People
Organisations
Bloody Sunday (1972)
IRA bombing
locations
Eamon
de Valera
Jacobite
rebellion
Black and
Tans
Click here
for images of Dublin O’Connell Street 1961,
and Dublin O’Connell Street 2000,
Click here for map of proposed St Georges
Channel rail tunnels Ireland - Scotland Source
p.108, Mapping The Railways, Holland J & Spaven D (2014), Harper Collins,
Glasgow
See also Railways
8/2/2020, In elections, Sinn Fein did well. The Party, once
linked to the IRA, had a Left-wing agenda with promises to spend more on health
and housing, and strongly supported reunification of Northern and Southern
Ireland.
25/5/2018, Ireland voted to legalise abortion by a large
majority of 66.4%. This left Northern Ireland as rather an anomaly, with its
strict anti-abortion laws, whilst abortion was now legal in both Ireland and
Great Britain. However the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, who
support Mrs May, British PM, needs to remain in power, was like all other NI
Parties, anti-abortion.
21/3/2017, Martin McGuinness, former IRA leader and
latterly politician in the peace process, died aged 66.
23/5/2015, Ireland voted by a margin of 2:1 to legalise gay
marriage. The result, 1,201,607 YES votes against 734,300 NO, was remarkable in
a strongly Catholic country. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said
the Church may have become disconnected with young people, and ruled out gay
marriages in Catholic churches.
12/9/2014, The Reverend
Ian Paisley died, aged 88. A devout Protestant, he founded the
Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, and he was MP for Antrim for 40
years, before becoming Lord Bannside. He also founded the Free Presbyterian
Church.
12/2/2014, Explosive packages, linked to Ireland, were sent to UK Army
recruitment offices across southern England, and a further package was
discovered in a shopping centre in Slough. None exploded and all were defused.
2012, The New IRA was formed, from dissident Republican
groups.
29/11/2010, The
EU agreed to a Euro 85 billion bail out
for Ireland.
12/6/2008, Irish voters rejected the new European
Constitution in a referendum.
26/3/2007, Northern Ireland’s two
opposing political parties, Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists signed a
power-sharing agreement after talks at Stormont
involving Gerry
Adams and Ian Paisley.
13/6/2006, Charles Haughey, Prime
Minister of Ireland, died.
28/7/2005, The Provisional IRA issued a
statement formally ending the armed campaign it had been waging since 1969 and
ordering all its units to dump their weapons. The 36-year terror campaign of
the IRA had caused 1,730 deaths; 1,100 British security forces and 630 civilians.
Some 300 of the IRA’s 10,000 members resigned. A ceasefire had been in place
since 1998, when the British Government demanded the disarmament of the IRA in
return for Sinn Feinn taking part in
multi-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland.
29/3/2004, The Republic of Ireland banned smoking in all enclosed
workplaces, including restaurants, pubs, and bars.
2002, Ireland adopted the Euro.
21/1/2002. Two former IRA
leaders, Gerry
Adams and Martin McGuinness, enter the Houses of Parliament
as Sinn Fein
MPs.
4/3/2001, A Real IRA bomb hit the BBC TV studios in London.
28/5/2000. Hardline Ulster Unionists hoped to frustrate the
working of the new Stormont Parliament
with a motion to exclude Sinn Fein from the new power sharing
government.
2/12/1999, The UK government devolved power in Northern Ireland
to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Dublin withdrew its territorial claim to Northern Ireland.
29/11/1999, The Northern Ireland
power-sharing executive was set up.
26/11/1998, Tony
Blair became the first UK Prime Minister to address the Irish
Parliament.
15/8/1998, The Real IRA detonated a
car bomb in Omagh, County
Tyrone, killing 29 and injuring over 200.
22/5/1998, Voters approved the Good Friday Agreement of 10/4/1998 by a majority of 71.12%, in
Northern Ireland and by 94.39% in the Republic of Ireland.
10/5/1998, Members of
Sinn Fein, political wing of the
IRA, voted to accept the Good Friday peace agreement.
10/4/1998. The Good Friday Agreement was signed. Two years of
negotiation produced an agreement on plans for a Northern Ireland
Assembly and cross-border
co-operation with the Irish Republic. A referendum for the proposals was
scheduled for May 1998
29/1/1998, Tony Blair announced
an inquiry into the ‘Bloody Sunday’ events in Londonderry on 30/1/1972.
13/10/1997, Tony Blair shook hands with Gerry Adams at Stormont Castle, the first meeting between a British Prime Minister
and a Sinn Fein leader since the signing
of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921.
19/7/1997, The IRA announced
a new ceasefire, the second in three years. It said this was the ‘unequivocal
restoration of the August 1994 ceasefire’, broken in February 1996.
2/6/1997, Alban Maginness of the SDLP became the first Catholic to be elected Mayor of Belfast.
26/3/1997. Two IRA
bombs
exploded near Wilmslow railway
station, injuring no-one.
15/6/1996, A large IRA bomb
destroyed Manchester city
centre.
10/6/1996, Talks on the future of Northern Ireland opened at Stormont Castle; the Sinn Fein was excluded until the IRA renewed its ceasefire.
9/2/1996. The IRA ended its ceasefire with a bomb in London’s Docklands. The bomb contained about
half a ton of explosive and was planted under the Docklands Light Railway
at South Quays, exploding at 7.01 p.m. 2 people were killed and at least 100
injured. The widespread damage to houses, shops, and offices amounted to over
£100 million. UK Prime Minister John Major said
‘there is now a dark shadow of doubt where optimism had been’.
24/1/1996, The report of the international decommissioning
agency for Northern Ireland under US Senator George Mitchell dismissed British
demands that the IRA hand over its weapons before joining talks.
15/12/1994, In Northern Ireland, the Arms Decommissioning Panel, headed by
former US Senator George Mitchell, began
work.
27/11/1995, In Ireland, voters narrowly
approved a limited no-fault provision for divorce, for couples who had lived
apart for four of the previous five years, by a majority of 9,114 out of 1.63
million votes. There had been a constitutional ban on divorce since 1937.
12/11/1995, The Northern Ireland Peace Process was faltering, with disagreement
over whether to begin all-party talks before the IRA had
decommissioned its weapons. All sides were keen to make progress before US
President Bill Clinton visited on 30/11/1995.
10/5/1995, The British Government held the first Ministerial
talks with Sinn Fein since 1972.
14/4/1995. British troops prepared to leave Northern Ireland.
8/3/1995. UK Government agreed to direct meetings between
ministers and Sinn Fein before an IRA arms surrender.
22/2/1995, British Prime Minister John Major
and Irish Prime Minister John Bruton agreed a framework for all-party
talks on a political settlement for Northern Ireland. A ‘North-South body’
would be set up to harmonise agreed areas, Northern Ireland would have an
elected devolved Parliament, and the South would amend its constitution to drop
territorial claims to the North. Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, was happy
that the ‘ethos of the agreement was for one Ireland’. The Unionists were less
pleased, saying ‘Northern Ireland has been given an eviction notice from the
UK’.
15/1/1995. The British Army ended
daylight patrols in Belfast, after 25 years.
9/12/1994, The first official talks
between the British Government and Sinn Fein for 22 years began.
13/10/1994, Ulster’s three main Loyalist terrorist groups
announced a ceasefire.
31/8/1994. The IRA announced a ceasefire in Northern Ireland.
The British were concerned about the omission of the word ‘permanent’ from the
ceasefire declaration.
9/3/1994, The IRA
launched a mortar attack at London Heathrow Airport.
11/1/1994, The Irish Government ended a 15-year old
broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm, Sinn Fein.
19/12/1993. Several people were inured in an IRA bomb
blast in Londonderry.
15/12/1993. The Downing
Street Declaration; the UK committed itself to finding a solution to the
problem of Northern Ireland. Prime Ministers John Major of the UK and John Reynolds of Ireland
discussed the possibility of a future united Ireland.
28/11/1993, The Observer revealed that the UK Government had a
secret channel of communication with the IRA despite UK denials.
23/10/1993, An IRA bomb in Belfast killed 9.
13/8/1993. Firebombs planted by the IRA in Bournemouth caused damage but no
injuries.
24/4/1993. An IRA bomb exploded at Bishopsgate in the City of London. The bomb was hidden in a
truck close to the Nat West Tower
and left a crater of 14 square yards. One person was killed and 44 injured, and
one million square feet of office space made un-useable. Insurance claims were
estimated at £1 billion.
20/3/1993. An IRA bomb exploded in Warrington, killing
a child. A second child died of his injuries later. On 28/3/1993 thousands
joined a peace rally in Dublin.
28/1/1993. The IRA bombed Harrods for the third time in 20 years. Four people
were injured. The bomb, one pound of
Semtex, was in a litter bin, one of several removed on the advice of the police
but reinstated by Kensington and Chelsea Council because of the litter problem
left by shoppers at a Harrods sale. The last IRA attack on Harrods had been in
1984, killing six people.
16/12/1992. The IRA disrupted Christmas shopping with two
bombs in Oxford Street. Four
people were injured.
3/12/1992. The IRA set off two bombs in Manchester.
9/10/1992. Two IRA bombs exploded in London, to coincide with the Conservative Party Conference.
29/9/1992, Pope John Paul II visited Ireland for a 3-day
visit. 1.2 million people, a third of the population, attended his Mass in
Phoenix Park, Dublin.
10/4/1992. A massive IRA bomb exploded at 9.25 p.m. in the City of London.
The 100 lb device killed 3 and injured 91.
It blew out every window in the Commercial Union Tower, and many more
windows in other office blocks. Another IRA bomb went off at Staples Corner on the North
Circular, causing no injuries, but closing the flyover for some months.
26/2/1992, The Supreme Court of Ireland ruled that a 14-year-old rape victim could visit the UK
to get an abortion.
30/1/1992, In Ireland, Charles Haughey, Prime Minister, resigned over
allegations of phone tapping. On 6/2/1992 Charles Reynolds became Prime Minister.
18/1/1992. Faced with a new outbreak of terrorism, the UK
government decided to send more troops to Northern Ireland.
16/12/1991. An IRA bomb exploded near Clapham
Junction station, SW London.
3/7/1991, Talks at Stormont
on the future of Northern Ireland collapsed.
27/6/1991, An IRA bomb was
found in a bag outside the Beck Theatre in Hayes,
Middlesex, where a military band had staged a concert the day before.
The bomb was safely defused.
26/6/1991. The Maguire
Seven were cleared of running an IRA bomb factory in England.
19/6/1991, Colonel
Gaddafi of Libya declared his support for the IRA as a just cause.
1/6/1991, An IRA attack
killed three soldiers and injured 18 from the Ulster
Defence Regiment in Glennan, County Armagh.
5/4/1991. The IRA planted
a large bomb in the main shopping area of Manchester.
14/3/1991. The Birmingham Six were released. They had
been convicted in 1975 of the worst mass-murder in British history, the IRA pub
bombings in which 21 died. They were
found guilty on scientific evidence but also on confessions which they claimed
the police had beaten out of them. West Midlands Police were found to have
falsified notes and scientific test results.
18/2/1991. The IRA
set off a bomb in a litter bin at London’s Victoria Station, killing one commuter and
injuring 43 others. Another IRA bomb went off at Paddington Station.
7/2/1991. The IRA launched a mortar bomb attack on 10 Downing Street
from a van in Whitehall. PM John Major’s
cabinet was in session. Nobody was hurt. The mortars were hidden in a
commercial van parked nearby and fired through its roof by remote control. One
bomb landed in the garden of No. 10 and a second shattered the windows of the
room where John
Major was discussing the Gulf Crisis.
