seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Author Archives: Jim Doyle


by Leave a comment

Birth of Fr. Alec Reid, Facilitator in the Northern Ireland Peace Process

Alexander Reid CSsR, Irish Catholic priest noted for his facilitator role in the Northern Ireland peace process, is born in Dublin on August 5, 1931. BBC journalist Peter Taylor subsequently describes Reid’s role as “absolutely critical” to the success of the peace process.

Reid is raised in Nenagh, County Tipperary, from the age of six following the death of his father. He studies English, history and philosophy at University College Galway.

Reid is professed as a Redemptorist in 1950 and ordained a priest seven years later. For the next four years, he gives Parish Missions in Limerick, Dundalk and Galway (Esker), before moving to Clonard Monastery in Belfast, where he spends almost the next forty years. The Redemptorist Monastery at Clonard stands on the interface between the Catholic nationalist Falls Road and the Protestant loyalist Shankill Road areas of west Belfast.

In the late 1980s, Reid facilitates a series of meetings between Gerry Adams and John Hume, in an effort to establish a “Pan-Nationalist front” to enable a move toward renouncing violence in favour of negotiation. Reid, himself a staunch nationalist who favours a united Ireland and the withdrawal of British forces from Northern Ireland, then acts as their contact person with the Irish Government in Dublin from a 1987 meeting with Charles Haughey up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In this role, which is not public knowledge at the time, he holds meetings with various Taoisigh, and particularly with Martin Mansergh, advisor to various Fianna Fáil leaders. After the eventual success of the peace negotiations, Gerry Adams says, “there would not be a peace process at this time without [Father Reid’s] diligent doggedness and his refusal to give up.”

In 1988 in Belfast, Reid delivers the last rites to two British Army corporals, David Howes and Derek Wood of the Royal Corps of Signals, who are killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) – an event known as the corporals killings – after they drive into the funeral cortège of IRA member Kevin Brady, who had been killed in the Milltown Cemetery attack. A photograph of his involvement in that incident becomes one of the starkest and most enduring images of the Troubles. Unknown until years later, he is carrying a letter from Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams to Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume outlining Adams’ suggestions for a political solution to the Troubles. Adams later tells the BBC in 2019 that Reid also advised U.S Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith during the peace process, stating “He was talking to her on the side and she was talking to her brother Teddy.”

After he moves to Dublin, Reid is involved in peace efforts in the Basque Country. In January 2003, he is awarded the Sabino Arana 2002 “World Mirror” prize, by the Sabino Arana Foundation in Bilbao, in recognition of his efforts at promoting peace and reconciliation. He and a Methodist minister, the Rev. Harold Good, announce that the IRA has decommissioned their arms at a news conference in September 2005.

Reid is involved in controversy in November 2005 when he makes comments during a meeting in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church concerning the Unionist community in Northern Ireland. When the loyalist activist Willie Frazer makes remarks that Catholics had butchered Protestants during the Troubles, Reid angrily responds, “You don’t want to hear the truth. The reality is that the nationalist community in Northern Ireland were treated almost like animals by the unionist community. They were not treated like human beings. They were treated like the Nazis treated the Jews.” Reid later apologises, saying his remarks had been made in the heat of the moment. In an interview with CNN, he says that “The IRA were, if you like, a violent response to the suppression of human rights.”

Reid dies in a Dublin hospital on November 22, 2013. He is survived by two sisters and an aunt, and is buried in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast.


by Leave a comment

Birth of Gerry Cooney, Former Professional Boxer

Gerald Arthur Cooney, American former professional boxer who competes from 1977 to 1990, is born into a blue-collar Irish Catholic family on August 4, 1956, in Manhattan, New York City. He challenges twice for world heavyweight titles in 1982 and 1987. He is widely regarded as one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history.

Cooney is encouraged to become a professional fighter by his father. His brother, Tommy Cooney, is also a boxer and reaches the finals of the New York Golden Gloves Sub-Novice Heavyweight division. His grandparents lived in Placentia, Newfoundland, in Canada.

