1.
1916 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1916 in Ireland. 14 January – Michael Collins resigns his job in London and returns to Ireland,14 February – John Redmond is re-elected Chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Dublin. 29 February – the week-long Derry Feis opens in the city,21 March – a crowd attacks Sinn Féins Tullamore headquarters, three police are injured. 21 April – Roger Casement and two others are arrested at Banna Strand, County Kerry, for attempting to land arms,22 April – Eoin MacNeill, Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers cancels all manoeuvres of Volunteers planned for the following day. 23 April – Easter Sunday, the council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood meets at Liberty Hall. The Proclamation of the Republic is signed by the seven leaders in the name of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, Volunteers from Belfast and County Cork begin manoeuvres but return home. 24 April – the Easter Rising begins in Dublin, at noon Patrick Pearse reads the proclamation on the steps of the General Post Office, Dublin. Liam Mellows leads a rising of Volunteers in County Galway,25 April – martial law is declared in Dublin by the British authorities for a period of one month. 26 April Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre are summarily executed at Portobello Barracks, dublin-built HMS Helga shells Liberty Hall from the Liffey. 27 April Major-General Sir John Maxwell arrives in Dublin to take command of the British Army,12,000 of whose troops are now in the city, the centre is cordoned off. 29 April – at 3. 45pm, Patrick Pearse, James Connolly,1 May – the Easter Rising collapses. Sir John Maxwell, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces announces that all involved in the insurrection have surrendered,3 May – following their courts martial, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas J. Clarke are executed at Kilmainham Gaol. 4 May – the executions continue, Joseph Plunkett, Michael OHanrahan, Edward Daly and Willie Pearse are executed for their part in the Rising. The Chief Secretary of Ireland, Augustine Birrell, resigns,5 May – John MacBride, another leader of the Rising, is executed today. W. T. Cosgrave is sentenced to death, however,8 May – another four leaders of the Easter Rising are executed. They are Éamonn Ceannt, Conn Colbert, Michael Mallin and Seán Heuston,12 May – two more leaders, Seán Mac Diarmada and James Connolly are executed. Connolly, who was wounded in the fighting, is strapped to a chair, meanwhile, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith arrives in Dublin for a week-long visit. 15 May – the trial of Roger Casement begins in London and he is charged with high treason for his part in the Easter Rising
2.
1915 in Ireland
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March – construction of St Colmans Cathedral, Cobh, concludes with completion of the spire. 4 April –25,000 National Volunteers assemble at the Phoenix Park, John Redmond takes the salute from under the statue of Charles Stewart Parnell on Sackville Street. In Dublin the Irish Parliamentary Party approves John Redmonds decision not to join,29 July – Republicans, led by Patrick Pearse, take over the Gaelic League at its Dundalk conference. Douglas Hyde resigns as its President,1 August – ODonovan Rossa is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, and Pearse delivers the graveside oration. 26 December – the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage an Easter Rising in 1916, the Elim Pentecostal Church is founded in Monaghan by Welsh evangelist George Jeffreys. 1 February – Helen Waddells first play, The Spoiled Buddha, is premiered at the Opera House, Belfast, francis Ledwidges poems Songs of the Fields published. James Stephens poems The Adventures of Seumas Beg, the Rocky Road to Dublin, the first dramatic film made in Ireland, Fun at Finglas Fair, is directed by F. J. McCormick. It is never released as all prints are destroyed in the Easter Rising of April 1916, Irish League Winners, Belfast Celtic Irish Cup Winners, Linfield 1–0 Belfast Celtic 11 January – Paddy Mayne, international rugby union footballer and decorated soldier. 13 January – Kit Ahern, Fianna Fáil TD.21 January – Andy OBrien,25 January – Liam Cunningham, Fianna Fáil TD.7 February – Mark Clinton, Fine Gael TD, Minister for Agriculture and MEP.15 February – Sam Kydd, actor. 15 March – Micho Russell, tin whistle player and collector of traditional music,9 April – Leonard Wibberley, author. 3 May – Walter Macken, novelist, dramatist and actor,17 May – Oisín Kelly, sculptor. 6 August – Tom OReilly, Cavan gaelic footballer and independent TD for Cavan 1944–194828 August – Patrick Hennessy,16 September – Eddie Filgate, Fianna Fáil TD.18 September – James Tully, Labour Party TD and Cabinet Minister. 7 November – Bill Hayes, soccer player,20 December – Noel Browne, politician, Cabinet Minister. Full date unknown John Graham, Irish Republican Army activist in the 1940s, George Harrison, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and alleged gun-runner. 20 January – Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun, businessman, politician,26 January – Michael Sullivan, physician, professor and politician in Canada. 28 January – David Dickson Rogers, politician in Ontario,14 February – Cornelius Coughlan, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Delhi, India. 24 April – Frederick William Hall, soldier, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium,7 May – on board RMS Lusitania OBrien Butler, composer. Hugh Lane, established Dublins Municipal Gallery of Modern Art,29 June – Jeremiah ODonovan Rossa, Fenian leader
3.
1914 in Ireland
–
Events from the year 1914 in Ireland. 17 January – Edward Carson inspects a parade of the East Belfast Regiment of the Ulster Volunteers,20 February – the Fethard-on-Sea life-boat capsizes on service off the County Wexford coast, nine crew are lost. 26 February – HMHS Britannic, designed as the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner, is launched at the Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast,1 March – three outbreaks of foot and mouth disease are confirmed in County Cork. 9 March – the British Prime Minister proposes to allow the Ulster counties to hold a vote on whether or not to join a Home Rule parliament in Dublin, the government backs down and they are reinstated. 2 April – Cumann na mBan, the Irish republican womens paramilitary organisation, is formed in Dublin as an auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers,6 April – the second reading of the Home Rule Bill is carried in Westminster. 25 May – the House of Commons of the United Kingdom passes the Irish Home Rule Bill,23 June–14 July – the Government of Ireland Bill passes through the House of Lords. It allows Ulster counties to vote on whether or not they want to come under Dublins jurisdiction, the wishes of Fermanagh and Tyrone are eventually ignored. 10 July – the Provisional Government of Ulster meets for the first time in the Ulster Hall and it vows to keep Ulster in trust for the King and the British constitution. 21 July – a conference is opened at Buckingham Palace by the King and it is hoped that unionists and nationalists attending will break the impasse over Home Rule. 24 July – the Buckingham Palace conference ends in failure, nationalists and Unionists present cannot agree in principle or detail. 26 July – Howth gun-running, Erskine Childers and his wife Molly sail into Howth in his yacht Asgard,4 August – World War I, Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on the German Empire. September – Ulster Division formed as a division of the British New Army from Ulster Volunteers,20 September – in a speech at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, John Redmond calls on members of the Irish Volunteers to go wherever the firing line extends. The majority do so, fighting in the 10th and 16th Division alongside their counterparts from the 36th Division. 18 October – the British Royal Navys Grand Fleet takes shelter in Lough Swilly while Scapa Flow is secured against submarine attack. 27 October – World War I, Royal Navy super-dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious, is sunk off Tory Island, north-west of Ireland,5 December – the Irish Volunteers appoint a headquarters staff, with Eoin MacNeill as chief of staff. Welsh evangelist George Jeffreys establishes his first church in Belfast, predecessor of the Elim Pentecostal Church, February James Joyces semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man commences serialization in The Egoist. Lord Dunsanys collection Five Plays is published in London,4 February – a staging of George A. Birminghams comedy General John Regan at Westport Town Hall provokes a riot. June – James Joyces Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories depicting the Irish middle classes in, Terence MacSwineys contemporary play The Revolutionist is published
4.
1913 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1913 in Ireland. 13 January – Edward Carson founds the Ulster Volunteer Force by unifying several existing loyalist militias,30 January – at Westminster the House of Lords rejects the 3rd Home Rule Bill by 326 to 69. 10 February – John Redmond opens the replacement city bridge over the River Suir in Waterford that will be named after him,7 July – the Home Rule Bill is once again carried in the House of Commons, despite attempts by Bonar Law to obstruct it. 31 August – Dublin Lock-out, the Dublin Metropolitan Police kill one demonstrator,1 September – protest by locked-out workers lead to serious riots in Dublin. Shops are looted and attempts made to tear up tram lines,3 September – a meeting of 400 employers with William Martin Murphy pledges not to employ any persons who continue to be members of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union. 7 September – a large meeting in Sackville Street asserts the right of speech, trade union representation. 17 September In Newry, Edward Carson says that a Provisional Government will be established in Ulster if Home Rule is introduced, in Dublin, labour unrest grows with a march 5,000 through the city. 27 September –12,000 Ulster Volunteers parade at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Societys show grounds at Balmoral in protest at the Home Rule Bill,27 September – in Dublin the food ship, The Hare, arrives bringing forty tons of food raised by British trade unionists. 6 October – an official report on the lockout suggests that workers should be reinstated without having to give a not to join the ITGWU. 16 October –4,000 men and women march through Dublin in support of James Larkin,27 October – James Larkin of the ITGWU is sentenced to seven months in prison for seditious language. 1 November Kingstown trade unionist James Byrne, arrested for his part in the lockout,10 November – the Dublin Volunteer Corps enrolls over 2,000 men. They declare they will preserve the civil and religious liberties of Protestants outside Ulster in the event of Irish Home Rule,19 November – the Irish Citizen Army is founded by James Connolly to protect workers in the general lockout. 25 November – the pro-Home Rule Irish Volunteers are formed at a meeting attended by 4,000 men in Dublins Rotunda Rink. 28 November – Andrew Bonar Law addresses a huge unionist rally in the Theatre Royal in Dublin, declaring that if Home Rule is introduced Ulster will resist, george A. Birminghams comedy General John Regan is premièred in London and New York City. Winifred Mary Letts publishes Songs from Leinster, conal Holmes OConnell ORiordan produces his play Rope Enough. Pádraig Ó Siochfhradhas story An Baile S’Againne is published, katharine Tynans Irish Poems is published. Yeats poem September 1913 is published in The Irish Times during the Dublin Lock-out and his Poems Written in Discouragement is also published this year. English music hall comedian Arthur Lucan meets and marries 16-year-old actress Kitty McShane in Dublin,19 January – Matt OMahoney, international soccer player
5.