11/11/1990. London police seized an IRA
arms cache at Kilburn,
London; 2 were arrested.
9/11/1990, Mary Robinson, a 46 year old lawyer, became
the first woman President of the Irish Republic. She stood as an Independent,
beating both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Irish voters were protesting against
the corruption rife in politics.
30/7/1990. Ian Gow, Conservative
MP for Eastbourne, was murdered by an IRA bomb at his home in the Sussex village of
Hankham.
20/7/1990. The IRA bombed the London Stock Exchange. There
was little damage and no casualties.
26/6/1990, The IRA bombed the Carlton Club, London, a venue much
used by Conservative MPs.
16/6/1990, Belgian police arrested IRA members suspected of killing
the Australian tourists on 28/5/1990.
28/5/1990, The IRA shot dead two Australian tourists in Roermond,
The Netherlands, who were driving a British-registered car,, mistaking them for
British soldiers.
26/12/1989, Nobel Prize winning Irish dramatist Samuel Beckett
died in Paris, aged 83.
19/10/1989. The Guildford Four had their
convictions quashed after serving 15 years for the IRA Guildford and Woolwich
pub bombings.
22/9/1989. The IRA
bombed the Royal Marines School in Deal.
10 bandsmen were killed and 22 injured.
2/7/1989, An IRA car bomb exploded in Hannover, Germany;
the first of a series of IRA attacks on British troops in West Germany.
22/6/1989, Ireland’s first universities established since
independence in 1922 were set up: Dublin City University and University of
Limerick.
9/12/1988, The Michael Hughes Bridge, Sligo, Ireland,
officially opened.
18/10/1988. The Home Secretary Douglas Hurd banned all
broadcasts involving terrorist spokesmen.
16/10/1988, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP leader John Hume
shared the Nobel Peace Prize, for their part in forging the Northern
Ireland Peace Agreement.
15/8/1988, IRA bomb in Omagh killed 29.
19/3/1988, In Belfast, 2 British soldiers were lynched at IRA
funerals.
6/3/1988. Three IRA terrorists shot dead by SAS
men in Gibraltar;
they were allegedly planning a bomb attack.
8/11/1987. An IRA bomb exploded at a Remembrance Day
service at Eniskillen, N
Ireland, killing 11 people.
8/5/1987, Nine IRA gunmen were
killed in a battle with police and soldiers in County Armagh, in an attack on a
RUC post at Loughgall.
25/4/1987, In Britain, an IRA car bomb
killed Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and Lady Gibson.
10/3/1987. The Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey was
re-elected for a third term.
17/2/1987, In Ireland, elections returned Fianna Fail as the
largest Party.
12/7/1986, In Northern Ireland, over 100 were injured in
Orange Day clashes between Catholics and Protestants.
26/6/1986, In Dublin, a referendum to amend the Irish
Constitution and allow divorce in limited circumstances was
overwhelmingly defeated. Some women had voted against, as the benefits a
divorcee would be entitled to were uncertain.
23/4/1986. The UK
Government dissolved the Northern Ireland
Assembly. After four years of operation, it had become a platform
for Unionist attacks on the Anglo-Irish
Agreement, signed in 1985.
15/11/1985, The Anglo-Irish agreement was signed in Belfast by
Mrs Thatcher
and Dr
Fitzgerald.
7/8/1985, BBC journalists went on strike after the UK Government
intervened to cancel on episode of Real Lives which featured an interview with
Martin McGuiness of Sinn Fein.
28/2/1985, 9 RUC men were killed by
an IRA
attack on Newry
police station.
20/2/1985, The Irish Dail passed a
Bill to allow shops to sell contraceptives.
12/10/1984. Five people died and more
than 30 were injured when the IRA planted as bomb at the Grand Hotel,
Brighton, where the Conservatives were holding their annual Party
Conference. Mrs
Thatcher herself had just left a bathroom that was destroyed, but
escaped injury as she sat in the lounge of her suite writing a speech. She
still gave the speech the following day. However 5 were killed and over 30
others injured, including Margaret Tebbit, wife of the Trade and Industry
Secretary, who was paralysed from the neck down.
14/3/1984, Gerry Adams was shot and injured in an attempt
to assassinate him.
26/1/1984, The Governor of the Maze Prison resigned after a
critical report on IRA prisoner escapes.
25/12/1983, An IRA bomb exploded in London’s Oxford Street.
17/12/1983. 6 died and 91 were injured when an IRA bomb exploded outside Harrods in London. 5 died and 91 were injured.
10/12/1983, An IRA bomb exploded at London’s Woolwich Barracks.
12/11/1983, Gerry Adams was elected leader of Sinn Fein.
25/9/1983, 38 IRA prisoners escaped from the Maze prison; a
prison guard was stabbed to death during the escape.
14/8/1983, French police intercepted a large consignment
of arms intended for the IRA.
24/5/1983, A large IRA bomb damaged the Andersonstown police
station in Belfast.
17/3/1983, Mrs Thatcher was the target of
an IRA
letter bomb campaign.
8/2/1983, Shergar, the 1981 Derby Winner, owned by the Aga Khan,
was stolen from his stable in County Kildare and a £2 million (US$ 3.7 million)
ransom demanded. The horse was never
seen again; it probably became catfood.
14/12/1982, In Ireland, Dr Garrett
Fitzgerald was elected Prime Minister as head of a Labour-Fine Gael
coalition.
8/12/1982, The UK Government banned Danny Morrison
and Gerry
Adams from entering the UK mainland.
6/12/1982, An IRA bomb in the Droppin Well pub in BallyKelly killed
19 people and injured 66.
5/12/1982, The Greater London Council invited Danny Morrison and Gerry Adams
to London, causing outrage.
11/11/1982, Sinn Fein and the SDLP boycotted the opening of
the new Northern Ireland Assembly.
20/10/1982, Sinn Fein won five seats in elections to the
Northern Ireland Assembly.
19/10/1982, The Northern Ireland Office announced that support
for the loss-making De Lorean car plant
in Belfast would end, causing its closure. Around UK£ 70 million of Government
money had gone into the factory, sited in an area of 21% unemployment. The
gull-winged car design failed to attract buyers during a recession in America,
and high executive salaries and the costs of New York offices did not help. The
closure would cost some 1500 jobs in Belfast.
20/7/1982. IRA bombs killed many in London’s Hyde and Regent Parks. The first
bomb exploded at 10.43.a.m. as members of the Queen’s cavalry were passing.
Four soldiers were killed and many civilians wounded by the bomb which was
packed with 4 and 6 inch nails, also killing many horses. The second bomb went
off under the bandstand at Regents Park at 12.55.p.m. where members of the
Royal Green Jackets were giving a concert. 7 soldiers were killed and 28
injured.
13/5/1982, The EEC banned the rubber bullets being
used by police in Northern Ireland.
20/2/1982. Charles Haughey won the Irish elections.
19/2/1982, In Belfast, the De Lorean car company went into
liquidation.
14/11/1981, IRA gunmen killed Robert Bradford, Unionist MP for
Belfast South.
3/10/1981. The seven-month hunger strike at The Maze Prison,
Belfast, ended. 10 Republican prisoners at The Maze Prison, Belfast, had died,
including the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Bobby Sands. The inmates wanted
the status of political prisoners.
8/8/1981, Rioting in Northern Ireland following the death of
the 9th hunger striker and ten years of internment.
19/7/1981, Efforts by the Red Cross to end the hunger strikes at the Maze Prison,
Northern Ireland, failed.
30/6/1981, Garret Fitzgerald became Prime Minister of
Ireland, leading a Fine Gael – Labour coalition.
11/6/1981, Fianna Fail lost the general election in Ireland.
12/5/1981, Rioting in Belfast after hunger strikers Bobby Sands
and Francis
Hughes have died.
7/5/1981, Bobby Sands was buried in a Republican section
of Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery.
5/5/1981. The IRA prisoner Bobby Sands died on the 66th
day of his hunger strike in the Maze prison, Belfast. Riots broke out in
Belfast. He was serving a 14-year
sentence for firearms offences.
11/4/1981. Bobby Sands won the by-election, see
15/3/1981.
15/3/1981, Bobby Sands, IRA hunger striker, stood as
Republican candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by election. See
11/4/1981.
1/3/1981, Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA,
began a hunger strike for political status at Long Kesh Prison. He died on
5/5/1981, the first of 10 such deaths.
16/1/1981, In Northern Ireland Bernadette McAliskey, nee Devlin,
former |MP, was shot dead by 3 Loyalist gunmen.
8/12/1980. Mrs Thatcher held a summit meeting in Dublin
with Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey about closer co-operation
between the
UK and Eire.
27/10/1980. Seven Sinn Fein guerrillas started a hunger strike.
8/6/1980, The IRA set off several bombs in Ulster.
7/12/1979. Charles Haughey of Fianna Fail became the new Irish
Prime Minister. This followed the
resignation of Jack
Lynch.
23/11/1979, In Dublin, IRA member Thomas MacMahon was sentenced to
life imprisonment for the murder of Lord Mountbatten.
27/8/1979, Earl Mountbatten, British Admiral of the Fleet, his 14
year old grandson Nicolas, and 15 year old boatman Paul Maxwell, were killed when
an IRA bomb exploded in their boat near Mullaghmore, Sligo Bay, Ireland.
Three others were seriously injured whilst 82-year old Lady Brabourne died the
following day. In Ireland, on 30/8/1979, Francis
McGirl and Thomas McMahon were charged with
his murder in Dublin.
17/4/1979, In Northern Ireland 4 policemen were killed by a
1,000 lb. bomb, the IRA’s most powerful so far.
30/3/1979. The MP and opposition spokesman on Northern
Ireland, Airey
Neave, was killed by an IRA car bomb, in the car
park at the House of Commons.
11/1/1979, State of
Emergency began in Northern Ireland due to the tanker drivers’ strike, until
14/1/1979.
17/12/1978, IRA bombs exploded in Southampton,
Bristol, Manchester, and Coventry.
6/9/1978, Gerry Adams was released from jail after a
judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove IRA membership.
3/8/1978, De Lorean
Motor Company announced its intention to build a sports car factory in Belfast,
Northern Ireland.
25/2/1978, Gerry Adams was charged with being a member of
the IRA.
10/10/1977, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, co-founders of
the Ulster
Peace Movement, received the Nobel peace Prize in Oslo.
23/6/1977, Liam Cosgrave retired as President of Ireland.
4/2/1977, Police in Liverpool discovered an IRA
bomb factory.
29/1/1977. The IRA set
off 7 bombs in
London’s West End. No-one was killed.
27/11/1976, Over 30,000 people joined the Ulster Women’s Peace March.
4/9/1976. In Northern Ireland, 25,000 Protestants and Catholics went on a
peace march.
2/9/1976, The European Court of Human Rights said Britain
was torturing Ulster detainees.
28/8/1976, Peace marches held across Northern Ireland; 25,000
marched in Belfast.
10/8/1976, A stolen vehicle driven by IRA gunmen hit and killed a
family of pedestrians in south west Belfast, whilst being pursued by British
soldiers. A girl aged 8, a boy aged 2,
and a 6 week old baby were killed. This
tragedy, after many other deaths in Northern Ireland, started the Ulster Peace
Movement. Two of its leaders,
Mariead
Corrigan and Betty Williams, were subsequently awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize for 1976.
21/7/1976, In Eire, the British Ambassador to Dublin was
killed by an
IRA car bomb.
25/1/1976, 12 IRA bombs exploded in London’s
East End.
7/1/1976, In Armagh, the SAS were deployed to combat
rising violence; 15 died in sectarian violence the previous week.