Fighting as an amateur, Cooney wins international tournaments in England, Wales, and Scotland, as well as the New York Golden Gloves titles. He wins two New York Golden Gloves Championships, defeating Larry Derrick to win the 1973 160-lb Sub-Novice Championship and Earlous Tripp to win the 1976 Heavyweight Open Championship. In 1975 he reaches the finals of the 175-lb Open division, but is defeated by Johnny Davis. He trains at the Huntington Athletic Club in Long Island, New York, where his trainer is John Capobianco. His amateur record consists of 55 wins and 3 losses.

When Cooney turns professional, he signs with co-managers Mike Jones and Dennis Rappaport. He is trained by Victor Valle. Known for his big left-hook and his imposing size, he has his first paid fight on February 15, 1977, beating Billy Jackson by a knockout in one round. Nine wins follow and he gains attention as a future contender, although his opponents are carefully chosen. He moves up a weight class and fights future world cruiserweight champion S. T. Gordon in Las Vegas, winning by a fourth round disqualification. He has eleven more wins, spanning 1978 and 1979. Among those he defeats are Charlie Polite, former U.S. heavyweight champion Eddie Lopez, and Tom Prater. These are not rated contenders, however.

By 1980, Cooney is being featured on national television. Stepping up, he beats one-time title challengers Jimmy Young and Ron Lyle, both by knockout. The Young fight is stopped because of cuts sustained by Young. By then Cooney is ranked number 1 by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and eager for a match with champion Larry Holmes.

In 1981, Cooney defeats former world heavyweight champion Ken Norton by knockout just 54 seconds into the first round with a blisteringly powerful attack. This ties the record set in 1948 by Lee Savold for the quickest knockout in a main event in Madison Square Garden. Since his management team is unwilling to risk losing a big future pay day with Holmes by having him face another viable fighter, Cooney does not fight for 13 months after defeating Norton.

The following year, Holmes agrees to fight Cooney with the fight held on June 11, 1982. With a purse of ten million dollars for the challenger, it is the richest fight in boxing history to that time. The promotion of the fight takes on racial overtones that are exaggerated by the promoters, something Cooney does not agree with. He believes that skill, not race, should determine if a boxer is good. However, if he wins, he would become the first Caucasian world heavyweight champion since Swede Ingemar Johansson defeated Floyd Patterson 23 years earlier. Don King calls Cooney “The Great White Hope.” The bout draws attention worldwide, and Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney is one of the biggest closed-circuit/pay-per-view productions in history, broadcast to over 150 countries.

Cooney fights bravely after he is knocked down briefly in the second round. He is fined three points for repeated low blows. After 12 rounds, the more skillful and experienced Holmes finally wears him down. In round 13, his trainer, Victor Valle, steps into the ring, forcing the referee to stop the fight. Two of the three judges would have had Cooney ahead after the 12th round if it were not for the point deductions. He and Holmes become friends after the fight, a relationship that endures for them. On December 14, 1982, he fights Harold Rice, the heavyweight champion of Connecticut, in a four-round bout. No winner is declared, so he tells the crowd following the bout, “This is only an exhibition. I’m sorry if I disappointed anybody. I’m trying to work myself back in shape so I can knock out Larry Holmes. Everything is OK. I felt a little rusty, but that is normal. It has been a while. I felt good in front of the people.”

After a long layoff, Cooney fights in September 1984, beating Phillip Brown by a 4th-round knockout in Anchorage, Alaska. He fights once more that year and wins, but personal problems keep him out of the ring.

Although Cooney fights only three official bouts in five years following his loss to Holmes, in 1987 he challenges former world heavyweight and world light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks in a title bout. He appears past his prime and Spinks, boxing carefully with constant sharp counters, knocks him out in the fifth round. His last fight is in 1990. He is knocked out in a match-up of power-punching veterans in two rounds by former world champion George Foreman. He does stagger Foreman in the first round, but he is over-matched, and Foreman knocks him out two minutes into the second round.

The losses to Holmes, Spinks, and Foreman exposes Cooney’s Achilles’ heel: his inability to clinch and tie up his opponent when hurt. In the Foreman fight, he rises from a second-round knockdown and stands in the center of the ring as Foreman delivers the coup de grâce.

Cooney compiles a professional record of 28 wins and 3 losses, with 24 knockouts. Not a single one of his fights ever goes the distance in a 12 or 15-round match. He is ranked number 53 on The Ring‘s list of “100 Greatest Punchers of All Time.”

