Today in Irish History, August - World Cultures European

August 22
1791 - Theobald Wolfe Tone publishes "An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland"
1798 - A French force of 1,019 men under General Humbert lands at Killala, Co. Mayo
1846 - John Keegan Casey, Fenian, poet and writer of "Rising of the Moon" is born near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
1850 - First Catholic Synod in Ireland since the Middle Ages in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Paul Cullen summons the synod which runs from this date through September 10
1881 - Second Gladstone Land Act introduces the 'three Fs' - fair rent, fixity of tenure, free sale - and sets up the Land Commission
1889 - Birth in Belfast of Seán McEntee, Fianna Fáil politician
1918 - Dublin-born WWI ace Dennis Latimer shot down. A Bristol Fighter pilot and the highest scoring ace in 20 Squadron, Latimer shot down 28 enemy aircraft between March and August of 1918. On this date, he and his observer, Lieutenant T.C. Noel, were shot down near Westroosebeke by a member of Jasta 7. Latimer was captured, Noel was killed
1922 - Michael Collins is assassinated. On the last day of his life, he set out from Cork in a convoy that passed through Bandon, Clonakilty, and Rosscarbery on its way to Skibbereen. He stopped at Woodfield, and there in the Four Walls, the pub situated across the road from the house where his mother had been born, he stood his family and escort to the local brew - Clonakilty Wrastler. On the return trip they again passed through Bandon. Michael Collins had only twenty minutes more to live. Around eight o'clock, his convoy was ambushed at a place known as Beal na mBláth - the mouth of flowers. Only one man was killed--Michael Collins. It is thought that Irregulars did the shooting, but some say that it might have been his own men. To this day, there is controversy about what actually happened
1933 - The National Guard is banned
1954 - Birth of Jimmy Barry Murphy, hurler and Gaelic footballer, in Cork
1966 - The Munster & Leinster, Provincial and Royal Banks merge to form Allied Irish Banks
1977 - Cardinal Tomas Ó Fiaich becomes the 112th successor to St. Patrick as Primate of All Ireland
1998 - The republican splinter group INLA calls for a total and unconditional ceasefire and says it has instructed all units to desist from the "armed struggle"
1999 - Yann Reynard Goulet - "The Fox" - Breton patriot and Irish Republican dies in Ireland
2000 - Prominent loyalist Johnny ‘‘Mad Dog’’ Adair is sent back to prison after Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson suspends his early release licence
2002 - Caroline Corr, drummer with Irish pop band The Corrs, marries Frank Woods on the Spanish island of Mallorca
2002 - U2's "Elevation 2001: Live From Boston" picks up the "Best Music Release DVD" award at the 5th DVD Awards in Hollywood.
2010 - Finance Minister Brian Lenihan steps onto the podium and into history as the first Fianna Fáil minister to deliver the keynote speech at the annual Michael Collins commemoration in Béal na mBláth.
Photo Credit: Fin Facts Ireland
August 23
1170 - Strongbow, a henchman of Henry II, arrives in Waterford at the behest of Dermot McMurrough, an event described in the Annals of Ulster as “the beginning of the woes of Ireland”
1742 - Birth of Walter Hussey (Burgh), lawyer, politician and orator
1798 - Frenchman General Humbert proclaims at Ballina, Co. Mayo, “Union, liberty, the Irish Republic”
1887 - The Land Act gives courts the power to revise and fix rents
1908 - Birth in Dublin of Mervyn Wall, writer who wrote under the pseudonym of Eugene Welply
1912 - Birth of Irish American actor Gene Kelly
1920 - Violent clashes in Belfast; 30 people are killed between August 23 and August 31; Catholics are expelled from shipyards and engineering works
1953 - Birth of John Rocha, fashion designer, based mainly in Dublin since the late seventies
1972 - Lord Killanin becomes the first Irish president of the International Olympic Committee
1995 - RTÉ reports on the closure of the Irish Press newspaper
1998 - A memorial service for the victims of the Omagh bombing is held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and attended by many dignitaries including President Mary McAleese
1999 - Dublin Bus opens the controversial Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor and triples travelling time for city bound motorists
1999 - Bus Éireann announces a luxury Expressway coach hourly daily service from Limerick to Dublin
2001 - An Bord Pleanála grants permission to build a four-lane bridge between Macken Street and Guild Street in Dublin
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Eogan.
