On November 15, 2001, Jacob’s celebrates its 150th birthday with the launch of a commemorative book, Jacob’s Bakery – Limited Twiglets, marking the milestone in the company’s long history.
Jacob’s traces its origins to 1851, when William Beale Jacob and his brother Robert found a small biscuit bakery on Bridge Street in Waterford, County Waterford. The company later expands into Dublin, where its Bishop Street premises become a major employer. In the 1850s, women in Dublin’s inner city, displaced from weaving jobs, turn to making “fancy” biscuits, contributing to Jacob’s early success.
By the late 19th century, Jacob’s offers 200 different fancy biscuits at one time, employing up to 3,000 people, mostly women from the south inner city. The factory survives major events such as the 1880 fire, the 1913 Dublin lock-out, and the Easter Rising of 1916, when it is briefly commandeered by Irish republicans.
The 150th anniversary is marked by a public event in which Gay Byrne, a well‑known Irish broadcaster, launches the book. Byrne, who grew up in Rialto Street surrounded by Jacob’s employees, recalls childhood memories of workers returning home with broken biscuits sold for a halfpenny.
The book, authored by local historian Dr. Séamas Ó Maitiú, details Jacob’s history, from its origins to its role in Irish industrial heritage. It is part of a broader celebration of the brand’s legacy, including its iconic products such as Twiglets — a signature savoury biscuit with a distinctive knobbly shape and zingy taste.
Jacob’s continues to operate, evolving its range while retaining its heritage. Today, Jacob’s is owned in the Irish market by Jacob Fruitfield Food Group, part of Valeo Foods; in the UK market by United Biscuits, part of Pladis; and in the Asian market by Mondelez International., still producing its famous cream crackers, Cheddars, and Twiglets. The 2001 book remains a key historical record of the company’s 150 years in the biscuit industry.
In summary, on November 15, 2001, Jacob’s marks its 150th anniversary with the launch of Jacob’s Bakery – Limited Twiglets, a book chronicling its history, written by Dr. Séamas Ó Maitiú and unveiled by Gay Byrne, celebrating a century and a half of Irish biscuit-making.
The two bombs are placed in London as part of the IRA’s “London bombing campaign.” One bomb explodes outside the criminal court, Old Bailey, injuring over 200 people. The second bomb explodes outside the Ministry of Agriculture near Whitehall, also injuring nearly 200 people. One man dies from a heart attack shortly after the Old Bailey blast, though the autopsy suggests the attack began before the explosion.
The 10‑week trial at Winchester Crown Court is one of the most heavily secured in British legal history, with plain‑clothes detectives, prison officers, and bolted doors. The jury deliberates for two days before convicting the eight defendants. A ninth defendant, Roisin McNearney, is acquitted, and a tenth, William McLarnon, pleads guilty on the first day.
The Price sisters, along with Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly, are considered the key conspirators. All eight convicted men and women are sentenced to life imprisonment.
The convicted IRA members immediately begin a hunger strike demanding transfer to prisons in Ireland. The four main leaders — the Price sisters, Feeney, and Kelly — continue the strike for months, are force‑fed, and are eventually transferred to Irish jails in 1975. Marian and Dolours Price are later released early on medical grounds due to anorexia nervosa.
This case remains one of the most high‑profile IRA trials in the United Kingdom, notable for its security, the scale of the attacks, and the prolonged hunger strike that follows.
Andrew Ranken, English drummer who plays with several bands including the Pogues, is born on November 13, 1953, in the Ladbroke Grove area of London. He plays with the Pogues from 1983 until their second breakup in 2014.
Ranken spends his early childhood listening to his parents’ jazz records before moving to Abbots Langley when he is five and Heathfield, East Sussex, a year later. He attends Priory School, Lewes, where he is in the same year as Pete Thomas and Wreckless Eric, and is inspired by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He becomes a musician after an older cousin gives him a guitar he has tired of trying to learn and becomes a drummer after being given a pair of bongos. At the age of 14, he joins a blues rock band, Joshua Bagmat, which is led by Stephen Warbeck, features Thomas, and disbands when the members leave school. Ranken subsequently works with Warbeck and Paul Bradley as part of The hKippers.
After leaving school, Ranken moves to London to spend a year at the Central School of Art and Design, where he forms the band Lola Cobra with three members of the sculpture department including Lene Lovich and her boyfriend Les Chappell. After losing interest in the course, he drops out and sells his drum kit to fund a series of travels with the intention of writing a book of writings and drawings. He settles first to a squat in Amsterdam, which he leaves after it is ransacked, followed by a tent in a campsite in suburban Holland, where he spends several weeks while working in a peanut factory. He then moves to France and then Italy, where his manuscript is stolen. He develops a dental abscess after returning to France and returns to his parents, now living in Epsom.
