A date with history

What happened on this day...

Saturday, June 17:

1800 – Birth of William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse; astronomer and telescope constructor, in York.

1867 – Birth of John Gregg, publisher and inventor of the Gregg shorthand system, in Rockcorry, Co. Monaghan.

1959 – Éamon de Valera becomes President of Ireland.

Sunday, June 18:

1688 – Siege of Derry.

1815 – Battle of Waterloo when British forces under the command of the Duke of

President during dinner the previous evening.

He was so taken with it that he wrote it down, memorised it and recited it during his leaving speech.

The poem read:

“’Tis the Shannon’s brightly glancing stream, brightly gleaming, silent in the morning beam. Oh! the sight entrancing. Thus,... return from travels long, years of exile, years of pain to see Old Shannon’s face again, ’er the waters glancing.”

Upon completing the poem, Kennedy said: “Well, I am going to come back and see Old Shannon’s face

Tuesday, June 20:

1210 – King John lands at Waterford.

1763 – Birth of Theobald Wolfe Tone.

1810 – Parliament passes Unlawful Acts Bill, extending powers against secret societies.

1849 – James Clarence Mangan, poet, dies.

Thursday, June 22:

1798 – Execution of John Kelly (‘Kelly of Killane’).

1940 – The last tram to Donnybrook, Dublin leaves.

1973 – Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir are given the Freedom of the city of Dublin.

Wellington, a Dubliner, defeat Napoleon’s forces.

1945 – Sean T. O’Kelly becomes the first elected President of Ireland.

1972 – Twelve of Ireland’s most prominent businessmen are killed in a BA crash at Staines.

Monday, June 19:

1647 – James, Duke of Ormond, agrees to surrender Dublin to English Parliament.

1820 – The Dublin Society for Improving Husbandry, which was originally founded on June 25 in 1731, becomes the Royal Dublin Society.

1891 – Birth of John Aloysius Costello, Ireland’s third Taoiseach.

Wednesday, June 21:

1854 – Irishman David Lucas wins the first ever Victoria Cross, in the Crimean War.

1870 – St. Louise (Clonmel-born Alice O’Sullivan) of the Order of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul is massacred along with other sisters, priests and merchants in China. A memorial tablet in Clonmel keeps her memory alive.

1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Batista Montini is elected Pope Paul VI, the 261st Pontiff.

Friday, June 23:

1704 – The Registration Act comes into force requiring all Catholic priests in Ireland to register in court, to furnish two £50 bonds for good behaviour, and not to leave the county in which registered.

1775 – Birth of William Brown, admiral and founder of the Argentine navy, in Foxford, Co. Mayo.

1802 – Daniel O’Connell secretly marries his cousin, Mary O’Connell.

1939 – Dáil Éireann introduces internment.

1985 – An Air India 747 jet explodes off the coast of Ireland killing 329 people.

Derek Warfield and his Young Wolfe Tones perform storming set at London venue

See Page 17

Multi-arts programme celebrates Ulysses across Europe

AN ambitious new arts programme will see James Joyce’s most famous novel Ulysses celebrated across Europe.

Some 18 European cities have come together to create ULYSSES European Odyssey, a multi-arts programme inspired by Joyce’s masterpiece which will run until June 2024.

Launched this month, the project is a transnational and multi-disciplinary programme with a variety of events and interventions taking place in those 18 cities, which are Athens, Berlin, Budapest, Cluj, Copenhagen, Derry-Donegal, Dublin, Eleusis, Istanbul, Leeuwarden, Lisbon, Lugo, Marseille, Oulu, Paris, Trieste, Vilnius and Zurich.

It includes 14 free public city events which are designed to “animate the democratic public spaces of modern cities”, the organisers explained.