6/12/1975, The Balcombe Street siege began; IRA
terrorists held Mr and Mrs Andrews hostage in their London flat. The siege
ended on 11/12/1975.
27/11/1975. Provisional IRA gunmen killed Ross McWhirter, co-editor of the Guinness Book
of Records. He had launched a ‘Beat the Bombers’ campaign three weeks earlier,
offering rewards to informers on the IRA.
12/11/1975, An IRA bomb exploded at Scott’s Restaurant in London,
killing one man. Two more people were killed by another IRA bomb on 18/11/1975 at Walton’s Restaurant,
London.
31/10/1975, The Provisional Sinn Fein leader Seamus McCusker
was shot dead by the official IRA.
23/10/1975, Professor Farley, a leading cancer expert, was
killed by a n IRA
car bomb intended for Hugh Fraser MP.
22/10/1975, In Britain the Guildford Four were sentenced to
life imprisonment after being found guilty of planting bombs in Guildford and
Woolwich. They were released 19/10/1989.
9/10/1975, An IRA bomb exploded at Green Park tube station, London, killing 1 and injuring 20.
3/10/1975, The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was
banned.
2/10/1975, Protestant revenge
killings left 11 dead.
29/8/1975, Eamon De Valera, leader of the
Irish rising 1916, three times Prime Minister of Ireland and President of
Ireland 1959 – 1973, died aged 92. His place of birth, New York, to a Spanish father and Irish mother,
saved him from execution in 1916.
15/8/1975. The Birmingham Six were sentenced to life
imprisonment for planting bombs that killed 21 people in Birmingham.
Their convictions were later overturned.
30/3/1975. The Provisional IRA council planned to meet to
discuss the future of a ceasefire declared on 10/2/1975.
27/1/1975, Five IRA bombs exploded in London.
16/1/1975, The IRA ended its 25-day truce.
29/11/1974. The IRA was outlawed in Britain.
21/11/1974. IRA bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs, killing 21 and injuring a further 182. On 14/11/1974 an IRA bomber, James McDade,
was blown up by his own bomb which he had intended to plant at Coventry
telephone exchange. The UK Government
banned demonstrations in his memory, and the IRA bombed Birmingham in
retaliation. The Birmingham bombings triggered the Prevention of Terrorism Act,
giving the UK police extensive powers to investigate suspects; unfortunately
they misused this to ensure charges were pinned on someone, innocent or guilty.
7/11/1974. An IRA nail bomb exploded at the Kings Arms pub
in Woolwich, London.
The pub was opposite the Woolwich Barracks. Two died and 34 were injured.
15/10/1974,
Riots at The Maze prison, Northern Ireland.
5/10/1974. 5 died and 65 were injured when the IRA bombed two pubs in Guildford.
26/7/1974, An IRA bomb exploded in a Heathrow car park.
17/7/1974, An IRA bomb exploded at the Tower of London, killing one person
and injuring 41.
17/6/1974. Two large IRA bombs exploded in London. The first went off at the Houses of
Parliament just before 8.30a.m. and caused fire damage to the 800
year-old Westminster Hall. The second, larger, bomb, went off at The Tower of London
later in the day when there were many tourists there, and there were serious
casualties.
29/5/1974, Northern Irish intransigence caused the Northern
Ireland Assembly to collapse, see 28/6/1973.
19/5/1974, A state of emergency was declared in Northern
Ireland. An IRA
bomb exploded at a Heathrow car park.
17/5/1974, Car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan killed 28 people and injured over 100.
20/4/1974, A Catholic became the thousandth person to die in
‘The
Troubles’.
4/2/1974, 12 men were killed as an IRA bomb went off on their army
coach whilst on the M.62 near Bradford, Yorkshire; 11 died.
1/1/1974, Direct Rule in Northern Ireland ended as a new Ulster
Executive took control; however Direct Rule was reinstated later in
1974.
9/12/1973, A 4-day conference ended at Sunningdale with an historic Anglo-Irish agreement to set up a Council of
Ireland, There would be cooperation between Dublin and Belfast in areas such as
trade and tourism. The Irish Republic agreed there could be no change in the
status of Northern Ireland without majority consent. Northern Ireland Loyalists
remained opposed to any power sharing with Dublin.
25/11/1973, The 200th British soldier died in Northern
Ireland.
31/10/1973, Three provisional IRA leaders were sprung from
Mountjoy Prison with a hi-jacked helicopter.
20/9/1973, An IRA bomb exploded at Chelsea
Barracks, London.
17/9.1973, Edward Heath met Irish Prime Minister Cosgrave at a
military airfield near Dublin; the first official visit to Ireland by a British
Prime Minister.
10/9/1973, IRA bombs exploded at several London
railway stations, injuring 13 people.
4/9/1973. IRA Bombs exploded in London, Birmingham,
and Manchester.
31/8/1973. The IRA exploded a large bomb in London’s West End
after a security drive by Scotland Yard. There were no casualties but thousands
of guests were evacuated from nearby hotels and a large number of cars were
wrecked.
21/8/1973, The coroner in the Bloody Sunday inquest accused
the British army of "sheer unadulterated murder" after the jury
returned an open verdict.
20/8/1973, IRA bombs exploded in London.
31/7/1973, The first, tumultuous, meeting of the new Northern Ireland
Assembly took place in Belfast.
5//7/1973, Rioting at Long Kesh
prison, Northern Ireland.
28/6/1973, A Northern Ireland Assembly was
elected, but collapsed, see 29/5/1974.
26/6/1973, The newly formed ‘Ulster
Freedom Fighters’ murdered Senator Paddy Wilson of the SDLP in Belfast,
24/6/1973. Irish President De Valera
resigned at the age of 90; he had been President since 1959. Erskine Childers
succeeded him. De Valera died on 29/8/1975.
20/3/1973, Trial without jury was introduced for terrorist
offences on Northern Ireland.
9/3/1973, A referendum in Northern Ireland showed 592,000 in
favour of retaining links with the UK; 6,000 voted for union with Ireland. Most
Catholics
boycotted the vote.
8/3/1973. The IRA set off two bombs in London, outside the Old
Bailey and in Whitehall. One person was killed and 244 injured.
1/3/1973, An IRA bomb
exploded in London, killing one
and injuring 238.
7/2/1973, Unionists in Northern Ireland called a 1-day strike.
28/1/1973, Police in Londonderry fired rubber bullets on a
crowd marking the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
1/1/1973. Ireland
joined the EEC.
1972, The ‘Diplock Courts’ were established in Northern Ireland to try
terrorist-related offences. Named after Lord Diplock (1907-85) they consisted of a
single judge and no jury, because potential jurors were liable to intimidation.
31/12/1972, Casualties in the Northern Ireland conflict over 1972
amounted to 467, including 103 British soldiers.
1/12/1972, Two IRA bombs exploded in Belfast,
killing two people and injuring 127.
21/9/1972, William Whitelaw ended
internment without trial in Northern Ireland.
21/7/1972. The IRA set off 19 bombs in Belfast
city centre, killing 9 and injuring 130. This day became known as Bloody Friday, and lost the
Provisionals much support amongst Roman Catholics. On 31/7/1972 the British army
was able to sweep aside the barricades and enter the ‘no-go’ zones with little
resistance. British troops were permanently stationed at strongpoints inside
Catholic districts. The loss of these safe havens was a major blow to the IRA
and their military capability was severely reduced.
14/7/1972, 4 died in Belfast as the IRA
ended its 2-week ceasefire.
9/7/1972, Martin McGuiness from the IRA
met William
Whitelaw from the British Government in secret talks in London.
22/6/1972, The IRA agreed to a ceasefire.
11/6/1972. Gaddafi said Libya was
aiding the IRA.
10/6/1972, Fighting between troops,
Catholics and Protestants in Belfast left 6 dead.
14/5/1972, The Ulster Defence
Association set up the first Protestant ‘no go’ areas in Belfast.
10/5/1972, A referendum in Ireland
gave 83% support to EC membership.
19/4/1972, An inquiry into ‘Bloody
Sunday’
found troops were provoked, but then fired recklessly.
13/4/1972, 23 IRA bombs went off in Ulster in the worst day
of violence since Direct Rule was imposed.
25/3/1972. Edward Heath announced Direct Rule for Northern Ireland
from 30/3/1972.
20/3/1972, An IRA bomb exploded in Belfast, killing 6 and injuring 47.
4/3/1972, A bomb exploded in a restaurant in Belfast,
killing 2 and injuring 136.
22/2/1972. Seven, including a gardener, five cleaning women and
a Catholic chaplain,
were killed when an IRA bomb went off at the Paratroopers HQ at Aldershot.
This was in response to the Bloody Sunday
incident of 30/1/1972.
2/2/1972, Demonstrators protesting over the Bloody Sunday killings of 30/1/1972 burnt down
the British Embassy in Dublin. Angry protestors prevented firemen from reaching
the building until the roof had fallen in.
30/1/1972. Bloody Sunday
incident in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
13 people were killed and 29 wounded on an illegal 15,000-strong civil
rights march, shot by British soldiers. The marchers, Catholics, were
protesting against the British policy of internment without trial, introduced
in 1971. When the march was diverted from its planned route by the British Army
some of the marchers began throwing stones. British troops pursued the stone
throwers and opened fire near the Rossville Flats.
22/1/1972. Britain, Denmark, Norway,
and Ireland signed the EEC Treaty –
to join January 1973.
1971, The Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP) was established in Northern Ireland by Ian Paisley
and Desmond
Boal, as Unionism hardened in a deteriorating security situation,
30/12/1971. A bomb exploded in Belfast, injuring over 60 in a
narrow street.
20/12/1971. The IRA began a Christmas bombing campaign in
Northern Ireland.
4/12/1971,
A bomb exploded in in a pub in Belfast, killing 15 people. Subsequent reprisals
took the death toll to 143, including 43 troops.
16/11/1971,
The Compton Report rejected allegations of brutality in Northern Ireland
internment camps.
31/10/1971. An IRA bomb exploded at the top of the Post Office Tower, London.
7/10/1971, A further 1,000 British troops were sent to
Northern Ireland.
7/9/1971, The Troubles in Northern Ireland claimed their
100th civilian victim when a teenage girl was shot during a gun battle.
31/8/1971, The British Government ordered an inquiry into
alleged mistreatment of internees in
Northern Ireland.
11/8/1971, Violence erupted in Belfast after internment was reintroduced.
9/8/1971, Internment without trial began in Northern Ireland.
18/3/1971 More troops were sent to Northern Ireland, bringing
the total to 9,700.
26/2/1971. Two policemen were shot dead and four other
seriously injured during riots in Belfast.
6/2/1971, British soldier Gunner Curtis
became the first British fatality in the Northern Ireland conflict, when he was
shot dead by an IRA sniper.
13/8/1970, An IRA bomb store was found in Tooting,
south London.
2/8/1970
The British Army
in Belfast used rubber bullets for the first time, to quell a disturbance.
31/7/1970, In Northern Ireland, a house-to-house search
by 3,000 British
troops discovered 107 firearms, 110 kg of explosives, 100 home-made
bombs and 21,000 rounds of ammunition. However this search further antagonised the Catholic population.
2/7/1970. The UK Government , fearing a
descent into full scale civil war in Northern Ireland, moved in large numbers
of troops, including 7,000 soldiers into Belfast alone.
1/7/1970. A curfew was imposed in Belfast but did not stop the growing violence.
Troops there were ordered to shoot to kill after a grenade was use against
them.
27/6/1970, Violent disturbances
occurred in Londonderry and Belfast.
6/5/1970, In Ireland, Charles Haughey,
Finance Minister, was dismissed for alleged association with IRA gun running.