Cooney founds the Fighters’ Initiative for Support and Training, an organization which helps retired boxers find jobs. He is deeply involved in J.A.B., the first union for boxers. He becomes a boxing promoter for title bouts featuring Roberto Durán, Héctor Camacho, and George Foreman. He is a supporter of the “hands are not for hitting” program, which tries to prevent domestic violence. He guides young fighters in the gym. In June 2010, he becomes the co-host of “Friday Night at the Fights” on Sirius XM radio.

Cooney resides in Fanwood, New Jersey, with his wife Jennifer and two of their three children, Jackson and Sarah. His son Chris resides in New York. He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at Walt Whitman High School (New York), where he graduated.


by Leave a comment

Birth of Terry Wogan, Irish-British Radio & Television Broadcaster

Sir Michael Terence Wogan KBE DL, Irish-British radio and television broadcaster who works for the BBC in the United Kingdom (UK) for most of his career, is born at Cleary’s Nursing Home, Elm Park, Limerick, County Limerick, on August 3, 1938. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly draws an estimated eight million listeners. He is believed at the time to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.

Wogan is the elder of two children. He is the son of the manager of Leverett & Frye, a high-class grocery store in Limerick, and is educated at Crescent College, a Jesuit school, from the age of eight. He experiences a strongly religious upbringing, later commenting that he had been brainwashed into believing by the threat of going to hell. Despite this, he often expresses his fondness for the city of his birth, commenting on one occasion that “Limerick never left me, whatever it is, my identity is Limerick.”

At the age of 15, after his father is promoted to general manager, Wogan moves to Dublin with his family. While living there he attends Crescent College’s sister school, Belvedere College. He participates in amateur dramatics and discovers a love of rock and roll. After leaving Belvedere in 1956, he has a brief career in the banking profession, joining the Royal Bank of Ireland. Still in his twenties, he joins the national broadcaster of Ireland, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), as a newsreader and announcer, after seeing a newspaper advertisement inviting applicants.

Wogan conducts interviews and presents documentary features during his first two years at RTÉ, before moving to the light entertainment department as a disc jockey and host of TV quiz and variety shows such as Jackpot, a top-rated quiz show on RTÉ in the 1960s.

Wogan is a leading media personality in Ireland and Britain from the late 1960s, and is often referred to as a “national treasure.” In addition to his weekday radio show, he is known for his work on television, including the BBC One chat show Wogan, presenting Children in Need, the game show Blankety Blank and Come Dancing. He is the BBC’s commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1971 to 2008 (radio in 1971, 1974–1977; television in 1973, 1978, 1980–2008) and the Contest’s host in 1998. From 2010 to 2015 he presents Weekend Wogan, a two-hour Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 2.

In 2005, Wogan acquires British citizenship in addition to his Irish nationality and is awarded a knighthood in the same year and is therefore entitled to use the title “Sir” in front of his name.

Wogan’s health declines after Christmas 2015. He does not present Children in Need in November 2015, citing back pain as the reason for his absence from the long-running annual show. One of his friends, Father Brian D’Arcy, visits him during January and notices he is seriously ill. He dies of cancer at the age of 77 on January 31, 2016 at his home.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says, “Britain has lost a huge talent.” President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins praises Wogan’s career and his frequent visits to his homeland. Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton remember Wogan for his role in helping Anglo-Irish relations during the Troubles. D’Arcy speculates that a public funeral would be logistically difficult, as there would be too many people wanting to pay their respects.

After Wogan’s death and his private funeral a few weeks later, a public memorial service is held on September 27 the same year. This is held at Westminster Abbey and is opened by a recording of Wogan himself, and features a number of his celebrity friends making speeches, such as Chris Evans and Joanna Lumley. The service is broadcast live on BBC Radio 2.

On November 16, 2016, the BBC renames BBC Western House, home of BBC Radio 2, in his memory, to BBC Wogan House.


by Leave a comment

The Holywell Ambush

The Holywell Ambush is an ambush on the Ballyhaunis to Claremorris road near Holywell in the early hours of Monday, August 2, 1920, carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence. Approximately 20 local IRA volunteers commanded by Patrick Kenny attack a British Military outpost that is guarding a broken down lorry.

