#OTD in 1917 – Louisa Nolan is honoured with the medal for heroism during Easter Week 1916, by King George.

According to the Sinn Féin Rebellion handbook (pg. 259), she tended to ‘wounded officers and men’ during the battle on Mount Street Bridge. ‘Miss Nolan went calmly through a hail of bullets and carried water and other comforts to the wounded men,’ the publication notes. Her story made it across the Atlantic, where a Chicago newspaper dubbed her ‘Ireland’s Bravest Colleen’ on 20 March. She was the daughter of ex-Head Constable Nolan of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who resided at Ringsend.’ As a teenager she was a chorus girl at the Gaiety Theatre.
By Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

According to the Sinn Féin Rebellion handbook (pg. 259), she tended to ‘wounded officers and men’ during the battle on Mount Street Bridge. ‘Miss Nolan went calmly through a hail of bullets and carried water and other comforts to the wounded men,’ the publication notes. Her story made it across the Atlantic, where a Chicago newspaper dubbed her ‘Ireland’s Bravest Colleen’ on 20 March. She was the daughter of ex-Head Constable Nolan of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who resided at Ringsend.’ As a teenager she was a chorus girl at the Gaiety Theatre.

Image |  Miss Louisa Nolan (L) attends an investiture ceremony to receive a Military Medal for her actions during the Easter Rising of 1916.

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#OTD in Irish History – 24 February:

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII announces the new Gregorian calendar, replacing the Julian calendar.

1692 – The Treaty of Limerick is ratified by William of Orange.

1721 – Birth of physician and politician, John McKinly, in Ireland (Ulster). He emigrated to Wilmington, Delaware in 1742 and was a veteran of the French and Indian War. McKinly served in the Delaware General Assembly, was the first elected President of Delaware, and for a time was a member of the Federalist Party.

1780 – A British Act opens colonial trade to Irish goods.

1797 – Birth of writer, artist, musician and songwriter, Samuel Lover, in Dublin. Lover produced a number of Irish songs, of which several – including The Angel’s Whisper, Molly Bawn, and The Four-leaved Shamrock – attained great popularity. He also wrote novels, of which Rory O’Moore (in its first form a ballad), and Handy Andy are the best known…

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Medieval Archaeologists: An Endangered Species?

ABBEYFEALE HERITAGE TRAIL 2 – ‘The Liberator’ at Leahy’s Inn

West Limerick Heritage

ABBEYFEALE HERITAGE TRAIL

DANIEL O’CONNELL
1775 – 1847
LOCATION – THE SQUARE, ABBEYFEALE

A Heritage Plaque identifies the Building formally known as Leahy’s Inn where Daniel O’Connell – “The Liberator” – along with other members of his family was registered numerous times in old Business Records between 1836 and 1842. These accounts relate predominately to the hiring of horses and Drivers for their Carriages on various journeys to and from Dublin and their home in Derrynane in Co Kerry. There are also several letters by Daniel O’Connell and members of his family which were written to the Leahy family in Abbeyfeale informing them several days in advance of their travel arrangements and any requirements they may need when they arrived.

Daniel was a well-known Barrister and later an even more powerful Politician. He is best known for his campaign for “Catholic Emancipation” – the right of Irish Catholics to sit…

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Suffragette Hanna Sheehy Skeffington’s West Limerick Connections

West Limerick Heritage

Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946), one of the founders of the Irish Women’s Franchise League, which advocated for the rights of women to vote in elections in Ireland had strong West Limerick connections. Her father was David Sheehy Tullaha Broadford who was an Irish Parliamentary Party M.P. and her mother was Elizabeth (Betsy) McCoy Curramore House in the parish of Loughill-Ballyhahill. Hanna was born in Kanturk Co Cork.  The family moved to Loughmore near Templemore in North Tipperary and, when her father was elected an M. P., the family moved to Dublin.