He was acquitted of this charge by the High Court on 23/10/1970.
16/4/1970. Ian Paisley won the Bannside by-election in
Northern Ireland. Britain announced it would send another 500 troops to join
the 6,000 already there.
12/1969,The Provisional IRA (Irish
Republican Army) was founded in Northern Ireland.
10/10/1969, The Hunt Commission on Northern Ireland
recommended disarming the police and disbanding the ‘B Specials’.
28/9/1969, Police in Belfast erected a ‘peace wall’ between Protestant and
Catholic communities.
19/8/1969, The British
Army took over security and policing in Northern Ireland.
14/8/1969, British troops moved into Londonderry to stop
rioting between Catholics and Protestants. This was known as ‘The Troubles’, and the police were initially
welcomed by Catholics, hoping for protection from extremist Protestants.
However the Catholics were to come to see the police themselves as oppressors.
9/8/1969. The Royal Ulster Constabulary used tear gas for
the first time in its history. Thus followed nine hours of rioting by the Roman
Catholics in Bogside, Londonderry. Eighty police were injured in these riots.
17/5/1969. Dubliner Tom McLean completed the first solo
transatlantic crossing by rowing boat, from Newfoundland to Ireland.
22/4/1969. IRA bombs hit the main post office and bus
station in Belfast.
18/4/1969, Bernadette Devlin became Britain’s youngest MP
for nearly 200 years when she was elected for Mid-Ulster, 6 days before her 22nd
birthday.
27/1/1969. In Northern Ireland, the protestant leader, Ian Paisley
was jailed.
2/1/1969, A civil rights march from Belfast to London ended
in violence.
5/10/1968, Police in Londonderry broke up a Protestant civil
rights march using water cannon and batons.
1/10/1968, The University of Ulster, at Coleraine, opened.
10/9/1966, Ireland
said it would introduce free post-primary education from 1967.
20/7/1966. Reverend Ian Paisley was jailed for breaching
the peace at a church assembly in June.
6/6/1966, Britain outlawed the Ulster
Volunteer Force.
2/6/1966. Eamon de Valera was re-elected president of Eire, now aged 83.
5/3/1966. The IRA destroyed the Nelson Column in Dublin by a bomb.
28/10/1964, Rioting in Catholic areas of Belfast after a
Republican flag was removed by the police.
20/3/1964, Irish playwright Brendan
Behan died.
10/7/1962. The first motorway in Ireland opened, running from
Belfast to Lisburn.
26/2/1962, The IRA announced a ceasefire after a 5-year
campaign of violence.
8/12/1961, Seamus Robinson, Irish republican leader, died
aged 71.
8/11/1960, Ten Irish soldiers in the UN peacekeeping force in
The Congo were killed in an ambush at Niemba. Irish sadness at the event was also
coloured by the recognition that this marked Ireland’s emergence from the
isolation it had been in since its neutrality in World War Two.
25/6/1959, Eamon de Valera took up office as President of Ireland.
17/6/1959. Eamon De
Valera became Prime Minister of Eire.
9/10/1958, Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) died at Castel
Gandolfo, the Papal summer residence, 27 kilometres south-east of Rome, aged
82. In Belfast, Protestants objected when the City Hall flag was flown at
half-mast.
5/2/1957, General election in Ireland, after Clann na
Poblachta withdrew from the Fine Gael-led coalition on 28/1/1957. Fianna Fail
with 78 seats won a majority over all other Parties (69 seats, of which 40 were
won by Fine Gael). Eamon de Valera became
Prime Minister again on 20/3/1957, now aged 75. He was a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising
against the British and strongly supported a united Ireland, including the
North.
12/12/1956, Twelve attacks by the IRA in Northern Ireland signalled the start
of a new terror campaign.
13/8/1955, The IRA raided a training centre in Berkshire.
19/7/1954, The rabbit disease
myxomatosis was confirmed in Ireland.
2/6/1954, In Ireland, following the
election in May, John Costello (Fine Gael) succeeded Eamon de Valera
as Prime Minister and formed a coalition government.
2/7/1953, In Ireland., following the
loss of a seat in a by-election by Fianna Fail, Eamon de Valera
called a vote of confidence in his government. He won by 73 to 71.
2/4/1953, Jim
Allister, Northern Irish politician, was born.
3/7/1952, Ireland established the
Bord Failte, to promote tourism.
11/3/1951, In Northern Ireland, the Reverend Ian Paisley founded the
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.
9/7/1950, Britain and Ireland agreed controls on fishing in
Loch Foyle; a rare instance of UK-Irish governmental cooperation.
19/1/1950, The world’s first
peat-fired power station opened at Portarlington, County Laois, Ireland.
12/7/1949, Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland, died.
10/7/1949, Dublin’s last tram ran. See 1872.
18/4/1949. Ireland was formally proclaimed a Republic (by the Republic of
Ireland Act), on an Easter Monday (Easter Rising), at the General
Post Office in Dublin, a place with many historical associations with the
Rising. See 17/11/1948. Ireland asserted its independence from Britain by
leaving the Commonwealth.
8/2/1949, The Irish Government
refused to join NATO whilst Ireland remained divided between South and North.
17/11/1948, In Dublin, a ‘Republic of Ireland’ Bill was introduced to
the Parliament, severing all links with Britain; Ireland left the
Commonwealth. See 18/4/1949.
6/10/1948, Gerry Adams, Irish Republican politician, was
born.
18/2/1948. In Ireland, John Costello
became Head of a new Coalition Government, see 4/2/1948. Fianna Fail, which had held
power since 1932, lost votes to Clann na Poblachta, a party headed by Sean McBride,
former Chief of Staff of the IRA, and offering a brand of radical
republicanism similar to that of Fianna Fail in 1932. Fianna Fail remained the largest
party, and Clann
na Poblachta with 10 seats was now the junior partner in a coalition
with Fine
Gael and Labour.
4/2/1948. De Valera lost his overall majority
at the Irish elections.
13/8/1946. The United Nations refused to admit Ireland
because of opposition from the Soviet Union.
The War years, known in Ireland as ‘The Emergency’, resulted in agricultural
and economic crisis, strikes, unemployment and rising emigration. Ireland now
had a small and ageing population, and widespread dissatisfaction with the
ruling Fianna Fail Party. Small parties such as Clann na Talmhan, the Farmers
Party, proliferated.
16/6/1945, Sean Kelly was elected President of Ireland.
Ireland in World War Two – see France-Germany for detailed chronology of the War.
12/3/1944. The UK government banned all travel between
Britain and Ireland to prevent Normandy invasion plans being passed to
pro-German spies in Ireland.
11/3/1944, The Irish Prime Minister, Eamon de Valera, refused to comply with a US request to close
the German and Japanese Embassies in Dublin, to
prevent possible transmission of military intelligence.
6/9/1942, The IRA shot two policemen in Belfast.
5/2/1942, The US established a military base at
Londonderry.
30/1/1942, The Irish government claimed that its
neutrality was being violated by the American troop presence in Northern
Ireland. An official statement declared that the United States had recognized a
"Quisling government" in Northern Ireland by sending troops there and
that the British were making a new attempt to force Ireland into the war on the
side of the Allies.
31/12/1941, De Valera declined to join the War despite Ireland’s main ally, the USA, now being involved.
27/5/1941. British plans to extend conscription to
Northern Ireland were cancelled after Dublin protested,
13/1/1941. James Joyce, Irish
author of Ulysses, died after surgery in Zurich.
2/1/1941, Germany bombed Southern Ireland, despite its
neutrality in the War.
23/3/1940. IRA prisoners rioted at Dartmoor Prison.
7/2/1940, Britain hanged two IRA men. They had been
convicted of planting the bomb in Coventry on 25/8/1939.
25/8/1939, An IRA bomb exploded without warning in the
centre of Coventry,
killing 5 and injuring 25.
29/7/1939. Britain
began a big round-up of IRA suspects as new anti-terrorist laws came into
force.
3/2/1939, The UK police hunted IRA extremists after bombs
exploded at London
tube stations.
11//7/1938. The last
British troops left Spike Island, Ireland, and handed the base over to the
Dublin Government, in a friendly ceremony. See 25/4/1938.
25/4/1938, De Valera persuaded Britain to return the naval bases they had retained
under the 1921 Treaty, at Berehaven, Cobh, Lough Swilly, Haulbowline and Rathmullen
(see 6/12/1921). Neville Chamberlain saw this as an act of reconciliation, believing the bases
could be used by Britain again if war broke out (see 11/7/1938). De Valera
saw the move as
reinforcing Irish neutrality. Winston Churchill was furious, Other matters
were settled; the land annuities were consolidated into a single lump sum payment,
and import duties against each other were reduced. This was important for
Ireland, given that 96% of its exports went to Britain. De Valera’s reputation soared.
1/1938, Anglo Irish relations,
frosty since 7/1932 with the tariff war and annuities payments dispute, began
to improve from 1936 with the appointment of Ramsay McDonald’s son, Malcolm,
to be Dominions Secretary. Ireland was concerned that Britain’s right to use
her Treaty Ports in time of war would compromise her neutrality. In 1937 the
new British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, supported Malcolm’s
initiative to improve Anglo-Irish relations and in 1/1938 serious negotiations
between the two countries began. Britain agreed to give up her rights to use
the Treaty Ports (to the infuriation of Churchill), De Valera agreed to make a
one-off payment of £10 million to settle the land annuities payments, and both
sides withdrew the tariffs they had imposed on each other’s goods. Although
usage of the Treaty Ports would indeed have been useful to Britain during World
War Two, ceding them did ensure that
Ireland was a friendly neutral towards Britain rather than any other possible
stance. Ulster remained a bone of contention but at last the British and Irish
Govermments had managed to accommodate each other.
21/7/1937. Eamon De Valera was re-elected President of Eire.
14/6/1937, The Irish Free State changed its name to Eire,
with a directly-elected President.
12/12/1936, Under the External
Relations Act, the Irish Free State amended its constitution to remove the
King from membership of its Parliament, The powers of Britain to act on behalf
of the Irish Free State were also limited by this Act. This was part of De
Valera’s programme of stripping away the powers of Britain over
Ireland under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, and in 1937 Ireland decalred a
new Constitution, further distancing itself from Britain.
18/6/1936, In the Irish Free State, the IRA was declared illegal.
17/2/1936, A trade pact was agreed between Britain and
Ireland, ending their trade war.
1935, Click here for image of Belfast traffic
issues, 1935. See also Road Traffic.
27/7/1935. Anti-Catholic riots in
Belfast.
11/7/1935, Oliver Napier, politician, was
born in Belfast, Northern Ireland (died 2011)
28/1/1935. In Ireland the import or sale of contraceptives became illegal.
10/3/1934, Belfast
Zoo (Bellevue) opened.
22/9/1933, In
Ireland, William
Cosgrave became leader of the Finne Gael Party
2/9/1933, In
Ireland, the opposition parties of the National Guard, the Centre, and Cumann
na nGaedhael united to form the Fine Gael Party, led Owen O’Duffy (from 22/9, William
Cosgrave was leader).
22/8/1933, In
Ireland, Eamon
de Valera banned the Blue Shirts, a quasi-Fascist movement.
3/5/1933, Ireland
removed the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown; appeals to the Privy
Council were outlawed.
24/1/1933, In
elections in the Irish Free State, Eamon de Valera’s Fianna Fail party gained a
majority of 1, 77 seats, against Cumann na nGaedhael 48, others 28.