A large lorry transporting petrol which is part of a British military convoy travelling from Claremorris towards Ballyhaunis comes off the road on the Claremorris-Ballyhaunis road near Holywell on Saturday, July 31, 1920. The driver of the lorry loses control and crashes off the road into the bog below. The lorry sinks somewhat and is stuck in the bog. A military guard of between 12-20 British soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who are garrisoned in the old workhouse in Claremorris, is placed on the lorry while the rest of the convoy continues on their journey.

The soldiers set up camp in a little old, abandoned house nearby, throwing a large tarpaulin over the roof of the house for shelter. They place two sentries on the road while the rest of the guard retires to the abandoned house where they light a fire in the ruin’s fireplace. Martin Forkhan, a local IRA volunteer, happens upon the scene of the crashed lorry and immediately notifies the Ballyhaunis Battalion Commandant, Patrick Kenny, of the situation. Kenny issues instructions to mobilise all officers in the Ballyhaunis Battalion area.

On that same night, a train leaving Ballyhaunis towards Westport is held up by armed and masked men not far from the military encampment. A unit of 25 IRA men under the command of Capt. Martin Forde take control of the train after firing a number of warning shots. The IRA then removes steel shutters destined for Westport Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Barracks and bury them in the bog nearby. The steel shutters are part of a program of fortification of RIC Barracks country-wide. Some of these men then mobilise with the other IRA officers gathering at Holywell Wood, where arrangements are made for an attempt to overpower and disarm the soldiers guarding the crashed lorry.

The assembled IRA, approximately 40 strong, march to the site of the military encampment where they take up positions. The volunteers are unsure of the size of the British force guarding the lorry, as all they can see is one sentry. An IRA officer approaches the sentry and asks for a light for a cigarette. The sentry sends him into the camp. As he lights his cigarette from the camp fire he looks around and counts 18 rifles present. It is then presumed that there are roughly 18 soldiers at the encampment. Cmdt. Kenny mades a plan and orders an attack, but as the IRA volunteers are crawling through the fields toward their assigned positions to surround the encampment, a line of motorcars appears on the Claremorris road. The headlights from the motorcars would have exposed the positions taken up by the IRA, so due to their poor positions, the delay in organising a plan and the coming dawn, it is decided that the attack is to be postponed until the following night.

The next day, Sunday, August 1, 1920, a section of men under the command of Capt. Patrick McNieve is positioned near the site of the encampment to keep it under observation while the officers mobilise the entire battalion. On this day, there are sports taking place in Aghamore and many of the battalions volunteers gather in that area so are easily located. Back at Holywell, scouts are posted on the surrounding roads to notify of any advancing British reinforcements and a trench has been dug across the road to delay any traffic from getting by. During the day, members of Cumann na mBán assist in transferring ammunition from arms dumps to the ambush site. That night, with all available men in the battalion area mobilised, the IRA assembles once more and organises a plan of attack. Orders are issued, they manoeuvre into their assigned positions and wait. D Coy (Brackloon) proceeds to their positions between Ballyhaunis and Holywell where they are on outpost duty guarding the road about half a mile from the ambush site. The IRA officers decide that while the soldiers in the camp sleep, some volunteers will attempt to sneak into the camp and take their weapons. Cmdt. Patrick Kenny leads a small ambush party of about 20 men and creeps into the camp at approximately 3:00 a.m. They are armed with shotguns and revolvers. A further 188 IRA men, many of them unarmed, from the Battalion are on scouting, road trenching, sentry and outpost duties in the surrounding district.

The ambush party successfully infiltrates the camp without alerting the sentries and Cmdt. Kenny manages to gather up five or six rifles that are stacked together. But as he is leaving the camp, the alarm is raised and the British soldiers begin to awaken. The IRA shouts a demand for the British military guard to surrender but when no surrender comes, the IRA opens fire. Three British soldiers are badly wounded in the opening salvo. One takes a full shotgun blast to his back, another has a portion of his arm blown off and the third is badly wounded in the leg. With three of their men knocked out, the British soldiers organise their defence and return fire on the IRA. The IRA ambush party retreats to positions behind a fence where they maintain constant fire on the camp. A fierce gun battle ensues. In the darkness, as Cmdt. Kenny retreats with the rifles in his arms, he is caught in the crossfire and severely wounded in the left arm and face by a shotgun blast from one of his own men. He falls from his wounds and drops the rifles he had been carrying. Capt. Martin Forde and several other officers run to Kenny’s aid. Forde and his comrades are able to carry Kenny to safety. The battle continues on for about an hour and before dawn, just as the military guard seems about to surrender, two lorries of British reinforcements come from Claremorris to their assistance. The British reinforcements open fire from their lorries on the outposts as they encounter those who return fire with their shotguns. With the IRA running low on ammunition and now out-gunned, Cmdt. Kenny issues an order for the IRA to retreat under fire. There are varied accounts of the length of time the ambush lasts. Some accounts state the attack on the camp lasts 15 minutes, with other accounts indicating that from beginning to end, the ambush lasts for between one and two hours. Dawn is breaking just as the engagement ends.

