November 21: TODAY in Irish History:
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Cairo Gang – Bloody Sunday 1920 Ireland
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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WATCH: A Short History of Ireland
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1887: 1916 Signatory Joseph Plunkett.
Joseph Plunkett, one of the leaders of the 1916 rising Joseph Plunkett and a signatory of the Proclamation is born into a privileged background. His father was a Papal Count.
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- Joseph Plunkett 1916 signatory
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Plunkett 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.
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READ: Bio of Joseph Plunkett
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1920: Bloody Sunday in Dublin
A day of carnage in Dublin in an increasingly bitter and bloody Irish War of Independence. Early in the day, Michael Collins wipes out much of British Intelligence in Dublin. Hours later, British troops take horrible revenge.
In a superbly executed guerilla operation, Michael Collins dispatched his agents to assassinate fourteen British spies (members of the so called Cairo Gang) in Dublin, effectively crippling the British information system. Not all of those killed were spies or intelligence agents, but it seems all were military personnel.
Collins was a ruthless, unforgiving warrior who wrote of the killings: “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.”
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READ: The Cairo Gang
- Alleged members of British Cairo Gang
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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.
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- Evening Herald Bloody Sunday report
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And 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 once again in galvanizing Irish opinion even more. It also highlighted the military genius of Michael Collins.
REMARKABLE FOOTAGE OF MICHAEL COLLINS
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1974: IRA Kill 21 in Birmingham Pub Bombings
Two bombs set by the provisional IRA devastated pubs in Birmingham cause the deaths of 21 people. The Provisional IRA 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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- Mulberry Bush pub after bomb attack
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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.
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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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