She married Francis Skeffington, an ardent supporter of women’s rights and a pacifist and they became known as the “Sheehy Skeffingtons”. Hanna was jailed on a number of occasions for her militancy in trying to secure women’s rights.

Recently, her grand daughter Micheline Sheehy Skeffington re-enacted the historic actions of breaking glass at Dublin Castle to mark 100 years…

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#OTD in Irish History – 8 February:

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I – the revolt is quickly crushed. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years’ War in 1599. In 1601 he led an abortive coup d’état against the government and was executed for treason.

1770 – The Cork Butter Exchange was founded. In early decades of the eighteenth century, butter made in many counties in Munster was being exported through the port of Cork through to an extensive wide network of countries. At that stage it had become one of the most important shipping ports in the world.

1833 – Birth of sculptor, Launt Thompson, in Abbeyleix, Co Laois. Forced to emigrate to the US in 1847, during ‘the Great Hunger’, with his widowed mother, they settled in Albany, New York. There, he found work as…

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Reporting the House of Lords 1660-1832

The History of Parliament

The latest blog from the Georgian Lords reports back from last month’s conference of the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies in Oxford, which members of the section attended to speak about the project.

A month has now passed since members of the House of Lords 1715-90 project, in company with Dr Paul Seaward, attended the annual conference of the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (BSECS) at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Members of the History had last attended BSECS in 2013 to receive the Society’s Digital Resources award and we were delighted to return to what is always a marvellously busy conference marked by large numbers of parallel sessions covering all manner of subjects pertinent to the world of the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’.

What could be more appropriate, then, as a venue for reporting the progress made into Part Two of the Lords project, which will ultimately produce over…

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The Green, Glen Lochay, Killin, Perthshire

The Northern Antiquarian

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference — NN 53976 35248

Also Known as:

1. Canmore ID 274203
2. Falls of Lochay

Getting Here

The cliff-face and its ledge

Going out of Killin towards Kenmore on the A827 road, immediately past the Bridge of Lochay Hotel, turn left. Go down here for just over 2 miles and park-up where a small track turns up to the right (half-mile before the impressive Stag Cottage carvings), close to the riverside and opposite a flat green piece of land. Notice a small cliff-face just over the fence by the road and a small ledge about 3 feet above ground level. That’s yer spot!

Archaeology & History

Deep & shallow cups together

Rediscovered by rock art student George Currie in 2004, this small, little-known and unimpressive cup-marked site was carved onto a rocky ledge just off the roadside down Glen Lochay.  Comprising of at least three very…

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#OTD in 1922 – The IRA kidnaps more than forty loyalists activists and ‘B’ Specials.

By Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Stair na hÉireannIrish HistoryBelfast, Clones, Derry, Enniskillen, Fermanagh, History, History of Ireland, IRA, Ireland, Irish Civil War, Irish Free State, Irish History, Irish Republican Army, James Craig, Loyalist Supporters, Michael Collins, Monaghan football team, Neville Chamberlain, Tyrone, Ulster Championship, Winston ChurchillLeave a comment

In mid-January 1922 the Monaghan football team was arrested in the North on their way to play Derry in the final of the Ulster Championship. On 7 February the IRA responded by kidnapping forty-two prominent loyalists in Fermanagh and Tyrone and held them as hostages. A party of eighteen armed B-Specials, when travelling by train to Enniskillen, were stopped at Clones railway station in Co Monaghan by an IRA group. The B-Specials reacted immediately by shooting Commander Fitzpatrick. His colleagues retaliated by fatally shooting four Specials and arresting the survivors. Trouble in the North was at boiling point and in the three days after the Clones incident thirty people were murdered in Belfast.

Pressure from Churchill and Chamberlain on Craig and Collins helped to secure the release of the Monaghan footballers and the Fermanagh / Tyrone loyalists but for some time the British suspended the evacuation of troops from Ireland.

