Today in Irish History

[Rashers]

August 13

1689 - The Duke of Schomberg lands at Groomsport with his 10,000 strong Williamite army

1819 - Birth of Sir George Gabriel Stokes, mathematician and physicist, in Skreen, Co. Sligo

1846 - Birth of Otto Jaffe in Hamburg. Otto was the first non-Protestant to hold the office of Lord Mayor of Belfast — he was Jewish

1881 - First issue of United Ireland, Parnellite weekly

1887 - Special committee appointed to investigate Parnell's ties to Phoenix Park murders

1898 - The first issue of Workers’ Republic

1947 - The Health Act extends the powers of county councils and provides maternity care

1974 - Kate O'Brien, Irish writer, dies

1999 - A new set of 30p stamps is issued by An Post to honour the Gaelic Football team of the Millennium. It depicts the members of the An Post-GAA official Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium as chosen by a panel of experts

2000 - The RUC promises an increased profile at sectarian flashpoints in Belfast after a large scale attack on Catholic houses further heightens tensions.

[Rashers]

August 14

1598 - Hugh O'Neill defeats the English at the Battle of Yellow Ford

1778 - Gardiner's Catholic Relief Act is enacted and grants rights of leasing and inheritance to those who have taken the oath of allegiance: the first rolling back of the penal laws

1784 - Nathaniel Hone, painter and member of the Royal Academy at the time of its founding in 1768, dies

1814 - Mary O'Connell is born in Co. Limerick. Known as Sister Anthony, she serves in the American Civil War as a nurse

1850 - The Irish Franchise Act is enacted and has the effect of increasing the electorate from 45,000 to 164,000

1903 - The Land Purchase Act (Wyndham Act) is enacted and allows for entire estates to be purchased by the occupying tenantry, subsidized by the state

1907 - H. Montgomery Hyde, author and unionist MP, is born in Belfast

1968 - Golfer Darren Clark is born in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone

1969 - First deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland

1992 - Boxer Michael Carruth wins an Olympic Gold medal in Barcelona

1998 - The Family Mediation Service, which enables separating couples to reach agreement on a range of issues relating to their break-up, is to be expanded nationwide

1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pledges that the Stormont Agreement relating to the release of prisoners convicted of killing gardaí has to be honoured by the Government

1998 - "The Sovereign Nation", a publication of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement is launched in Dundalk

2000 - The Irish Locomotive Driver's Association rejects a bid to end the two-month-old rail dispute

2001 - Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid strongly criticizes the IRA after they withdraw a plan to put their weapons beyond use

2002 - Emer McGrath from Ballynew in Ballinrobe on the Mayo/Galway border becomes the country’s top student with eight Leaving Certificate A1s and one A2.

[Rashers]

August 15

1649 - Oliver Cromwell arrives in Ireland as Commander-in-Chief and Lord Lieutenant with an army of 20,000, a huge artillery train and a large navy

1715 - On this date, Frederick Hamilton, former MP for Donegal, writes to George I that although the county is well affected, 'The great scarcity of armes in ye country is beyond anything I could have imagin'd till about three days ago that I had occasion to send some men after seven Tories that were hunted out of Fermanagh, & in the barony of Kilmakrenan, I could not get thirty men tolerably armed tho' I believe the country will be able to array seven thousand men'

1755 - Molesworth Phillips, sailor and companion of Captain James Cook, is born in Swords, Co. Dublin

1803 - Edmund Rice opens a school for poor boys in Waterford - precursor of the schools run by the Christian Brothers

1843 - Daniel O'Connell holds meetings for Repeal of the Union, attended by hundreds of thousands, at Trim and the Hill of Tara

1880 - Five people drown in Derrybeg, Co. Donegal when a chapel is flooded during Mass

1882 - Unveiling of O’Connell monument in Dublin

1919 - Birth of Benedict Kiely, novelist, short story-writer and critic, in Dromore, Co. Down

1917 - Birth of Jack Lynch, Taoiseach, in Co. Cork

1998 - Massive bomb explodes in Omagh; 29 people are killed and hundreds injured

1999 - The Portmarnock Hotel in Dublin wins the Powers World Irish Coffee Making Championship for the second successive year

1999 - Mobs in Derry attack police, loot businesses and torch buildings

1999 - Founder member of the SDLP, Paddy Devlin, dies in Belfast’s Mater Hospital after a long illness.

