History and Culture

This Month in Celtic History

Scotland

3 June 1726
The birth of James Hutton, the father of modern Geology, in Edinburgh.. Educated in chemistry and medicine at Edinburgh University and the University of Leyden, he first practiced farming in both England and Scotland before dedicating his life to geological efforts. Together with his friend and partner, landscape artist John Clerk, they undertook many field trips to study rock formations. Hutton's 1788 Theory Of The Earth, widely rejected by academic elites, challenged existing geological theories, including one that all rocks formed under water, and argued that there was a rock cycle in which old rocks were destroyed by weathering and new ones formed from their sediment. After his death in 1797, his theory was greatly enhanced by John Playfair's 1802 Illustrations Of Huttonian Theory and subsequently of great impact on 19th century thought.

4 June 1717
The capture of Robert Roy MacGregor, notorious 'Highland Rogue' and sometime Jacobite rebel, by soldiers of John Murray, Duke of Atholl. Where the Marquis of Montrose had failed to run Rob down, Atholl intended to not only succeed and win the nearly 3,500 pounds sterling reward but also assure the new ruling Hanoverian regime of his hitherto suspect loyalty. Having been granted safe conduct to discuss his possible submission, the unsuspecting Rob had agreed to a meeting but was summarily imprisoned when neither threats nor bribery could make him falsely accuse Atholl's nemesis, John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, as a Jacobite and traitor. Knowing of Rob's daring escape after having once been captured by Montrose, Atholl ordered his men to keep Rob tied up and under close supervision.

6 June 1717
Following his capture two days before, Rob Roy was incarcerated in the Perthshire prison of Logierait while his captor, the Duke of Atholl, returned to his residence of Huntingtower to write several triumphant letters to various notables, including Montrose who had failed so notably in his earlier conflict with the Highland Rogue. News of Rob's imprisonment, as well as rumors of rescue attempts by his MacGregor clansmen, caused great alarm in Edinburgh so mounted soldiers were ordered to proceed immediately to bring the famous prisoner back to the capitol city. Unfortunately for them, they did not move fast enough. The same day as his capture, Rob began to flatter his guards with his wit and musical ability, so much so that he was permitted to receive large amounts of whiskey which he did not neglect to share widely. He also received a visitor, one of his clansmen who arrived to take a written message to Rob's family. Apparently, nobody noticed that this man's horse was not the usual small highland pony but a light cavalry horse. Rob was given permission to write a note in the doorway of the jail to utilize the better light. As he handed his missive to his clansman, the latter tossed the reins to him and Rob jumped into the saddle and galloped down the road home to Loch Tay and freedom.

7 June 1811
The birth of James Young Simpson, a founder of modern gynecology and pioneer of the use of anesthetics, at Bathgate. Educated at Edinburgh University, he became a physician in 1832 and Professor of Midwifery in 1835. Searching for ways to ease the pain of childbirth, he was the first to use ether and chloroform as anesthetics in obstetric practice. Initially opposed by the medical profession, his advocacy of the use of anesthetics in childbirth was largely silenced after his appointment as one of Queen Victoria's Physicians in Scotland in 1847 and his delivery under anesthetics of her son Prince Leopold in 1853. He also developed a special forceps and wrote on both medical and literary topics. In 1866 he became the first person to be made a baronet for his services to medicine. He died in 1870 and, declining the honor of burial in London=s Westminster Abbey, his family laid him to rest near Edinburgh at Canonmills.

7 June 1329
Death of King Robert the Bruce at his manor of Cardross. (See entry for 11 July for more on The Bruce).

9 June, Every Year
The Feast Day of Saint Columba, sixth century Irish missionary traditionally associated with the conversion of Scotland to Christianity. Columba, also known as Colum or Columcille, was born 7 December about A.D. 521 to Fedhlimidh and Eithne of the Ui Neill clan in Gartanin, Tyrconnell, now County Donegal, Ireland. He studied under Saint Finnian at the monastery of Moville and was ordained a deacon. After studying with the bard Gemman, he was ordained a priest about 551 by Bishop Etchen of Clonard and went on to found the noted monasteries Daire Calgaich in Derry and Dairmagh in Durrow. Tradition states that about this time Columba copied Saint Finnian's psalter without permission, prompting the Saint to appeal to High King Dermott for judgement. The ruling was in Finnian’s favor but Columba refused to hand over the copy. Dermott forced the issue but was defeated by Columba's family and clan at the battle of Cooldrevny in 561. As penance, Saint Molasi ordered Columba to bring the same number of souls to Christ that he had caused to die. In 563, Columba and twelve followers arrived at the island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides where they built a church and a monastery as a first step in the conversion of pagan Scotland to Christianity. It would become a highly venerated site, serving as the mother house of the nascent Scottish Church with its abbots, including Columba, as ecclesiastical head. Columba gave formal benediction and inauguration to Aidan MacGabrain of Dunadd as King of the Scots of Dalriada. He accompanied Aidan to Ireland about 575 and was a leading player in the council that determined the position of the ruler of Dalriada in relation to the High King of Ireland. Columba's later life was spent mostly at Iona, where he died on 9 June 597. He and his successors are rightly regarded as religious pioneers in Britain. There are three surviving Latin hymns attributed to Columba.

11 June 1488
The murder of King James III while fleeing the battlefield of Sauchieburn near Bannockburn where his forces had been defeated by rebellious nobles led by the Homes and Hepburn families and including his teenage son, who assumed the throne as James IV. The father had fallen from his speeding horse and had asked to see a priest. Shortly thereafter several armed men arrived and one who presented himself as a priest stabbed the king to death while pretending to administer the last rights. James III's reign, which began when he was just eight years old upon his father's death at the Siege of Roxburgh in 1460, was notable for the acquisition of the Orkney and Shetland islands as dowry for his marriage to Margaret of Norway in 1469 and for the final cession of Berwick to the English in 1482. Overall, his reign was plagued with familial strife, rebellious nobles, and English intervention.

11 June 1696
The birth of James Keith, Jacobite exile and Field Marshal of Prussian forces under Frederick the Great, in Aberdeen. The Keiths were a notable family whose lands bordered those of the Sinclairs and Gunns in the extreme northeast of Scotland. They held the position of Hereditary Marischals of Scotland, which made them commanders of the King's horse. After the 1688 Protestant 'Revolution' they remained loyal to the exiled Stuarts, joining the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 and thereby losing their lands and becoming exiles. After service in the Russian army, James Keith became a friend of Frederick the Great and commanded Prussian forces in several battles of the Seven Years War. Among these were Lobositz in 1756, Prague and Rossback in 1757, and Hochkirk in 1758 where he fell mortally wounded at the head of his troops.