The IRA operation is deemed unsuccessful as they did not achieved their primary objective of disarming the British soldiers and their commanding officer is badly wounded in the attack. The inability to capture the British soldiers’ weapons will hamper the battalion and the wider East Mayo Brigade’s ability to conduct large ambushes in an area that is already in very short supply of rifles and ammunition. There are varying accounts of casualties from both sides. The IRA inflicts a minimum of three casualties on the British side and the ambush gives many volunteers their first experience of battle. Some of the volunteers who take part in the ambush claim that five and upwards of ten on the British side are wounded. The British claim that they killed one IRA man and wounded several others. They also admit that three of their soldiers are wounded. The following day, British police and military carry out an exhaustive search in the intervening districts. It is reported in the Western People, that in the search that follows, the police and military from Claremorris and Ballyhaunis find blood stains over the ground covered by the IRA and two shotguns, a loaded revolver and two overcoats. In reality the IRA suffers only one casualty, that of their Cmdt. Patrick Kenny. In the military drive that follows, the number of private houses raided totals one hundred and fifty, however nothing incriminating is found.

After Cmdt. Kenny is safely extracted from the engagement; he is carried by Volunteers Jack and William Caulfield along with others to a house nearby and then on to Pat Healy’s house. The British military’s account reports that the soldiers witness a body being carried into a house nearby. From there he is taken to be treated first by Dr. A Smyth, Ballyhaunis, who is the battalion’s Medical Officer. He is moved to Mayo County infirmary and treated by Dr. McBride, however, it is deemed unsafe for him to stay there so after 24 hours he has to leave and is treated by Dr. Hopkins Castlebar in Union hospital for ten days. Members of Cumann na mBan employed in the Union hospital had established an IRA ward in a disused portion of the hospital where numerous wounded volunteers are treated throughout the war. When Kenny has recovered sufficiently, he is taken to Surgeon M Ó Máille in Galway, where he receives treatment for five weeks. He then goes on to recuperate in the home of Pádraic Ó Máille TD near Maum in Connemara for four months. Ó Máille’s home is used as a safe house by the West Connemara, West Mayo and South Mayo IRA Brigades. Kenny returns to the Ballyhaunis area in April 1921.

(Pictured: Ballyhaunis IRA September 1921: Back L-R:Capt. Pat McNieve (Logboy Coy), Capt Austin Tarpey (Holywell Coy), Bn Cmdt. Patrick Kenny, Vol Joe Taylor (Aghamore Coy), Vol John Forde (Bekan Coy), Capt. Luke Taylor (Aghamore Coy), Vol Sonny Biesty (Holywell Coy), Bn Vice Cmdt. Dom Byrne, Front L-R: Vol Jack Kilduff (Bekan Coy), Bn Adjt. Austin Kenny, Capt. Michael Devaney (Brackloon Coy), Capt. Jim Kilkenny (Crossard Coy), Lt Michael Nolan (Knock Coy). Nearly all of the men photographed played some part in the Holywell Ambush)


by Leave a comment

Death of Joe Lynch, Comedy & Drama Actor

Joseph Laurence Lynch, Irish actor who has a long career in both comedy and drama, dies on August 1, 2001, in Alicante, Spain. He provides voice work for children’s animated series, in particular Chorlton and the Wheelies. He is also a singer and songwriter, performing in the film Johnny Nobody (1961). He also records work by other songwriters, including Leo Maguire‘s “The Whistling Gypsy” and Dick Farrelly‘s “Cottage by the Lee,” one of his biggest 1950s recordings.