[Rashers]

August 16

1793 - The Convention Act bans representative bodies set up to campaign for a change in the law, i.e. putative rivals to the parliament

1832 - An Act is passed which allows for tithe payments to be commuted

1878 - The Intermediate Education Act grants female students the right to participate in public examinations and to enter into careers and professions

1879 - National Land League of Mayo is founded

1882 - Charles Stewart Parnell becomes a Freeman of the city of Dublin

1892 - National Literary Society is founded

1920 - Court-martial of Terence MacSwiney, Irish Volunteer and Lord Mayor of Cork

1921 - The first Dáil Éireann is dissolved and the second Dáil convenes

1981 - U2 plays its first show ever at Slane Castle outside Dublin, and its only Irish show of the year

1982 - Malcolm McArthur, who is wanted for the murder of a nurse named Bridie Gargan, is found in the flat of the Attorney General, Patrick Connolly; Mr Connolly resigns on this date

1995 - More than 100 people are evacuated from The Kitchen, the basement nightclub below the Clarence Hotel in Dublin after a fire is spotted on the roof. No injuries or fatalities are reported

1997 - On the 20th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, U2's PopMart show in Vienna, Austria is filled with tributes and references to the King

2001 - Dozens of wild birds, including swans, mallard and moorhens are rounded up by animal welfare workers after a major oil spill in the River Liffey at Palmerstown in Co. Dublin.

[Rashers]

August 17

1779 - William Corbet, United Irishman and soldier, is born in Ballythomas, Co. Cork

1786 - Birth of Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and son of an Irishman

1791 - Birth of Richard Lalor Sheil, dramatist and politician; first Catholic privy councillor, in Drumdowney, Co. Kilkenny

1846 - Lord John Russell's Whig administration decides not to interfere with internal or export markets for food

1878 - Birth of Oliver St. John Gogarty, writer, and the model for the ‘stately, plump Buck Mulligan’ in Joyce’s "Ulysses"

1922 - RIC is disbanded to be replaced by the Garda Síochána

1978 - Thousands gather in Carnsore Point to protest against nuclear power

1999 - Mandate, the largest union representing bar and retail workers, demands the Millennium New Year’s Eve off for their workers

1999 - Emir Holohan Doyle is crowned Miss Ireland

1999 - Junior doctors threaten a period of industrial action throughout the country

2000 - The last RUC passing out parade takes place in Belfast before the force’s controversial name change to the Police Service of Northern Ireland

2000 - President Mary McAleese leads mourners at the funeral of former Fine Gael Minister John Boland in St Patrick’s Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin

2000 - Beo 2000, the inaugural festival of Irish traditional music, takes place at the National Concert Hall in Dublin

2001 - General SemiConductor announces that its plant in Macroom, Co. Cork will close; 670 jobs are lost.

[Rashers]

August 18

1579 - Death of James Fitzgerald, rebel leader

1728 - James Caulfeild, 4th Viscount and 1st Earl of Charlemont; soldier and nationalist, is born in Dublin

1814 - Birth of David Moriarty, Catholic Bishop of Kerry and opponent of nationalism, in Kilcarah, Co. Kerry

1961 - Death of playwright, humorist and writer Lynn Doyle

1986 - Chris de Burgh reaches no. 1 in British and Irish charts with Lady In Red

2000 - Guinness agrees to suspend the closure of its Dundalk plant and plans to axe 90 jobs at the Harp Brewery

2000 - Thousands flock to Kilrush in Co. Clare for the 40th anniversary of Ireland's only concertina-based festival which is held every year in memory of Elizabeth Crotty

2002 - In a bid to redress the huge population imbalance, it is announced that the Government is to scrap tough planning laws banning the building of single houses in rural Ireland.

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August 19

1504 - After Ulick Burke of Clanricard seizes Galway city, Edward Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, goes to Connacht and defeats Burke at Knockdoe. This is the largest battle ever fought between Irishmen, with 10,000 participants and 2,000 fatalities; however, most of the fighting is done by gall óglach - foreign warriors - or gallowglas. As a reward, Fitzgerald is made a Knight of the Garter

1792 - Edward Hincks, orientalist, is born in Cork

1839 - Act passed for the "improvement of navigation on the Shannon"

1876 - The ship Catalpa arrives in U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia

1887 - Birth of poet Francis Ledwidge in Slane, Co. Meath

1995 - After 26 years of shows by some of Ireland's top artists, Dublin's Baggot Inn hosts its final live concert performance

1998 - David Trimble demands that the British government introduce anti-terrorist laws equal to those planned by the Republic

1998 - Sonia O'Sullivan wins the 10,000m at the European championships in Budapest

1999 - The Connemara Pony Fair in Clifden- the west of Ireland's most prestigious horse festival - is marred by brawls between two traveller groups. The violence is a result of a long running feud between the McDonagh and Ward families

2001 - The remains of Aer Lingus chairman Bernie Cahill, who is believed to have drowned after an accident while attending his boat, are received by Rev. Fr. Michael Nolan at St. Mary's Church in Schull.