Collins and Craig had further discussions in Dublin in early February but the meeting broke down over the question of the boundary revision. Craig informed reporters that he had the assurance of the British Government that the Boundary Commission would make only slight changes. He complained that the maps which Collins produced led him (Craig) to the assumption that Collins had already been promised almost half of Northern Ireland. Craig would agree to minor changes but if North and South failed to agree, there would be no change at all. Collins issued a statement which refused to admit any ambiguity and said that majorities must rule.

The British and the Provisional Government finally agreed that an Irish Free State Agreement Bill would legalise the Treaty and the transfer of power to the Provisional Government and would authorise the election of a Provisional Parliament to enact the Free State Constitution. Final ratification of the Treaty would be deferred until the British confirmed the Free State Constitution; only then would Northern Ireland be allowed to exclude itself formally from the Free State.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

In mid-January 1922 the Monaghan football team was arrested in the North on their way to play Derry in the final of the Ulster Championship. On 7 February the IRA responded by kidnapping forty-two prominent loyalists in Fermanagh and Tyrone and held them as hostages. A party of eighteen armed B-Specials, when travelling by train to Enniskillen, were stopped at Clones railway station in Co Monaghan by an IRA group. The B-Specials reacted immediately by shooting Commander Fitzpatrick. His colleagues retaliated by fatally shooting four Specials and arresting the survivors. Trouble in the North was at boiling point and in the three days after the Clones incident thirty people were murdered in Belfast.

Pressure from Churchill and Chamberlain on Craig and Collins helped to secure the release of the Monaghan footballers and the Fermanagh / Tyrone loyalists but for some time the British suspended the evacuation of troops from Ireland.

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#OTD in 1972 – As Eleven Victims of Bloody Sunday are Buried, the British Embassy in Dublin is Burned to the Ground by Furious Demonstrators.

In Dublin, over 30,000 – 100,000 marched to the British Embassy, carrying thirteen replica coffins and black flags. They attacked the Embassy with stones and bottles, then petrol bombs. The building was eventually burnt to the ground.

The three days after the Derry massacre were marked by work stoppages and demonstrations in villages, towns and cities across the State. Walk-outs and marches were called by trades councils in Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Waterford, Galway, Sligo and Letterkenny. The protests drew in large numbers of non-trade unionists and were the biggest union-led demonstrations for many years – perhaps ever.

The nature of the protests was clear in reports of marches arriving at the British embassy in Merrion Square in Dublin two days after the atrocity to hand in letters of protest or parade with placards. The most common demand was for British withdrawal from the north.

On the day that 11 Bloody Sunday victims are buried, the British Embassy in Dublin is burned to the ground by furious demonstrators protesting over the killing of 13 people in Derry on 30 January. Emotions were running extremely high on both sides of the border following the killings, not helped by the British government’s vacuous reaction in the House of Commons, the day after the killings.

Up to 30,000 – 100,000 demonstrators had been protesting outside the Embassy since the events of 30 January. Initially a peaceful demonstration, it turned aggressive and violent. At one stage, the government of Jack Lynch considered bringing in the army to defend the Embassy, but opted not to do so because of fear of serious violence and attacks on the army by IRA elements.

The previous day, the country, had declared a ‘national day of mourning’.

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

In Dublin, over 30,000 – 100,000 marched to the British Embassy, carrying thirteen replica coffins and black flags. They attacked the Embassy with stones and bottles, then petrol bombs. The building was eventually burnt to the ground.

The three days after the Derry massacre were marked by work stoppages and demonstrations in villages, towns and cities across the State. Walk-outs and marches were called by trades councils in Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Waterford, Galway, Sligo and Letterkenny. The protests drew in large numbers of non-trade unionists and were the biggest union-led demonstrations for many years – perhaps ever.

The nature of the protests was clear in reports of marches arriving at the British embassy in Merrion Square in Dublin two days after the atrocity to hand in letters of protest or parade with placards. The most common demand was for British withdrawal from the north.

On the day that 11 Bloody…

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