12 June 1747
In the aftermath of the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-1746, the British parliament revoked all heritable jurisdictions that clan chieftains as well as lowland barons, despite the 1707 Act of Union, had retained over their followers. This was a key element of the British government's actions to integrate Scotland, especially the Scottish Highlands, more fully into the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Although thousands of pounds were paid in compensation, this decisive blow to the Scottish ruling class, both highland clan chiefs and lowland barons, stripped them of most of their ancient rights to impose justice (pit and gallows) in their lands and to maintain private armies of clansmen and retainers. This further repression to the sense of Scottish nationhood resulted in much greater political stability and military security for the Hanoverian state.

13 June 1799
The emancipation of the Scottish coal miners, commonly referred to as colliers or coal hewers, by act of the British Parliament, which supplemented the Act of 1775. The institution of servitude in Scotland for coal workers was somewhat unique in the British Isles and the result of both estate custom and a series of legislative acts by the Scottish Parliament in the 17th century, especially the Act of 1606. These actions were taken to reduce desertion and ensure a constant supply of labor for an otherwise brutalizing occupation. By the late 18th century, this system produced a caste of workers who labored under a stigma of slavery yet generally received high wages and the ability to control their own output and hours worked. Clouded in the rhetoric of reform growing out of the Scottish Enlightenment, the new and expanding coal companies, fueled by the prodigious growths and demands of the Industrial Revolution, secured passage of these acts to eliminate serfdom in order to expand the size and production of the labor force.

16 June Every Year
The Feast Day of Saint Margaret, wife of King Malcolm Canmore (1057-1193). Born in Hungary about 1046, she was the daughter of Edward the Exile of the line of Saxon kings forced to flee England after the Viking conquest in 1016. The family later returned but their claims to the kingship were rejected in 1066 as first Harold Godwinson and then William the Bastard (Conqueror) of Normandy seized the throne. Fleeing to Scotland, they found sanctuary and Margaret a husband. Through her great influence over Malcolm, she introduced the language and customs of the English court, which was continued by their sons who were kings of Scots afterwards: Edgar (1097-1107), Alexander I (1107-1124), and David I (1124-1153). Noted for her piety and charity, she promoted the diocesan organization of the Roman Church, including the territorial primacy of St. Andrew's, and continental monasticism, especially the Benedictine Order who founded the Abbey at Dunfermline where she is buried. She died in 1093, just four days after her husband and son, Edward, were killed by the English in Northumberland at the Battle of Alnwick. She is commemorated by St. Margaret=s Chapel in Edinburgh and South Queensferry on the Firth of Forth in West Lothian. She was canonized in 1250.

18 June 1639
The Pacification of Dunse ends the First Bishops' War. This war had started in reaction against the attempts of King Charles I to impose 'High Church' innovations on the Presbyterian Kirk (Church) of Scotland. The Scots particularly rejected the imposition of bishops and the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Charles raised forces in the north of England to crush this dissent but they were quickly defeated by a superior Scottish force consisting of many veterans who had served in the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) in Germany. The 'pacification' was short lived and in the Second Bishops' War, which broke out soon after, the king would not do much better.

19 June 1306
The Battle of Methven, near Perth, fought between Scottish royal forces under King Robert the Bruce and the English commanded by Aymer de Valence. Scotland's second interregnum, 1296-1306, which had been imposed by the brutal conquest of King Edward I of England (also known as 'Longshanks' because of his great height and 'Hammer of the Scots' for obvious reasons), came to a sudden end when Robert the Bruce had himself crowned King of Scots at Scone on 25 March 1306. This followed Bruce' murder of chief rival, John Comyn at Greyfriars Abbey, and the seizure of several castles in the southwest from the English. Unfortunately, though Edward was ailing, he dispatched one of his best generals, Aymer de Valence, to destroy Bruce. He was instructed to show no mercy and 'burn and slay and raise dragon.' The pro-Bruce Scottish Bishops, Lamberton and Wishart, were quickly seized and Bruce's army was surprised and routed. Bruce barely escaped with his life and fled with a few followers to the Scottish Highlands.

20 June 1723
The birth of historian and philosopher Adam Ferguson at Logierait, Perthshire. Educated at the University of St. Andrews, he was a Gaelic speaker who was ordained in 1745 as Deputy Chaplain to the soon to be famous Black Watch Regiment. Later that year, at the Battle of Fontenoy, he lead an attack with broadsword in hand. In 1754, he left the army and gave up the clerical profession in 1757 to succeed his friend David Hume as Keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh. He became Professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 1759 and Professor of mental and moral philosophy there in 1764. His major written works include The Morality of Stage Plays Seriously Considered (1757), Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), Institutes of Moral Philosophy (1769), The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic (1783), Principles of Moral and Political Science (1792), and the article on history for the second edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1780). Of special note was his Remarks (1776), which proposed peace terms for Americans fighting in the American Revolution. In 1778, he traveled to Philadelphia with a British commission sent to negotiate with American leaders. Prematurely aged by a stroke in 1780, he retired from teaching in 1785, and traveled Europe before spending his later years in retirement at St. Andrews. He died there on 22 February 1816 and Sir Walter Scott wrote his epitaph. He is remembered as a father of modern Sociology for his emphasis on social interactions.

23 June 1314
The opening of the Battle of Bannockburn. Following defeat at Methven in 1306, Robert the Bruce's fortunes revived with a victory over Aymer de Valence at Loudon Hill in 1307. This roused old Edward Longshanks, the elderly Hammer of the Scots, to march from England with a new army but he died near the Scottish border. His son and successor, Edward II, did not return in force to Scotland for many years as he was increasingly beset with rebellious nobles who were weary of the heavy taxation for the wars of his father. During this time, Bruce seized the opportunity to defeat those Scots, particularly the MacDougals and the Comyns, who resisted his seizure of the Scottish throne. He and his followers, especially his brother Edward and James 'the Black' Douglas, and clans such as the Campbells and the Frasers, recaptured castles and other strongholds such as Perth and Dumfries in 1313 and Roxburgh and Edinburgh in early 1314. Stirling Castle, the most important remaining English stronghold, was besieged in 1313 by Edward Bruce who agreed to terms for one year's truce which would end with either relief by the English army or surrender to the Scots. This committed the Scots to a major battle with the English army as Edward II could not refuse this provocation nor the chance to destroy the numerically inferior Scottish army. Sources disagree though it appears that the English arrived with some 20,000 men, one of the largest armies they had ever brought to Scotland, and were confronted by about 6,000 Scots. Scottish morale was high as the English were tired from a long march and were led by a soldier of no great reputation.. The opening skirmishes on 23 June 1314 did not favor the English as several attacks faltered and one of their knights, Henry de Bohun, who challenged Bruce to single combat, was slain with a single blow from the great king's battle axe in full view of the rival forces.

