1311 – The war of the O’Briens of Thomond escalates as the Norman-Irish become involved on both sides: the de Burghs support Dermot O’Brien and Richard de Clare supports Donough O’Brien. There is a pitched battle at Bunratty on this date, with heavy losses on both sides; de Burgh and others are imprisoned. 1648 – Truce between the confederates and Inchiquin; its adherents are excommunicated by…
#OTD in 1769 – Just ten years after Guinness is first brewed in St. James Gate, Dublin, the beautiful magic brew is first exported from Ireland. Six and a half barrels left for England.
#OTD in 1769 – Just ten years after Guinness is first brewed in St. James Gate, Dublin, the beautiful magic brew is first exported from Ireland. Six and a half barrels left for England.
Guinness is an Irish dry stout that originates in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James’s Gate brewery in the capital city of Dublin. Guinness, produced by the Diageo beverages company, is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. It is brewed in almost 50 countries and is available in over 120. Annual sales total of Guinness in 2011 was 850 million litres (220,000,000…
#OTD in 1947 – Singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer, Paul Brady, is born in Belfast.
#OTD in 1947 – Singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer, Paul Brady, is born in Belfast.
Paul Brady, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is one of Ireland’s most enduringly popular artists.
Born in Belfast and raised in Strabane, Co Tyrone, he was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. A Fifties child, his first sounds the Swing, Jazz, Show tunes of his parents generation. Then 50’s Rock ‘n Roll, 60’s pop and Motown, Blues, R’nB and Country and Western.…
1660 – An Act by the British Parliament forbids the export of Irish wool. 1710 – John Forster is unanimously elected Speaker of the House of Commons, replacing Alan Brodrick. 1769 – Just ten years after Guinness is first brewed in St. James Gate, Dublin, the beautiful magic brew is first exported from Ireland. Six and a half barrels left for England. 1798 – Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a leader of the…
#OTD in 1896 – The City and Suburban Ground, now known as Croke Park, hosts a football match for the first time. The teams are a combination of Irish and Scots women versus England. The combines team beats England 3–2.
#OTD in 1896 – The City and Suburban Ground, now known as Croke Park, hosts a football match for the first time. The teams are a combination of Irish and Scots women versus England. The combines team beats England 3–2.
One of the very first blows for women’s sport in Ireland was struck in 1896, when international women’s football came to the City and Suburban Grounds at Jones’s Road, Dublin: Croke Park occupies the site these days.
The main impetus for the game came from Britain. Women’s football was particularly strong in Scotland and in some of the bastions of England’s industrial revolution. Among the great…
1401 – John de Stanley is told that he is to be replaced as lieutenant by Thomas of Lancaster (duke of Clarence and second son of Henry IV), who is 12 or 13 years old. Lancaster’s deputy, Sir Stephen le Scrope, will effectively govern Ireland for the next few years. 1613 – James I’s Irish parliament opens in Dublin. 1798 – The 2nd Earl of Kingston is tried amid great pomp by the Irish House of…
1315 – Edward Bruce (brother of Robert Bruce, king of Scots), having been invited by some Gaelic chiefs, leads an expedition to Ireland with the aim of conquering it, creating a kingdom of Ireland and driving out the Norman-Irish settlers. He lands at Larne on this date and is proclaimed king of Ireland. 1705 – On this date, May Eustace Sherlock, gentleman, petitions the Commons for relief from…
#OTD in 1923 – Frank Aiken orders the Anti-Treaty fighters to “dump their arms” and return home.
#OTD in 1923 – Frank Aiken orders the Anti-Treaty fighters to “dump their arms” and return home.
After General Liam Lynch was shot by Free State soldiers in the Knockmealdown Mountains and died later that evening in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, many historians see his death as the effective end of the Civil War, as the new IRA chief of staff Frank Aiken declared a ceasefire on 30 April and on 24 May ordered IRA Volunteers to dump their arms and return to their homes. Coincidentally the Good Friday…
1487 – Lambert Simnel (aged 10), the Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is brought to Ireland. It is claimed that he is Edward, Earl of Warwick (Clarence’s son), but in fact, he is a baker’s son – the real Warwick is a prisoner in the Tower of London and will be executed in 1499. Most of the Anglo-Irish believe that Simnel’s claim is genuine and support him (exceptions are the Butlers,…
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…
1748 – Birth of landscape painter, Thomas Roberts in Co Waterford. 1805 – Michael Doheny, poet and Young Irelander, is born near Fethard, Co Tipperary. 1849 – Novelist, Maria Edgeworth, dies in Mostrim, Co Longford. She is laid to rest in a vault at Edgeworthstown Church. Even though in her late seventies, she worked strenuously for the relief of the stricken peasants at the height of An Gorta…
Land holdings were so small and of such poor quality that families could support themselves only through the planting of potatoes. To know why so many Irish families subsisted on such small plots of land, one must re-examine the ‘Penal Laws’ which were introduced in 1690 after the Catholic supporters of James II were defeated by the Protestant forces of William of Orange. These were laws that…
The Stardust Tragedy, 41 Years and Still No Justice
This Valentine’s Day, let us not forget the Stardust nightclub fire of 1981 which claimed the lives of 48 young people and injured 214 others in Artane, Co. Dublin, many of whom were underage. The fire is thought to have been started in the roof space by an electrical fault which quickly tore through the nightclub, exacerbated by the highly flammable contents of a non planning permission compliant store room on the first floor. The owners of the club had greedily chained the emergency exits shut and barred the bathroom windows shut to stop people from sneaking into the Valentine’s disco without paying instead of hiring extra staff to keep an eye on areas where people might sneak in.
Following the fire many of the survivors and their families have experienced severe PTSD from the event and a number have committed suicide or suffer from addiction issues. To make matters worse, the families of the survivors are still fighting for legal justice all these years later after multiple long drawn out court battles with the owners of the venue and local authorities. Just this year, Eamonn Butterly, the former owner of the club had the absolute audacity to seek that ‘unlawful killing’ be excluded as a possible verdict from the new inquests due to take place this year.
Christy Moore composed the song ‘They Never Came Home’ about the Stardust in 1985 and it was for a time banned from airwaves for contempt of court for stating that people had lost their lives because the doors were chained shut. He often performs it at memorial events for the victims and his celebrity has brought lots of attention to the families fight for justice over the years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcizhnIU2lI
In 2006 a docudrama was made by RTE to mark the 25th anniversary of the incident, detailing the events that look place that night and some of the aftermath of the fire. It is available on Youtube broken into 15 minute sections here (I warn that it contains extremely upsetting content as you might expect, but isn’t particularly graphic):
This is the central sculpture in Stardust Memorial Park by sculptor Robin Buick. It commemorates the lives of those who dies that night and gives the community a calming contemplative space to remember them.
While this is an Irish case, I do feel that it should be better known internationally. This story is a painful reminder of what happens what greed is allowed to take precedence over public safety.
These are the faces of those that died that night, remember them.
A collection of mugshots of serious criminal offenders including a number of American Civil War veterans who were incarcerated at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland, taken in November 1866.
I used to think that medieval monks drawing cats had never actually seen a cat. It was only later in life that I realized: maybe it was I who had never truly seen a cat.
Monasticism out here is just [prays] [bakes bread] [reads a Psalm] [prays] [illuminates a gospel] [complains in Ogham in the margins] [pets a cat] [prays] [gets attacked by Vikings] [prays]