August 24
1210 - King John sails from Dublin for England. He had landed at Waterford in June and campaigned in Leinster; after a short siege, he captures Carrickfergus, where the de Lacys have made a stand. On 28 July he captures William de Braose and confiscates his lands. Hugh and Walter de Lacy, lords of Ulster and Meath, forfeit their lands but escape to Scotland. John has defeated the hostile Norman magnates and has established relations with various Irish kings. Cathal Crovderg O'Connor, king of Connacht, has fought in John's army but then quarrelled with him - O'Connor offered his son Aedh to John as a hostage, but Aedh's mother refused to allow this. The dispute is later resolved
1747 - Birth in Dublin of William La Touche, founder of the Bank of Ireland
1798 - Generals' Cornwallis and Lake leave Dublin. Lake travels fast by road with a small force. Cornwallis travels with the main force down the Grand Canal
1803 - James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot, dies in exile in France. Originally a small tradesman in Dublin, he gained attention by his attacks on municipal corruption and his proposal to boycott English goods as a reprisal for the restrictions placed on Irish commerce. He joined the Irish volunteer army and he aided Theodore Wolfe Tone in founding the Dublin branch of the United Irish Society. When faced with a sedition charge in 1793, Tandy fled to the United States and then to France,where he was given the title of general. In 1798, he landed in Ireland, but when he discovered that the French expedition of General Humbert to aid the Irish rebellion had failed, he fled to Hamburg, where he was arrested. He was returned to Ireland, sentenced to execution, but reprieved through French influence. His fame is perpetuated in the Irish ballad “The Wearing of the Green”
1962 - Death of Agnew McMaster, the last of the touring actor-managers who presented Shakespeare’s plays throughout rural Ireland
1968 - The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association marches from Coalisland to Dungannon in Co. Tyrone in one of the first large-scale marches of the six-county civil rights movement
1990 - Brian Keenan is released on 24 August, having spent 52 months as a hostage in Beirut
1998 - Shops re-open in Omagh; among the shops to open was Wattersons, which lost three members of staff, and the Oxfam shop, whose two teenager volunteers were also killed
1998 - Eight Navy divers are injured during an air-sea rescue display.
The men who are all members of the Navy Diving Team were taking part in a demonstration by the Defence Forces as part of the Tall Ships festival in Dublin
1999 - Waterford Crystal is chosen to usher in the millennium in the city of New York with a gigantic cut glass Star of Hope ball. The component parts of the six foot diameter sphere, made of 572 crystal panels each consisting of five diamond shapes, will be assembled in New York. It is planned to hang 22 stories high over Manhattan and be lowered down a 77ft high flagpole in time for the stroke of midnight
2000 - Additional troops are ordered onto the streets of Belfast night as fears grow for the fragile peace process
2001 - Bono's father, Bob, is laid to rest at Old Balgriffin Cemetary in Co. Dublin.
August 25
1170 - Richard de Clare (Strongbow) marries MacMurrough's daughter Aoife, as part of an agreement made two years earlier
1645 - Edward Worcester, Earl of Glamorgan; aristocrat and inventor, is sent to Ireland to raise troops for the king, and makes two secret treaties with the confederates on this date and on 20 December
1764 - James Hope, a member of the United Irishman, is born in Templepatrick, Co. Antrim
1769 - Henry Flood, MP for Callan, kills James Agar, MP for Tulsk, in a duel. The Flood and Agar families had disputed the representation of Callan for many years
1798 - Humbert takes Ballina after token resistance by Government forces
1803 - The British capture Robert Emmet
1863 - Eugene O'Growney, priest and Irish-language revivalist, is born in Ballyfallon, Co. Meath
1865 - Robert Lloyd Praeger, botanist and writer, is born in Holywood, Co. Down
1882 - Birth of Sean Ó Ceallaigh, Ireland’s second president
1921 - Birth in Belfast of Brian Moore who is best known for his novel "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne"
1958 - The first Rose of Tralee festival is held
1986 - ‘Hurricane Charlie’ hits Ireland and the heaviest rain-fall over a 24 hour period is recorded — 10.63 inches at Kippure Mountain, Co. Wicklow
1998 - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, arrives in the North to announce a security crackdown in the wake of the Omagh bombing
1998 - An armada of tall ships from around the world sails away from Dublin, ending a five-day visit
2001 - U2 brings the Elevation Tour to Slane Castle north of Dublin, site of the annual Slane Festival since 1981. It's U2's first performance at Slane since that first festival 20 years ago, when they were on the support bill for Thin Lizzy.
August 26
1725 - Five Dublin children receive the first recorded smallpox innoculations in Ireland
1798 - Humber leaves Ballina bound for Castlebar. He takes an indirect route through the mountains
1904 - Lord Dunraven forms the Irish Reform Association to campaign for some devolution; the following December, unionists form a United Unionist Council to resist Dunraven's plan
1913 - Also known as "The Great Dublin Lockout", the Dublin Transport Strike, led by Jim Larkin and James Connolly, begins
1921 - Re-election of Éamon de Valera President of Dáil Éireann. He is proposed and seconded by Commandant Sean MacEoin and General Richard Mulcahy — both of whom later line up against him in the Civil War
1940 - German aircraft bomb a creamery at Campile, Co. Wexford; three women are killed
1997 - U2 plays at the Botanical Gardens in Belfast. It is the band's first show in Belfast in 10 years
1998 - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair meets with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Ashford Castle, Co. Mayo. They join forces to fight terrorism and discuss laws which will be introduced in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing
2002 - Roy Keane’s journey from unemployed potato picker in Cork to multi-millionaire player on the world stage is related in his book "Keane - The Autobiography" which is released on this date.