24 June 1314
The Battle of Bannockburn culminated on its second day as Bruce's spear men repulsed repeated assaults of the English knights while the English archers, who were so effective at Falkirk, were dispersed by a well timed attack of the Scottish horse led by Sir Robert Keith. This was followed by a determined advance of the Scottish spear men which drove the English back in upon themselves where they could not effectively wield their swords. English losses were severe, with many drowning in the Bannockburn, which gave its name to the battle, and included their baggage train and the earls of Gloucester and Hereford, the latter of which was later exchanged for Bruce's wife Elizabeth, daughter Marjory, sister Mary, and Bishop Robert Wishart. The incompetent Edward was spirited away by his men and what followed were fourteen years of strife as he would not surrender while Bruce lacked the resources to hit the true centers of English power far to the south. Bruce's mobile raiders, mounted on small ponies and living off the land, ravaged England's northern counties imposing terror and extorting blackmail. It was only after the murder of Edward II by his queen, Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, in 1327, that peace was possible. The Treaty of Edinburgh, signed in 1328, ended decades of war and recognized not only Bruce's accession to the Scottish throne but Scotland's pre-war boundaries as well. Most importantly, England recognized that Scotland was an independent nation.

30 June 1685
The execution of Archibald Campbell, Ninth Earl of Argyll, for treason at Edinburgh. Unlike his father, a supporter of Cromwell executed for treason in 1661, he was a dedicated royalist and veteran of the battles against Cromwell at Dunbar in 1650 and Worcester in 1651. Condemned to death in 1681 for treason in refusing to sign the Test Act, he escaped in disguise to Holland. Upon the death of Charles II and succession of his openly Roman Catholic brother James VII (of Scotland) and II (of England), Argyll invaded Scotland simultaneously as Charles= illegitimate son and Protestant champion, the Duke of Monmouth, invaded England. Both enterprises failed and Argyll was captured on 18 June 1685.