1912 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1912 in Ireland. 8 February – First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill addresses a pro Home Rule meeting in Belfast despite Ulster Unionist attempts to prevent him speaking, Churchill shares the platform with John Redmond the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. 11 April – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith introduces the 3rd Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom,12 April – a convention of Sinn Féin delegates led by Arthur Griffith opposes the Home Rule Bill. 14 April – RMS Titanic, the largest vessel in the world, built in Belfast and making her last call at Queenstown, collides with an iceberg and sinks within a few hours. 22 April – Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson completes the first aeroplane crossing of the Irish Sea,26 April – English-born Vivian Hewitt makes an aeroplane crossing of the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Phoenix Park, Dublin. 30 April – Winston Churchill moves the second reading of the Home Rule Bill at Westminster,9 May – the second reading of the Home Rule Bill is accepted in the British House of Commons. A Unionist amendment rejecting the Bill is defeated,10 May – at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Bonar Law speaks of Conservative Opposition to the Home Rule Bill. Elsewhere Edward Carson also voices his opposition,1 July – a serious outbreak of foot and mouth disease occurs in Counties Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. July – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith travels to Dublin to make a speech,18 July – suffragettes attempt an arson attack on the Theatre Royal, Dublin, during Asquiths visit. 28 September – Ulster Day – Ulster Covenant to resist Home Rule is signed by almost 250,000 men throughout Ulster,229,000 women sign a parallel declaration. 23 October – large numbers of cattle are slaughtered in Mullingar due to the outbreak of foot, the golden eagle becomes extinct in Ireland. 11 April – Lennox Robinsons play Patriots is first performed, at the Abbey Theatre,20 April – Bram Stoker, author of Dracula and theatrical manager, dies in London. November – Lord Dunsanys short story collection The Book of Wonder is published, peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeneys A Soldiers Song is first published in Irish Freedom by Bulmer Hobson. Eleanor Hull publishes The Poem-Book of the Gael, translations from Irish Gaelic poetry into English prose and verse, forrest Reids coming-of-age novel Following Darkness is published. James Stephens novel The Crock of Gold is published, tritonville, another Dublin side, joins the League, but lasts just one season. Ken McArthur, born in Dervock, County Antrim, wins the race at the 1912 Summer Olympics for South Africa. 8 January – James Brophy, cricketer,5 February – Desmond Surfleet, cricketer. 14 February – Joseph Brennan, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister,22 March – Wilfrid Brambell, actor
6.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
7.
1918 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1918 in Ireland. 18 January – Count Plunkett, Seán T. OKelly and others protest at the feeding of Sinn Féin prisoners in Mountjoy Prison. 5 February – SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the Irish coast, it is the first ship carrying United States troops to Europe to be torpedoed,1 March – Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island. 2 March – In Skibbereen, County Cork, Ernest Blythe is arrested for non-compliance with a military rule directing him to reside in Ulster. 6 March – in the British House of Commons, tributes are paid to John Redmond, Irish Nationalist leader,18 April – the Military Service Bill, which includes conscription in Ireland, becomes law. A conference of nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and labour movements meets in Dublin to organise an all-Ireland opposition to conscription,20 April – the Irish Parliamentary Party holds a meeting in Dublin to oppose conscription. 23 April – General Strike in opposition to conscription,5 May –15,000 people attend an anti-conscription meeting in County Roscommon. John Dillon, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and Éamon de Valera of Sinn Féin share the platform in a united cause,20 May – a special anti-conscription convention is held in Dublin. It condemns the arrest and deportation of Sinn Féin members consequent to the German Plot,20 June – Arthur Griffith of Sinn Féin wins a by-election in East Cavan. It is Sinn Féins first victory of the year after three successive by-election defeats,3 July – the Lord Lieutenant issues a proclamation banning Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan. 17 July – RMS Carpathia is torpedoed and sunk off the east coast of Ireland by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-55,218 of the 223 on board are rescued. 10 October – the Irish mail boat RMS Leinster is sunk in the Irish Sea by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM UB-123 with the loss of over 500 lives,11 November – at 5. 00am an armistice dictated by the Allies is signed by the Germans. Six hours later World War I officially ends, well over 206,000 Irishmen have served and over 35,000 been killed during the war, there is no Irish parish without a loss. 22 December – Ireland voices a united invitation to President of the United States Woodrow Wilson to visit,28 December – Sinn Féin have a landslide victory in the general election, winning 73 of the 105 seats in Ireland. The Irish Parliamentary Party is nearly wiped out, in accordance with their manifesto, Sinn Féin members will not take their seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom but will form the First Dáil. Countess Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway Prison, becomes the first woman elected to the Palace of Westminster, on 30 December the Irish Independent strongly criticises her. March – the Telemachus episode of James Joyces Ulysses is published in the American journal The Little Review,25 May – James Joyces Exiles, a play in three acts is published in London. August – Anglo-Welsh composer Philip Heseltine concludes a years stay in Ireland with the writing of a number of songs which will be published under the pseudonym Peter Warlock, francis Ledwidges poems Last Songs are published posthumously, edited by Lord Dunsany
8.
1919 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1919 in Ireland. 21 January – Dáil Éireann meets for the very first time in the Round Room of the Mansion House, in the first shots of the Irish War of Independence, two Royal Irish Constabulary men are killed by members of the Third Tipperary Brigade in the Soloheadbeg Ambush in Tipperary. 27 January – general strike call in Belfast and Glasgow,1 April – fifty-two members of Sinn Féin attend the second meeting of Dáil Éireann. Seán T. OKelly is elected Ceann Comhairle and Éamon de Valera is elected President of Dáil Éireann,2 April – Constance Markievicz is appointed Minister for Labour, becoming the first Irish female Cabinet Minister and the first in Western Europe. 18 April –1,000 delegates from all over Ireland attend the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in Dublin, Éamon de Valera is elected President of the organisation. 19 April – Sinn Féin proposes an Executive Council of the Irish National Alliance to challenge the right of any foreign parliament to make laws for Ireland,17 May – the first Republican law court is set up, at Ballinrobe, County Mayo. 14 June – Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown arrive in Clifden,18 June – Dáil establishes the National Arbitration Courts. 12 August – St Colmans Cathedral, Cobh, is consecrated,8 September – The sack of Fermoy, drunken British forces rampage through Fermoy following an inquest on the previous death of a British soldier which fails to find for murder. 12 September – Dáil Éireann is declared illegal by the British authorities, there are raids on Sinn Féin centres and Ernest Blythe is arrested. 19 December – volunteers from Dublin and Tipperary under the leadership of Paddy Daly undertook an ambush on Lord Frenchs motorcade of three cars at Ashtown Road in Dublin, Lord French was the British Viceroy, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Supreme Commander of the British Army in Ireland. While three of Frenchs party, two RIC and a driver, were wounded French got through unharmed, volunteer Martin Savage was killed and Dan Breen wounded. Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, previously Chief Rabbi of Belfast, is appointed to serve in Dublin, Yeats travels to the United States and begins a lecture tour lasting until May 1920. In this year also Yeats publishes a major revision of The Wild Swans at Coole, Two Plays for Dancers, harry Clarkes illustrations to an edition of Tales of Mystery & Imagination are published. Francis Ledwidges Complete Poems are published posthumously, edited by Lord Dunsany, C. S. Lewis, writing as Clive Hamilton, publishes Spirits in Bondage, a cycle of lyrics, his first published work, in London. An Seabhac s semi-autobiographical comic story Jimín Mháire Thaidhg is published,30 January – Robert Lowry, Baron Lowry, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. 23 February – Johnny Carey, soccer player and manager,18 March – G. E. M. Anscombe, analytic philosopher. 3 April – Myles McKeon, former Roman Catholic Bishop of Bunbury,3 April – Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, poet and writer. 9 April – Gordon Lambert, art collector, member of the Seanad,1 May – Dan OHerlihy, actor
9.
1920 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1920 in Ireland. 2 January – Irish Republican Army volunteers of the 1st Cork Brigade capture Carrigtwohill Royal Irish Constabulary barracks,27 February – the text of the Home Rule Bill to be introduced in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom is published. It provides for the establishment of a 128-member parliament in Dublin,10 March – the Ulster Unionist Council accepts the Governments plan for a Parliament of Northern Ireland. 20 March – the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, is murdered by armed and disguised RIC men who break into his home,22 March – thousands gather to pay their respects to the murdered Tomás Mac Curtain. Over 8,000 IRA Volunteers line the route to St. Finbarrs Cemetery and he is succeeded as Lord Mayor by Terence MacSwiney. 25 March – British recruits to the RIC begin to arrive in Ireland and they become known from their improvised uniforms as the Black and Tans. 2 April – Canadian-born lawyer Sir Hamar Greenwood, Bt, PC, KC,5 April – IRA prisoners began a hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, demanding prisoner of war status. 15 April –8 June, Arthur Griffith establishes a Republican legal system in areas under IRA control, the traditional Summer Assizes become virtually unworkable. 2 May – Viscount Fitzalan is sworn in as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,10 May – forty Irish republican prisoners on hunger strike at Wormwood Scrubs are released. 17 May – Sinn Féin supporters and Unionists engage in pitched battles in Derry. 20 May – Dublin dock workers refuse to handle British military material,22 May – in Rome, Pope Benedict XV beatifies Oliver Plunkett. 4 June – the IRA orders a boycott of the RIC,17 June – The Listowel Mutiny, RIC constables based at Listowel refuse orders to assist the British Army. The RIC is ordered to shoot armed IRA men who do not surrender when challenged,20 June – five die in severe rioting in Ulster. 24 June – troops are sent to reinforce the Derry garrison,29 June – Dáil Courts established to hear civil cases. 23 July – fourteen die and one hundred are injured in rioting in Belfast. 27 July – the first recruits – former British Army officers – join the RICs Auxiliary Division,31 July – Bishop Daniel Mannix is detained onboard ship off Queenstown and prevented from landing in Ireland. August – the Kingstown Urban District Council reverts to the historic name of Dún Laoghaire. 3 August – Catholic riots in Belfast in protest at the continuing British Army presence,13 August – the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act receives Royal Assent, providing for Irish Republican Army activists to be tried by court-martial rather than by jury in criminal courts
10.