Born in Mallow, County Cork, on July 16, 1925, Lynch attends the North Monastery Christian Brothers School. He has a number of other jobs before moving into acting and broadcasting full time.

Initially acting part-time with the Cork Shakespearean Company and at the Cork Opera House, by 1947 Lynch is acting full-time.

Lynch is a founding member of the Radio Éireann Players and appears in productions of Teresa Deevy plays among others. During the 1950s he is responsible for a Radio Éireann show Living with Lynch, broadcast on Sunday nights, the first comedy series on Radio Éireann. Between 1967–81, he acts onstage with the Abbey Theatre.

Lynch appears in the popular ABC/Thames Television sitcom Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width (1968–70), and its spin-off feature film in 1973. Other notable film roles include The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), The Running Man (1963), Girl with Green Eyes (1964), The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Ulysses (1967), Loot (1970), The Mackintosh Man (1973), The Outsider (1980), If You Go Down in the Woods Today (1981) and Eat the Peach (1986). In the 1970s, he makes regular guest appearances as Elsie Tanner‘s boyfriend in the long-running Granada Television soap Coronation Street.

In 1962, and again in 1977, Lynch wins a Jacob’s Award for his acting on RTÉ television.

By 1979, Lynch is back in Ireland, and makes his first appearances as Dinny Byrne in the RTÉ soap Bracken. Later the Byrne character would feature in the long-running RTÉ soap Glenroe.

Lynch quits Glenroe after he claims to have been “shamefully treated” and offered “small potatoes” when he asked for a pay rise. He is also upset that he is not to get a pension. RTÉ disputes those claims. He criticised RTÉ for preventing him from doing other acting work alongside Glenroe. “I was terrible restricted in RTÉ, they wouldn’t let me off for anything, even commercials.”

Lynch voices the main antagonist, Grundel the Toad, in the Don Bluth film Thumbelina, his final audio work before his death seven years later.

Lynch dies suddenly on August 1, 2001, in Alicante, Spain, where he had been living since leaving Glenroe.


by Leave a comment

The Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 Receives Royal Assent

The Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict, c. 56), an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates the system of poor relief in Ireland, receives royal assent on July 31, 1838. The legislation is largely influenced by the English Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.

Following its enactment, one hundred and thirty poor law unions (PLU) are established throughout the country. Each Union has a workhouse, financed by the payment of rates on landholders in the Union district. The administration of the poor law unions in Ireland is overseen by the Poor Law Commissioners who maintain control by setting up strict accounting and recording systems. Each PLU is managed locally by a board of Guardians who meet weekly to oversee the running of the workhouse (indoor) and relief work schemes (outdoor).

The vast bulk of the surviving PLU records comprises Minute and Rate Books. To a much lesser degree indoor and outdoor relief registers and records such as death registers and porter’s books survive.

Minute Books contain the records of each weekly meeting of the Board of Guardians. They take account of the finances of the Union, procurement of provisions, hiring of staff, management of inmates, and any other issues that may arise regarding the week-to-week running of the Workhouse. The Minute Books also record the number of inmates in the workhouse, numbers admitted or left in the week as well as distinguishing between sexes, adults, and children. They also record the number of sick inmates and the number of deaths each week.

Rate Books account for the rates paid by occupiers of property and the nature of the property they occupy.

Registers account for persons receiving relief from the Union. Indoor registers list the name, age, sex, religion, previous address, condition on entering, and date of entry and leaving the workhouse for each inmate.


by Leave a comment

Killing of Frank Brooke, Director of Dublin and South Eastern Railways

Francis Theophilius “Frank” Brooke PC, JP, DL, Anglo-Irish Director of Dublin and South Eastern Railway and a member of the Earl of Ypres‘ Advisory Council, is killed allegedly by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in his Dublin office on July 30, 1920.

Brooke is a cousin of Sir Basil Brooke, the future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (1943-63) who is later created, in 1952, the 1st Viscount Brookeborough.

Brooke is also Deputy Lieutenant of County Wicklow and County Fermanagh, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, a Justice of the Peace for County Fermanagh and an Irish Privy Counsellor (1918), thus he is styled The Right Honourable Francis Brooke.

In July 1912 Brooke attends a house party at Wentworth Woodhouse hosted for George V‘s stay there.