Ireland

July 8
1642 - Owen Roe O'Neill accepts an offer to lead the Ulster rebels and arrives in Ulster (8-9 July); Thomas Preston, another experienced general, also arrives from the continent
1730 - Robert Edgeworth, former MP for St. Johnstown, Co. Longford, dies
1770 - Mary Anne McCracken, patriot and supporter of the United Irishmen, is born
1808 - Birth of Bernard (Barney) Hughes, baker, entrepreneur and philanthropist; first Catholic member of Belfast Town Council, in Armagh
1819 - Sir Francis McClintock, naval officer and polar explorer, is born in Dundalk, Co. Louth
1889 - In the last official bare knuckle title fight ever held, heavyweight boxer, John L. Sullivan beats fellow Irishman Jack Kilrain in a world championship bout which lasts 75 rounds
1914 - The House of Lords enacts the Government of Ireland Bill, excluding all Ulster permanently from its stipulations
1970 - The SDLP withdraws from Stormont in protest at failure to inquire into deaths of two civilians killed by army
1981 - Death of Joe McDonnell, from Lenadoon, Belfast, on the 46th day of his hunger strike
1984 - Two Irish-Americans slug it out on Wimbledon’s centre court for the men’s singles’ title - John McEnroe beats Jimmy Connors
2001 - The President and Taoiseach head a large crowd of dignitaries at the annual National Day of Commemoration in Dublin.
July 9
1751 - The foundation stone of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, is laid by the Lord Mayor of Dublin
1790 - The "Gentleman’s Magazine" reports, regarding the MP for Cork, James Bernard who died on this date: ‘Though he had an immense fortune, he did not live at the rate of £300 a year. His tailor’s bill never amounted to £61 per annum. He did not absolutely starve himself to death, as he lately showed himself a mere voluptuary, having a few months since married a fortunate girl of tender years, to whose tender embraces, it is feared, he fell a sacrifice’
1797 - Death of the political theorist Edmund Burke in Dublin. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the development of parliamentary democracy
1809 - Birth of John O'Donovan, Irish language scholar and author of The Annals of the Four Masters, in Attateemore, Co. Kilkenny
1921 - A truce is reached between the IRA and the British army
1959 - Mary Browne from Roscommon becomes the first Ban Garda - woman police officer - pounding the beat in Dublin
1959 - Birth of Matt Connor, Offaly Gaelic footballer
1967 - Michael Carruth, winner of Ireland's first Olympic gold medal in boxing (1992), is born in Dublin.
2007 - Following a short illness, Former Tanaiste John Wilson passes away at St. Jame’s Hospital, a day after his 84th birthday. He was a TD for 20 years and held posts in seven government departments, serving under three Taoisigh: Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds. On the sportsfield, he played for Cavan and an illustrious career brought him significant honours, including two All-Ireland medals (in 1947 and 1948) and five Ulster Football Championship medals. In paying his respects, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is quoted as saying "John Wilson was a sportsman, scholar and a politician who served Cavan and Ireland throughout many years of endeavour and in many fields. A fine orator and a classics scholar, he was a popular deputy across the House who contributed with knowledge, wit and courtesy across a broad range of issues. Through decades of activism in the sporting, cultural and political life of the country, John Wilson contributed his talents to his students and teaching colleagues in the sphere of education and to the community from which he came which later elected him to political office."
July 10
1614 - Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, politician and author, is born in Dublin
1793 - Birth of William Maginn, poet and author, in Co. Cork
1900 - Birth of Paul Carroll, playwright, in Blackrock, Co. Louth
1917 - De Valera wins election to Parliament from Clare as Sinn Fein candidate
1921 - Unionists burn 160 homes in Belfast, killing 15 and injuring 58
1927 - Kevin O'Higgins, the Irish Free State Minister for Justice, is assassinated
1949 - The last CIE tram service leaves Nelson's Column, Dublin
1956 - Birth of Frank Stapleton, international footballer, in Dublin
2000 - Northern Ireland shuts up shop ahead of Orange Order demonstrations
2000 -The Irish government concedes for the first time that a referendum may have to take place in 2001 to get voter approval for a major revision to the European Union treaties
2001 - A draft chapter from Irish writer James Joyce's classic novel Ulysses is sold for nearly £900,000 at auction.
July 11
1792 - A gathering of some ten Irish harpers and one Welsh begins in Belfast; the objective is to collect the remaining fragments of the tradition; melodies are transcribed by Edward Bunting and others See our article on the great harpist/composer O'Carolan
1798 - Rebels attack Clonard, Co Meath
1798 - Sir Joseph Larmor, mathematician, physicist and politician, is born in Magheragall, Co. Antrim
1879 - Birth in Dublin of Hugh Kennedy, first Chief Justice of the Irish Free State
1921 - Truce is declared between IRA and English forces, thus ending the War of Independence military campaign
1935 - Birth of Oliver Napier, politician and Alliance Party leader from 1972 to 1984
1967 - Censorship Act lifts the ban on certain books that had been banned for more than a decade
1986 - U2 plays at the Half Moon Club in London; it's the first time they sell out a venue in the U.K
1999 - A massive security operation swings into action as tens of thousands of Orangemen prepare to parade into Ormeau Park in the flashpoint south Belfast area on the banks of the River Lagan
1999 - Hundreds of train travellers are left stranded in Cork despite advance warnings by Ianroad Eireann management of an unofficial dispute by locomotive operators
1999 - One hundred and fifty Irish war veterans gather for the annual commemoration ceremony at the Royal Kilmainham Hospital in honor of Irish soldiers killed on UN peace keeping duties and on foreign battlefields
2000 - The world's top golfers, including Tiger Woods and David Duval, begin play at the JP McManus Invitation Pro Am in Limerick
2000 - A public health seafood scare leads to a temporary ban on the collection and harvesting of shellfish in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford
2000 - For the first time in its history, the Dáil elects to appoint a parliamentary law adviser. Miss Lia O’Hegarty is chosen to fill the position.
2007 - Artist Patrick Scott is honoured by President Mary McAleese as Saoi in Aosdána at the Arts Council office, in Merrion Square, Dublin. The President presented Scott, a founder member of Aosdána, with a gold torc, the symbol of the office of Saoi. No more than five members may hold this honour at any one time. Born in Kilbrittain, Co Cork, in 1921, Scott worked on the mosaics in Busáras and has painted full-time since 1960.
Photo Credit & Copy: The Irish Times
July 12
1690 - Battle of the Boyne and victory for William of Orange
1691 - Ginkel is victorious over James II's Jacobites at Aughrim; it is the bloodiest battle ever fought in Ireland
1722 - A patent is granted to William Wood to coin copper halfpence for circulation in Ireland
1796 - The Orange Order hold its first 'Twelfth of July' demonstration, commemorating the Battle of Aughrim
1812 - Charles Patrick Meehan, priest, writer and translator, is born in Dublin
1813 - The first recorded "Twelfth of July" sectarian riots erupt in Belfast
1841 - William James McNeven, United Irish leader, dies
1849 - As many as 20 Catholics are killed by soldiers during an Orange Parade at Dolly's Brae, near Castlewellan, Co. Down
1935 - Violence in Belfast lasting two months commences on this date; eleven people are killed
1942 - Máire Ni Aodán (Mary Hayden), Irish historian, dies
1998 - The three Quinn brothers, Richard, 11, Mark, 10, and Jason 9, are burned to death by a Loyalist firebomb in Ballymoney, 40 miles northwest of Belfast
1999 - An armed gang steals a 40ft container of cigarettes valued at more than £1m from a freight train at Dunleer, Co. Louth
2000 - Violence erupts as Portadown Orangemen pledge to continue Drumcree protest
2000 - Plans to introduce pedestrianisation in Killarney on an experimental basis are confirmed.
July 13
1344 - Ralph de Ufford arrives in Ireland as justiciar with a small English army and investigates the situation in Cork
1809 - Founding of the Dublin Harp Society
1825 - The Catholic Association, dissolved in accordance with the Unlawful Societies Act on 9 March, is reconstituted on 13 July
1886 - Birth of Father Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boy's Town
1981 - Martin Hurson, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in the Maze Prison
1985 - The Live Aid concerts, organized by Bob Geldorf in aid of Ethiopian famine relief, are held in London and Philadelphia; the people of the Republic of Ireland contribute £8 million
1998 - The second stage of the Tour de France (taking place for the first time in Ireland) ends in Cork City. A crowd of between 40,000 and 50,000 turn out to see the history-making event.
July 14
1791 - Demonstrations are held in Dublin, Belfast and elsewhere to commemorate the fall of the Bastille in 1789
1798 - John and Henry Sheares are convicted of high treason and hanged in Dublin
1798 - Rebels are defeated at the Battle of Knightstown, Co. Louth
1908 - Birth of Roger McHugh, academic and writer, in Dublin
1969 - Rioting breaks out in Derry and Dungiven, resulting in the first death related to the Northern Ireland disturbances - a 70-year-old farmer who is struck in a melee outside an Orange Hall in Dungiven
1998 - Tánaiste Mary Harney announces that a minimum wage of £4.40 an hour will be introduced in April 2000
1999 - Fidelma Macken is nominated for the European Court of Justice - the first time a woman judge from any member country has reached such a high rank
1999 - Ulster Unionists reject peace blueprint
1999 - The Cabinet approves the construction of Ireland's first 50 metre swimming pool at the University of Limerick
1999 - Over 20,000 litres of fuel oil leaks into the popular fishing resort of Mucrós Bay, Co. Donegal from a supply tank at Abbotts Ireland
2000 - Angry fishermen blockade a State run fishery port as frustration and tension continues to increase over the alleged harassment of Irish tuna boats by the Naval Service
2000 - Kerry sheep farmer Patrick Morana earns a place in the Guinness Book of Records as he hand-shears 206 sheep in nine hours and becomes Irish and UK champion.