1921 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1921 in Ireland. 1 February Captain Con Murphy from near Millstreet, Co, cork is executed by British authorities, the first man to be executed in front of a firing squad since the Rising of 1916. The Irish White Cross is established to distribute funds raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland,4 February – Irish War of Independence, Irish Republican Army sets fire to Summerhill House in County Meath, destroying it. 5 February – in Brighton, England, the widow of Charles Stewart Parnell, Katherine Parnell,5 March – Irish War of Independence, Clonbanin Ambush, Irish Republican Army kills Brigadier General Cumming. 21 March – Irish War of Independence, Headford Ambush, Irish Republican Army kills at least nine British troops,27 April – Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the first Roman Catholic granted the office since 1685. 3 May – the province of Northern Ireland is created within the United Kingdom under terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, all 124 Sinn Féin candidates regard themselves as elected to the Second Dáil. 25 May – Irish War of Independence, The Irish Republican Army occupies and burns The Custom House in Dublin, five IRA men are killed and over eighty captured by the British Army which surrounds the building. 7 June – the forty elected Unionist Members of Parliaments gather in Belfast City Hall, James Craig is elected as the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. 22 June – new Parliament of Northern Ireland meets at Belfast City Hall and is opened by George V of the United Kingdom, making a speech calling for reconciliation in Ireland. 28 June – new Parliament of Southern Ireland meets at the Royal College of Science for Ireland in Merrion Street, Dublin and is opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount FitzAlan. In addition to the appointed Senate, only the four Unionist MPs representing the University of Dublin attend the House of Commons, having elected Gerald Fitzgibbon to be Speaker, the House adjourns sine die. This is its formal meeting and it never enacts any legislation. 8 July – at the Peace Conference in the Mansion House, Dublin, President de Valera accepts an invitation to meet the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Lloyd George, in London. 10 July – Bloody Sunday, Clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast result in 16 deaths and the destruction of over 200 homes. 11 July – under the terms of the truce which becomes effective at noon, the Irish Republican Army agrees that attacks on Crown forces will cease. 16 August – following the election for the Parliament of Southern Ireland,125 Sinn Féin Teachtaí Dála assemble as the Second Dáil at the Mansion House. Six represent constituencies in Northern Ireland,23 August – the Northern Cabinet agrees that Stormont Castle will be the permanent site of the Northern Houses of Parliament. 7 September – David Lloyd George summons a meeting of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom at Inverness to discuss an independent Irelands relationship with the British Empire,8 September – David Lloyd Georges final offer is delivered to Éamon de Valera
11.
1922 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1922 in Ireland. 2 January – the first edition of the newspaper Poblacht na hÉireann is published and it is established by Irish republican opponents to the Anglo-Irish Treaty who declare their fealty to the Irish Republic. 6 January – the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty are published, Éamon de Valera offers his resignation as president. 7 January – Dáil Éireann votes on the Treaty following Arthur Griffiths motion for approval, the result is 64 in favour and 57 against. 9 January – Éamon de Valera fails to be re-elected as President of the Irish Republic,10 January – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Provisional Government. Michael Collins becomes Minister for Finance, de Valera and 56 of his supporters walk out of Dáil Éireann. 12 January – the Government of the United Kingdom releases remaining Irish prisoners captured in the War of Independence,16 January The Provisional Government of Ireland first meets, a transitional entity to ensure the establishment of the Irish Free State by the end of 1922. Dublin Castle handed over to the Irish Republican Army,31 January The first unit of the new National Army, a former IRA unit of the Dublin Guard, takes possession of the barrackes at Beggars Bush, the first British military transfer to the new State. The first edition of Iris Oifigiúil is published, it is the newspaper of record of the state,10 February – the Irish Free State Act 1922 is introduced in the British House of Commons. It provides for the dissolution of the Parliament of Southern Ireland,11 February – Clones Affray, gun battle at Clones railway station between IRA volunteers and members of the Ulster Special Constabulary travelling to Belfast, five killed. 12 February – at the launch of the Republican Party, Éamon de Valera says that the Treaty denies the sovereignty of the Irish people,17 February – existing British postage stamps issued with overprint Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann 1922. 18 February – Liam Forde, Officer Commanding the Irish Republican Army Mid-Limerick Brigade, February – the Civic Guard – predecessor of An Garda Síochána – is established as a police force to replace the Royal Irish Constabulary in areas outside Dublin and Ulster. 22 March – senior officer Rory OConnor declares that the Irish Republican Army will no longer obey Dáil Éireann,1 April The British Government orders the release of all Irish prisoners in British prisons convicted of sedition. The Irish Post Office takes over responsibility for its own operations, 26–28 April – Dunmanway killings, Thirteen Protestant men, suspected of involvement as or with informants to the British Army, are killed in and around Dunmanway, County Cork. 14 April – Rory OConnor, with 200 other anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army men under his command,26 April – the Irish Catholic Church hierarchy implores the people of Ireland to accept the Treaty and to make the best of the freedom which it brings. 4 May – a conference at the Mansion House, Dublin,15 May – the Civic Guard Mutiny begins in Kildare. 16 May – the final group of British troops leave the Curragh Camp,19 May – the Irish Republican Army, with Collinss covert support, attempts to launch a Northern Offensive in Ulster. They include national spokesman Sean Nethercott and national leader Cahir Healy, June – the first aircraft of the Air Corps arrives at Baldonnel Aerodrome
12.
1917 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1917 in the United Kingdom. This year is dominated by World War I, monarch - George V Prime Minister - David Lloyd George January - J. R. R.19 January - Silvertown explosion, a blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2M-worth of damage,25 January - Armed merchantman SS Laurentic is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard. 26 January - The sea defences at the village of Hallsands, Devon are breached, leading to all,1 February - Atlantic U-boat Campaign, Germany announces its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare, rescinding the Sussex pledge. 2 February - Bread rationing introduced,21 February - Elder Dempster Line troopship SS Mendi is accidentally rammed by SS Darro off the Isle of Wight, killing 646, mainly members of the South African Native Labour Corps. February - Formation of the Womens Land Army, superseding the Womens National Land Service Corps, March - Establishment of the Imperial War Cabinet, a body composed of the chief British ministers and the prime ministers of the Dominions to set policy. 11 March - World War I, British forces led by Sir Stanley Maude capture Baghdad,17 March - World War I, Action of 17 March 1917 - German warships attack British naval patrols off the Goodwin Sands and shell Ramsgate and Margate. 26 March - World War I, First Battle of Gaza - British cavalry troops retreat after 17,000 Turks block their advance,28 March - The Womens Army Auxiliary Corps founded. 5 April - Food Hoarding Order issued to prevent households from hoarding food in short supply, 6/7 May - World War I, Bomb dropped on London by a fixed-wing aircraft. 25 May - World War I, First daylight bombing raid on the UK by fixed-wing aircraft,95 killed in Folkestone area,4 June - The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is established as an order of chivalry by George V under letters patent. 13 June - World War I, Daylight bombing raid on London by fixed-wing aircraft,162 killed,9 July - HMS Vanguard is blown apart by an internal explosion at her moorings in Scapa Flow, Orkney, killing an estimated 843 crew with no survivors. 17 July King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor. Winston Churchill is appointed Minister of Munitions, July - First Cottingley Fairies photographs taken, apparently depicting fairies, a hoax not admitted by the child creators until 1981. 1 August - Womens Forestry Service under Miss Rosamond Crowdy instituted under the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade,17 August - One of English literatures most important and famous meetings takes place when Wilfred Owen introduces himself to Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. Owens war poems Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum est are written at this time,21 August - Most provisions of Corn Production Act 1917 come into force. This guarantees minimum prices for wheat and oats and specifies a minimum wage for agricultural workers,5 October - Sir Arthur Lee donates the country house Chequers to the nation. 2 November - Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour makes the Balfour Declaration proclaiming British support for establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine,7 November - World War I, Third Battle of Gaza ends — British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire. 16 November - British troops occupy Tel Aviv and Jaffa in Palestine,17 November - Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals established by Maria Dickin
13.
1917
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As of the start of 1917, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. Below, events of World War I have the WWI prefix, January 1 – The University of Oregon defeats the University of Pennsylvania 14–0 in U. S. college footballs 3rd Annual Rose Bowl Game. January 2 – The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank, the cause was found to be inadequate signalling procedures. January 9 – WWI, The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces Desert Column at the Battle of Rafa. January 11 – Unknown saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland, January 16 – The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million. January 19 – Silvertown explosion, A blast at a factory in London kills 73. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage, January 22 – WWI, President of the United States Woodrow Wilson calls for peace without victory in Germany. January 25 WWI, British armed merchantman SS Laurentic is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard, an anti-prostitution drive in San Francisco occurs and police close about 200 prostitution houses. January 26 – The sea defences at the English village of Hallsands are breached, leading to all, January 28 – The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa. January 30 – Pershings troops in Mexico begin withdrawing back to the United States and they reach Columbus, New Mexico February 5. February 1 – WWI, Atlantic U-boat Campaign, Germany announces its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare, February 3 – WWI, The United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany. February 5 – The new constitution of Mexico is adopted, February 13 Mata Hari is arrested in Paris for spying. WWI, Beginning of the Raid on Nekhl by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, February 21 – British troopship SS Mendi is accidentally rammed and sunk off the Isle of Wight, killing 646, mainly members of the South African Native Labour Corps. March 1 The U. S. government releases the text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public, Japanese city of Ōmuta is founded by Hiroushi Miruku. March 2 – The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship, march 4 Woodrow Wilson is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives. March 7 – Livery Stable Blues, recorded with Dixie Jazz Band One Step on February 26 by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in the United States, becomes the first jazz recording commercially released, on August 17 the band records Tiger Rag. March 8 – The February Revolution begins in Russia, Women calling for bread in Petrograd start riots, the United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters
14.