15/7/1932, The Dublin de Valera Government halted
land annuity payments, £5 million a year, to Britain, on moral, economic and
legal grounds. These payments represented the interest on loans raised by the
British Government to enable Irish tenant farmers to buy out their land from
their landlord. Ireland also imposed import duties of between 15% and 75% on a
range of goods from Britain. Britain, already irked by the vote to drop the
oath of allegiance to the British Crown by the Dail, retaliated by imposing a
20% duty on Irish agricultural imports. This hit Irish beef exports hard, and
Irish cattle prices plummeted. Ireland in turn put import duties on British
coal, and British coal exports declined. See 1/1938.
19/5/1932, In the Irish Free State, the Dail voted to abolish
the oath of loyalty to the British Crown. However opposition in the Senate
blocked the motion.
29/3/1932. Eamon
de Valera, the
hard-line republican leader of the Fianna Fail Party, elected to head the new Irish government.
9/3/1932. Eamon de Valera became President of the Irish Free State.
16/2/1932, Irish elections gave a
majority to the Fianna
Fail Republicans under Eamon de Valera.
21/10/1929, Irish rural electrification received a boost when the
Shannon hydroelectric scheme began operating this day. Until now only about a
third of Dublin and a quarter of Cork had electricity; the new scheme, at a
cost of £5 million, would greatly increase the electricity supply.
16/7/1929, In Dublin, the Censorship of Publications Act
came into force, to control obscenity.
5/2/1929, Éamon de Valera was arrested for entering Northern Ireland.
12/8/1927, Eamon de Valera took his seat in the Irish Dail.
10/7/1927, In Ireland, Kevin O’Higgins, Nationalist Minister, was
assassinated. This brought denunciation on the Republicans, and the Irish Dail
passed the Public Safety Act. This
declared revolutionary societies to be treasonable, and gave the Irish
Government increased security powers.
16/5/1926, Eamon de Valera, former President of Sinn Fein, inaugurated the new political party of
Fianna Fail
(‘Soldier of
Destiny’) at the La Scala theatre in Dublin. His main aim was the reunification
of Ireland.
6/4/1926, The Northern Ireland politician, MP for Antrim, Ian Paisley was born.
11/3/1926, Eamon de Valera resigned as leader of Sinn Feinn.
9/2/1926, Dr Garret Fitzgerald, Irish Prime Minister,
was born in Dublin.
3/12/1925. Stanley Baldwin signed an agreement fixing the
Northern Irish frontier with the Irish Free State.
15/11/1925, In Ireland the Legion of Mary was founded by Frank Duff,
civil servant and former active member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, to
combat drunkenness, prostitution, crime and disease. Members went to the
poorest parts of Dublin to advise women living in poverty and degradation.
10/11/1925, In Dublin, Eoin McNeill resigned from the boundary
commission set up under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 to determine the
Northern Irish border, see 10/5/1924. A leaked report and map in the Morning Post of 7/11/1925 indicated
that, contrary to the expectations of the Dublin Government, the commission had
recommended only very minor changes to the border. Northern Ireland would lose
parts of south Armagh, south-west Fermanagh and west Tyrone, and gain small
parts of Donegal and Monahan. Overall, Northern Ireland would lose just 1.8% of
its population and 3.7% of its territory. Fearing defeat in the Dail, Irish
Government leaders sought agreement with the London Government to suppress the
commission’s report. Dublin had hoped for a major diminution of Northern
Ireland, making it economically unviable so the remainder of it would have to
join the South. See 3/12/1925.
16/9/1925, Charles Haughey, Irish Fianna Fail politician
and Prime Minister, was born.
8/11/1924, The Irish Government offered an amnesty to those
involved in the civil conflict between IRA and Government. See 12/1/1922.
1/11/1924, Eamon
de Valera
was jailed for one month for entering Northern
Ireland illegally. He was a devout Roman Catholic and Britain
did not want him proselytising in Protestant Northern Ireland. See 16/7/1924.
15/9/1924, The BBC began broadcasting from Belfast.
16/7/1924, Eamon de Valera was released after 11 months in Kilmainham Prison. Hundreds
of other activists continued to be held, many without trial. Free State troops continued
to carry out raids and arrests, causing much bitterness. See 1/11/1924,
8/11/1924.
5/6/1924, The UK Government appointed a Northern Ireland
representative to the Border Commission, see 10/5/1924.
10/5/1924, Under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (6/12/1921) a
Boundary Commission was to determine the borders of Northern Ireland. The Irish
Government believed that such a commission would give them at least 3 of the 6
Northern counties, and an economically unviable North would then join the
South. Now the Northern Irish Government refused to appoint a member to the
commission. Both the London and Dublin governments could fall over this issue.
However on 5/6/1924 the UK Government appointed a representative for Northern
Ireland. See 20/11/1925.
10/9/1923. The Irish Free State was admitted to the League of
Nations.
27/8/1923, In Irish elections, Cumann na nGaedheal won 63
seats; the anti-Treaty Republicans won 44 seats.
9/8/1923, In Ireland, the 1923 Land Law Act, introduced by
Agriculture Minister Paul Hogan, reformed landholdings in favour of
tenants. This Act completed the work of William Gladstone, British Prime Minister, who
in 1870 introduced legislation allowing tenant farmers to borrow two thirds of
the price of buying their landholding from the government, to be repaid with
interest over 35 years. Hogan’s Act made compulsory the sale of all land still
owned by landlords. Rents fixed before 1911 were reduced by 35%, those fixed
after 1911 by 30%. All rent arrears pre-1920 were cancelled and rent arrears
post 1920 were reduced by 25%. Current sub-tenants were recognised as
legitimate owners and further subdivision or subletting of land was made
illegal.
27/4/1923, After the death of IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch Eamon de Valera
called off his armed struggle against the Treaty that has partitioned Ireland.
Speaking to his Republican followers, termed ‘irregulars’ or ‘rebels’ by the
Irish Free State Government, de Valera said “Further sacrifice of life would
now be in vain. Military victory must be allowed for to rest for the moment
with those who have destroyed the Republic”. The struggle had taken 4,000 lives
and cost £30 million in damage to property. Republicans had regarded the entire
State apparatus of the Free State government, courts, police, judges, illegal
and therefore legitimate military targets. In turn the Free Government had
reacted with a strong crackdown on the IRA.
10/4/1923, Liam Lynch, head of the IRA, died in police custody
after being wounded in fighting with Free State troops. See 27/4/1923.
3/2/1923, Arson campaign began in the Irish Free State.
7/12/1922, The Northern Ireland Parliament voted against
inclusion in the Irish Free State.
6/12/1922, In Ireland. Tim Healy was appointed Governor-General.
Creation
of the new State of Ireland
5/12/1922. The Irish Free State was
officially proclaimed. The last British troops left on 17/12/1922.
24/11/1922, In the Irish Free State,
leading Republican Erskine Childers was executed for possession
of a firearm.
9/9/1922, The Irish Dail, meeting
under heavy guard, elected William T Cosgrave as President, to succeed Arthur Griffith.
25/8/1922, William T Cosgrave became head
of the provisional government of the Irish Free State, replacing Arthur Griffith
who died of a brain haemorrhage on 12/8/1922.
22/8/1922, Michael Collins,
31, Prime Minister of the Provisional Irish Government, was killed in a
Republican ambush in west Cork.
15/8/1923, Eamon de Valera was arrested by Irish Free
State troops; released 16/7/1924.
12/8/1922, Arthur Griffith,
President of the Dail of the Irish Free State, died unexpectedly. Michael Collins
became Head of State and of the Army, but was assassinated on 22/8/1922.
30/7/1922,
Anti-Treaty rebels in Ireland occupied Tipperary; Irish National troops
recaptured it.
22/6/1922, Marshall Sir Henry Wilson, former chief of
the General Staff and an Irishman, was shot dead by IRA gunmen, acting without IRA
authority. Sir Wilson had been in favour of a British reoccupation of Ireland.
16/6/1922, In the first elections in the Irish Free
State, pro-Treaty
Sinn Fein won 58 seats, anti-treaty Sinn Fein won 36 seats, and others
took 34 seats.
31/5/1922, The Royal Ulster Constabulary was formed.
31/3/1922, In
the UK, the Irish Free State Bill received the Royal
Assent.
18/2/1922, The
notorious Black and Tans were
disbanded, following the signing of the Anglo-Irish
Treaty. They had acquired ill repute for their brutal treatment of
suspected IRA members.
15/2/1922. A cycle of reciprocal violence spread fear across Ireland, North and
South. In Belfast Loyalists threw a bomb at a group of Catholic children,
killing 6, in revenge for the murder of four policemen in Clones, County
Monaghan. The IRA had launched a terrorist offensive in January 1922. In
Belfast, Catholics bombed trams bound for the shipyards, where many Protestants
worked.
12/1/1922, The UK Government declared an amnesty for
Irish political prisoners. See 8/11/1924.
10/1/1922, Arthur Griffith was
elected President of the newly formed Irish Free State.
7/1/1922, The Irish Dail voted 64 votes 57 to accept
the Anglo-Irish
Treaty.
6/12/1921. Under the Anglo-Irish
Treaty, Britain
granted the 26 counties of Southern Ireland dominion status within the Empire,
as the Irish Free State. 6 of
the 9 counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom. Britain retained
certain naval bases within Southern Ireland. See 7/1/1922 and 25/4/1938.
21/11/1921. Troops were sent to quell rioting in Belfast.
21/10/1921. Anglo-Irish peace talks began.
11/10/1921, The first Republican Court sat in Dublin
14/8/1921. De Valera rejected Dominion status for Ireland.
11/7/1921. The British Government and Sinn Fein agreed a truce.
7/6/1921, The new Northern Ireland Parliament opened in
Belfast. Sir
James Craig was the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
25/5/1921. Sinn Fein burned down the Dublin Customs House.
2/4/1921, The IRA first
obtained Tommy guns, from a gunsmith in Hartford, Connecticut.
16/2/1921, Eight Sinn Fein supporters were shot dead in a gun
battle with British soldiers.
22/1/1921. British tanks were sent into Dublin, as a hunt for
the police killers got underway.
20/1/1921, Six policemen were shot dead by the IRA
in Dublin.
23/12/1920. The Bill for the division
of Ireland into North and South became law. Northern and
Southern Ireland got their own Parliaments.
11/12/1920. Martial law was
declared in Ireland. Britain had 40,000 soldiers in Ireland, plus 7,000 of the
hated Black and Tans (ex-soldiers
serving as police), who were often accused of brutality. They would burn down entire
villages in their search for IRA
gunmen. Recently, both sides escalated the conflict with IRA hit and run
tactics countered by increased British army intervention.
21/11/1920. 21 British officers and officials were killed in
their beds by IRA
members, setting off a day of killing and bloodshed in Ireland. This was in retaliation for an attack by the Black and Tans, an auxiliary police
force, at a Gaelic football match, where 12 died.
26/10/1920, The Lord Mayor of Ireland, Mayor Terrence MacSwiney, died
in Cork prison after a 75-day hunger strike to protest at his incarceration by
the British, on allegations of conspiracy with Sinn Fein rebels.
21/7/1920, Sinn Fein and
the Ulster
Unionists rioted in Belfast.
8/7/1920, British troops set up road blocks in Dublin.
24/6/1920. Riots in Londonderry put down by the British Army.
24/5/1920, Sinn Fein won 124 out of the 128 seats in the new
Southern Irish Parliament. In the Northern Irish Parliament,
Unionists won 40 seats, Nationalists 6 and Sinn Fein 6.
15/5/1920, Britain
sent more troops into Ireland after attacks by Sinn Fein militants.
13/4/1920, 300,000 workers went on strike at the treatment of Sinn Fein
hunger strikers; on 14/2/1920 89 hunger strikers were released from Dublin
Prison.