July 15
1865 - Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe; statesman, journalist and newspaper magnate, is born in Chapelizod, Co. Dublin
1871 - Birth of Gerald O'Donovan, priest and novelist, in Co. Down
1879 - Joseph Campbell, poet, is born in Belfast. He is famous for the English words he wrote to the song My Lagan Love
1899 - Sean Lemass is born in Dublin. He was the second leader of Fianna Fáil and third Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland from 1959 to 1966
1907 - Seumas Murphy, sculptor and stone-carver, is born in Mallow, Co. Cork
1927 - Countess Constance de Markievicz, Irish patriot, dies
1930 - After De Valera abolishes the oath of allegiance and withholds land annuities from the British Government, retaliatory trade legislation begins the 'economic war'
1942 - Brendan ('Paddy') Finucane from Dublin - the RAF's youngest ever Wing Commander at 21 years of age - is shot down and killed off the French coast
1987 - U2 plays its first-ever show in Madrid, Spain, attracting 115,000 people for one show, the largest crowd of the year
1998 - The Irish Nurses Organisation warns that the shortage of qualified nurses has reached crisis levels
1999 - It's revealed that since 1998, all telephone, e-mail and fax messages between Ireland and Britain, and probably the United States, were tapped by the British Government
1999 - The cream of Irish traditional and folk music turn out en masse for the inaugural Irish Music Magazine Awards in Dublin
2001 - More than 340,000 provisional licence drivers miss out on the new Driver Theory Test because test centres would not be able to handle the flood of applications
2002 - Tourism Minister John O'Donoghue, announces a new €3m marketing package for the industry.
July 16
1685 - Birth of Samuel Haliday in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. Minister of Belfast First Presbyterian Church in 1720, he refuses to sign the Westminster Confession, which leads to split between Subscribing and Non-Subscribing adherents
1803 - Following an explosion at his arms depot on this date, Robert Emmet brings forward his planned rebellion in Dublin to 23 July
1865 - James Owen Hannay (pseudonym George A. Birmingham; clergyman and writer) is born in Belfast
1929 - The Censorship of Publications Act is passed
1999 - Olympic champion Michelle de Bruin is stripped of her Irish swimming records; the triple gold medal winner at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was banned for four years by the FINA in August of 1998 for tampering with a urine sample
2000 - The All Party Committee on the Constitution rejects total ban on abortion
2002 - The IRA leadership issues a statement which includes an apology for the killing of 'non-combatants.' Northern Ireland secretary, Dr John Reid, welcomes the gesture as one of unprecedented strength.
July 17
1221 - Geoffrey de Marisco, justiciar of Ireland, is accused of financial irregularities and resigns: he is replaced by Archbishop Henry of London on this date
1846 - Birth of Fenian, John McLure. He is one of 30 Fenian prisoners released in a general amnesty by the British government on January 5, 1871. They are released on condition that they exile themselves to the country of their choice and not return until their sentences have expired. Many choose to go to Australia, but John McClure, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, John Devoy, Henry Mulleda and Charles Underwood O'Connell, who had all been imprisoned together, decide to go to America and ship out from Liverpool on board the "Cuba." The so-called 'Cuba Five' arrive in New York to a hero's welcome and even receive a resolution of welcome from the US House of Representatives
1871 - Birth in Comber, Co. Down, of John Andrews, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1940 to 1943
1879 - Séamus O'Sullivan (James Sullivan Starkey),writer and editor, is born in Dublin
1884 - Louise Gavan Duffy, teacher and revolutionary, is born in Nice
1945 - Shannon Airport and customs free zone opened
1951 - The Abbey Theatre in Dublin burns down. The play that evening closed with soldiers on stage singing, ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’.
1970 - The National Youth Orchestra of Ireland makes its debut
1998 - Salmonella food poisoning outbreaks in Wicklow and Donegal threaten the £10 million import industry in eggs from Northern Ireland
2000 - Guinness announces plans to lay off as many as 200 workers as part of a major cost-cutting strategy
2002 - New birth figures show that one in three children in Ireland are born out of wedlock.
July 18
1561 - Battle of Red Sagums - Shane O'Neill defeats English
1579 - James Fitzmaurice lands forces in Dingle with the intention of encouraging an uprising against England
1689 - The Mountjoy ship breaks the blockading boom and ends the Siege of Derry after 238 days
1794 - Feargus O'Connor, a leader of the Chartist movement, is born in Connorville, Co. Cork
1822 - The Theatre Royal in Dublin opens its doors to the public for the first time
1863 - Birth of Francis Erlington Ball, historian, in Portmarnock, Co. Dublin
1865 - Birth in Belfast of novelist Canon James Owen Hannay
1870 - Michael Davitt is sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude for gun-running
1874 - Cathal Brugha (Charles Burgess) an anti-Treaty nationalist,is born in Dublin
1920 - 19 people are killed in four days of sectarian violence in Derry/Londonderry
1966 - The rebuilt Abbey Theatre re-opens
1970 - After having been in prison for unlawful assembly and breach of peace, the "anti-popery" Reverend Ian Paisley is elected to Westminster
1999 - After a long illness, acclaimed actor Donal McCann dies in Dublin
1999 - Boyzone star Shane Lynch escapes unhurt from a dramatic 100 mph crash during a car rally
2000 - U2's official web site at U2.com is opened to the public
2000 - Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy faces heavy criticism over his handling of the economy as inflation soars
2000 - Former Supreme Court Judge Hugh O’Flaherty sells his Dublin home for almost £3 million.
July 19
1608 - Preparations commence for the plantation of six Ulster counties (Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone)
1735 - Garrett Wellesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, politician, musician, and father of Duke of Wellington, is born in Dublin
1785 - Richard Crosbie’s third attempt to cross the Irish Sea in a balloon is unsuccessful
1851 - William Wilson, astronomer and physicist, is born in Belfast
1982 - Dexy’s Midnight Runners reach No. 1 in the British charts with Come On Eileen
1994 - Eilis Dillon, novelist and author of Across the Bitter Sea, dies
1998 - Garvan McGinley, national organizer of the Progressive Democrat Party resigns
1998 - It is confirmed that three chaplains have quit the Orange Order and another dozen are considering their future in the wake of the Drumcree stand-off and the murders of the Quinn children in Ballymoney
1999 - Amnesty International honors its longest serving member in Ireland, Iris Bardon, with a presentation on her 100th birthday.
2009 - Irish author Frank McCourt dies of cancer. A New York city schoolteacher for more than 30 years, he achieved literary fame later in life with his best-selling childhood memoir "Angela's Ashes". With a first printing of just 25,000, the book became an instant favourite with critics and readers and is perhaps the ultimate case of the non-celebrity memoir, the extraordinary life of an ordinary man. He received the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award for the book, which was eventually published in 25 languages and 30 countries then later made into a film. He is also the author of 'Tis, which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of the previous book and focusing on being a new immigrant in America. Teacher Man, published in 2005, details the challenges of being a young, uncertain teacher.
Source: BBC
Photo Credit: Educated Nation