Armed merchantman
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Armed merchantman is a term that has come to mean a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be armed, especially those engaging in long distance. In more modern times, auxiliary cruisers were used offensively to disrupt trade chiefly during both World War I and World War II, particularly by Germany, while armed merchantmen are clearly inferior to regular warships, sometimes they have scored successes in combat against them. East Indiamen of various European countries were heavily armed for their journeys to the Far East. In particularly dangerous times, such as when the countries were at war. However, many East Indiamen also travelled on their own, and therefore were heavily armed in order to defend themselves against pirates and they also defended themselves against warships, scoring signal victories at the Battle of Pulo Aura and the Action of 4 August 1800. The British Royal Navy purchased several that it converted to ships of the line, in 1856, privateering lost international sanction under the Declaration of Paris. From 1861–65 European countries built high speed ships to run the Union Blockade during the American Civil War, some of these were armed and served as Confederate States Navy raiders. Russia purchased three ships in 1878 of 6,000 long tons armed with 6-inch guns for use as auxiliary cruisers for a Russian Volunteer Fleet. Germany and the United Kingdom responded to the precedent by asking their shipping companies to design fast steamers with provision for mounting guns in time of war, in 1892 Russia likewise built two more auxiliary cruisers. In both World Wars, both Germany and the United Kingdom used auxiliary cruisers, while the British used armed passenger liners defensively for protecting their shipping, the German approach was to use them offensively to attack enemy shipping. The armed merchant cruisers of the British Royal Navy were employed for protection against enemy warships. They ultimately proved to have limited value and many, particularly ocean liners, were converted into troopships. Documentary evidence quoted by the BBC researched from the stages of the First World War suggests that the express liners had greater speed than most warships. The downside proved to be their high consumption, and that using them in a purely AMC role would have burned through the Admiralty reserve supplies of steam coal in less than three months. The ships were vulnerable to fire, because they lacked warship armour and they used local control of guns, rather than director fire-control systems. By coincidence, Cap Trafalgar was disguised as Carmania, in World War II, HMS Jervis Bay — the sole escort for convoy HX84 in November 1940 — stood off the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, when the German ship attacked the convoy. Though she was sunk alonside 5 vessels, this enabled the rest of the convoy to escape and her master, Acting Captain Edward Fegen was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions
15.
SS Laurentic (1908)
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SS Laurentic was a British ocean liner of the White Star Line. She was converted to a merchant cruiser at the onset of World War I. She was carrying about 43 tons of gold ingots at the time of her loss, the Dominion Line steamship company operated a successful passenger service on their Liverpool-Canada route in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their ships had become outdated, so in 1907 two new liners were ordered from Harland and Wolff, and constructed at their yard in Belfast, during their construction they were purchased by the White Star Line, and become its first ships in the Canadian passenger trade. The ships were named the SS Alberta and SS Albany. She normally served on the Liverpool-Canada route, and also stopped in New York during the winter months, the ship survived, and arrived safely to port. During her regular service from Liverpool, the Laurentic passed near where the Titanic had sunk a few days earlier, on 21 April 1912 Captain John Mathias reported he had kept a careful lookout while passing over the Grand Banks, and had seen neither bodies nor wreckage. In early August 1914, before Britain declared war on Germany in what was to become World War I, on 13 September, while at Montréal, she was commissioned as a troop transport for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, painted grey, and reclassified as the HMS Laurentic. Still captained by John Mathias, she joined a convoy of 32 ships that transported 35,000 Canadian soldiers to Europe in October 1914 and she was then converted to an auxiliary cruiser and fitted with seven cannons. In December 1914 she left Liverpool for Sierra Leone to assist in the Kamerun Campaign, in August 1915 she left for Singapore and spent the ensuing months on patrol around Singapore, Rangoon, and Hong Kong. In June 1916 she left Asia en route to Halifax, Nova Scotia by way of Cape Town and her patrol eventually moved southward to Bermuda, and then returned directly to Halifax in October. In late November she departed for Liverpool, carrying Royal Canadian Navy officers, rated seamen, and Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserves. During the voyage, Captain Mathias was accidentally struck by a beam while attempting to extinguish a coal fire. On 23 January 1917, the Laurentic departed Liverpool en route to Halifax, on 25 January the ship made an unscheduled stop at the naval base in Buncrana, Ireland, to allow four passengers with yellow fever symptoms to disembark. The ship lifted anchor around sunset, moving toward Fanad Head, less than an hour after leaving Buncrana, the ship struck two mines laid by the German mine-laying submarine U-80 off Lough Swilly. Without power the pumps were inoperable and the ship sank within an hour. Those who made it onto lifeboats faced extreme cold as low as −13 °C, survivors rowed towards Fanad Lighthouse, and some were rescued by local fishing trawlers. In the morning, many were found frozen to death in their lifeboats, the official count lists 475 passengers on board at the time of sinking, meaning that only 121 survived, and 354 were lost in the disaster
16.
Lough Swilly
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Lough Swilly in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three glacial fjords in Ireland, at the northern extremities of the lough are Fanad Head with its famous lighthouse and Dunaff Head. Towns situated on the lough include Buncrana on Inishowen and Rathmullan on the western side, at the southern end of the lough lies Letterkenny. Steeped in history the lough and the Grianán Ailigh hill fort at its southeastern bend was recorded on Ptolemys map of the world and it has numerous early Stone Age monuments and Iron Age fortifications along its shores as well as a number of shell middens dated to approximately 7000 BC. It is most famous for being the site of the Flight of the Earls, during a gale on 4 December 1811, the Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate HMS Saldanha was shipwrecked in Lough Swilly. There were no survivors out of the estimated 253 aboard, due to its natural shelter and impressive depth the lough was an important naval port. Subsequently Tone was captured and taken ashore at Buncrana on the east side of the Swilly, martello towers were built around 1804 to defend the approaches to Derry. The six on the lough cost €1,800 each, were armed with smoothbore cannon, firing round shot and were completed in six months. The remains of fortifications can still be inspected at Lenan Head, Fort Dunree, Neds Point, Buncrana, Inch Island and on the west coast at Rathmullan, Knockalla. During this period a boom was placed across the lough between Macamish Point and Neds Point, supported by a number of trawlers, to prevent U-boat attacks. After the Irish War of Independence the lough was also one of the Treaty Ports specified in the Anglo-Irish Treaty until its final handing over at Fort Dunree in 1938. There was reportedly only one incident, when a Royal Navy ship entered the lough. However, the turned around before Irish forces fired upon it. List of loughs in Ireland Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway
17.
George Noble Plunkett
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Count George Noble Plunkett was a biographer, politician and Irish nationalist, and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916. Born in Dublin, Plunkett was the son of Patrick Joseph Plunkett, a builder, the family income allowed Plunkett to attend school in Nice, France, Clongowes Wood College and the University of Dublin. At Dublin he studied Renaissance and medieval art among other topics, Plunkett spent much time abroad and throughout Italy. In 1884 he was created a Papal Count by Pope Leo XIII for donating money and property to the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary and he was a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. That year he married Josephine Cranny and they had seven children, Philomena, Joseph, Moya, Geraldine, George Oliver, Fiona, from 1907 to 1916 he was curator of the National Museum in Dublin. His daughter Fiona, in an RTE interview in 1966 described how, In the months before the rising he went to Switzerland on behalf of the leaders of the rising, to try to make contacts with the Germans. Joseph, George and Jack were all sentenced to death following the Easter Rising, but George and Jack had their sentences commuted to 10 years penal servitude, at least two of his daughters, Philomena and Fiona, were involved in preparations for the Rising. He was expelled from the Royal Dublin Society for his sons role in the Easter Rising, the new politics was indebted to its youth wings vocal support, they gathered in numbers at Carrick railway station to cheer on Plunketts campaign. Amongst the crowds were the women of Cumann na mBan, a big percentage of youth. large numbers of young men, more curious still for those days, young women. In January 1917, in Sinn Féins first parliamentary victory, Plunkett won the seat of Roscommon North in a by-election, after his election, the party made the decision to abstain from Westminster. In April 1917 he set up a Council of Nine bringing all nationalists together under one banner and he continued to build up the Liberty League. In October 1917 the different groups were merged, under the newly elected Éamon de Valera, the League of Women Delegates protested that there were only 12 women out of 1000 delegates, and only Countess Plunkett on the Council of Nine. It was De Valeras genius to adopt a flexibility that incorporated Count Plunkett and their common aim was an Irish government. They intended to be active citizens taking part in the nomination of elections and he was re-elected in the 1918 general election and joined the First Dáil, in which he served briefly as Ceann Comhairle. At the first public session, during an address given by Father OFlanagan. The Catholicity of the confirmed the divisions to unionist communities. Nominally Count Plunkett was given the foreign affairs portfolio, owing to his seniority, De Valeras green modernism marginalized the old nobility, however Catholic and correct. Following the Irish War of Independence, Count Plunkett joined the anti-treaty side and he lost his Dáil seat at the June 1927 general election
18.
