1561 – The first court of High Commission, a group of officials and Protestant clergy, is set up to enforce the Reformation in Ireland.
1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen. Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today…

Born Alice Sophia Amelia Stopford in Kells, Co Meath, she lived in London where she met the historian John Richard Green. They were married in Chester on 14 June 1877. He died in 1883. John Morley published her first historical work Henry II in 1888.
In the 1890s she became interested in Irish history and the nationalist movement as a result of her friendship with John Francis Taylor. She was…