July 20
1616 - Death in Rome of Hugh O'Neill, 3rd Baron Dungannon and 2nd Earl of Tyrone. He led an unsuccessful uprising against the English, and was eventually forced into exile as part of “the Flight of Earls.”
1798 - Rebel camp at Timahoe surrenders
1835 - First report of the select committee on Orangeism is presented to the House of Commons
1902 - Jimmy Kennedy, lyricist, is born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone
1904 - Birth of writer Molly Keane
1922 - The Free State army takes Limerick from the anti-treaty Republicans
1933 - Eoin O'Duff becomes leader of the National Guard ('Blueshirts')
1982 - The IRA kills ten servicemen in bomb attacks in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, London
1998 - Seven-year old Adele Chapman from Derry leaves hospital; 12 weeks earlier, she became Britains first triple-organ transplant child when she underwent a pioneering liver, pancreas and small bowel transplant at Birmingham Children's Hospital
1998 - Thirty-three years after the roadway was first proposed, plans for the £80m by-pass of Waterford city are unveiled
1999 - Munster MEP Pat Cox to play a pivotal role in the new European Parliament as President
1999 - The funeral Mass of actor Donal McCann is held at Dublin’s Terenure College Chapel.
July 21
1750 - Under-Secretary Waite reports to Chief Secretary Weston that ‘This morning I am informed that Lord Allen and Captain Eustace of Irvine’s have slit if not cut off a great part of a gentleman’s nose in a fray which happened a day or two ago in the road between Dublin and Naas. The occasion of it was very trifling, such as the gentleman returning the salutation of a fellow which they gave him and which they thought proper to deem an affront upon persons of their rank and in red coats.’ The victim, a Mr. Butler from Co. Tipperary, indicts Allen and Eustace in the courts; Waite writes on 11 August that Allen ‘will have three or four Butlers to fight after they have harassed him by due course of law’
1860 - Birth of Chauncey Olcott, famed Irish balladeer and writer of “My Wild Irish Rose.” He also co-wrote “Mother Machree” and “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”
1887 - Thomas Bodkin, lawyer and professor, is born in Dublin. Director of the National Gallery from 1927-35, he wrote several books on Irish art and artists
1903 - Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visit Ireland
1920 - 12 people die in Belfast riots which take place from 21-24 July
1920 - Sectarian violence continues in Derry/Londonderry
1920 - Catholics are forced out of Dromore, Co. Down following the funeral of an RIC man
1922 - The Free State army takes Waterford from the anti-treaty Republicans
1928 - John B. Keane, playwright, novelist and poet, is born in Listowel, Co. Kerry
1964 - Steve Collins, World Middleweight Boxing Champion, is born in Dublin
1972 - 'Bloody Friday' in Belfast; the Provisional IRA kills 19 and injures 130 in 22 bomb attacks
2002 - Approval is granted to open a €30m marine research centre in Galway.

