February 25: TODAY in Irish History:
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Snippets of Irish History by Conor Cunneen IrishmanSpeaks
Conor is a Chicago based Motivational Humorous Business Speaker, Author and History buff.
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1570:Elizabeth I is Excommunicated
Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland is excommunicated by Pope Pius V because of her treatment of Catholics. Daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn, the “Virgin Queen” was no friend of Ireland which she referred to as a “rude and barbarous nation” – a nation that admittedly plotted with Spain against her and her English rule. Irish leaders such as Garret Fitzgerald and Hugh O’Neill took part in a Nine Years War against English reign between 1594 and 1603.
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1852: Songwriter Thomas Moore
Poet and songwriter Thomas Moore dies at age of 72. Born in Dublin, Moore wrote some of Ireland’s finest melodies including The Minstrel Boy: She is far from the Land: Believe me, if all those endearing young charms and literally hundreds of others.
Moore was also an accomplished satirist and poet who in Enigma wrote about the growing public debt….. (even back then!!!)
Come riddle-me-ree, come riddle-me-ree,
And tell me, what my name may be.
I am nearly one hundred and thirty years old,
And therefore no chicken, as you may suppose; —
Though a dwarf in my youth (as my nurses have told),
I have, ev’ry year since, been outgrowing my clothes;
Till, at last, such a corpulent giant I stand,
That if folks were to furnish me now with a suit,
It would take ev’ry morsel of scrip in the land
But to measure my bulk from the head to the foot.
Click for a comprehensive list of Thomas Moore’s works.
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1991: Birmingham Six Convictions Unsafe
UK Director of Public Prosecution, Alan Green, announces that the convictions convictions of the Birmingham Six can no longer be considered safe and satisfactory.
In one of the great miscarriages of justice in British legal history, Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker were all jailed in 1975 for IRA attacks on two pubs in Birmingham in November 1974 which killed 21 people. Their convictions would finally be quashed by the Court of Appeal on March 19 and the men would walk free for the first time in 17 years.
As early as 1976, Fathers Denis Faul and Raymond Murray published a detailed document questioning the men’s convictions.
READ: The Birmingham Framework: Six Innocent Men Framed for the Birmingham Bombings
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SEE: ITV Program on Birmingham Six.
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The Provisional IRA had planted bombs in two pubs: The Mulberry Bush bomb was followed minutes later by a bomb in the nearby Tavern in the Town. The IRA had phoned a warning twelve minutes before the first bomb went off, but the bombs went off as police were trying to clear the pubs. One of the ironies of the murderous attack was that a number of the victims were second-generation Irish.
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Want to learn more about Ireland? See these images and more in the acclaimed For the Love of Being Irish
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This history is written by Irish author, business keynote speaker and award winning humorist IrishmanSpeaks – Conor Cunneen. If you spot any inaccuracies or wish to make a comment, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the comment button.
Visit Conor’s YouTube channel IrishmanSpeaks to Laugh and Learn.
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