Ranken becomes the singer for a new wave and R&B band while living with his parents called The Stickers and later moves to Islington with a bandmember. He has a number of unpleasant jobs including spells as a painter and decorator, a builder, a screw factory operative, and a porter at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. After his temp agency assigns him to work the incinerator at St. Leonard’s Hospital in Hackney, he walks out after finding a half-burnt Alsatian that smelled like bacon. He subsequently decides to take a three-year course in media studies and sociology at Goldsmiths in 1980. The Stickers disband around this time after it becomes impossible to keep members in the band, prompting Ranken to become the singer for The Operation with numerous friends and family members. He then moves into a squat in Huntley Street with his girlfriend and then to the Hillview Estate following an eviction.
In March 1983, Ranken joins the Pogues, then known as Pogue Mahone, replacing John Hasler on drums. He juggles both the Operation and the Pogues for a while until leaving the former to concentrate on the latter. With the Pogues, he spends the first two and a half years playing the drums while standing up, until he contracts blood poisoning and has to play one-handed while he recovers. He plays on every song from their 1984 debut Red Roses for Me, on which he is credited as The Clobberer, until their 1996 album Pogue Mahone, including on “Fairytale of New York” and “The Irish Rover.” Their 1991 compilation album, The Best of The Pogues, is dedicated to Ranken’s long-term partner Deborah Korner, who died earlier in the year from an aneurysm. Two songs on subsequent albums are also dedicated to Korner.
Ranken also performs with the Pogues from their reunion in 2001 until their official break up in 2014. Ranken releases the charity single “Take Me Down to St. Joe’s” in July 2023 with The Mysterious Wheels, a band containing two of Korner’s brothers. The single is released in support of St. Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney following Ranken’s own diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Health issues cause Ranken to withdraw from The Pogues’ 2024 tour.
Ranken dies on February 10, 2026, at the age of 72. He had been married with two children.
The LVF, a breakaway faction of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) led by Billy Wright, has been active since 1996 and is involved in a campaign of gun and bomb attacks, most of them against Catholic civilians. It calls off its campaign in August 1998 and is in the process of decommissioning some weapons, but the group’s leadership seeks to make a more visible and timely gesture to support the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process.
According to the LVF’s own statement, the Ruling Army Council decides to proceed with a “second phase” of arms decommissioning, following an initial handover on December 18, 1998. The group pledges to physically hand over further “lethal weapons” from its armoury within weeks, with the exact time and place kept secret until the moment of delivery. The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) is to be informed 24 hours before the handover to meet its destruction requirements.
The LVF’s move is intended as a voluntary act to demonstrate commitment to disarmament, while also pressuring the British government to end the harsh prison conditions of LVF leader Mark Fulton. It is seen as a potential incentive for other paramilitaries, including the Irish Republican Army (IRA), to follow suit, though republican leaders are skeptical.
The November 12, 1998 commitment is a rare public pledge by a loyalist paramilitary to disarm, reflecting both the LVF’s strategic calculation and the political pressure to advance the Good Friday Agreement. It also signals a shift in the LVF’s posture from active conflict to a more conciliatory stance, even as the group later faces internal feuds and continued criminal activity.
O’Rorke is born as William Francis Breffni O’Rorke at 2 Esplande Villas in Dollymount, Clontarf, Dublin, on June 26, 1889. He is baptised at Clontarf Parish Church on August 1, 1889. His father, Frederick O’Rorke, is a cork merchant, and his mother, Jane Caroline O’Rorke (née Morgan), is an actress. He has an older brother, Frederick, who is twelve years older than him.
O’Rorke begins studying acting with his mother and makes his professional début in 1912 at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, in a production of George Bernard Shaw‘s John Bull’s Other Island. In 1916, while still living in Dublin, he meets and marries Alice Cole, a chorus-girl turned actress, who had divorced her first husband and immigrated from South Africa with her young son. Thus O’Rorke becomes the stepfather of Cyril Cusack. Other theatre roles include the title role in Finn Varra Maa (1917), a musical “pantomime” or light opera written by Thomas Henry Nally with music by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer.
National Television starts in October 1936, initially broadcast just two hours a day. The station stops broadcasting at the start of World War II, and does not restart until 1946. Plays, like everything else, can last just one hour maximum, but some are only 25 minutes long. Also, there is no recording possible, so any repeat is really a new broadcast, as in The Advantages of Paternity.