August 27
1695 - The second Irish parliament of William III is called in Dublin; Robert Rochfort is unanimously elected Speaker
1798 - Humbert appears outside Castlebar. The Government forces are deployed to cover the direct route and Humbert unexpectedly appears on their flank. Humbert attacks. French advance causes Militia to run. Government defence collapses and Humbert takes the town. Cornwallis reaches Tullamore. Rebels assemble on Rebel hill, near Baileborough, Co Cavan
1870 - The Oceanic, a liner built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, is launched
1908 - Birth of Niall Ó Dónaill, Irish-language scholar and lexicographer, in the Rosses, Co. Donegal
1920 - Birth of James Molyneaux, Ulster Unionist Party leader
1928 - The Galway Gaelic Theatre - afterwards called the Taibhdheare Theatre - opens with Micheál Mac Liammóir's production of Diarmuid agus Gráinne
1937 - The first traffic lights in the Free State are installed at the junction of Merrion Square and Clare Street
1979 - Assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten off the coast of Co. Sligo
1982 - The official police death count of the Troubles reaches 3,000 on this date with the killing of Hugh McKibbin in Belfast
1999 - On their first official overseas visit, Prince Edward and his new bride Sophie Rhys Jones arrive at Dublin Castle for the opening of the Millennium Gold Encounter. A total of 77 young people from 25 countries who have won their nation’s equivalent of the Gaisce award will attend the conference. Prince Edward is the chairperson the International Awards Association
2000 - A former member of British military intelligence reveals that weapons used by loyalist gangs who rampaged through Belfast's Shankill district the previous week were provided by British intelligence as part of a plan to defeat the IRA
2001 - Opponents claim that the introduction of tolls on the planned Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock motorway will cost commuters to Dublin an extra £20 a week; they outline their objections at an oral inquiry in Mullingar to plans by the National Road Authority to charge car users £1.65 to use the new 35 kilometre road
2001 - The newly restored century-old trading schooner, Kathleen & May arrives in Youghal after a 24-hour historic voyage from England to Ireland
2002 - Roy Keane's autobiography breaks the record for first day sales of a hardback book in Ireland.
August 28
1170 - Richard de Clare marries Aoife Ní Mhurrachadha and sets a precedent for Norman rule in Ireland
1710 - A board of trustees for linen manufacture is established
1788 - Sir Aubrey de Vere, poet, is born in Adare, Co. Limerick
1788 - James Digges La Touche, banker and philanthropist, is born in Dublin
1798 - Cornwallis reaches Athlone; Humbert entrenches in Castlebar
1814 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, novelist and journalist, is born in Dublin
1815 - Mary Letitia Martin, 'Princess of Connemara,' novelist, philanthropist and daughter of 'Humanity Dick' Martin is born in Ballynahinch Castle, Co. Galway
1860 - Napier's and Deasy's Land Acts are passed
1872 - The first horse drawn tram cars enter service in Belfast
1877 - Charles Stewart Parnell becomes president of Home Rule Confederation
1896 - Birth of Liam O'Flaherty
1929 - "Health And Efficiency" becomes the very first publication banned by the Irish Free State
1975 - Willie John McBride retires from international rugby
1998 - The Real IRA and the 32 County Sovereignty Committee are to be placed on an international terrorist list by the US Government. An FBI clampdown on American supporters of both groups is also planned
1998 - The Northern Ireland Assembly heads for its first major crisis after a confidential document discloses that senior Ulster Unionists warned the British government they could no longer endorse the Good Friday agreement
1998 - One of the largest passing-out parades for the Defence Forces in recent years takes place; 86 recruits receive their two-star private rating at a ceremony in Gormanston Army Camp, Co Meath
2000 - Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy faces calls for his resignation as former judge Hugh O’Flaherty withdraws his controversial nomination for vice-presidency of the European Investment Bank.
