agnew McMaster, the last of the touring actor-managers who presented Shakespeare’s plays throughout rural Ireland

1968 - The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marches from Coalisland to Dungannon in Co. Tyrone in one of the first large-scale marches of the six-county civil rights movement

1990 - Brian Keenan is released on 24 August, having spent 52 months as a hostage in Beirut

1998 - Shops re-open in Omagh; among the shops to open was Wattersons, which lost three members of staff, and the Oxfam shop, whose two teenager volunteers were also killed

1998 - Eight Navy divers are injured during an air-sea rescue display.
The men who are all members of the Navy Diving Team were taking part in a demonstration by the Defence Forces as part of the Tall Ships festival in Dublin

1999 - Waterford Crystal is chosen to usher in the millennium in the city of New York with a gigantic cut glass Star of Hope ball. The component parts of the six foot diameter sphere, made of 572 crystal panels each consisting of five diamond shapes, will be assembled in New York. It is planned to hang 22 stories high over Manhattan and be lowered down a 77ft high flagpole in time for the stroke of midnight

2000 - Additional troops are ordered onto the streets of Belfast night as fears grow for the fragile peace process

2001 - Bono's father, Bob, is laid to rest at Old Balgriffin Cemetary in Co. Dublin.

[Rashers]

August 25

1170 - Richard de Clare (Strongbow) marries MacMurrough's daughter Aoife, as part of an agreement made two years earlier

1645 - Edward Worcester, Earl of Glamorgan; aristocrat and inventor, is sent to Ireland to raise troops for the king, and makes two secret treaties with the confederates on this date and on 20 December

1764 - James Hope, a member of the United Irishman, is born in Templepatrick, Co. Antrim

1769 - Henry Flood, MP for Callan, kills James Agar, MP for Tulsk, in a duel. The Flood and Agar families had disputed the representation of Callan for many years

1798 - Humbert takes Ballina after token resistance by Government forces

1803 - The British capture Robert Emmet

1863 - Eugene O'Growney, priest and Irish-language revivalist, is born in Ballyfallon, Co. Meath

1865 - Robert Lloyd Praeger, botanist and writer, is born in Holywood, Co. Down

1882 - Birth of Sean Ó Ceallaigh, Ireland’s second president

1921 - Birth in Belfast of Brian Moore who is best known for his novel "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne"

1958 - The first Rose of Tralee festival is held

1986 - ‘Hurricane Charlie’ hits Ireland and the heaviest rain-fall over a 24 hour period is recorded — 10.63 inches at Kippure Mountain, Co. Wicklow

1998 - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, arrives in the North to announce a security crackdown in the wake of the Omagh bombing

1998 - An armada of tall ships from around the world sails away from Dublin, ending a five-day visit

2001 - U2 brings the Elevation Tour to Slane Castle north of Dublin, site of the annual Slane Festival since 1981. It's U2's first performance at Slane since that first festival 20 years ago, when they were on the support bill for Thin Lizzy.

[Rashers]

August 26

1725 - Five Dublin children receive the first recorded smallpox innoculations in Ireland

1798 - Humber leaves Ballina bound for Castlebar. He takes an indirect route through the mountains

1904 - Lord Dunraven forms the Irish Reform Association to campaign for some devolution; the following December, unionists form a United Unionist Council to resist Dunraven's plan

1913 - Also known as "The Great Dublin Lockout", the Dublin Transport Strike, led by Jim Larkin and James Connolly, begins

1921 - Re-election of Éamon de Valera President of Dáil Éireann. He is proposed and seconded by Commandant Sean MacEoin and General Richard Mulcahy — both of whom later line up against him in the Civil War

1940 - German aircraft bomb a creamery at Campile, Co. Wexford; three women are killed

1997 - U2 plays at the Botanical Gardens in Belfast. It is the band's first show in Belfast in 10 years

1998 - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair meets with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Ashford Castle, Co. Mayo. They join forces to fight terrorism and discuss laws which will be introduced in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing

2002 - Roy Keane’s journey from unemployed potato picker in Cork to multi-millionaire player on the world stage is related in his book "Keane - The Autobiography" which is released on this date.