Joseph Plunkett
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Joseph Mary Plunkett was an Irish nationalist, poet, journalist, and a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising. Plunkett was born at 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street in one of Dublins most affluent districts, both his parents came from wealthy backgrounds, and his father, George Noble Plunkett, had been made a papal count. Plunkett contracted tuberculosis at an age and spent part of his youth in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean. He spent time in Algiers where he studied Arabic literature and language, throughout his life, Joseph Plunkett took an active interest in Irish heritage and the Irish language, and also studied Esperanto. Plunkett was one of the founders of the Irish Esperanto League and he joined the Gaelic League and began studying with Thomas MacDonagh, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. The two were both poets with an interest in theatre, and both were members of the Irish Volunteers, joining their provisional committee. Men there were instead trained to fight for Ireland and he was seeking a shipment of arms. Casement, on the hand, spent most of his energies recruiting Irish prisoners of war in Germany to form a brigade to fight instead for Ireland. Some nationalists in Ireland saw this as a fruitless endeavour, Plunkett successfully got a promise of a German arms shipment to coincide with the rising. Plunkett was one of the members of the IRB Military Committee that was responsible for planning the Easter Rising. Shortly before the rising was to begin, Plunkett was hospitalised following a turn for the worse in his health and he had an operation on his neck glands days before Easter and had to struggle out of bed to take part in what was to follow. His energetic aide de camp was Michael Collins, following the surrender Plunkett was held in Kilmainham Gaol, and faced a court martial. His brothers George Oliver Plunkett and Jack Plunkett joined him in the Easter Rising and his fathers cousin, Horace Plunkett, was a Protestant and unionist who sought to reconcile unionists and nationalists. Horace Plunketts home was burned down by the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War, the main railway station in Waterford City is named after him as is Joseph Plunkett Tower in Ballymun. Plunkett barracks in the Curragh Camp, County Kildare is also named after him, augusteijn, Joost, The Irish Revolution 1913-1923 Boyce, George D. X
19.
SS California (1907)
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She worked the Glasgow to New York transatlantic route and was sunk by the German submarine SM U-85 on 7 February 1917. SS California was 8,662 GRT, with a length of 470 feet, a beam of 58.3 feet, the California had three decks, the poop deck was 70 feet long, the bridge 213 feet long and the forecastle 91 feet long. She had two funnels, two giant masts, twin screw propeller propulsion and was capable of achieving a speed of 16 knots. She was fitted with a triple expansion engine with 6 cylinders of 27 1⁄2,46 and 75 inches each pair, it had a stroke of 54 inches, the engine was built by the same company that built her hull. The ship was capable of carrying a total of 1214 passengers,232 first class,248 second class and 734 third class and she was outfitted with the latest appointments, including electric light and refrigerating machinery. She was officially launched on 9 July 1907, having been christened by the Lady Ure Primrose, wife of Sir John Ure Primrose, Captain J Blaikie was appointed to the ship that same year. She was given the call sign HLQJ, and the registration number 124230. Her maiden transatlantic voyage from Glasgow to New York began on 12 October 1907, on 28 June 1914 California ran aground on Tory Island off the north-west coast of Ireland in dense fog with over 1,000 passengers on board. The ship’s bows caved in upon impact, and though she took on water through two holes in her hold she remained above water. Three British warships including the destroyer Swift, as well as the ocean liner Cassandra, aided the stricken vessel, the ship was towed back to Glasgow on 20 August 1914, and less than two months later was repaired and refloated. She resumed Glasgow - Liverpool - New York sailings for the Cunard - Anchor joint service on 13 October 1915, shortly after 8 pm on 13 May 1916 a fire began in her Number 1 cargo hold as she was docked at Pier 64 on the North River in Manhattan. Of great concern to the first responders and her crew was that she was in the process of being loaded up with, amongst other things, highly volatile war munitions destined for Liverpool, England. The quick action of the Superintendent of the Pier, and his subsequent sounding of the alarm, the fire was successfully extinguished shortly after 1030 pm that same night. The fire was ultimately deemed accidental, and as the damage was minimal, California sailed on her last Glasgow to New York voyage on 12 January 1917. She began her voyage on 29 January 1917 with 184 crew and 31 passengers on board. On the morning of 7 February 1917 when homeward-bound and approaching Ireland under full steam, the German submarine, under the command of Kapitanleutenant Willy Petz, fired two torpedoes at California, one struck the ship squarely on the port quarter near the Number 4 hatch. She sank in nine minutes,38 miles W by S of Fastnet Rock, though Captain John L Henderson stayed on the bridge through the entire incident, and subsequently went down with the ship, incredibly he made his way to the surface and was rescued. According to the Royal Navy, on 12 March 1917 the Q-ship HMS Privet avenged the sinking of California, posing as an unarmed merchant vessel, the crew of Privet lured U-85 to the surface after sustaining heavy damage in an unprovoked attack by the submarine
20.
Imperial German Navy
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The Imperial German Navy was the navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy, which primarily had the mission of coastal defence, Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded the navy, and enlarged its mission. The key leader was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, who expanded the size and quality of the navy. The result was an arms race with Britain as the German navy grew to become one of the greatest maritime forces in the world. The German surface navy proved ineffective during World War I, its only major engagement, however, the submarine fleet was greatly expanded and posed a major threat to the British supply system. The Imperial Navys main ships were turned over to the Allies, all ships of the Imperial Navy were designated SMS, for Seiner Majestät Schiff. The Imperial Navy achieved some important operational feats, the Navy also emerged from the fleet action of the Battle of Jutland having destroyed more ships than it lost, although the strategic value of both of these encounters was minimal. The Imperial Navy was the first to operate successfully on a large scale in wartime, with 375 submarines commissioned by the end of the First World War. The unification of Germany under Prussian leadership was the point for the creation of the Imperial Navy in 1871. The newly created emperor, Wilhelm I, as King of Prussia, had previously been head of state of the strongest state forming part of the new empire, supreme command was vested in the emperor, but its first appointed chief was General der Infanterie Albrecht von Stosch. Kiel on the Baltic Sea and Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea served as the Navys principal naval bases, the former Navy Ministry became the Imperial Admiralty on 1 February 1872, while Stosch became formally an admiral in 1875. Initially the main task of the new Imperial Navy was coastal protection, with France, the Imperial Navys tasks were then to prevent any invasion force from landing and to protect coastal towns from possible bombardment. In March 1872 a German Imperial Naval Academy was created at Kiel for training officers, followed in May by the creation of a Machine Engineer Corps, in July 1879 a separate Torpedo Engineer Corps was created dealing with torpedoes and mines. In May 1872 a ten-year building programme was instituted to modernise the fleet, the building plan had to be approved by the Reichstag, which controlled the allocation of funds, although one-quarter of the money came from French war reparations. In 1883 Stosch was replaced by general, Count Leo von Caprivi. At this point the navy had seven armoured frigates and four armoured corvettes,400 officers and 5,000 ratings, in October 1887 the first torpedo division was created at Wilhelmshaven and the second torpedo division based at Kiel. In 1887 Caprivi requested the construction of ten armoured frigates, greater importance was placed at this time on development of the army, which was expected to be more important in any war. This shortened the journey for commercial ships, but specifically united the two areas principally of concern to the German navy, at a cost of 150 million marks, later, the protection of German maritime trade routes became important
21.
U-boat
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U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally undersea boat. While the German term refers to any submarine, the English one refers specifically to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role. Austro-Hungarian navy submarines were known as U-boats. The first submarine built in Germany, the three-man Brandtaucher, sank to the bottom of Kiel harbor on 1 February 1851 during a test dive, the inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer had designed this vessel in 1850, and Schweffel & Howaldt constructed it in Kiel. Dredging operations in 1887 rediscovered Brandtaucher, it was raised and put on display in Germany, there followed in 1890 the boats WW1 and WW2, built to a Nordenfelt design. The SM U-1 was a completely redesigned Karp-class submarine and only one was built, the Imperial German Navy commissioned it on 14 December 1906. It had a hull, a Körting kerosene engine. The 50%-larger SM U-2 had two torpedo tubes, the U-19 class of 1912–13 saw the first diesel engine installed in a German navy boat. At the start of World War I in 1914, Germany had 48 submarines of 13 classes in service or under construction, during that war the Imperial German Navy used SM U-1 for training. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, on 5 September 1914, HMS Pathfinder was sunk by SM U-21, the first ship to have been sunk by a submarine using a self-propelled torpedo. On 22 September, U-9 sank the obsolete British warships HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy, for the first few months of the war, U-boat anticommerce actions observed the prize rules of the time, which governed the treatment of enemy civilian ships and their occupants. On 20 October 1914, SM U-17 sank the first merchant ship, surface commerce raiders were proving to be ineffective, and on 4 February 1915, the Kaiser assented to the declaration of a war zone in the waters around the British Isles. This was cited as a retaliation for British minefields and shipping blockades, under the instructions given to U-boat captains, they could sink merchant ships, even potentially neutral ones, without warning. In February 1915, a submarine U-6 was rammed and both periscopes were destroyed off Beachy Head by the collier SS Thordis commanded by Captain John Bell RNR after firing a torpedo, on 7 May 1915, SM U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives,128 of them American civilians, munitions that it carried were thousands of crates full of ammunition for rifles, 3-inch artillery shells, and also various other standard ammunition used by infantry. The sinking of the Lusitania was widely used as propaganda against the German Empire, a widespread reaction in the U. S was not seen until the sinking of the ferry SS Sussex. The sinking occurred in 1915 and the United States entered the war in 1917, the initial U. S. response was to threaten to sever diplomatic ties, which persuaded the Germans to issue the Sussex pledge that reimposed restrictions on U-boat activity
22.
