1963: President John F Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.
Kennedy had visited Ireland the previous June to rapturous response. He spoke for 25 minutes to Dail Eireann in a wide ranging, historical speech that was maybe not always accurate. e.g. Ireland “is not neutral between liberty and tyranny and never will be.” Just twenty years previously, Ireland remained neutral in the face of the horrors of Hitler.
But the speech was uplifting and motivating to an Irish nation that was still young. Kennedy said
“This has never been a rich or powerful country, and yet, since earliest times, its influence on the world has been rich and powerful. No larger nation did more to keep Christianity and Western culture alive in their darkest centuries. No larger nation did more to spark the cause of independence in America, indeed, around the world. And no larger nation has ever provided the world with more literary and artistic genius.
This is an extraordinary country. George Bernard Shaw, speaking as an Irishman, summed up an approach to life: Other people, he said “see things and . . . say ‘Why?’ . . . But I dream things that never were– and I say: ‘Why not?'” ”
For the Love of Being Irish written by Chicago based Corkman Conor Cunneen and illustrated by Mark Anderson which is an A-Z of all things Irish. This is a book that contains History, Horror, Humor, Passion, Pathos and Lyrical Limericks that will have you giving thanks (or wishing you were) For the Love of Being Irish
This blog is written by Irish author, business keynote speaker and award winning humoristIrishmanSpeaks – Conor Cunneen. Visit Conor’s YouTube channel IrishmanSpeaksto Laugh and Learn. Tags: Best Irish Gift, Creative Irish Gift, Unique Irish Gifts, Irish Books, Irish Authors, Today in Irish History
1887: One of the leaders of the 1916 rising Joseph Plunkett is born into a privileged background. His father was a papal count.
Joseph Plukett was one of the Irish Republican Brotherhood who planned and executed the doomed Easter rising. Hours before his execution by British authorities on the 4th May, Plunkett married his sweetheart in Kilmainham Gaol.
1920: Bloody Sunday
A day of carnage in Dublin in an increasingly bitter and bloody Irish War of Independence. In a superbly executed operation, Michael Collins dispatched his agents to assassinate fourteen British spies (members of the so called Cairo group) in Dublin, effectively crippling the British information system.
Collins wrote “By their destruction the very air is made sweeter. That should be the future’s judgment on this particular event. For myself, my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting and destroying, in war-time, the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin.”
But the violence did not end there. In an act of revenge that forever stains the British military, British Auxiliaries forces drove to Croke Park, Dublin where a large crowd was watching Dublin play Tipperary in a football game. The Auxiliaries fired into the crowd. Between gunfire and the resulting stampede, fourteen people died.
But the violence did not end there. Three IRA men captured on the day were killed that evening while “attempting to escape.”
Overall the terrible day was a huge morale boost for the Irish independence effort and a disastrous and criminal blunder by the British who only succeeded in galvanising Irish opinion even more.
1974: Two bombs set by the provisional IRA devastated pubs in Birmingham resulting in the deaths of 21 people. A rush to justice by British authorities saw the unwarranted conviction of “The Birmingham Six,” Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power, and Johnny Walker who were found guilty in 1975 of carrying out the bombings. Their convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal in May 1991. The real bombers have never been identified or prosecuted although journalist Chris Mullin in his book Error of Judgment – The Truth About the Birmingham Pub Bombings claims to have met some of them. Want to learn more about Ireland? See these images and more in the acclaimed For the Love of Being Irish
For the Love of Being Irish written by Chicago based Corkman Conor Cunneen and illustrated by Mark Anderson which is an A-Z of all things Irish. This is a book that contains History, Horror, Humor, Passion, Pathos and Lyrical Limericks that will have you giving thanks (or wishing you were) For the Love of Being Irish
This blog is written by Irish author, business keynote speaker and award winning humoristIrishmanSpeaks – Conor Cunneen. Visit Conor’s YouTube channel IrishmanSpeaksto Laugh and Learn. Tags: Best Irish Gift, Creative Irish Gift, Unique Irish Gifts, Irish Books, Irish Authors, Today in Irish History
Today In Irish History 