August 2012
History Selection |
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On this Day: August |
1st | 1714 - The Apprentice
Boys of Derry club was formed by Colonel Mitchelburne. 1915 - Grand funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa. |
2nd | 1649 - Battle of
Rathmines. 1849 - Queen Victoria arrived in Ireland for an eleven-day visit. |
3rd | 1916 - Roger
Casement was hanged for treason. 2001 - An IRA car bomb in London injured seven people. |
4th | 2011 - A Facebook
page was taken down after soliciting photos of PSNI officers |
5th | 1969 - Severe
sectarian rioting took place in Belfast. |
6th | 1775 - Birth of
Daniel O'Connell. 1835 - Civil engineers met in Dublin, afterwards forming the Civil Engineers Society of Ireland. 1855 - In Louisville, Kentucky, Protestant mobs attacked Irish Catholic neighbourhoods. This became known as 'Bloody Monday'. |
7th | 1690 - William III
and his army reached Limerick. 1832 - Irish Reform Act introduced broad changes to electoral laws. 1957 - A war memorial was blown up in Limerick. 1986 - The DUP made a token show of 'invading' the Irish Republic. |
8th | 1980 - Ten people
died in a hotel fire in Bundoran. 1999 - The INLA stated that 'the war is over'. |
9th | 1971 - Internment
without trial was introduced in Northern Ireland. |
10th | 1315 - Battle of
Athenry, at which the rebellious Irish chiefs of Connacht were killed. 1991 - The UDA was proscribed from midnight. |
11th | 1950 - Irish
representatives at Strasbourg voted against the European army proposed
by Winston Churchill. 2001 - Three IRA men were arrested in Colombia. They had apparently been involved in training FARC guerillas. |
12th | 1652 - The
Parliament of England passed the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652. 1898 - James Connolly published the first copy of the 'Workers' Republic' newsletter. 1946 - A plane carrying 23 French Girl Guides crashed in the Wicklow Mountains. |
13th | 1969 - Taoiseach
Jack Lynch said on television that the Republic could 'no longer stand
by' given the situation in Northern Ireland. |
14th | 1903 - The Wyndham Land Act passed, offering incentives to landlords to sell their estates. |
15th | 1649 - Oliver
Cromwell landed at Dublin. 1838 - Tithe rent reduced by the Poor Law and Tithe Acts. 1843 - Repeal meeting at Tara. 1846 - Grain depots were closed following Trevelyan's decision that famine relief should end. 1847 - An extended Poor Law permitting outdoor relief was implemented. 1998 - A Real IRA bomb at Omagh killed 29 people. |
16th | 1969 - British
soldiers were deployed in Belfast. 1982 - The Attorney General Patrick Connolly resigned after a wanted killer was found in his house. |
17th | 1600 - Eoghan mac
Ruairí Ó Mórdha, rebel and 'a bloody
and bold young man', killed in a skirmish near Timahoe. 1922 - Dublin Castle was formally handed over by the British. |
18th | 1579 - James
FitzMaurice FitzGerald killed in a skirmish with the forces of the
Burkes of Clanwilliam. 1911 - The House of Lords lost its veto power beyond two years, making Home Rule possible. |
19th | 1989 - 10,000 people marched in Dublin calling for Britain's withdrawal from Northern Ireland. |
20th | 1888 - Christian
Brothers College founded in Cork. 1981 - INLA member Michael Devine became the final man to die on hunger strike. 1988 - Ballygawley Bombing. |
21st | 1962 - Former US
President Eisenhower arrived in Belfast. 1972 - The Social Democratic and Labour Praty was founded in Northern Ireland. 2009 - A passenger train travelling from Balbriggan to Dublin escaped disaster when the rail track collapsed. |
22nd | 1808 - The
Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne in Cork was dedicated. 1922 - Michael Collins died in an ambush at Béal na Bláth. 2009 - Long Kesh escapee Pól Brennan was deported from the US to the Republic of Ireland. |
23rd | 1921 - Stormont Castle was agreed as the Parliament building for Northern Ireland. |
24th | 1968 - The First Civil Rights march was held in Northern Ireland. |
25th | 1580 - Battle of
Glenmalure. 1803 - Robert Emmet was captured near Harold's Cross. |
26th | 1987 - Two RUC officers were shot dead by the IRA in a Belfast bar. |
27th | 1928 - Ireland
became a signatory of the Kellogg Peace Pact. 1979 - The IRA killed Lord Mountbatten, his grandson and his grandson's friend, and on the same day an IRA ambush claimed the lives of 18 British soldiers |
28th | 1689 - The Duke of
Schomberg captured Carrickfergus after several days of siege. 1798 - The Hodson Baronetcy was created. 1835 - St Vincent's Ecclesiastical Seminary opened at Castleknock. 1877 - Charles Stewart Parnell was elected to Parliament. |
29th | 1997 - Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, accepted that Sinn Fein could enter talks. |
30th | 1787 - The Richardson (later (Richardson-Bunbury) Baronetcy was created. |
31st | 1787 - The Carden
Baronetcy was created. 1994 - The IRA announced a ceasefire. |
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Curiosities of Politics: Parnell By
His Entry into Politics |
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It began with a quarrel with
a cabman. Captain and Mrs. Dickinson had invited John and Charles
Parnell to
dine with them. He had been in Cork, and, on his arrival at Kingsbridge
Station, found that he was likely to be late for dinner, so he jumped
on to a
jaunting car, and said to the jarvey, “I’ll give
you half a crown, if you get
me to 22, Lower Pembroke Street by seven o’clock, or nothing
at all if you are
a minute after that.” The jarvey agreed to the terms
proposed, but failed to
get his passenger to the |
![]() Charles Stewart
Parnell
As a young man |
If they had thought of him as a
political candidate, they would probably have thought him Conservative.