Fastnet Rock
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Fastnet Rock, or simply Fastnet is a small islet in the Atlantic Ocean and the most southerly point of Ireland. It lies 6.5 kilometres southwest of Cape Clear Island and 13 kilometres from County Cork on the Irish mainland. Due to its location, Fastnet is known as Irelands Teardrop, Fastnet Rock is a small clay-slate islet with quartz veins. It rises to about 30 metres above low water mark and is separated from the smaller southern Little Fastnet by a 10 metres wide channel. Fastnet also gives its name to the sea used by the Shipping Forecasts on BBCs Radio 4. The current lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock and is the highest in Ireland and it is also sometimes used as a mark for yacht races from local sailing centres such as Schull, Baltimore, and Crookhaven. Construction of the first lighthouse began in 1853, and it first produced a light on 1 January 1854, the new lighthouse was constructed of cast iron with an inner lining of brick and was designed by George Halpin. Costing £17,390, the tower was 63 feet 9 inches high with a 27 feet 8 inches high lantern structure on top and it had an oil burning lamp of 38 kilocandelas, in contrast modern lighthouses typically produce 1,300 kilocandelas. In 1883 an explosive fog signal was installed, which electrically detonated a small charge of every five minutes. Various steps were taken to strengthen the tower, including fitting a casing around the section up to the second floor and filling it with stone. In 1865 the lower floors were filled in with solid material, in 1891 the Commissioners of Irish Lights had resolved that the light was not sufficiently powerful, particularly for the first landfall for many ships crossing the Atlantic. On the same day, the sea had broken the glass of the Fastnet Rock lantern, the new lighthouse was designed by William Douglass and built under the supervision of James Kavanagh. Construction started in 1897 with the levelling of the site, a small steamship, the Ierne, was specially constructed for carrying the blocks out to the island, and Kavanagh personally set every stone, which weighed between 1¾ and 3 tons. The new lighthouse entered service on 27 June 1904 having cost nearly £90,000, the masonry tower is 146 feet high, but the focal point of the light is 159 feet above high-water mark. The base of the lighthouse is 52 feet in diameter with the first course of stone 6 inches below high-water mark, and the first ten of the 89 courses built into the rock. The first floor of the tower remains, on the highest part of the rock. The fog signal was changed to one every three minutes in 1934 and from 1965 accompanied by a brilliant flash when operated during darkness. The original vaporised paraffin light was replaced with a one on 10 May 1969
23.
RMS Laconia (1911)
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RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, launched on 27 July 1911, delivered to the Cunard Line on 12 December 1911, and began service on 20 January 1912. She was the first Cunard ship of that name and she was then used as a headquarters ship for the operations to capture Tanga and the colony of German East Africa. She continued to serve on the East Africa station, before returning to the UK with a convoy in June 1916 and she was handed back to Cunard in July 1916 and on 9 September resumed service. The first torpedo struck the liner on the side just abaft the engine room. 20 minutes later a torpedo exploded in the engine room, again on the starboard side. A total of 12 people were killed, six crew and six passengers, two of the killed passengers were American citizens, Mrs. Mary Hoy and her daughter, Miss Elizabeth Hoy, who were originally from Chicago. The death of the Hoys stirred up public opinion in America against the Germans, Chicago Tribune reporter Floyd Gibbons was aboard Laconia when she was torpedoed and gained fame from his dispatches about the attack. In March 2009, it was announced that the wreck of the Laconia was located and claimed by Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. a commercial company in Tampa. She was found about 160 nautical miles off of the coast of Ireland, the search for the wreck was featured on an episode of Discovery Channels Treasure Quest titled The Silver Queen. One of the artifacts recovered during their investigation of the wreck happened to be the remains of a shoe that likely belonged to one of the ships female passengers. List of ship launches in 1911 List of shipwrecks in 1917 R. M. S, Laconia I of the Cunard Steamship Line - Ship History and Information. The Sinking of the Cunard Line R. M. S, and They Thought We Wouldnt Fight. New York, George H. Doran Company, inspection Card for Immigrants and Steerage Passengers -1913. Steamship Ticket - Contract for Passage - Norwegian Immigrant -1913, the Cunard New Twin-Screw Steamers R. M. S
24.
David Lloyd George
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David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government, during and he was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers. He made an impact on British public life than any other 20th-century leader. Furthermore, in foreign affairs he played a role in winning the First World War, redrawing the map of Europe at the peace conference. His main political problem was that he was not loyal to his Liberal party—he was always a political maverick, while he was Prime Minister he favoured the Conservatives in his coalition in the 1918 elections, leaving the Liberal party as a hopeless minority. He became leader of the Liberal Party in the late 1920s, by the 1930s he was a marginalised and widely mistrusted figure. He gave weak support to the Second World War amidst fears that he was favourable toward Germany, Lloyd George was born on 17 January 1863 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, to Welsh parents, and was brought up as a Welsh-speaker. He is so far the only British Prime Minister to have been Welsh and his father, William George, had been a teacher in both London and Liverpool. He also taught in the Hope Street Sunday Schools, which were administered by the Unitarians, in March of the same year, on account of his failing health, William George returned with his family to his native Pembrokeshire. He took up farming but died in June 1864 of pneumonia, Lloyd George was educated at the local Anglican school Llanystumdwy National School and later under tutors. He added his uncles surname to become Lloyd George and his surname is usually given as Lloyd George and sometimes as George. The influence of his childhood showed through in his entire career, brought up a devout evangelical, as a young man he suddenly lost his religious faith. Biographer Don Cregier says he became a Deist and perhaps an agnostic, though he remained a chapel-goer and he kept quiet about that, however, and was hailed as one of the foremost fighting leaders of a fanatical Welsh Nonconformity. It was also during this period of his life that Lloyd George first became interested in the issue of land ownership, by the age of twenty-one, he had already read and taken notes on Henry Georges Progress and Poverty. This strongly influenced Lloyd Georges politics later in life through the Peoples Budget which heavily drew on the georgist tax reform ideas, the practice flourished, and he established branch offices in surrounding towns, taking his brother William into partnership in 1887. Although many Prime Ministers have been barristers, Lloyd George is to date the only solicitor to have held that office, by then he was politically active, having campaigned for the Liberal Party in the 1885 election, attracted by Joseph Chamberlains unauthorised programme of reforms. The election resulted firstly in a stalemate with neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives having a majority, William Gladstones proposal to bring about Irish Home Rule split the party, with Chamberlain eventually leading the breakaway Liberal Unionists
25.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
26.
James Patrick Farrell
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J. P. Farrell was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament from 1895 to 1918, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also founder, owner and editor of the Longford Leader newspaper, Farell stood as an Anti-Parnellite candidate at the general election in July 1895 in Kilkenny City, where the outgoing Anti-Parnellite MP Thomas Curran was not standing again. Farrell lost narrowly to the Parnellite candidate, Patrick OBrien by a margin of only 667 votes to 681, but a vacancy arose immediately in West Cavan. Edmund Vesey Knox, who had been West Cavans MP since 1890, was re-elected there in 1895 but also won a seat in Londonderry City, and chose to sit for the latter. The resulting by-election in West Cavan was held on 2 August 1895, Farrell was a fervent supporter of land reform and spoke and wrote frequently on the subject. He was imprisoned four times between 1890 and 1910 and during his last imprisonment in Kilmainham Gaol contracted an illness which may have led to his death, aged 56, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by James Patrick Farrell
27.
Alfred Booth and Company
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Alfred Booth and Company was a British trading and shipping company that was founded in 1866 and traded for more than a century. It was founded in Liverpool, England, by two brothers, Alfred and Charles Booth and it grew into a significant merchant shipping company with its head office in Liverpool and interests in the USA and South America. The group was broken up in 1964 and the last Booth company from the group was sold in 1986, Alfred and Charles Booth were cousins of William James Lamport, co-founder of the Liverpool shipping company Lamport and Holt Line, and worked in the companys office. In 1851 Lamport transferred minority shareholdings in a steamship, the Nile, to several associates including Charles Booth. In 1854 Lamport, Holt, Booth and Holts father, also called George Holt, all took minority shares in a new ship, at the time it was common for a merchant ship to be in 64 shares held by a number of owners. Charles Booth had two shares in the Nile and one in the Orontes, in 1863 the Booth brothers founded a partnership, Alfred Booth and Company, to export English light leather to the USA, which was in the midst of its civil war. The company had headquarters in Liverpool and a US office in New York City, in February 1865 the Booth brothers ordered two new ships. Once again they were part-owners, relatives including Alfred Holt and his brother Philip held most of the remaining 64 shares in each ship, the ships were named Augustine and Jerome after St Augustine of Hippo and St Jerome, two of the great Doctors of the Church. It became a tradition to name ships after notable bishops. The ships carried English leather, both tanned and untanned, to the USA, in 1866 Booths started a regular steamship service between Liverpool and ports in northern Brazil and on the Amazon River. In 1881 the shipping line became a company, Booth Steamship Co Ltd. After John Boyd Dunlop patented the pneumatic tyre in 1888, the trade in natural rubber from Brazil increased, Booths had competitors on the Brazilian route including the Red Cross Iquitos Steamship Co, which operated up the Amazon to Iquitos in Peru, and the Maranham Steamship Co. In 1901 Red Crosss founder, Robert Singlehurst, retired and his company merged with Booths to form the Booth Steamship Co Ltd, Booths fleet developed to include substantial passenger liners. In 1903 the company started carrying tourists to and from Lisbon, in 1912 Charles Booth retired and passed the chairmanship to his nephew, Charles Booth. In 1915 Charles senior returned from retirement to help the company in the First World War and he died of a stroke on 23 November 1916. In 1914 the fleet had more than 30 ships,11 were requisitioned for war service and enemy action sank nine including two ocean liners, the sister ships Antony and Lanfranc. By 1919 only 18 ships remained in the fleet, Alfred Booth & Co diversified into civil engineering, and in 1919 it bought the Unit Construction Company from Crittall. Booths lost one ship in peacetime between the two World Wars, when the Gregory ran aground and was wrecked, the company introduced passenger cruises, advertising 1,000 miles up the Amazon and modernised its fleet with new ships in the 1920s and 30s
28.
Joseph McGuinness
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Joseph P. McGuinness was an Irish Sinn Féin politician who was elected as Member of Parliament for South Longford at by-election in 1917. He was re-elected as MP for the new Longford constituency at the 1918 general election, McGuinness was serving a prison term when he was elected to Westminster and among those who worked on his election campaign was Michael Collins. The election slogan for McGuinness at the time was Put him in to get him out and he was re-elected unopposed at the 1921 general election in the new Longford–Westmeath constituency, he died before the 1922 general election. He voted in favour of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922, at a subsequent election, his seat was taken by his brother Francis McGuinness
29.
South Longford (UK Parliament constituency)
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South Longford was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which returned one Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Before the 1885 general election and after the dissolution of Parliament in 1918 the area was part of the Longford constituency and this constituency comprised the southern part of County Longford. 1Nationalist from 1900 Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B. M, walker Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with L
30.