On July 30, 1920, Brooke is killed, at the age of 69, at his offices in Dublin, by Paddy Daly, Tom Keogh and Jim Slattery, members of Michael Collins‘s Squad of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He is killed in view of a colleague, who is spared. He is marked out for his activities as a judge, anti-republican activities, and his friendship with Sir John French. As an Irish Privy Counsellor, he is a signatory of the order proclaiming Dáil Éireann illegal.

The inquest following the assassination finds that Brooke had a pistol in his jacket pocket. His killing has been termed the only outright political assassination of the Irish War of Independence.

(Photo credit: Kevin Lee)


by 2 Comments

Birth of Patrick Coveney, Prelate of the Catholic Church

Patrick Coveney, Irish prelate of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1966 to 2009, is born in Tracton, County Cork, on July 29, 1934. He becomes an archbishop in 1985 and fulfills several assignments as Apostolic Nuncio, including stints in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, New Zealand, and Greece.

Coveney obtains the academic degree of Bachelor of Arts in classical languages and literature at Maynooth College, and the Licentiate of Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, Italy. He is ordained as a priest at the age of twenty-four on February 21, 1959, by the archbishop vicegerent (deputy vicar general of Rome) Luigi Traglia in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

After doing parish work in Kidlington, England, Coveney teaches in St. Finbarr’s College, the minor seminary of the Diocese of Cork and Ross in Cork from 1960 to 1966. When use of the vernacular language is introduced into the celebration of the Roman Rite Mass, he edits a lectionary in English.

In September 1966, Coveney goes to work in the English-language section of the Secretariat of State in the Vatican. This sometimes involves acting as interpreter at audiences of Pope Paul VI, as when the Pope receives the three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission that first lands human beings on the Moon.

At the Pontifical Lateran University Coveney obtains the degree of Doctor of Canon Law in 1969.

To prepare for a diplomatic career Coveney enters the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1969 and enters the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1971.

Coveney serves with the rank of Secretary in the Apostolic Nunciature in Buenos Aires from 1972 to 1976, returning then to the Secretariat of State in the Vatican. He is counselor of the nunciatures in New Delhi (1982–1984) and Khartoum (1984–1985).

On July 27, 1985, Coveney is appointed titular Archbishop of Satrianum and Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Zimbabwe and Apostolic Delegate to Mozambique. He is ordained to the episcopate on September 15, 1985, in the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Anne, Cork. The principal consecrator is the Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli. The principal co-consecrators are Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, and Bishop Michael Murphy, Bishop of Cork and Ross. In Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, he represents the Holy See at the 8th Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement on September 1–6, 1986.

On January 25, 1990, Coveney is appointed Nuncio to Ethiopia and also becomes Apostolic Delegate to Djibouti on March 26, 1992, and Nuncio to Eritrea on September 30, 1995.

Coveney becomes Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand, Tonga, the Marshall Islands, and Samoa, and Apostolic Delegate for Oceania on hpril 27, 1996. His remit is expanded to include Apostolic Nuncio to Fiji, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Vanuatu on October 15, 1996, and Apostolic Nuncio to Nauru on December 7, 1996. He is also named Apostolic Nuncio to the Cook Islands and Palau on July 14, 2001. As the longest-serving resident diplomatic representative to New Zealand, Archbishop Coveney serves for a time as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. While based in Wellington, he also represents the Holy See at the inauguration of Chen Shui-bian as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on May 18, 2004.

Coveney’s last diplomatic appointment is as Apostolic Nuncio to Greece on January 25, 2005. On November 5, 2008, he officiates at the presentation to the Acropolis Museum in Athens of a fragment of the Parthenon Frieze on loan from the Vatican Museums. He resides in Athens until his retirement in 2009.

Coveney returns to the Diocese of Cork and Ross to reside in Crosshaven Parish. He assists in Crosshaven parish and celebrates the Sacrament of Confirmation in many parishes throughout the Diocese of Cork and Ross. He dies at the age of 88 on October 22, 2022.


by Leave a comment

Birth of John Bowman, Broadcaster & Presenter

John Bowman, Irish historian and a long-standing broadcaster and presenter of current affairs and political programmes with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), is born in Dublin on July 28, 1942. He chairs the audience-participation political programme Questions and Answers on RTÉ One for 21 years.