31/3/1920, The British House of Commons passed the Irish Home
Rule Bill.
26/3/1920. 800 special
constables, the Black and Tans, arrived
in Ireland to put down the Republican revolt in the south of the country, where
public order was rapidly deteriorating.
10/3/1920, The Ulster Unionist Council voted to accept the
Government of Ireland Bill, partitioning Ireland into North and South.
21/1/1920, In Dublin, Ireland, the Deputy Assistant
Commissioner of Police, Redmond, was shot dead.
22/12/1919. David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister,
announced plans for the partition of Ireland.
19/12/1919, The Irish Republican Army (formerly Irish
Volunteers) made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lord French,
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
24/11/1919, Proposals to divide Ireland in two, Ulster and the
South, were submitted to the UK Cabinet.
31/8/1919. In Ireland, press censorship was abolished.
22/7/1919, British MPs formally approved the Treaty of
Versailles. Only 4 MPs voted against, 3 of them Irish Nationalists objecting to
the omission of Home
Rule for Ireland.
5/4/1919. Eamon De Valera became Sinn Fein’s president.
21/1/1919. A Sinn Fein congress declared Irish
Independence. Two Royal Ulster Constabularies were also murdered this day in
Tipperary.
28/12/1918. Lloyd George’s coalition was re-elected to
government. One women was elected, Countess Markievicz, for a Dublin
constituency. However as Sinn Fein candidate she would not take the
oath of allegiance to the King and did not take her seat in the House.
10/10/1918, 587 died when the Irish mailboat Leinster was torpedoed by a German
U-boat.
20/6/1918, After protests, the UK Government cancelled Irish
conscription. See 18/4/1918.
19/5/1918. Britain
jailed 500 Sinn Fein members, including Eamon De Valera.
18/5/1918, To curb growing revolutionary power in Ireland,
the British Government declared Sinn Fein and the Irish Volunteers (now IRA)
to be illegal organisations.
23/4/1918. In Ireland,
a one-day strike against conscription was widely supported, except in Ulster.
18/4/1918, In Britain, the age of military conscription was
raised to 50, and extended to cover Ireland. See 20/6/1918. Sinn Fein,
the Nationalists
and the British
Labour Party all resisted this.
10/6/1917. Sinn Fein uprising in Dublin.
23/12/1916, The Irishmen interned after the Easter Rising were
released (see 1/5/1916).
3/8/1916. Sir
Roger Casement,
the Irish Nationalist, was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, for treason,
because of his attempts to induce Germany to support the cause of Irish
independence. He was a former diplomat who had exposed slavery in the Congo.
Casement had been found guilty and sentenced on 29/6/1916. There were intense
efforts made for his reprieve, but the prosecution, with the connivance of the
British Government, released his ‘black diaries’, with evidence of his
homosexuality, making any reprieve impossible.
12/5/1916. James Connolly was the last of the seven
rebels who signed the proclamation of an Irish Republic during the Easter
Rising (see 29/4/1916) to be executed. Wounded in the Easter Rebellion, he was taken
to face the firing squad on a stretcher.
3/5/1916, Padraic Pearse
(1879-1916), leader of the 1916 Easter Rebellion against the British in Dublin,
was executed at Kilmainham Gaol.
1/5/1916, 400 Irish rebels arrived at Liverpool docks for
internment in Britain.
30/4/1916, The Easter Rebellion in Ireland against the
British ended with 450 dead and 3,000
wounded
24/4/1916. Roger Casement was arrested as he landed in
Ireland from a German submarine. The Irish wanted Germany to supply arms for a
rebellion against the British and even for a German invasion of Ireland;
however German support was lukewarm. The Easter Rebellion began in Dublin against
British rule, on Easter Monday. The rebellion
ended on 30/4/1916. It was followed by British reprisals, led by the notorious Black and Tans. The rebellion
had begun almost unnoticed by the British. The arrest of Roger Casement lulled the
British into a false sense of security. On Easter Monday few paid attention to
the columns of soldiers marching into central Dublin, where they seized the
General Post Office for their headquarters. From the steps of this building General Pearce
read a proclamation declaring the establishment of the Republic of Ireland.
Many British Army officers were on leave to attend a horse race meeting and the
city only contained 1,200 British troops. By the time the British authorities
realised what was happening the rebels had taken over the entire city centre
and established a cordon of fortified posts in the suburbs. However the might
of the British Army soon arrived, with heavy artillery, and bombarded the city centre; the Post Office caught fire
and was destroyed. The rebels had no choice but to surrender unconditionally.
15/4/1916, Between
November 1914 and this day the British had prosecuted some 500 Irish people
under DORA
(Defence Of The Realm Act), since
World War One broke out. This caused resentment in Ireland, leading to the Easter Rising.
1/12/1914, The British Government suppressed anti-enlistment newspapers in Dublin.
18/9/1914, In Britain, the Irish Home Rule Bill received Royal Assent.
However it was suspended the same day due to the War.
30/7/1914. The British Government shelved plans for Irish Home Rule,
as the threat of European war loomed.
8/7/1914, The UK Government accepted the Lords’ amendment to the Home Rule Bill (for Ireland) excluding Ulster. However on 30/7/1914
the Home Rule process was shelved due to the growing crisis in Europe. In an
attempt at compromise, the Bill allows counties of Ireland to vote on staying
out of Home Rule for six years, until there have been two British General
elections. However this was unpopular with both Nationalists (who wanted no
exemptions) and Loyalists (who wanted no time limit).
26/6/1914, Anti-British Irish tried to smuggle in an arms
cache bought in Belgium into Howth bay.
Police intercepted them and a gun battle ensued.
25/5/1914, The Home Rule Bill was passed by the Commons,
without separate provision for Ulster.
25/4/1914, The Ulster Volunteer Force took
over the town of Larne for the night, cutting communications and rendering the
town authorities impotent as they unloaded 25,000 rifles and 3 million rounds
of ammunition from a collier ship, the Clydesdale.
She also unloaded Loyalist guns at Bangor and other Ulster ports. The
munitions, bought in Hamburg, had been loaded aboard the Fanny, and described as zinc plates, before being transferred to
the Clydesdale at sea. The munitions
unloaded at Larne were then driven away into the night in 700 cars and lorries.
4/4/1914, A rally in Hyde Park, London, protested against
the possible use of the British army against Loyalists in Ulster.
20/3/1914, The Curragh
Mutiny in Ireland. British Army Officers refused to act against Protestant
paramilitaries.
25/2/1914, The Ulster Volunteer Force now
had 100,000 members.
7/2/1914, A report on
working-class conditions in Dublin revealed that 22% of the population lived in
one-room tenement buildings in extreme squalor. Many of these tenements were
served by just one courtyard tap, the basement rooms enjoyed very little light
or ventilation, and human excreta littered the yards and passages. 118,000
people lived in these conditions, which were said to be comparable with living
conditions in Calcutta. The tuberculosis death rate was the highest of any city
in the British Isles.
7/1/1914, Patrick Weston Joyce, Irish historian, author
of The Origin and History of Irish Names
of Places, born 1827, died this day.
5/12/1913, Britain proscribed the import of arms into
Ireland.
24/9/1913, Ulster Unionists blocked Irish Home Rule.
Protestants in Ulster vowed to fight rather than accept rule by Catholic
Dublin. The Ulster Volunteer Force held a military parade in
Belfast.
23/9/1913, The Ulster Unionist Council, with Sir Edward
Carson as its Chairman, drew up plans for resisting government from
Dublin, and to set up an alterative Belfast government. The Council voted to raise a £1 million
indemnity fund to insure the Ulster Volunteer Force
against loss or injury when acting on behalf of the provisional Ulster
government. Meanwhile Irish Nationalists were alarmed at the prospect of Ulster
being excluded from Home Rule legislation.
12/7/1913, At the Craigavon Meeting, 150,000 Ulstermen pledged
to resist Home Rule by force.
7/7/1913, The Irish Home Rule Bill was passed again by the
Commons.
15/7/1913. The House of Lords again rejected an Irish Home
Rule Bill.
31/1/1913. The House of Lords rejected a Bill for Irish Home Rule,
by 326 votes to 69. the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed to resist
Home Rule.
16/1/1913, The Home Rule Bill passed its second Commons
reading.
7/1/1913, The UK Government introduced proportional representation into the Home Rule Bill to protect the interests of Protestants.
28/9/1912, A week of rallies and speeches in Ulster ended with
a pledge to
defeat Home Rule. Sir Edward Carson vowed to fight Home Rule,
collecting 471,414 signatures, some people signing in their own blood. See
9/5/1912.
12/7/1912, 12,000 Ulstermen demonstrated against home
rule for Ireland.
9/5/1912, In Britain
the Liberal Government’s plans to give Ireland Home
Rule came closer this day when the House of Commons gave the Home
Rule Bill a second reading, voting for it by 360 votes to 266. Tory MPs were
firmly opposed and the Liberals relied on Irish Nationalist and Labour MPs to
get the Bill passed. The Parliament Act, passed in 1911, ensured Conservative
opposition in the House of Lords would not block the Bill. Ireland might have
Home Rule by 1914. However the Home Rule issue had sharpened divisions between
Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Belfast, with its flourishing
shipbuilding industry, was now the largest city in Ireland, and both merchants
and workers there were opposed to rule from Dublin. Sir
Edward Carson, a Dublin-born Protestant, planned to recruit some
80,000 armed volunteers to fight for Ulster to remain in the UK, see 28/9/1912.
9/4/1912. Major demonstration by 200,000 people against Irish Home
Rule Bill in Belfast.
31/3/1912. Major demonstration in Dublin for Irish Home Rule;
100,000 present.
11/4/1912. Irish Home Rule Bill introduced to the UK
Parliament.
30/1/1912, The UK House of Lords rejected the Irish Home Rule
Bill.
3/1/1912, Ulster Unionists said they would ignore Irish Home Rule.
9/5/1911, The British Parliament agreed to Home Rule
for Ireland.
10/12/1910, In the UK, the Liberal agenda included Irish Home Rule
and abolition of the House of Lords.
31/12/1909, Henry Ferguson made the first aeroplane flight from Irish soil,
at Hillsborough near Belfast.
20/12/1909, The first cinema opened in Ireland, the Volta in
Dublin.
10/12/1909, Herbert Asquith, British Prime Minister,
promised self-rule for Ireland in a speech at the Royal Albert Hall.
31/10/1909, (1) The National University of Ireland, Dublin, came
into being.
(2) Queens University, Belfast, came
into being.
13/8/1907, Two civilians were killed by British troops in
Belfast. The docks strike in Belfast had been called by James Larkin the
dockworkers union leader in May 1907, in response to pay rates as low as 10
shillings a week, and he had urged mill workers to join the strike. A local
magistrate, Major Martin Thackeray, attempted to read the Riot act to a crowd
of 500 strikers who were throwing stones at police, but he had to admit he was
inaudible. Four soldiers were injured by stones. Unrest grew and on 11/8/1907 a
police van was ambushed on Grosvenor Road. A crowd of 2,000 gathered and
attacked a barracks. The Government sent in 2,600 soldiers as well as 80
cavalry and 500 police. Some soldiers smashed doors and windows of homes.
Whilst stationed to protect workers in the Catholic Falls Road area, soldiers
shot dead a woman looking for her child and a man returning from his work.
30/7/1907, British troops sent in to quell rioting in
Belfast.
12/2/1907, In the UK, the Liberal Government put Home Rule for
Ireland on the agenda, along with better public housing.
1/8/1906, The new Belfast City Hall was opened.
31/5/1906, Michael Davitt, dedicated Irish Nationalist,
died (born 25/3/1846).
