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 speed to observed conditions at sea or on land.
Have you listened to our podcast? Get the latest on our Episode Page.
Have you ever struggled to describe how windy a given day was? Here's a helpful table culled from Wikipedia with a description of each notch on the Beaufort scale
Beaufort died in London on December 17th, 1857
Outbreak of the Economic War: June 30, 1932
Irish Independent, July 1, 1932, with headline story on Anglo-Irish economic tensions
Background to the Anglo-Irish Trade WarWhile the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 granted Ireland a measure of independence, many in the newly formed Saorstát &E…
OTD: James Plunkett (1920 - 2003)
James Plunkett, author of Strumpet City, one of the best books on Dublin, was born on 21 May 1920 in the Hibernian metropolis. Strumpet City details the lives of common Dublin folk and their hero, James Larkin. The novel is an excellent fiction…