Bowman is brought up in Ballsbridge in south Dublin. His father works for Great Southern Railways (later CIÉ) and his mother is a nurse, originally from County Monaghan. He is educated at Belvedere College and Trinity College Dublin where he receives a bachelor’s degree in history and political science in 1970 and a PhD in political science in 1980. He joins Radio Éireann in 1962, later becoming the presenter and commentator on numerous current affairs programmes, as well as an analyst of political developments and interviewer of politicians on radio and later on television. In the 1980s, he presents the current affairs programme Today Tonight, the precursor to Prime Time.

Bowman wins Jacob’s Awards in 2013 and 2016 for his radio broadcasting, the former for his presentation of the current affairs programme, Day by Day. In April 2008, he comments on RTÉ television coverage of the state funeral of Patrick Hillery, a former President of Ireland.

Bowman chairs the audience-participation political programme Questions and Answers on RTÉ One television for 21 years, the final edition airing on June 29, 2009. He is the presenter of Bowman: Sunday: 8.30 (previously Bowman Saturday) on radio, a weekly compilation of material from broadcasting archives at home and abroad.

In May 2011, Bowman fronts RTÉ television coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Republic of Ireland.

Bowman writes a history of RTÉ Television called Window and Mirror. RTÉ Television: 1961-2011. It is launched by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin on November 23, 2011.

In January 2019, Bowman is awarded the Freedom of the City of Cork.

Bowman serves a two-year term as president of The Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations from 1991 and of Comhar, an environmental pressure group, from 1999 until 2004.

Bowman is married to psychiatrist Eimer Philbin Bowman and they have have four children: Jonathan, Emma, Abie and Daniel. His eldest son, Jonathan Philbin Bowman, a journalist, television and radio presenter, dies in an accident in March 2000. His daughter, Emma Philbin Bowman, works in Dublin as a psychotherapist. His middle son, Abie Philbin Bowman, is a columnist for The Dubliner magazine and a stand-up comedian, while in 2005 his youngest son, Daniel, initiates Be Not Afraid, a charity wristband campaign which raises over €80,000 in aid of Turning the Tide of Suicide and the Irish Red Cross and later sets up a youth marketing firm, Spark.


by Leave a comment

Birth of Henry Armstrong, Northern Irish Barrister & Politician

Henry Bruce Wright Armstrong, Northern Irish barrister and politician, Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Armagh from June 1921 until 1922, is born on July 27, 1844, at Hull House in Sholden, a small village adjacent to the seaside town of Deal, Kent, South East England.

Armstrong is the second surviving son of William Jones Wright Armstrong of County Armagh and Frances Elizabeth, widow of Sir Michael McCreagh, and daughter of Major Christopher Wilson. He is educated at The Royal School, Armagh and Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining a BA (2nd Class Law Tripos) in 1867 and an MA in 1870. Admitted at the Inner Temple in 1866, he is called to the Bar in 1868.

In 1883, Armstrong marries Margaret Leader, daughter of William Leader of Rosnalea, County Cork. They have five sons and three daughters, of whom C. W. Armstrong also becomes a politician.

Armstrong is appointed High Sheriff of Armagh for 1875 and High Sheriff of Longford for 1894. He is a County Councillor for Armagh from 1899 to 1920, and a Member of the Irish Convention in 1917–18. Vice-Lieutenant of County Armagh in 1920, he is a Senator of Queen’s University Belfast from 1920 to 1937.

Armstrong is returned unopposed to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom for Mid Armagh in a by-election in 1921, at the advanced age of 76, becoming one of the oldest first-time MPs whose birth date is recorded. Certainly, he immediately becomes the oldest member of the current House of Commons. He is a Senator of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1937, and Lord Lieutenant of Armagh from 1924 to 1939. For 25 years he is a member of the Representative Body of the Church of Ireland. He is Chairman of the County Armagh Education Committee from 1925 to 1931, and President of the Association of Education Committees of Northern Ireland. In 1932 he is made a Privy Councillor for Northern Ireland, and in 1938 he serves as a Justice for the Government of Northern Ireland in the absence of the Governor.

Armstrong dies at the age of 99 on December 4, 1943, at his home in Dean’s Hill, County Armagh.