But he
was proposing to join the Nationalists. Hardly had they realised what
his
proposal was, when he daunted them with the suggestion that they should
accompany him that very minute to the offices of the Freeman’s
Journal, where he proposed to announce his adhesion to
the Irish party to Mr. Gray, the editor. John declined to go, but
Captain
Dickinson went with him.[1] They did
not return to On the following morning he
hurried off to the Viceregal Lodge and offered his resignation to the
Viceroy,
Lord Spencer, who, however, could not immediately accept it because
certain
formalities had first to be concluded. The delay meant that he would be
too
late for nomination for the vacant constituency of Wicklow. Here was
something
to gall the impatient Parnell. Miserable technicalities prevented him
from
fulfilling his desires! He resented the Lord-Lieutenant’s
refusal to set him
free immediately from his shrieval duties, and was in such a state of
mind
about it that he persuaded himself to believe that the technicalities
were
devised to frustrate him. He had been slighted by the Lord-Lieutenant!
The
thought, says his brother, “stung Charley deeply, and left
him with a feeling
of resentment against the English Government which quickly became a
rooted
portion of his character.” The cause of the offence seems as
trivial as the
cause of that which he took when the police impounded his regimentals;
but this
insubordinate, quick-tempered young man was in the mood to suspect that
anything which opposed his will was malignantly-minded. But it was
useless to
repine. The law was clear. A High Sheriff, who had duties to perform in
a
Parliamentary election, could not himself be a candidate at that
election, nor
could he be replaced at a moment’s notice. At dinner on the
night of the day
when he had interviewed the Viceroy, Parnell announced a new decision.
If he
could not stand for Wicklow, his brother could, and before the abashed
John,
whose heart was in his Alabama peach-farm, could successfully marshal
his
objections to the proposals, he found himself consenting to be the
candidate and
reading his election address, which Charles drew up. Once more the
elder
brother, against his wish, was directed by the younger. As it had been
in II To the Electors of GENTLEMEN, Believing that the time has
arrived for all true Irishmen to unite in the spontaneous demand for
justice
from The principles for which my
ancestor, Sir John Parnell, then Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer,
refused the
peerage from an English Government are still mine, and the cause of the
Repeal
of the My experience of the working
of the Ulster system of Land Tenure in the North convinces me that
there is no
other remedy for the unfortunate relations existing between landlord
and tenant
in other parts of Ireland than the legalisation through the whole of
the
country of the Ulster Tenant Right, which is practically Fixture of
Tenure, or
some equivalent or extension of a custom which has so increased the
prosperity
of the thriving North. A residence of several years
in America, where Religious and Secular Education are combined, has
assured me
that the attempt to deprive the youth of the country of spiritual
instruction
must be put down, and I shall give my support to the Denominational
System in
connection both with the University and the Primary branches. Owing to the great
tranquillity of the Country, I think it would now be a graceful act to
extend
the Clemency of the Crown to the remaining Political Prisoners. My grandfather and uncle
represented this County for many years, and as you have experienced
their
trustworthiness, so I also hope you will believe in mine. I am, gentlemen, Yours truly, JOHN HOWARD PARNELL III Charles did not permit the
grass to grow under his feet. The other candidates were already in the
field,
and their election addresses were before the constituents. The Parnells
must
move very quickly if they were to make any impression at all. John
found
himself hurried to the hustings in a way which made him long more
ardently than
ever for the leisurely life of The organisation of
John’s
candidature was swift and efficient. When the bashful and reluctant
candidate
descended from the train at Rathdrum, he found himself surrounded by a
reception committee of priests, “most of whom did now know
either Charley or
myself.” A band was strenuously performing patriotic airs,
and as soon as the
introductions had been made, the candidate, led by his brother and the
hypnotised priests, formed a procession behind the robust musicians and
marched
off, followed by a large crowd, to Father Galvin’s
presbytery, where an
enthusiastic conference was held. On the next day Charles hurled
himself into
Hacketstown and Soon after his departure,
Colonel Taylor, one of the members for the |
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But he was barely known to
the members of the League. Those of them who had met him disesteemed
him. His
diffidence; his reticence, so unlike the large, lavish manner of Mr.