August 29
1729 - Birth of David La Touche, banking magnate and MP
1798 - Cornwallis reaches Tuam
1803 - Samuel Neilson, co-founder of the United Irishmen, dies
1844 - Death of Edmund Ignatius Rice, founder of the Irish Christian Brothers Order
1890 - The Science & Art Museum and The National Library of Ireland open
1871 - Birth of Jack B. Yeats, painter and author, in London
1950 - Birth of Dick Spring, politician; Labour Party leader and Tánaiste, in Tralee, Co. Kerry
1951 - Bill Graham, rock journalist and author, is born in Belfast
1975 - Death of Eamon de Valera
1992 - U2 plays the first of two shows at Yankee Stadium in New York. They are only the second rock artist to play in this venue. Billy Joel was the first
2000 - Irish Travellers are granted the same legal protection as other ethnic minority groups by a judge in London
2002 - Sixteen soldiers are injured during sectarian street clashes in flashpoint east Belfast
2002 - According to Transparency International’s annual corruption index, Ireland has slipped five places and is now perceived as the third most corrupt country in Europe.
August 30
1559 - Lord Sussex, is sworn in as Lord Deputy
1690 - First siege of Limerick ends
1708 - Penal Laws passed in 1695 restricting Catholics rights are strengthened for the second time
1709 - All registered Catholic priests in Ireland are required to renounce the claims of the Stuarts to the thrones of England and Ireland — only 33 out of 1,089 comply
1841 - The Cork Examiner, now The Irish Examiner, hits the streets for the first time
1855 - Birth of Feargus Edward O’Connor, Chartist leader
1874 - Michael Banim, storywriter, dies; along with his brother and co-author John, he sought to create sympathetic, yet non-stereotypical Irish characters in his stories
1875 - National synod of Catholic bishops begins at Maynooth; they renew condemnation of Queen's Colleges and condemn Trinity College
1911 - The Chamber of Commerce calls for Ireland to adopt Greenwich Mean Time — 25 minutes behind Irish Standard Time
1928 - William Trevor, pseudonym of William Trevor Cox, short-story writer and novelist, is born in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork
1950 - Birth of Dana, pseudonym of Rosemary Scallon, singer/songwriter
1967 - Black Velvet Band by the Dubliners enters the British charts
1997 - U2 returns home for the first of two shows at Dublin's Lansdowne Road stadium
2000 - SDLP leader John Hume, announces his intention to quit as a Stormont Assembly member
2000 - As many as 21 houses in the County Antrim town of Carrickfergus are attacked in incidents linked to the North’s bitter loyalist feud
2001 - Death of Donal O'Sullivan; he was Cork's captain in the 1956 All-Ireland football final against Galway and prominent in GAA administration at county and provincial level
2002 - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson accuses the United States of trying to scale back plans to save the world’s poorest people.
2013 - World-renowned poet and playwright Seamus Heaney dies in a Dublin hospital following a short illness. Mr Heaney was awarded numerous prizes over the years and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He was born to a farming family at Mossbawn near Bellaghy in Co Derry on 13 April 1939 and was the eldest of nine children born to Margaret and Patrick Heaney.
His upbringing often played out in the poetry he wrote in later years. Educated at the St Columb's College Catholic boarding school in Derry, he later studied at Queen's University Belfast, before making his home in Dublin, with periods of teaching in the United States. Among the academic posts he held were professorships at Harvard and Oxford universities. Mr Heaney was an honorary fellow at Trinity College Dublin and last year was bestowed with the Seamus Heaney Professorship in Irish Writing at the university, which he described as a great honour. The writer is survived by his wife Marie and children Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann.
Photo Credit & Content Source: RTÉ
August 31
1767 - Birth in Belfast of Henry Joy McCracken, United Irishman and leader of Ulster insurgents in 1798 rebellion
1803 - French "Irish Legion" organized in Brittany
1806 - Birth in Dublin of Charles Lever; fiction writer who was famous for his rendering of Trinity College's privileged atmosphere
1830 - William Fitzpatrick, biographer and historian, is born in Dublin
1957 - Birth of Colm O'Rourke, Meath Gaelic footballer, in Co. Meath
1994 - IRA announces a cease-fire
1997 - U2 pays tribute to Princess Diana at Dublin concert
2000 - First Minister David Trimble is understood to be involved in secret talks with the Ulster Volunteer Force in an attempt to resolve the bloody loyalist feud raging on the streets of Northern Ireland
2000 - Former SDLP Derry Mayor Annie Courtney is to replace John Hume as an Assembly member for Foyle
2000 - The world’s largest fishing vessel arrives in Dublin after completing its maiden voyage from Norway. "Atlantic Dawn", which took over two and a half years to build in a Norwegian shipyard, cost Irish owner Kevin McHugh £50 million
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Aidan.

Sources:
The Celtic League
This organization publishes the annual Celtic Calendar. To order your own copy, visit: The Celtic League.
Irish Abroad
Somewhat sporadic, but they often highlight an important date in Irish history. To visit, please click: Irish Abroad.
The Wild geese
They update Irish history weekly. To visit their keydates page, please click: The Wild Geese.

We also refer to an assortment of references. Among them are the Books of Days - see right margin on this page.