28/11/1905. Sinn Fein was founded in Dublin
by Arthur Griffith.
10/7/1905, A UK Parliamentary
reshuffle meant 22
fewer Irish MPs.
27/12/1904, The Abbey Theatre in Dublin opened,
on the site of the former Mechanics Institute in Abbey Sttreet; the first State
subsidised theatre in the world. The Irish State saw the theatre as a focus for
nationalist literature and drama.
2/4/1904, Arthur Griffith proposed
that Ireland should separate from England, but retain the same King.
3/2/1904, The Irish Nationalist leader John
Redmond called for Home Rule.
14/8/1903, The UK Parliament approved a scheme to help Irish
tenant famers buy their own land. Public funds would be used to pay the
difference between what tenants could afford and what landlords will accept.
The scheme was to remove some causes of Irish Nationalist agitation, at a time when
agriculture was prospering, with wages rising and exports of linen weaving,
spinning, brewing and distilling were growing.
21/7/1903, The Irish
Land Purchase Act was passed. This gave incentives for landlords to sell
holdings to the irish Land Commission, which would collect annuities from
tenants rather than rent.
23/10/1902, Irish MPs protested violently in the Houses of
Parliament, London.
14/9/1902. In
Dublin, 20,000 protested against strict law and order measures imposed by the British
Government under a State of Emergency.
1/9/1902. A State of
Emergency was declared in Dublin.
16/4/1902, Over 20,000 people protested in Dublin against
British rule.
26/2/1902, In the North Kilkenny by-election, brought about
by the resignation of the sitting MP Patrick McDermott of the Irish Parliamentary
Party, Joseph
Devlin stood unopposed, retaining the seat for the IPP.
14/2/1902, Lord Rosebery declared he would never give
Ireland its independence.
21/10/1901, The first professionally produced Irish language
play, Casadh an tSúgáin ("Twisting of the Rope"), premiered at the
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin,
6/10/1901, Father James Cullen held the first Annual
General meeting of the Pioneer Association in Dublin, aimed at promoting
temperance. He believed that England was using alcoholism to keep Ireland
subdued.
13/5/1901, Lord Salisbury spoke against the idea of Irish
Home Rule.
5/3/1901, In London, police ejected Irish Nationalists from
the House of Commons.
30/9/1900, In Ireland, Arthur Griffith founded the
Cumann na nGaedhael (The League of Gaels),
whose motto was Sinn Feinn (We Ourselves)
2/9/1900, Demonstrations in Dublin against British rule.
5/4/1900, In Ireland, Queen
Victoria formed the Irish Guards regiment in recognition of their
bravery during the Boer War.
5/1/1900. John Redmond,
Irish nationalist, called for an uprising against the British.
15/3/1895, Bridget Clary, aged 27, was burnt to death for
witchcraft at Battyradhen, County Tipperary.
3/3/1894, Gladstone resigned after splitting his party
over the issue of Irish Home Rule.
He was succeeded by Lord Rosebery as
Prime Minister.
1/9/1893, The Second Irish Home Rule Bill passed in the
Commons, but was rejected on 8/9/1893 by the Lords.
13/2/1893, A Home Rule Bill (for Ireland) was introduced to
the UK Commons.
6/10/1891, Charles Stewart
Parnell, Irish politician and campaigner for Home Rule, died in
Brighton, Sussex.
20/6/1891, John A Costello,
Prime Minister of Ireland, was born.
1888, Belfast was designated as a city. In 1604 it was a village
of 500 people and five lanes; its name derived from beal, meaning entrance, and
fearsad, meaning sandbank.. The port of Belfast was greatly improved and
dredged when the ;linen boom of the 1780s began. By 1800 some 27,000 people
were employed in the linen industry within a 10 mile radius of Belfast.
1887, Britain set up the Special Branch of the Metropolitan
Police, specifically to deal with terrorism by Irish Nationalists.
1886, In general elections, Ireland now had 85 Home Rule MPs.
26/7/1886. William Gladstone was replaced by Lord Salisbury
following defeat of the Irish Home Rule Bill.
2/1/1885, A further terrorist
attack on the London Underground, by Irish Republicans. James
Canningham set a bomb off in the tunnel between Kings Cross and
Gower Street (now Euston) stations; only slight damage to a train was caused.
Later that month, he was seen detonating a bomb which seriously injured four
people at the Tower of London, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard
labour. Bomb attacks by these so called ‘dyamitards’ tailed off after others
were caught or blew themselves up.
1/11/1884. Gaelic Football was standardised, with the
formation of the Gaelic Athletics Association in Thurles, Ireland.
30/10/1883, The first terrorist attack on the London Underground. Two bombs were set off
by Fenian fighters for Irish independence, one at Praed Street Station (now
Paddington) on a Metropolitan Line train going towards Edgware Road, and one on
a District Line train between Westminster and Charing Cross (now Embankment).
Nobody was killed and there were only slight injuries from flying glass. The
perpetrators were never found. In February 1884 more serious bomb attacks were
attempted, with devices planted at Victoria, Charing Cross,, Ludgate Hill and
Paddington. Fortunately only the Victoria bomb exploded and as the station was
nearly empty at the time nobody was killed. Again the bombers were never
discovered. Other terrorist plans of the time included an attempt to blow up
Scotland Yard., by Clan na Gael. Some
damage was done, with records on Irish Republicans destroyed, but had all the
dymanite detonated the building would have been totally destroyed.
17/10/1882, Charles Parnell
inaugurated the National League, an
Irish Nationalist Movement. Within three
years the organosation had over 1,000 branches, and Parnell
had secured the backing of the Roman Catholic Church. After internal
dissentions in 1890 the organisation was eventually succeeded by the Irish National Federation in 1900.
14/10/1882, Eamon de Valera, Irish Prime Minister and
President of Ireland, was born in Manhattan, New York City.
6/5/1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish, Irish Chief
Secretary and brother-in-law of British Prime Minister Gladstone, also T H Burke,
his Under-Secretary, were attacked and stabbed to death by members of ‘The Invincibles’, a Nationalist Irish
group. The entire faction was later arrested and five of them hanged. British
public opinion was outraged and harsh coercive legislation followed.
2/2/1882, Birth
of the Irish novelist James Joyce, in Dublin; he wrote Ulysses.
18/11/1880, The Irish Football Association was formed.
24/9/1880, From this date the land agent of Lord Erne, Captain Charles
Cunningham Boycott (1832 – 1897), in County Mayo, was ‘boycotted’. Boycott had used troops to
harvest crops when Irish labourers refused to do so. Parnell
was now leader of the 61 Home Rule League members.
5/5/1879, Isaac Butt, Irish Nationalist leader, died
(born 1813).
26/3/1879, The Land
League was founed by Michael Davitt and Parnell,
and campaigned for fair rents for tenants, for secure tenure for tenants, and
the right for the tenant to sell on their tenure.
24/10/1878, Paul Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, died (born
1803).
1874, In Irish general
elections, the Home Rule League, led
by Isaac
Butt, won 59 seats and began a policy of ‘obstruction’.
1873, The Home Rule League was founded in Dublin.
1872, Dublin’s first non-horse
tram lines began running. The system grew to 37 miles, reaching out into the
south Dublin suburbs, see 10/7/1949.
1870, Irish lawyer Isaac Butt,
57, founded the Home Rule Association.
This was a coalition of Protestants and Nationalists to work for the repeal of
the 1801 Act of Union.
1/8/1870. Britain passed the Irish
Land Act, providing compensation for Irish tenant farmers evicted
from their land.
13/12/1867. Twelve people died when Irish Fenian bombers blew up the outer
wall of the Clerkenwell
Prison in London in an attempt to rescue a jailed colleague.
In fact the bomb not only brought down the outer wall of the prison but wrecked
a row of houses opposite, killing 12 and injuring 120. They failed to release
the prisoner. The Fenians also attempted to set off a bomb in Manchester. The Fenians,
who originated in the
USA, were named after Finn
McCool, leader of a legendary band of 3rd century Fianna
warriors who defended Ireland against the evil Fomor giants.
17/9/1867, Francis Blackburne, Lord Chancellor of
Ireland, died (born in County Meath 11/11/1782).
15/9/1865. The British arrested Fenian leaders
in Ireland who were preparing an uprising.
1/9/1864, Sir Roger Casement, British
civil servant and Irish nationalist, was born in Kingstown, near Dublin.
26/7/1856. George Bernard Shaw,
playwright, was born in Dublin. A failed novelist, he was 36 when his first
play, Widower’s Houses, was performed.
16/10/1854, Oscar Wilde, Irish author and playwright, was
born in Dublin, the son of a surgeon.
1851, As a result of successive potato crop
faliures, and the emigration this precipitated, the population of
Ireland fell to 6,552,386, from 8,178,124 in 1841.
7/3/1848, Irish Nationalist leader Thomas Francis Meagher unveiled
the current Irish flag at a meeting in Waterford. He explained the design as
the central white third representing a truce between the Protestant Orange and
the Catholic
Green factions.
8/11/1847. Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, was
born in Dublin.
15/5/1847, Daniel O’Connell (born 6/8/1775, County Kerry)
died in Genoa on his way to Rome. He fought against the 1801 Act of Union
beteeen Ireland and Great Britain. Irish Catholics could not sit in the United
Kingdom Parliament, and also had to pay taxes towards the Protestant Church of
England. Catholic anger caused the UK Governmemt to pass a Bill emancipating
Catholics in 1829. However O’Connell’s ultimate goal, repeal of ther Act of Union
and Home Rule for Ireland, was not achieved in his lifetime,
27/6/1846, Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish politician and
leader of the Home Rule movement, was born in Avondale, County Wicklow.
25/6/1846. Britain repealed the Corn
Laws after a 5 month debate in Parliament. Import duties on wheat,
oats, and barley were to be scrapped in 3 years, and meanwhile set at a nominal
rate only, of one shilling a quarter. This was opposed by Tory protectionists,
but the Irish potato famine in 1845
added urgency to the repeal. Bread would now be cheaper but the farming of the
landed estates less profitable. The Irish potato
blight spread from America and first appeared in the UK in the Isle
of Wight. Hot dry weather in July gave way to chilly rain and fog, and the
potatoes soon rotted. 4 million people in Ireland and 2 million in Britain
relied almost totally on potatoes for food. Public works schemes were
devised for some 750,000 workers which meant 3 million people relied on these
for income. Many Irish migrated to the USA, even though the voyage was almost as deadly
as the famine; one in six died on the voyage across the Atlantic.
The Irish blamed English oppression for the famine even though England had
provided almost £8million in relief.
25/3/1846, Michael Davitt, dedicated Irish Nationalist,
was born (died 31/5/1906).
1841, Irish agriculture had become fragmented,
with 663,153 out of 690,114 landholdings comprising less than 15 acres. This
held back productivity, Rents were high and tenant farners subsisted off bread
whilst sellng grain and cattle to pay rents. Whisky was also cheap,
contributing to drunkenness. The population of Ireland was 10,175,000, up from
7,700,000 in 1831.
30/5/1840, Mary Cork, daughter of 1st Viscount Galway,
died (born 21/5/1746).
1836, Ireland
hit by the potato
famine.
14/11/1827, Thomas Emmet, Irish politician, died (born
24/4/1764).
13/4/1824, William Alexander, Protestant Archbishop of
Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, was born in Londonderry.
6/6/1820, Henry Grattan, Irish statesman, died (born
3/7/1746).
27/12/1819, Hugh Cairns, Irish statesman, was born (died
2/4/1885).
14/10/1817, John Curran, Irish politician, died (born
24/7/1750).
11/4/1816, Patrick Duigenan, Irish politician, died (born
1735).