Butt; his
complete ignorance of political affairs and seeming inaptitude for them
– all
these made the Home Rule Leaguers reluctant to accept him as their
candidate.
If they were to make a demonstration, even in a hopeless constituency,
they
must make one which would not cover them with ridicule. That was the
fate they
feared. Mr. Parnell’s political stock-in-trade seemed to
consist solely of
references to “The Manchester Martyrs”. He talked
of them in stutters, and
could not talk of anything else. It was as if he thought he only had to
mention
“The Manchester Martyrs” three times and he had
formulated a policy. The
Leaguers debated about him. Was he a twister? What guarantee had they
that this
young landlord was not about to play some crooked game with them?
“If he gives
his word,” said Mr. John Martin, an old and respected
Nationalist, “I will
trust him. I would trust any of the Parnells.” But even the
support of Mr.
Martin did not incline the others towards him. They called him into the
conference-room, so that they might inspect and examine him, and he
entered, a
tall, thin, handsome, delicate young man, with eyes that seemed remote
until he
was roused, when fires kindled in them, brown fires that scorched those
who
beheld them. We do now know what he said or did during that period of
probation, but we do know that, when it was over, he was the Home Rule
candidate for the |
![]() Charles Stewart Parnell A reserved man, who at first found public speaking difficult |
His first public meeting was
a terrible failure. It was held in the Rotunda, Dublin, in the
afternoon of
March 9, 1874, under the chairmanship of the O’Gorman Mahon,
an old soldier of
fortune who took to politics when duelling went out of fashion, and was
destined a few years later, by the malignancy of fate, to introduce his
friend,
Captain O’Shea, to the young man now standing, trembling and
white-lipped, by
his side. Although the hour was early, a large crowd, drawn by the
knowledge
that he was one of the Parnells, had assembled to hear him, and the
platform
was occupied by men long seasoned in Nationalist politics. Honest John
Martin,
who had testified to the trustworthiness of his family, Isaac Butt, A.
M.
Sullivan, Mitchell Henry, and Richard O’Shaughnessy, names
that are now rarely
remembered, but belonging to men of high reputation in their time, came
to
listen to the squire of Avondale making his adoption speech. Mr.
Sullivan
proposed the resolution that Mr. Parnell should be their candidate, and
while
he was speaking the candidate came into the hall. He was unknown to
nearly
every person in the hall, but a singular enthusiasm took hold of the
audience,
and even before they were certain that this was indeed the candidate,
they were
on their feet, cheering him. Parnell never enjoyed public meetings. To
the end
of his life he shrank from them, and suffered agonies of nervousness
while he
was speechifying. He would clench his hands behind his back so tightly
that his
nails would lacerate his palms, and would leave the platform in a state
of
exhaustion. On this afternoon in March his nerves overpowered him. When
he was
called upon to speak, he rose amidst a cheering crowd which liked his
good
looks and remembered his honourable ancestors. He advanced to the front
of the
platform, and the expectant crowd ceased to cheer and prepared to
listen. He
opened his parched lips, and with difficulty said,
“Gentlemen, I am a candidate
for the representation of the Parnell remained quiet after
this election until the sudden death on |
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IV Five years later, “the
bloody
fool” had driven Mr. Butt from authority to the grave, and
was master of [1] There is a slight
discrepancy between the account of this incident given by Mr. Barry
O’Brien and
that given by Mr. John Parnell. Mr. O’Brien, who received his
account from Mr.
John Parnell, states in the Life
that
the two brothers went to see Mr. Gray, but Mr. Parnell himself, in his book, states that Captain Dickinson
went with Charles, he, John, declining to do so. The Parnells had
defective
memories, but it is probable that the account in Mr.
Parnell’s book is
accurate. |
![]() Parnell gives a speech in 1890 |
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