[Rashers]

August 20

1778 - Birth of Bernardo O'Higgins, of Co. Meath origins, first Chilean head of state

1798 - Richard R. Madden - writer, historian, traveller and abolitionist - is born in Dublin

1818 - Birth in Dublin of scientist and Alpine traveller, John Ball

1860 - An expedition led by Robert O'Hara Burke, an Irish policeman, leaves Melbourne with the intention of making the first European crossing of Australia. They will make the crossing, but Burke and fellow-explorer, William Wills, will die on the return journey

1872 - Sectarian rioting in Belfast which began on August 15 continues through this date

1876 - The Irish Republican Brotherhood Supreme Council withdraws its support from the Home Rule movement

1880 - Death of Ellen Kean, one of the greatest actresses of her time

1919 - The Irish Republican Army is established by the Dail Eireann

1927 - The Currency Act establishes a separate currency for the Irish Free State

1951 - Birth of Thin Lizzy lead singer, Phil Lynott

1979 - Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats reach no. 1 in the British charts with I Don’t Like Mondays

1981 - Twenty-seven-year-old Michael "Mickey" Devine, from the Creggan in Derry dies on the 60th day of his hunger strike. He was the third INLA Volunteer to join the H-Block hunger strikers and he was the last of the group to give their lives in order to retain their status as political prisoners.

1999 - The main square in Tralee rocks to the Grand Old Man of Soul, James Brown, as the 41st International Rose Ball kicks off in the new Festival Dome

2000 - Teenage heartthrobs, Westlife, make their first appearance in Tralee. More than ten thousand fans attend the free, open air concert

2002 - Postal deliveries in small communities across the country are delayed again on the second day of industrial action by members of the Irish Postmasters Union.

[Rashers]

August 21

1791 - Birth of the word ‘quiz’ (allegedly and disputed). Richard Daly, a theatre proprietor in Dublin, makes a bet that within 48 hours he can introduce a new word into the English language. After the evening performance, Mr. Daly distributes cards to all the staff with the word written on it, and instructs them to write it on walls all over the city. Thus ‘quiz’ enters the language

1861 - Birth in Belfast of Frederick Crawford, militant unionist and organizer of Larne gun-running

1855 - Last ever Donnybrook Fair, held in Dublin since

1204. The general uproar of the annual event results in its suspension

1879 - A Vision of the Virgin Mary is witnessed by 15 villagers in Knock, Co. Mayo

1882 - Birth in Gloucester of Arthur Luce, a professor of philosophy and fellow of Trinity College in Dublin for 65 years

1911 - Irish Women's Suffrage Federation is formed

1920 - Birth in Belfast of Rinty Monaghan, world flyweight boxing champion

1970 - The Social Democratic and Labour Party is founded with Gerry Fitt as leader

1978 - RTÉ broadcasts Eddie Macken on Boomerang winning the Aga Khan trophy

1982 - Bono marries his high-school sweetheart Alison Stewart at a ceremony in Raheny, Dublin

1983 - A train from Tralee failed near Cherryville Junction and was run into from the rear by a train from Galway. Seven passengers die in the crash and and another passenger later dies from their injuries

1998 - A salmonella alert is issued following the deaths of five elderly people in two separate outbreaks at a hospital and home for the aged in Co. Galway

2000 - Two men are shot dead in broad daylight as an all-out war erupts between rival loyalist terror gangs in Belfast

2000 - The Catholic hierarchy confirms it is actively considering allowing lay people to be ordained deacons in a bid to cope with the shortage of priests

2001 - Sinn Féin warns British prime minister Tony Blair he should take note of a poll which found the vast majority of British people believe the North should no longer be part of Britain

2001 - Unionists withhold their endorsement of the Government's new implementation plan for future policing arrangements in Northern Ireland

2002 - Celestica Electronics sheds half of its workforce of 500 at Swords, Co Dublin.

