On This Day Posts
Blog entries which commemorate Irish events and people
June 8, 2022
OTD: Muriel MacSwiney (Jun 8, 1892 - Oct 26, 1982)
Muriel Murphy MacSwiney, nationalist and left wing activist was born into a wealthy Irish brewing family in Cobh, Cork on the 8th of June 1892. Muriel had an uncomfortable relationship with her family's wealth and conservatism.
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June 7, 2022
OTD: Kevin O'Higgins (Jun 7, 1892 - Jul 10, 1927)
Kevin O'Higgins, Irish revolutionary, politician, and Irish Minister of Justice and External Affairs was born in Stradbally, Laois on the 7th of June 1892.
Following service in the Irish War of Independence, O'Higgins sided with the pro-treaty forc…
June 6, 2022
Julia O'Faolain (Jun 6, 1932 - Oct 27, 2020)
Julia O'Faolain novelist, short story writer, and memoirist was born in London on the 6th of June 1932 to acclaimed short story writer Sean O'Faolain and children's book author Eileen Gould O'Faolain.
O'Faolain was raised and educated in Dublin whe…
June 5, 2022
OTD: Battle of Benburb - June 5, 1646
During the 1640s and 1650s, a brutal war was waged across Ireland between Irish Catholics, British Royalists, British Parliamentarians, and Scottish Covenanters. This time of conflict was marked by extraordinary brutality and shifting alliances whic…
June 4, 2022
OTD: Battle of Cloughleagh - June 4, 1643
Cloughleagh Castle
More than a decade of war raged across Ireland from 1641 - 1653. The Irish historian, Padraig Lenihan, estimates that 20% of the Irish population perished in this conflict - some 200 thousand of the 1 million estimated to inhabi…
June 3, 2022
OTD: John Flanagan (9 Jan 1873 - 3 Jun 1938)
John Flanagan, the three-time Olympic Hammer champion athlete, was born on 9 January 1873 at Kilbreedy, Limerick. He emigrated to America in 1896 where he joined the New York City Police Department.
While in New York he rose to fame in athlet…
May 31, 2022
OTD: Danny La Rue (26 July 1927 - 31 May 2009)
Dany La Rue (1927 -2008) was born Daniel Patrick Carroll on 26 July 1927 in Cork. He is best remembered as a theatrical artist who performed both in and out of drag.
Here he is performing in 1976 in The Good Old Days, a BBC TV series which recreate…
May 29, 2022
OTD: Birth of Thomas Moore - 28 May 1779
Poet, lyricist, and writer Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852) was born on Aungier Steet in Dublin City in 1779. He was born into a prosperous Catholic family and attended private school supplemented by private tutoring. In 1795, he entered Trinity College f…
May 27, 2022
OTD: Francis Beaufort (1774 - 1857)
Francis Beaufort was born in Navan, Meath, on May 27th, 1774. He served in the British Navy for over 50 years, rising to rear admiral and being appointed as Hydrographer of the Navy. He is best remembered for the Beaufort Scale, which relates wind s…
May 26, 2022
OTD: The Battle of Tara Hill - 1798
Some 4,000 United Irishman gathered at the Hill of Tara in County Meath in late May of 1798. They camped on the hilltop with the intention of controlling the main Ulster to Dublin road and also likely occupied the site due to its cultural significan…
May 25, 2022
OTD: Battle of Clontibret - 1595
The Battle of Clontibret, part of the Nine Years' War began on May 25, 1595. It would prove to be a two-day rolling engagement between the Irish forces of Hugh O'Neill (1550 - 1616) and the English troops of Henry Bagenal (1556 - 1598)
Bagenal an…
May 24, 2022
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877 - 1946)
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877 - 1946), suffragette, feminist, nationalist, and socialist was born in Kanturk Cork on 24 May 1877. On marrying her husband, Francis Skeffington, in 1903, they took each other's last names as a demonstration of equalit…
May 23, 2022
William Drennan (1754 - 1820)
William Drennan (1754 - 1820) republican, polemicist, poet, and physician was born in Belfast on May 23, 1754. Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the American and French revolutions, he was one of the primary movers in the United Irishma…
May 22, 2022
Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852 - 1932)
1903 portrait of Lady Gregory by John Butler Yeats
Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852 - 1932) was born in Galway on March 15, 1852. Despite being born into an Anglo Irish family, Lady Gregory would have a profound nationalist impact on Ireland.
…
March 30, 2022
OTD: Birth of Sean O'Casey - 1880
Playwright, Seán O’Casey (1880 - 1964) was born on March 30, 1880, in Dublin into a Protestant family of modest circumstances. O’Casey’s father, Micheal, died when Seán was five years old leaving a family of 13 behind…
March 8, 2022
OTD: Death of Mary MacSwiney - 1942
Mary MacSwiney (1872 - 1942) was born in London on March 27, 1872. She was the oldest of seven children born to a staunchly separatist father and English mother. At age seven the family moved to Cork in 1879 where her younger brother Terence was bor…
March 6, 2022
OTD: Birth of Ronnie Delany - 1935
Olympic Gold medalist runner, Ronald Michael Delany was born in Arklow, County Wicklow on March 6, 1935. Delany showed promise as a schoolboy athlete and in 1954 at age 19 had a breakout year setting multiple Irish records in the half-mile and secur…
March 4, 2022
Robert Emmet - Irish Revolutionary (1778 - 1803)
Robert Emmet in profile by John Comerford
Robert Emmet was born in Dublin on the 4th of March, 1778. He was the 17th child of Dr Robert and Elizabeth Mason. Despite the family’s prosperous circumstances only four of the seventeen children wou…
March 3, 2022
OTD: Death of Harriet Smithson - 1854
Actor and beauty Harriet Smithson (1800 - 1854) was born in Ennis, Clare into a theatrical family. She made her debut on the Dublin stage in the Theater Royal at the age of 14. Some 4 years later she first appeared in London at the Theatre Royal to …
March 1, 2022
Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Sculptor (1848-1907)
Likely the greatest sculptor of 19th century America, August Saint Gaudens (1848–1907), was born in Dublin on March 1st, 1848 to a French father and Irish mother. Before Saint-Gaudens' first birthday, his family emigrated, ultimately settling …
Feb. 28, 2022
OTD: Birth of Hugh O'Flaherty - 1898
Fr. Hugh Joseph O'Flaherty (1898 - 1963) was born on this day, February 28, 1898 in Lisrobin, Kishkeam, Co. Cork.
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Originally O’Flaherty pursued a credential as a…
Feb. 24, 2022
OTD: Birth of John Philip Holland - 1841
John Philip Holland (1841 - 1914), commonly considered the father of modern submarines, was born on this day, Feb 24, 1841, in Liscannor, Clare. He trained as a teacher in Cork and worked as a mathematics teacher before emigrating to America in 1873…
Feb. 22, 2022
OTD: Birth of Ted Kennedy - 1932
Ted Kennedy (1932 - 2009) was born Edward Moore Kennedy in Boston, Massachusetts, on Feb 22, 1932. He was the youngest child of nine, born to Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald. His Great Grandfather Patrick Kennedy arrived in Boston in 1849 at the …
Feb. 21, 2022
OTD: Battle of Carrickfergus - 1760
On February 21, 1760, 600 troops under the leadership of François Thurot (1727 - 1760) landed in Antrim and captured Carrickfergus Castle from a small garrison. This minor military engagement was part of a broader global military conflict bet…