Irish Parliamentary Party
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Its central objectives were legislative independence for Ireland and land reform. Its constitutional movement was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills, the IPP evolved out of the Home Rule League which Isaac Butt founded after he defected from the Irish Conservative Party in 1873. The League sought to gain a form of freedom from Britain in order to manage Irish domestic affairs in the interest of the Protestant landlord class. It was inspired by the 1868 election of William Ewart Gladstone and his Liberal Party under the slogan Justice for Ireland, at first the Catholic hierarchy supported Gladstone supervising Irish affairs, hoping to gain financial aid for a Catholic University. But his educational programme of 1873 did not provide for a denominational university, the Home Government Association adopted educational issues and land reform into its programme, the hierarchy then favouring a Dublin-based parliament. The increasing Catholic numbers within the association frightened off its Protestant, the association was dissolved and Butt replaced it with the Home Rule League, formed after a conference in Dublin in November 1873. Gladstone unexpectedly called a new election in February 1874, which helped bring the League to the foreground, since 1872 the Secret Ballots Act had been introduced, so that voting was to be done secretly for the first time from then on. The League put denominational education, land reform and release of prisoners at the centre of the movement. It had difficulty finding reliable candidates to support its Home Rule issue, though succeeded in winning fifty-nine Irish seats, after the election forty-six members assembled in Dublin and organised themselves into a separate Irish parliamentary party in the Commons. The political outlook appeared encouraging at first, but the party displayed no initiative to achieve anything, Butt displayed lack of leadership, did not commit his party to anything. He made some excellent speeches but failed to any of the major parties to support bills beneficial to Ireland. This did not bring Home Rule closer but helped to revitalise the Irish party, Butt considered obstructionism a threat to democracy, its greatest benefit undoubtedly was that it helped bring Parnell to the fore of the political scene. An internal struggle began between Butt’s majority and Parnell’s minority leading to a rift in the party, Parnell determined to control of the Home Rule League. Parnell first worked successfully to have Fenians who missed out on Gladstone’s earlier amnesty freed, including Michael Davitt, after his release in 1877, Davitt travelled to America to meet John Devoy, the leading Irish-American Fenian and raise funds. During 1878 Parnell also met with leading members of the Irish American Fenians, in October Devoy agreed to a New Departure of separating militancy from the constitutional movement in order to further its path to Home Rule. Isaac Butt died of strain later that year and Parnell held back in grabbing control of the party and he immediately understood that supporting land agitation was a means to achieving his objective of self-government. The Conservatives under Disraeli had been defeated in the election and Gladstone was again Prime Minister and he attempted to defuse the land question with Balfour’s dual ownership Second Land Act of 1881 which failed to eliminate tenant evictions. Although the League discouraged violence, agrarian crimes increased widely, in April 1882 Parnell moved to make a deal with the government
31.
John Redmond
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John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the British House of Commons. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 until his death in 1918 and he was also leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers. He was born to an old prominent Catholic family in rural Ireland and he took over control of the minority IPP faction loyal to Charles Stewart Parnell when that leader died in 1891. Redmond was a politician who achieved the two main objectives of his political life, party unity and, in September 1914, the passing of the Irish Home Rule Act. The Act granted limited self-government to Ireland, within the United Kingdom, however, implementation of Home Rule was suspended by the outbreak of the First World War. However, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Irish public opinion shifted in favour of militant republicanism and full Irish independence, in sharp contrast to Parnell, Redmond lacked charisma. He worked well in small committees, but had success in arousing large audiences. Parnell always chose the nominees to Parliament, now they were selected by the local party organisations, giving Redmond numerous weak MPs over whom he had little control. He never tried to understand the unionist forces emerging in Ulster, Redmond was further weakened in 1914 by the formation by Sinn Féin members of the Irish Volunteers. His enthusiastic support for the British war effort alienated many Irish nationalists and his party had been increasingly hollowed out, and a major crisis—notably the Easter Rising—was enough to destroy it. John Edward Redmond was born at Ballytrent House, Kilrane, County Wexford and he was the eldest son of William Archer Redmond, MP by Mary, daughter of General Hoey, the brother of Francis Hoey, heir of the Hoey seat, Dunganstown Castle, County Wicklow. For over seven hundred years the Redmonds had been a prominent Catholic gentry family in County Wexford and Wexford town. They were one of the oldest Hiberno-Norman families, and had for a time been known as the Redmonds of The Hall. His more immediate family were a political dynasty themselves. After his death in 1866, his nephew, William Archer Redmond, John Redmond was the brother of Willie Redmond, MP for Wexford and East Clare, and the father of William Redmond, whose wife was Bridget Redmond. Redmonds family heritage was more complex than that of most of his nationalist political colleagues and his mother came from a Protestant and unionist family, although she had converted to Catholicism on marriage, she never converted to nationalism. As a student, young John exhibited the seriousness that many would come to associate with him. After finishing at Clongowes, Redmond attended Trinity College, Dublin to study law, in 1876 he left to live with his father in London, acting as his assistant in Westminster, where he developed more fascination for politics than for law
32.
Easter Rising
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The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week, April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and it was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798, and the first armed action of the Irish revolutionary period. Organised by a seven-man Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on Easter Monday,24 April 1916, the British Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and a gunboat. There was fierce fighting on the routes into the city centre. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were surrounded and bombarded with artillery. Germany had sent a shipment of arms to the rebels, Volunteer leader Eoin MacNeill had then issued a countermand in a bid to halt the Rising, which greatly reduced the number of rebels who mobilised. With much greater numbers and heavier weapons, the British Army suppressed the Rising, Pearse agreed to an unconditional surrender on Saturday 29 April, although sporadic fighting continued until Sunday, when word reached the other rebel positions. After the surrender the country remained under martial law, about 3,500 people were taken prisoner by the British, many of whom had played no part in the Rising, and 1,800 of them were sent to internment camps or prisons in Britain. Most of the leaders of the Rising were executed following courts-martial, the Rising brought physical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics, which for nearly 50 years had been dominated by constitutional nationalism. It, and the British reaction to it, led to increased support for Irish independence. In December 1918, republicans, represented by the reconstituted Sinn Féin party and they did not take their seats, but instead convened the First Dáil and declared the independence of the Irish Republic, which led to the War of Independence. 485 people were killed in the Easter Rising, about 54% were civilians, 30% were British military and police, and 16% were Irish rebels. Many of the civilians were killed as a result of the British using artillery and heavy machine guns, others were caught in the crossfire in a crowded city. The shelling and the fires it caused left parts of inner city Dublin in ruins, from early on, many Irish nationalists opposed the union and the ensuing exploitation and impoverishment of the island, which led to a high level of depopulation. Opposition took various forms, constitutional, social and revolutionary, the Irish Home Rule movement sought to achieve self-government for Ireland, within the United Kingdom. In 1886, the Irish Parliamentary Party under Charles Stewart Parnell succeeded in having the First Home Rule Bill introduced in the British parliament, the Second Home Rule Bill of 1893 was passed by the House of Commons but rejected by the House of Lords. After the fall of Parnell, younger and more radical nationalists became disillusioned with parliamentary politics, the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Gaelic League and the cultural revival under W. B
33.
Willie Redmond
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William Hoey Kearney Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and soldier, who fell in action in World War 1. He came from a Catholic gentry family of Norman descent long associated with County Wexford for seven centuries, Willie Redmonds five-years elder brother was John Redmond who became leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and he had two sisters. His mother was a daughter of General R. H. Hoey of the Wicklow Rifles, Redmond grew up at Ballytrent, County Wexford, the second son of William Archer Redmond and his wife Mary, née Hoey of Protestant stock from County Wicklow. William like his father was educated at Clongowes Wood College from 1873–1876, previously attending the school at Knockbeg College and St. Patricks. After school he first apprenticed himself on a merchant sailing ship, at first contemplating a regular army career, he became a second lieutenant in October 1880, then resigned in 1881. He immediately joined Charles Stewart Parnell in the Irish National Land League agitation and he never wavered in his loyalty to Parnell even after the latters fall. He went to the United States in June 1882 with Michael Davitt to collect funds for the Land League and he and his brother John Redmond then travelled to Australia in February 1883 to raise funds, collecting £15,000 sterling for the nationalist cause. They developed close links with James Dalton of Orange, New South Wales and they both then travelled to the United States where they collected a further £15,000 sterling, many others following their example in the next years. In his absence in 1883, he was elected as MP for his fathers old constituency of Wexford Borough, when that constituency was abolished at the 1885 general election, he was returned for Fermanagh North. His time in this constituency as an Ulster MP was important, during this decade many were his narrow escapes from capture by police during the Land League campaign when he and William O’Brien and others like them made the country ring with their exploits. For resisting a tenants eviction in 1888 he was imprisoned to three months hard labour and his father supported the Home Rule Movement and in his election address in 1874, he declared Home Rule is absolutely essential to the good government of the country. At the centre of Willie Redmonds political philosophy stood the belief he had inherited from his father on Irish home rule, Home Rule was necessary he declared, because the Union has depopulated our country, has fostered sectarian strife, has destroyed our industries, and ruined our liberties. He was an ardent, extrovert parliamentarian and like other Irish members hated British rule in Ireland with fierce intensity, the two characteristics which dominated his character – a boyish enthusiasm and a simple unselfish sincerity – were stimulated by political action. What endeared him to the people was his fearless spirit of comradeship, where the fight was fiercest there he was always to be found, and he would never ask anyone to do what he was not prepared to do himself. He was during the eighties and nineties, the enfant terrible of Irish politics, on Irish platforms he often spoke of insurrection though he remained a constitutionalist at heart. On 24 February 1886 he married Eleanor Mary Dalton, eldest daughter of James Dalton and they had one son who died early in 1891 at the age of five. He was called to the Irish Law bar as a barrister in 1891, for most of his career he lived on a salary from the Irish Parliamentary Party. In condemning the South Africa Boer War in 1899 he joined with the nationalists such as Arthur Griffith, James Connolly
34.
