April 22: TODAY in Irish History:

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Conor is a Chicago based Motivational Humorous Business Speaker, Author and History buff.

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1782: Death of Pirate Pirate Anne Bonny

Cork born Anne Bonny was a famous pirate operating in the Caribbean. Bonny became mistress to the pirate Calico Jack Rackham bearing him at least one child. Daniel Defoe wrote what amounted to a biography of Anne Bonny in A General History of the Pirates which you can read at Project Gutenberg. 

He writes of her early life: “Anne Bonny was born at a Town near Cork, in the Kingdom of Ireland, her Father an Attorney at Law, butAnne was not one of his legitimate Issue, which seems to cross an old Proverb, which says, that Bastards have the best Luck.”

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READ: A General History of the Pirate with “With the remarkable Actions and Adventures of the two Female Pyrates Mary Read and Anne Bonny”

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1875: Charles Stewart Parnell MP

Charles Stewart Parnell

Newly elected MP, Charles Stuart Parnell enters House of Commons for first time as MP.

At the time he entered the chamber, Joseph Biggar, the Nationalist MP for Co Cavan, was delivering a lengthy speech to an almost empty House of Commons.  Biggar, a Presbyterian pork butcher and secretly a sworn member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, was filibustering: this was to delay the passage of a Coercion Bill for Ireland.

Many Irish politicians filibustered during this period in an effort to gain attention for the Irish cause.

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1905: Death of Captain William O’Shea.

Captain William O’Shea’s divorce action from wife Kitty O’Shea, naming one time friend  Charles Stuart Parnell as co-respondent signalled the demise of Parnell’s career. O’Shea was MP for Clare and was a captain in the 18th Hussars.

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Captain William O’Shea 1840-1905

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O’Shea’s marriage to wife Kitty had been in name only for many years before he filed for divorce in 1889. No one benefited from the divorce. Parnell’s career was in ruins as Catholic Ireland and Victorian England reacted in horror to the public outing of his relationship. (Much of London society was aware of their love for each other.) Just a few months after the divorce was finalized, a desperately ill Parnell married Kitty O’Shea. He only lived for another four months dying aged 45 in Brighton on October 6, 1891 with his wife beside him.

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1916: Easter Rising Delayed

The Easter Rising planned for April 22 (Easter Saturday) is postponed for two days. The capture of Roger Casement and the scuttling of the Aud which was transporting an estimated 20,000 rifles were some of the reasons for the delay.

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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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