O’Rorke is a busy character actor up to his death on November 11, 1946, and his legacy lay not only in several memorable performances but also, to some extent, in the subsequent success of his stepson. From the late 1940s thru the 1980s, Cyril Cusack is one of the most renowned stage actors of his generation, as well as an acclaimed film actor, and he founds an acting dynasty to rival that of the Redgrave family through his actress daughters.
On September 7, 1990, UDR soldier Colin McCullough is shot dead by the IRA while in the company of his girlfriend at Oxford Island on the shore of Lough Neagh in the same area as the November 10 ambush. On October 6, in a revenge attack, the “Protestant Action Force” (a cover name for the Ulster Volunteer Force) shoots dead Catholic man Denis Carville at the same location, also while sitting in his car with his girlfriend.
At 7:30 a.m. on November 10, 1990, the four men leave home for Castor Bay on the shore of Lough Neagh for a wildfowling trip. Their early morning hunting excursions to the Department of the Environment-managed waterworks compound are routine and all of the men live in the Lurgan and Waringstown areas. It is believed the IRA team are waiting for the group inside the compound and ambush them shortly following their arrival.
The victims were David Murphy, an RUC Special Branch Inspector; Thomas Taylor, a part-time RUC Reservist; Norman Kendall, an electrician and former UDR soldier; and Keith Dowey, an employee with the Department of the Environment water service and father of two young children.
According to a 2000 report, the goal of the IRA unit, apparently members of the North Armagh Brigade led by the late Patsy Haughian, is only to abduct and interrogate Murphy about collusion between the RUC and loyalist militants, but things go wrong when Kendall and Dowey arrive at the scene in a car. Dowey, the driver, is shot and killed instantly, but there is evidence that Kendall puts up some resistance before being slain. Taylor produces his personal weapon and shoots at the assailants, but is cut down by a hail of fire. Murphy struggles and manages to avoid being bundled into the vehicle, but is eventually killed by Haughian. After the hunting party fails to appear at lunch time the alarm is raised. It is initially feared they have been kidnapped but four bodies are accounted for. The gunmen escape in one of the victim’s cars which is later found partially burned out at Brownlow Terrace, Lurgan. The IRA unit then hides in a house on the shores of the lake before returning to Lurgan the following morning.
The attack is widely condemned by politicians in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Unionist politicians call for tougher security measures. Local Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MPDavid Trimble criticises Secretary of StatePeter Brooke for ruling out the introduction of internment without trial in response to the incident and other killings in the preceding weeks and links the attack to a landmark speech given by Brooke the previous day signaling to the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin that Britain has no “selfish strategic or economic interest” in Northern Ireland. RUC Chief Constable Hugh Annesley visits the scene of the shootings and describes the attack as “repulsive, futile and cowardly murder” and says, “it is important to say yet again that the terrorists have no mandate from either Protestant or Catholic, north or south of the Irish border for such atrocities.”
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) representative Bríd Rodgers categorises the killings as part of an ongoing cycle of so-called “tit for tat” murders and urges anyone with information to contact the police. A message is read at Mass in Lurgan following the attack from the Bishop of Dromore and local priests warning Catholics to take precautions for their safety because of the risk of revenge attacks by Loyalists.
The alleged leader of the IRA squad, Patsy Haughian, dies of cancer at age 38 in October 2000. He is never formally accused of the killings.
Currie becomes a key figure in Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement. On June 20, 1968, he famously occupies a council house in Caledon, County Tyrone, in protest of housing discrimination that favors Protestants over Catholic families. This act of civil disobedience helps catalyze the first major civil rights marches in Northern Ireland, including the August 24, 1968, Dungannon march, and highlights systemic inequalities in housing and public services.
At age 24, Currie was elected as a Nationalist PartyMP for East Tyrone in the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1964, becoming one of its youngest members. He retains this seat in subsequent elections until the suspension of the Parliament in 1972. In 1970, he co-founds the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) with figures like John Hume and Gerry Fitt, promoting constitutional nationalism, social democracy, and cross-community cooperation. He serves as SDLP Chief Whip and briefly as Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Planning in the short-lived 1974 Northern Ireland Executive, which collapses amid unionist opposition and a strike by the Ulster Workers’ Council. Despite numerous attacks on his home and assaults on his family during the Troubles, he maintains a commitment to non-violent politics and cross-community dialogue.
After relocating to County Kildare due to the threats and violence in Northern Ireland, Currie joins the Fine Gael party in 1989. He is elected as Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin West, serving from 1989 to 2002. In 1990, he runs for the Irish presidency, receiving approximately 17% of first-preference votes and being eliminated in the first count, leading to Mary Robinson winning as Ireland’s first female president. From 1994 to 1997, he is appointed Minister of State responsible for Children’s Rights, becoming the first Irish government minister with dedicated responsibilities for children.