Dublin Castle
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Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the seat of the United Kingdom governments administration in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. The Castle served as the seat of English, then later British government of Ireland under the Lordship of Ireland, the Kingdom of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, the complex was handed over to the newly formed Provisional Government led by Michael Collins. The castle today is a major tourist attraction and conferencing destination, the building is also used for State dinners and most significantly, the inauguration of the presidents of Ireland. Dublin Castle fulfilled a number of roles through its history, the second in command in the Dublin Castle administration, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, also had his offices there. Over the years parliament and law courts met at the castle before moving to new purpose-built venues and it also served as a military garrison. Castle Catholic was a term for Catholics who were considered to be overly friendly with or supportive of the British administration. Upon formation of the Free State in 1922, the castle assumed for a decade the role of the Four Courts on the Liffey quays which had been damaged during the Civil War. It was decided in 1938 that the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde would take place in the castle, two dedicated conference facilities, The Hibernia Conference Centre and The Printworks, were install for the European Presidencies of 1990 and 2013. Sited to the south-east of Norman Dublin, the formed one corner of the outer perimeter of the city. The city wall directly abutted the castles northeast Powder Tower, extending north, in 1620 the English-born judge Luke Gernon was greatly impressed by the wall, a huge and mighty wall, foursquare, and of incredible thickness. The Poddle was diverted into the city through archways where the walls adjoined the castle, one of these archways and part of the wall survive buried underneath the 18th-century buildings, and are open to public inspection. The building survived until 1673, when it was damaged by fire, the Court of Castle Chamber, the Irish counterpart to the English Star Chamber, sat in Dublin Castle in a room which was specially built for it about 1570. The Castle sustained severe damage in 1684. Extensive rebuilding transformed it from medieval fortress to Georgian palace, United Irishmen General Joseph Holt, a participant in the 1798 Rising, was incarcerated in the Bermingham Tower before being transported to New South Wales in 1799. In 1884 officers at the Castle were at the centre of a homosexual scandal incited by the Irish Nationalist politician William OBrien through his newspaper United Ireland. In 1907 the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the Castle, suspicion fell upon the Officer of Arms, Sir Arthur Vicars, but rumours of his homosexuality and links to socially important gay men in London, may have compromised the investigation
35.
Mansion House, Dublin
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The Mansion House on Dawson Street, Dublin, has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715. The Mansion Houses most famous include the Round Room, where the First Dáil assembled on 21 January 1919 to proclaim the Irish Declaration of Independence. On 21 January 1969 a special fiftieth anniversary joint session of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann assembled there and was addressed by the then President of Ireland, externally, the distinctive metal portico over the main door was erected for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1900. Dublin Corporation purchased the house in 1715 for assignment as the residence of the Lord Mayor. It retains this purpose to this day, in the 1930s and 1940s, plans were made to demolish the building, and all other buildings on the block on which it is located, to enable the building of a new Dublin City Hall. However the decision of the Government to erect a new Department of Industry and Commerce on a site on the block, on Kildare Street. The claim led to a security alert at the house, as the Garda, mayoral info website Mansion House Dublin Website
36.
College Green
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College Green is a three-sided plaza in the centre of Dublin. On its northern side is the Bank of Ireland building, which until 1800 was Irelands Parliament House, to its east stands Trinity College Dublin. To its south stands a series of 19th-century buildings that are mostly banks, streets leading onto College Green are Dame Street to the west, Grafton Street to the south, and Westmoreland Street to the north. College Green has been used as a point for major political rallies. In the mid-1990s, United States President Bill Clinton addressed a mass crowd, President Barack Obama spoke there in a major address during his visit to Ireland in May 2011. The area was known as Hoggen Green from the Old Norse word haugr meaning mound. The cemetery at College Green consisted of burial mounds, which are thought to have contained the remains of some of the Norse kings of Dublin. Between Church Lane and Suffolk Street the Norse had their Thing, an assembly and meeting-place, all along College Green, called Hoggen Green by the English, lay their barrows. Hoggen gave its name to the convent of St Mary de Hogges, which stood roughly where the Bank of Ireland is now, and was a major landowner in the area until the Reformation. Two major public monuments stand in College Green, A 19th-century statue of Henry Grattan, one of the members of the old Irish Parliament. Further back stands a statue of patriot Thomas Davis, previously, this was the location of one of Dublins finest equestrian statues, of King William III of England on Horseback, by Grinling Gibbons. It was taken down after it was damaged in an explosion in November 1928. Dalys Club, originally frequented by members of the old Irish Parliament, moved to number 3, College Green, in 1791 and remained there until it closed in the 1820s. College Green now exists as a running from the front gates of Trinity College Dublin to pedestrian traffic lights close to The Central Bank in Dame Street at the junction of Trinity Street. Dubliners often incorrectly identify the street as Dame Street because it continues into Dame Street, College Street which runs from Pearse Street and Westmoreland Street passing railings on the Northern side of Trinity College Dublin is often thought to be College Green. Since July 2009, College Green, during times on working days, has been accessible only to pedestrians, buses, taxis. In February 2016, it was announced that most of College Green would be pedestrianised to create a public space in front of the Bank of Ireland. Statues in Dublin List of streets and squares in Dublin
37.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
38.
Irish Convention
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The Convention was publicly called in June 1917, to be composed of representative Irishmen from different political parties and spheres of interest. After months of deliberations, the Conventions final report—which had been agreed upon in March 1918—was seriously undermined and this dual policy of conscription and devolution heralded the end of a political era. Self-government for Ireland had been the predominant political issue between Ireland and Britain during the 1880s, spearheaded by Charles Stewart Parnell and it was reflected in three Home Rule bills, all bitterly opposed by Ulster Unionists. The first two bills were rejected by parliament, culminating in the passing of the Third Irish Home Rule Act on the 25 May by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. On 18 September 1914 Home Rule was enacted and simultaneously postponed for the duration of the European War which erupted in August, the Ulster question was solved in the same way, through the promise of amending legislation which was left undefined. Unionists were in disarray, wounded by the enactment of Home Rule and these were, the larger National Volunteers – supporting the Allied war effort and subsequently in combat on the Western Front and in Gallipoli. Lloyd George, then Minister for Munitions, was sent to Dublin to offer this to the leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond. The scheme revolved around partition, officially a temporary arrangement, as understood by Redmond, Lloyd George however gave the Ulster leader Carson a written guarantee that Ulster would not be forced in. A supreme master of political blandishment, he was able to keep the parties in play week after week in the hope that a settlement was at last possible. His tactic was to see that side would find out before a compromise was implemented. The country north and south, as well as the Cabinet, were divided on the issue, Joseph Devlin, the Ulster Nationalist leader, had won support in Belfast on 4 July for temporary exclusion of six counties. A modified Act of 1914 as Headings of a settlement as to the Government of Ireland had been drawn up by the Cabinet on 17 June, the formula then had two amendments enforced on 19 July by Unionists – permanent exclusion and a reduction of Irelands representation in the Commons. This was informed by Lloyd George on 22 July 1916 to Redmond, the government bowed to the combined opposition of Unionists who never had favoured partition, and the Irish party. On 27 July the scheme finally collapsed and this was decisive to the future fortunes of the Home Rule movement, the Lloyd George debacle of 22 July finished the constitutional party, overthrew Redmonds power and left him utterly demoralised. It simultaneously discredited the politics of consent and created the space for radical alternatives, the confused position was debated at length in the House of Commons on 31 July. Asquith wrote to Redmond on 28 July I think it is of importance to keep the negotiating spirit alive. But the breakdown of negotiations was inevitable and had irreparably damaged Redmond and it was defeated by 303 to 106 votes. Devlin pleaded for Irishmen to come together to seek agreement on resolving outstanding difficulties and this plea for a conference was to be the seed of the later Irish Convention
39.
W. T. Cosgrave
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William Thomas W. T. Cosgrave was an Irish politician who succeeded Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from August to December 1922. He served as the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932. Cosgrave never technically held the office of Taoiseach, however, as the first elected head of government in an independent Ireland, William Thomas Cosgrave, W. T. or Liam as he was generally known, was born at 174 Jamess Street, Dublin in 1880. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School at Malahide Road, Marino, Cosgrave first became politically active when he attended the first Sinn Féin convention in 1905. Cosgrave played a role in the Easter Rising of 1916 serving under Eamonn Ceannt as a Captain at the South Dublin Union. Following the rebellion Cosgrave was sentenced to death, however this was commuted to penal servitude for life and he was interned in Frongoch. While in prison Cosgrave won a seat for Sinn Féin in the Kilkenny City by-election of August 1917, in September 1917 he and Michael Collins addressed a crowd in Dunboyne, County Meath urging people to join the Irish Volunteers. He again won an Irish seat in the 1918 general election, on 24 June 1919 Cosgrave married Louisa Flanagan in Dublin. During his later years he was cared for by his son Liam, though one of the most politically experienced of Sinn Féins TDs, Cosgrave was not among the major leadership of the party. Another reason was his experience on Dublin Corporation, most recently as Chairman of its Finance Committee. His chief task as minister was the job of organising the non-cooperation of the people with the British authorities, Cosgrave was very successful in his role at the Department of Local Government. In 1920 he oversaw elections to local councils in which the new system of representation was used. Sinn Féin gained control of 28 of the 33 local councils and these councils then cut their links to the British, and pledged loyalty to the Sinn Féin Department of Local Government, under Cosgrave. Cosgrave broke with Éamon de Valera over the issue of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, to a majority, however, republican status remained for the moment an unattainable goal, with the republic unrecognised internationally. Dominion status offered, in the words of Michael Collins, the freedom to achieve freedom, after the Dáil voted by 64 to 57 to approve the Treaty, in January 1922, De Valera resigned the presidency. De Valera was replaced as president by Griffith, Collins, in accordance with the Treaty, formed a Provisional Government, this included Cosgrave amongst its membership. The months following the acceptance of the Treaty saw a progression to civil war. The split in Sinn Féin gradually deepened and the majority of the IRA hardened against accepting anything less than a full republic