20/9/1803, Robert Emmet, Irish patriot, was hanged for
his part as a leader in the uprising.
25/8/1803, The Irish
rebel leader Robert
Emmet was captured by the British.
22/7/1803. Irish patriots under Robert Emmet
rebelled against the Union of Ireland with Britain, established
1/1/1801.
28/1/1802, John Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, died
(born 1749).
2/2/1801, The Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland
sat for the first time.
1/1/1801, The Act of Union between Britain and Ireland
came into force. Irish MPs could sit at
Westminster. However some smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised so as to
limit the number of Irish MPs to 100,
1/1/1800, The Act of Union between Great Britain and
Ireland became operative. The new State was to be called the United
Kingdom. The Church was to be one Protestant Episcopal church.
17/11/1798, Irish nationalist leader Wolfe Tone committed suicide
whilst in jail awaiting execution.
6/8/1798, Unaware that the Irish rebels have been defeated,
a French force set sail to help them against the British. On 15/9/1798 the
French in Ireland surrendered to General Cornwallis at Ballymuck.
21/6/1798, Over 15,000 British troops attacked Irish rebels
at the Battle
of Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, County Wexford.
7/6/1798, The Battle
of Antrim. Irish rebels, during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, attacked the
British in the town of Antrim, led by Henry Joy McCracken. The British succeeded in
beating the attackers off, but the British County-Governor, Lord O’Neill,
was fatally injured.
23/5/1798, Believing that a French invasion of Britain was
imminent, Irish nationalists rebelled against British rule. The rebels enjoyed
initial success in Wexford but were suppressed by British forces.
31/12/1795, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 lease on a
brewery at St James Gate, Dublin, for an annual rent of £45.
4/9/1794, John Hely-Hutchinson, Irish statesman, died
(born 1724)
22/8/1792, French forces landed in Ireland.
14/10/1791, In Belfast, the Society of United Irishmen was
set up to demand rights for Catholics.
11/11/1782, Francis Blackburne, Lord Chancellor of
Ireland, was born in County Meath (died 17/9/1867).
6/8/1775, Daniel O’Connell, who fought against the 1801
Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain, was born in County Kerry. See
15/5/1847.
10/10/1765, Lionel Cranfield Sackville, Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, died (born 18/1/1688).
8/10/1765, Harman Blennerhasset, Irish lawyer, was born
in County Kerry (died in Guernsey 2/2/1831).
24/4/1764, Thomas Emmet, Irish politician, was born (died
14/11/1827).
15/10/1763, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, campaigner for Irish
independence, was born (died 4/6/1798).
16/11/1762, John Boyle, Irish statesman, died (born
2/1/1707).
14/5/1755, George Barrington, Irish adventurer, was born
in Maynooth.
30/10/1751, Dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan was born in
Dublin. He was the son of a teacher of
elocution.
24/7/1750, John Curran, Irish politician, was born (died
14/10/1817).
3/7/1746, Henry Grattan, Irish statesman, was born (died
6/6/1820).
21/5/1746, Mary Cork, daughter of 1st Viscount Galway,
was born (died 30/5/1840).
1741, Famine in Ulster sparked
mass emigration, mostly to North America.
27/8/1735, Peter Browne, Bishop of Cork and Ross, died.
12/1/1729, The statesman Edmund Burke was born in Dublin.
18/8/1728, James Charlemont, Irish statesman, was born
(died 4/8/1799).
12/1/1726, Edmund Burke, British politician and orator,
was born in Dublin.
1722, William Wood of England granted
a patent to coin money for Ireland.
1720, An Act of King George I
of Britain formally asserted Britain’s right to legislate for Ireland.
2/1/1707, John Boyle, Irish statesman, was born (died
16/11/1762).
17/9/1701, The deposed King
of England, James
II, died of a stroke at 5 St
Germain, France. His son, James Edward, the ‘Old Pretender’, was proclaimed
King of Great Britain and Ireland by King Louis XIV.
15/1/1698, Richard Boyle, Irish statesman, died (born
1612).
27/10/1697, Lightning struck Athlone Castle,
Ireland, igniting 260 barrels of gunpowder along with other munitions. The
resultant fire destroyed the town of Athlone, although only 8 people were
killed.
Attempted Franco-Jacobite invasion of Ireland,
failed.
3/10/1691, The
surrender of Limerick. Irish soldiers were allowed to depart for France;
11,000 did so.
12/7/1691, King William III won a
decisive victory over the Jacobites at Aughrim, Ireland. The Jacobite army
under Charles
Chalmont, Marquis de St Ruth, had initial success in the battle
until Chalmont
was killed, his forces lost morale and fled. 7,000 Jacobite soldiers were
killed. By the end of 1691 all Jacobite resistance to William in Ireland had ceased.
9/8/1690, The siege
of Limerick began.
11/7/1690. William of Orange defeated
the Jacobites under the deposed Catholic King James II
at the Battle of the Boyne. The River Boyne was the only defensive
barrier between Belfast and Dublin, and James II’s forces were well dug in on rising
ground there. James
II’s forces lost 1,600 men; William’s, only a third of that number.
William won, and James fled to Waterford and then on to France.
1/8/1689. The Irish-French army of James II
failed to take the besieged city of Londonderry, whose inhabitants
reaffirmed their loyalty to William
and Mary.
20/4/1689, The siege
of Londonderry began.
3/4/1689. After
landing in Ireland with money and troops supplied by Louis XIV, James II
was acknowledged as King of England by an Irish parliament in Dublin. England
declared war on France on 17/5/1689.
18/1/1688, Lionel Cranfield Sackville, Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, was born (died 10/10/1765).
19/10/1680, John Abernethy, Irish Presbyterian Minister,
was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry.
23/8/1680, Captain Blood, the famous Irish adventurer,
died. He had attempted to steal the
Crown Jewels from the Tower of London on 9/5/1671.
9/9/1674, Murrough Inchiquin, Irish statesman, died.
30/11/1667. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, was born in
Dublin.
12/9/1649, The sack of Drogheda by soldiers under Oliver Cromwell.
Cromwell’s
16,000 troops put to death 2,000 Irish rebels to deter further insurrection. Another
massacre was perpetrated at Wexford soon after. The Irish Rebellion had begun in 1641.
15/9/1643, King Charles made a truce with rebels in
Ireland, to free up more forces for the Civil War.
20/6/1631, Pirates
attacked the Irish village of Baltimore, abducting 100 for slavery. These would
be sold in the slave markets of Algiers, the men for galley work, the women for
harems. The village was abandoned afterwards.
19/2/1625, Arthur
Chichester, Lord Deputy of Ireland, died (born 5/1563).
1613, The City of London was given responsibility for establishing
an English ’Plantation’ city in
Ireland on the site of former Derry (see 1600). Hence the new city was called
Londonderry.
1610, The Jacobean Plantation began in Ireland. This was an initiative to
colonise Ulster by English and Scottish settlers, thereby subduing the
rebellious indigenous Irish.
War between Ireland and England; Spain assisted Ireland, but England victorious
2/10/1601, A Spanish force of 4,000 landed at Kinsale,
Ireland, to help the Irish in their war against the English. The English
Lord-Deputy of Ireland, Lord Mountjoy, headed south from Dublin to
contain and besiege the Spanish, along with English reinforcements brought in
through Oysterhaven, just east of Kinsale. Meanwhile two rebel Irish armies led
by O’Neill
and his ally Hugh
Roe O’Donnell, marched south to relieve the Spanish.
However the English cavalry broke up these forces in a battle on 3/1/1602, and
the Irish soldiers returned home to Ulster. The Spanish also agreed to return
home. The Irish rebellion ended in 1603,
and O’Neill and his followers fled to Europe. The English seized control of Ulster,
settling it with Protestants from Scotland to secure it against the Catholics.
1600, The old Irish city of
Derry was razed by English forces under Sir Henry Docwra. See 1613.
14/8/1598, The
English were heavily defeated at the Battle of Yellow Ford, River Blackwater,
County Armagh. In 1597 the English had built a fort on the River Blackwater, 8
km northwest of the garrison town of Armagh, to support military expeditions
into neighbouring Tyrone, where the Earl of Tyrone had raised a well-trained
army against the English. Soon afterwards, the Earl of Tyrone besieged this
fort. The English attempted a relief operation but became bogged down in the
local terrain, and their gunpowder store exploded. Cut down by cavalry and
infantry, the English retreated to Armagh.
1593, England attempted to curb
the power of the Northern Lordships of Ireland; this resulted in war between
the Rnglish and the Irish.
3/10/1566, Richard Cork, Irish statesman, was born (died
15/9/1643).
1556, Queen Mary I of England began
the Protestant
Plantations in Ireland (English-Protestant colonies).
1366, The Satutes of Kilkenny
forbade Irish-English marriages, and prevented the English from using the Irish
language or laws.
1318, Edward Bruce was killed at
Dundalk 3 years after being proclaimed King. He was the younger brother of
Scotland’s Robert
the Bruce. Edward had failed to subdue the country south of Ulster.
10/8/1316, Second Battle of Athenry ended with over 5,000
dead, and Norman
rule retained in Ireland.
1264, First recorded sitting of
the Irish Parliament.
1198, Estimated year of origin
of Ireland’s oldest pub – The Brazen Head.
English occupation of Ireland
1198, Death of Ruaidri of
Connaught, last of the Irish High Kings.
1177, Belfast was founded by John de Courcy,
as a fort to guard a ford near the mouth of the Lagan River.
6/10/1175, At a Council in Windsor, King Henry II
and Roderick
O’Connor, King of Connaught, signed the Treaty of Windsor whereby O’Connor continued to rule Connaught but paid
an annual tribute to Henry.
17/10/1171, King
Henry II landed
near Waterford, Ireland, in response to a request for aid from Ireland’s
deposed King Dermot
MacMurrough. Dermot had been King of Leinster from 1126 but had been banished in 1166; he died aged 66. Ireland submitted peacefully to English rule.
1/9/1159. Death of Pope Adrian IV, elected
Pope on 4/12/1154. He was formerly Nicholas Breakspear, and was the
only English Pope. In 1155 he authorised King Henry
II of England to invade
Ireland and hold it as a hereditary fief
of the Papacy.
1103, Norwegian King Magnus III
invaded Ireland, and was killed in battle.
Brian Boru
23/4/1014, Battle of Clontarf: Gaelic Irish forces
under Brian
Boru (born ca. 926; King of Ireland from 1002) defeated several
allied Viking
forces in Ireland, ending their power there but Brian was killed in the battle.
976, Brian Boru became King of
Munster.
840, Dublin (Dyflynn) and
Limerick founded by Danish settlers.
802, Ireland under Viking hegemony.
Early Christian missionary work in Ireland
9/6/597, Columba, Irish missionary, died in Iona
(Inner Hebrides) and was buried by his monks in the abbey he created. He worked
successfully towards the conversion of northern Britain.
523, Death of St Brigid of Ireland.
17/3/ 461. Death of Saint Patrick, who pioneered the spread of Christianity in
Ireland. He was born near Carlisle and captured by Irish raiders and sold
as a slave at the age of 14. After 6 years he escaped and sailed to Gaul, a
journey of 3 days in a small boat. Trained as a priest in Gaul and Britain, he
had a vision in ca. 430 prompting him to return to Ireland and convert the
inhabitants. He founded the Episcopal see of Armagh in ca. 450.
432, St
Patrick began his Christian missionary work in Ireland.
379, Niall became King of Ireland.
226, The rule
of High King Cormac mac Airt began.
46 BCE, Earth
wall and fortifications built along the River Shannon, by central Irish tribes.
See also History of Christianity