Currie marries Annita Lynch in 1968, with whom he has five children, including Emer Currie, who is elected to the Dáil in the same constituency in 2024. He endures multiple threats and attacks during the Troubles, reflecting his dedication to confronting sectarian violence and discrimination. He continues to campaign for civil rights and justice for victims of the Troubles even after retiring from electoral politics in 2002. He publishes an autobiography, All Hell Will Break Loose, in 2004, detailing his political life and experiences.
Currie dies on November 9, 2021, at his residence in Derrymullen, County Kildare, at the age of 82. He is buried at St. Malachy Church Graveyard in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He is remembered as a courageous advocate for civil rights, a co-founder of the SDLP, and a pioneering politician in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The Treaty’s Article 12 provides for the commission if Northern Ireland chooses to secede. Its role is to review the provisional border set by the 1920 Act, recommend adjustments based on political majorities in border areas and produce a final, legally binding boundary between the Free State and Northern Ireland.
The commission is to be jointly nominated by the United Kingdom, the Irish Free State, and Northern Ireland governments. When Northern Ireland refuses to cooperate, the British government appoints a Belfast Unionist newspaper editor, Joseph R. Fisher, to represent Northern interests.
The commission’s 1924–25 report recommends relatively small territorial transfers in both directions, contrary to nationalist expectations. The findings are leaked in 1925, causing protests from both unionists and nationalists. To avoid further disputes, the three governments agree to suppress the report and instead confirm the existing 1920 border on December 3, 1925, with the border fixed in law.
Lloyd George’s proposal reflects a pragmatic British approach: using a neutral commission to manage the sensitive issue of partition and prevent further conflict. While the commission’s recommendations are not implemented, the process helps formalize the border that remains in place until the 1960s, shaping the political and sectarian divide in Ireland for decades.
Cousins, also known as Gretta Cousins, is born into a Protestant and Unionist family. She is the eldest of fifteen children of Joseph Gillespie, a petty sessionclerk, and Margaret Annie Gillespie (née Shera). She excels academically, earning a scholarship to Victoria High School for Girls in Derry. In 1898, she moved to Dublin and studies music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music before attending the Royal University of Ireland, graduating with a BMus in 1902. She marries poet and literary criticJames Cousins on April 9, 1903, and maintains her independence by continuing to work as a music teacher.
Cousins is deeply involved in the Irish women’s suffrage movement. She co-founds the Irish Women’s Franchise League with Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington in 1908, serving as its first treasurer, and actively participates in protests, including the Parliament of Women in 1910 and demonstrations against the Second Home Rule Bill in 1913, which leads to her imprisonment in Tullamore Jail. She is also a committed vegetarian and engages with the Irish Vegetarian Society, promoting social reform and ethical living.
Cousins also plays a key role in preserving the tune of the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana, and is part of the Flag Presentation Committee that presents the National Flag to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947. She later founds the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC), further cementing her legacy in advancing women’s rights in India.
A stroke leaves Cousins paralysed from 1943 onward. She receives financial support from the Madras government, and later Jawaharlal Nehru, in recognition of her services to India. She dies at the age of 75 on March 1, 1954, in Adyar, Chennai.
Cousins’ work bridges Irish and Indian social reform movements, combining her interests in education, feminism, and Theosophy. She is recognized for her contributions to women’s rights and education, and her efforts leave a lasting impact on both countries. Her manuscripts are dispersed in various collections across the world.
The action is a last-ditch attempt to save Dublin’s heritage from redevelopment plans. The Green Party, a relatively new political force in Ireland at the time, uses the protest to draw public attention to the cultural and historical value of the city’s landmarks, arguing that they should be preserved rather than replaced with modern structures.
The protest involves chain‑linking themselves to trees in the street, a symbolic act meant to physically block demolition work and to make the issue impossible to ignore. This tactic is designed to create a visible, media‑friendly demonstration that will pressure the government and developers to reconsider the plans.
The 2002 Irish general election has just seen the Green Party win six seats, marking a significant political breakthrough for the party. The O’Connell Street protest is part of a broader campaign to assert the party’s role in protecting Ireland’s heritage and environment, themes central to its platform.
While the immediate outcome of the protest is not detailed in the provided sources, such symbolic actions are common in Irish political history to highlight environmental and heritage concerns, and they help cement the Green Party’s image as a defender of Ireland’s cultural identity.
(Pictured: Green Party TDs Ciaran Cuffe, Dan Boyle, party leader Trevor Sargent and Eamon Ryan in Dublin’s O’Connell Street where they have chained themselves to highlight the council’s proposed plan to chop down all the trees in the capital’s main street. Picture credit: Billy Higgins)