[Rashers]

August 22

1791 - Theobald Wolfe Tone publishes "An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland"

1798 - A French force of 1,019 men under General Humbert lands at Killala, Co. Mayo

1846 - John Keegan Casey, Fenian, poet and writer of "Rising of the Moon" is born near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

1850 - First Catholic Synod in Ireland since the Middle Ages in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Paul Cullen summons the synod which runs from this date through September 10

1881 - Second Gladstone Land Act introduces the 'three Fs' - fair rent, fixity of tenure, free sale - and sets up the Land Commission

1889 - Birth in Belfast of Seán McEntee, Fianna Fáil politician

1918 - Dublin-born WWI ace Dennis Latimer shot down. A Bristol Fighter pilot and the highest scoring ace in 20 Squadron, Latimer shot down 28 enemy aircraft between March and August of 1918. On this date, he and his observer, Lieutenant T.C. Noel, were shot down near Westroosebeke by a member of Jasta 7. Latimer was captured, Noel was killed

1922 - Michael Collins is assassinated. On the last day of his life, he set out from Cork in a convoy that passed through Bandon, Clonakilty, and Rosscarbery on its way to Skibbereen. He stopped at Woodfield, and there in the Four Walls, the pub situated across the road from the house where his mother had been born, he stood his family and escort to the local brew - Clonakilty Wrastler. On the return trip they again passed through Bandon. Michael Collins had only twenty minutes more to live. Around eight o'clock, his convoy was ambushed at a place known as Beal na mBláth - the mouth of flowers. Only one man was killed--Michael Collins. It is thought that Irregulars did the shooting, but some say that it might have been his own men. To this day, there is controversy about what actually happened

1933 - The National Guard is banned

1954 - Birth of Jimmy Barry Murphy, hurler and Gaelic footballer, in Cork

1966 - The Munster & Leinster, Provincial and Royal Banks merge to form Allied Irish Banks

1977 - Cardinal Tomas Ó Fiaich becomes the 112th successor to St. Patrick as Primate of All Ireland

1998 - The republican splinter group INLA calls for a total and unconditional ceasefire and says it has instructed all units to desist from the "armed struggle"

1999 - Yann Reynard Goulet - "The Fox" - Breton patriot and Irish Republican dies in Ireland

2000 - Prominent loyalist Johnny ‘‘Mad Dog’’ Adair is sent back to prison after Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson suspends his early release licence

2002 - Caroline Corr, drummer with Irish pop band The Corrs, marries Frank Woods on the Spanish island of Mallorca

2002 - U2's "Elevation 2001: Live From Boston" picks up the "Best Music Release DVD" award at the 5th DVD Awards in Hollywood.

[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.

[Rashers]

August 27

1695 - The second Irish parliament of William III is called in Dublin; Robert Rochfort is unanimously elected Speaker

1798 - Humbert appears outside Castlebar. The Government forces are deployed to cover the direct route and Humbert unexpectedly appears on their flank. Humbert attacks. French advance causes Militia to run. Government defence collapses and Humbert takes the town. Cornwallis reaches Tullamore. Rebels assemble on Rebel hill, near Baileborough, Co Cavan

1870 - The Oceanic, a liner built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, is launched

1908 - Birth of Niall Ó Dónaill, Irish-language scholar and lexicographer, in the Rosses, Co. Donegal

1920 - Birth of James Molyneaux, Ulster Unionist Party leader

1928 - The Galway Gaelic Theatre - afterwards called the Taibhdheare Theatre - opens with Micheál Mac Liammóir's production of Diarmuid agus Gráinne

1937 - The first traffic lights in the Free State are installed at the junction of Merrion Square and Clare Street

1979 - Assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten off the coast of Co. Sligo

1982 - The official police death count of the Troubles reaches 3,000 on this date with the killing of Hugh McKibbin in Belfast

1999 - On their first official overseas visit, Prince Edward and his new bride Sophie Rhys Jones arrive at Dublin Castle for the opening of the Millennium Gold Encounter. A total of 77 young people from 25 countries who have won their nation’s equivalent of the Gaisce award will attend the conference. Prince Edward is the chairperson the International Awards Association

2000 - A former member of British military intelligence reveals that weapons used by loyalist gangs who rampaged through Belfast's Shankill district the previous week were provided by British intelligence as part of a plan to defeat the IRA

2001 - Opponents claim that the introduction of tolls on the planned Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock motorway will cost commuters to Dublin an extra £20 a week; they outline their objections at an oral inquiry in Mullingar to plans by the National Road Authority to charge car users £1.65 to use the new 35 kilometre road

2001 - The newly restored century-old trading schooner, Kathleen & May arrives in Youghal after a 24-hour historic voyage from England to Ireland

2002 - Roy Keane's autobiography breaks the record for first day sales of a hardback book in Ireland.