July 22

1606 - A commission is instituted to remedy defective land titles
1817 - William Sadler makes the first balloon crossing of the Irish Sea, from Dublin to Anglesey
1860 - Johanna Butler is born in the Rower, Co. Kilkenny. She entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary at the age of sixteen in Béziers, France. Popularly known as Mother Butler, Mother Joseph was the founder of Marymount School and College in Tarrytown, New York. On August 26, 1926, she was elected general superior of the order and remained in that position until her death on April 26, 1940
1866 - Birth of D.J. O'Donoghue, writer, bookseller and librarian
1873 - James Cousins, writer and teacher, is born in Belfast
1933 - The anti-Fianna Fáil Army Comrades Association, which developed into a fascist-inspired group nicknamed the "Blueshirts," is outlawed
1999 - Loyalist Volunteer Force rules out any further weapons handover
2001 - Ranked 25th, Ireland falls below most of Europe in its healthcare.
2007 - Dubliner Padraig Harrington becomes the first Irish golfer to win the British Open in 60 years when he snatches victory from the jaws of defeat at Carnoustie in Scotland. He is the first European golfer to secure a major victory since Paul Laurie on the same course in 1999 and Ireland's first since Fred Daly in 1947. President McAllen was the first to convey her congratulations to Harrington, while Labour sports spokesman Jack Wall said: "Padraig Harrington's magnificent victory in the Open without doubt represents one of the greatest days in the history of Irish sport."
July 23
1803 - In opposition to the Act of Union, Robert Emmet leads an armed outbreak that is easily suppressed
1834 - St. Vincent’s Hospital, established by the Sisters of Charity, opens in Dublin
1883 - Birth of Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke; military commander, in Bagnéres-de-Bigorre, France
1889 - Birth in Chicago of writer Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe. He was born to Irish Quaker and Irish Catholic parents
1948 - John Cushnahan, Alliance Party and Fine Gael politician, is born in Belfast
1998 - Irish under-18 squad defeat Cyprus to reach final in European Football Championship
1999 - The nation pays its last respects to arson victim Garda Sergeant Andy Callanan, who is buried with full State honours
1999- - Guinness Blues Festival gets underway in 30 venues across Dublin
2001 - Under heavy garda surveillance, the gangland funeral of Seamus "Shavo" Hogan takes place at St Agnes' Church, Crumlin, Dublin
2002 - According to the United Nations report, Ireland is regarded as one of the least corrupt countries in the world.
July 24
1261 - The Norman-Irish under the justiciar, William de Dene, are heavily defeated by Fineen MacCarthy at the battle of Callann in Co. Kerry; the MacCarthys and O'Sullivans now control the south-west corner of Ireland.
Richard de la Rochelle becomes justiciar
1294 - Before the council of Dublin, de Vescy accuses John Fitz Thomas, Baron of Offaly, of defaming him to the king and council in England. Fitz Thomas retorts that de Vescy has described the king as the most perverse and dastardly knight of his kingdom. A wager of battle follows and the party are summoned before the king at Westminster. On this date, de Vescy appears ready to give battle but Fitz Thomas does not; de Vescy thus wins his case by default. However, he has been removed from the post of justiciar
1750 - John Philpott Curran, lawyer, politician, and defender of prominent United Irishmen, is born in Newmarket, Co. Cork
1878 - Edward Barrett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, fantasist, playwright and short-story writer is born in London
1909 - Geoffrey Bing, Irish human rights activist and author, is born in Belfast
1940 - The Picture Post magazine is banned in Ireland after a campaign by the Irish Catholic which objected to the “vulgarity and suggestiveness of the illustrations”
1998 - Cork Opera House announces significant rise in operating losses
2000 - The new Student Drama Theatre in the NUI Galway opens
Photo: Ray Ryan
2000 - Bus strike cripples large areas of Dublin
2000 - Galway district court Judge John Garavan refuses to extend late night opening hours to a number of nightclubs because the women frequenting them are “dreadful and not respectable”
2002 - Latest census figures show that the population of the State is just over 3.9 million - the highest level since 1871.
July 25
Today is the feast day of St. James. Since mediaeval times, Dubliners held an annual drinking festival in the Saint’s honour. Fittingly, Guinness chose St. James’ Gate as the site for their brewery
Click here to read our article on Guinness.
1633 - Thomas (Viscount) Wentworth becomes Lord Deputy of Ireland
1750 - Birth of John Curran, Irish statesman, in Newmarket, Co. Cork
1758 - Elizabeth Hamilton, author and educator, was born
1814 - Robert Peel establishes the Peace Preservation Force to counter rural unrest
1820 - Michaelangelo Hayes, painter, is born in Waterford
1917 - The Irish Convention - an attempt by Lloyd George to arrive at a political settlement - meets in Dublin; the opposition of Sinn Féin and the Ulster unionists will render it irrelevant
1919 - Death of Sir Sam McCaughey, known as ‘the Sheep King’. Born near Ballymena, he owned many millions of sheep in Victoria and New South Wales
1987 - U2 plays in Cardiff, Wales, in response to a fan who gathered 10,000 signatures on a petition requesting the show
1999 - A countrywide lobby is organised to persuade the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to ban foxhunting in Ireland
2000 - An Aer Lingus 737 carrying Irish passengers to Paris is the last aircraft allowed to land in Charles de Gaulle airport after the Air France Concorde explodes, killing 113 people.
July 26
1575 - On the orders of Essex, John Norris and Francis Drake lead an attack on Rathlin island, a stronghold of the MacDonnells. After the surrender of Bruce's castle, its 200 occupants are killed, as are 400 others found hiding in caves and cliffs
1739 - George Clinton, first governor of New York State, is born to an Irish family that had immigrated to New Britain, a small town near the Hudson River. He served as vice president under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
1782 - Birth of composer John Field in Dublin. His nocturnes for piano are the inspiration for much of Chopin’s work
1813 - A Catholic is killed at the 'Battle of Garvagh', a sectarian confrontation in Co. Derry/Londonderry
1856 - The Anglican Church of Ireland is disestablished as the state religion by the Irish Church Act
1856 - Birth in Dublin of George Bernard Shaw
1869 - British Royal assent is given to the Bill disestablishing the Irish Church (Anglican)
1914 - Arms which Sir Roger Casement had procured in Germany for the Easter Uprising are landed in Howth from Erskine Childers’ yacht, the "Asgard"
1927 - Entertainer, Danny La Rue is born Daniel Patrick Carroll in Co. Cork
1950 - Sir Gilbert Laithwaite and John Dulanty are installed as the first UK ambassador to Ireland and Irish ambassador to the UK respectively
1960 - Death of Dubliner Cedric Gibbons, art director and designer of the Oscar awards
1987 - Stephen Roche becomes the first Irishman to win the Tour de France
1998 - Robert Saulters, the Grand Master of the Orange Order, puts his leadership on the line with a call for talks with nationalist residents
2001 - Thirteen-year old Michael Beirne wins first prize in the Irish Animation Festival competition.
2006 - In what is described as a discovery 'of staggering importance' it is announced that an ancient book of psalms has been found in a bog in the midlands. The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.
July 27
1602 - O'Neill's principal vassal, Donal O'Cahan, submits to Docwra
1662 - Ormond becomes Lord Lieutenant and arrives in Ireland on this date
1663 - The "Cattle Act" restricts Irish trade with colonies as well as exports to England
1669 - Molly Malone is christened in Dublin
1710 - George Carpenter, former MP for Newtown, is wounded at Battle of Almenara, Spain
1782 - Poynings' Law is amended by Yelverton's Act which was passed on this date: only bills passed by both houses of the Irish parliament will be forwarded to England for assent
1782 - Second and third Catholic Relief Acts (4 May, 27 July) allow Catholics to own land outside parliamentary boroughs, to be teachers and to act as guardians
1805 - Death of Brian Merriman, poet famous for his translation of "The Midnight Court"
1830 - Birth of John O'Leary, Fenian, in Tipperary; referred to famously by Yeats in his poem "September 1913": 'Romantic Ireland's dead and gone/It's with O'Leary in the grave'
1846 - William Smith O’Brien leads the Young Irelanders out of the Repeal Association
1860 - Birth of John Henry Bernard, scholar, Archbishop of Dublin and provost of Trinity College Dublin
1866 - Completion of the first submarine cable link underneath the Atlantic, from Valentia Island, Co. Kerry to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland
1960 - Ireland sends troops to serve with UN forces in the Congo; nine are killed by Baluba tribesmen in an ambush at Niemba on 8 November; one of these, Anthony Browne, will be awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry
1980 - U2 plays its first-ever open-air show at the "Dublin Festival 1980" in front of 15,000 at Leixlip Castle in Kildare
1998 - A former lieutenant of drugs baron George Mitchell, is caught red-handed with £2.7m worth of cannabis in Co. Meath
1998 - Unionists claim proposals to ban RUC recruits from groups like the Orange Order may be illegal
2000 - The cream of Irish opera talent performs popular classics in aid of charity at the National Concert Hall. Headlining Pop Opera 2000 is Ireland's foremost soprano, Cara O'Sullivan
2000 - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams warns that the Good Friday Agreement would be "holed below the water line," if the British Government did not properly implement the Patten Report on the reform of policing in Northern Ireland
2001 - According to the National Treasury Management Agency annual report for 2000, Ireland's national debt is among lowest in Europe.
July 28
1210 - King John captures William de Braose and confiscates his lands
1674 - Birth of Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery; Jacobite soldier and editor
1769 - Birth in Galway of Sir Hudson Lowe, soldier, and governor of St Helena responsible for guarding Napoleon
1846 - O'Connell and the Young Irelanders party split over use of physical force
1895 - Birth of John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, in Cootehill, Co. Cavan
1927 - The first automatic telephone exchange in Ireland, serving more than 700 customers, is opened at Ship Street
1954 - Birth of Mikey Sheehy, Gaelic footballer. in Co. Kerry
1998 - Marine Minister Dr. Michael Woods firmly rules out an extension of the salmon season
1999 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern predicts on local radio that Moscow Express will win the Galway Plate at Ballybrit. The horse is steered to victory by current Irish champion jockey Ruby Walsh
1999 - TV3 announces that model Amanda Byram will spearhead Ireland’s first ever breakfast television programme
1999 - The Central Statistics Office publishes the most popular baby names for the previous year; the leading boy’s name is Conor, followed by Seán, Jack, James and Adam. Across the gender divide, Chloe tops the list, ahead of Ciara, Sarah, Aoife and Emma
2000 - Seventy-eight republican and loyalist prisoners are released from the Maze prison
2001 - BirdWatch Ireland appeals for loans of ghettoblasters as part of a bid to save the corncrake.The blasters are needed to replay the sounds of farm traffic - tractors and their grass mowers - in areas where the rasping, croaking corncrake can still be heard, mainly along the banks of the River Shannon. The hope is they will attract the birds so they can be banded and tracked.
2005 - IRA issues statement ending its armed campaign. Gerry Adams says that it offered an unprecedented opportunity to revive the peace process. He called on unionists to fully embrace the principles of the Good Friday Agreement. The 36-year campaign of armed conflict has cost 3,500 lives, 1,800 of them at the hands of the Provisionals.
July 29
1693 - Patrick Sarsfield is mortally wounded at the Battle of Landen. He dies of his wounds three days later at Huy in Belgium, where he is buried in the grounds of St. Martin's Church
1805 - Brian Merriman, Irish language poet famous for his epic poem Cúirt an Mheeadhon - The Midnight Court, dies
1848 - Young Ireland rising centres on the 'Battle of the Widow MacCormack's cabbage garden' near Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary. William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence Bellew McManus and Patrick O'Donohue are arrested, convicted of high treason and sentenced to death in September-October. Sentences are commuted to transportation in June, 1849
1883 - James Carey, member of the Invincibles, turns Queen's evidence; five of his associates are hanged for the murders of Burke and Cavendish. Carey is followed to South Africa by Patrick O'Donnell, and shot dead on the Melrose, en route from Cape Town to Natal. O'Donnell is hanged in London on 17 December
1969 - The Irish Finance Act exempts people considered by the Revenue Commissioners to have written works of cultural or artistic merit from income tax on money earned by the works
1975 - Death of 40-year-old Tom Dunphy of the Royal Showband in a car crash near Carrick-on-Shannon
1998 - The threat to Irish rail services on August Bank Holiday Monday is lifted following the intervention by the chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, Kieran Mulvey
1999 - Quinze coasts to an easy victory in the Guinness Galway Hurdle Handicap
1999 - Brian Meehan is jailed for life after he is convicted of the murder of journalist, Veronica Guerin
2001 - Thousands of people climb Mayo's holy mountain, Croagh Patrick, for the annual national pilgrimage
2001 - Michael Flatley announces his retirement in Dallas at the last show of his Feet of Flames World Tour
2002 - The first public-private partnership deal to fast-track the building of 170 million euro hospital scheme is launched.
July 30
1650 - Edward Parry, Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe, dies in Dublin from the plague
1715 - Birth of Nahum Tate the first Irish-born poet laureate of England. Playwright and hymn writer, his best known work is While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
1761 - Birth of Henry FitzGerald, diplomat, soldier and brother of Lord Edward FitzGerald
1761 - Richard Nugent, MP for Fore and still a teenager, fights a duel with a Mr. Reilly and dies of his wounds a week later
1862 - Death of Eugene O’Curry, influential music collector
1863 - Birth of Henry Ford, son of William and Mary Ford who crossed the Atlantic from Ireland by steerage. Ford changed the entire world through his revolutionary assembly-line manufacture of motor cars
1927 - Novelist and critic John Broderick is born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath
1942 - Birth of artist Charles Harper on Valentia Island in Co. Kerry
1947 - The Soviet Union blocks Ireland’s application for entry into the UN on the grounds that Ireland, being neutral, had not helped to set up the organisation. However there are strong suspicions that the Soviet Union’s real objections are because Ireland is a Catholic country and would therefore always vote against the communist bloc countries
1971 - Red Hurley and Nevada reach no. 1 in the Irish charts with ‘Sometimes’
1998 - Orange Order leaders file notice of four planned marches along the nationalist Garvaghy Road during August
2000 - Michael Flatley's Lord of The Dance extravaganza is staged at Belfast's historic Stormont Castle
2000 - It is announced that Dublin is to get a full-scale underground metro system as part of a multi-billion pound plan to tackle the capital's crippling traffic congestion
2002 - Soccer legend George Best enters hospital for a liver transplant.
July 31
1661 - The Act of Settlement confirms some adventurers' landowning rights but allows claims from 'innocents' and royalist supporters
1689 - Robert Lundy, Governor of Derry/Londonderry, advises surrender at the approach of James's army but is overruled and allowed to escape. The city holds out under siege for 105 days and is relieved on this date
1689 - The Enniskillen Protestants defeat Jacobite forces at Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh
1737 - Robert Adair, MP for Philipstown, dies on this date, having 'had one of his legs cut off above the knee for a mortification and died soon after'
1834 - Inauguration of the first Dublin — Dun Laoghaire horse-drawn "train service"
1838 - Enactment of the Irish Poor Law
1877 - Minority of Home Rulers begin obstruction tactics in Commons
1893 - Founding of the Gaelic League in order to revive the use of the Irish language and foster appreciation of Ireland's Celtic heritage
1917 - Death of poet Francis Ledwidge, from Slane, Co. Meath, who is killed by a stray shell at Ypres during World War I
1922 - Harry Boland shot by Free Staters in Skerries; he would die three days later
1981 - Kevin Lynch, political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in the Maze prison
1978 - U2 plays McGonagle's in Dublin in support of Modern Heirs and Revolver
1998 - Parades Commission rejects a fresh application by Orangemen to parade along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown on August 2
2000 - The British Army begins dismantling the controversial Borucki observation post which has dominated the skyline in Crossmaglen for more than 20 years.
2007 - After 38 years, the occupation of Northern irland by the British Army ends at midnight. Operation Banner is the Army's longest continuous campaign in its history with more than 300,000 personnel serving and 763 directly killed by paramilitaries.