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The Flight of the Earls

On September 4, 1607, Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O’Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, and about ninety followers depart from Lough Swilly for the European continent. It is known in Irish history as the “Flight of the Earls.” Their permanent exile is a watershed event in Irish history, symbolizing the end of the old Gaelic order.

After the defeat at the Siege of Kinsale in 1601, Hugh Roe O’Donnell of Tyrconnell travels to Spain to seek support from Philip III. Unsuccessful, he dies in Spain and is succeeded by his younger brother Rory O’Donnell.

The O’Neills and O’Donnells retain their lands and titles, although with much-diminished extent and authority. However, the countryside is laid bare in a campaign of destruction in 1602, which induces famine in 1603. Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, is pardoned under the terms of the Treaty of Mellifont in March 1603 and submits to the crown.

When King James VI and I takes the English throne in 1603, he quickly proceeds to issue pardons for the Irish lords and their rebel forces. Already reigning as king of Scotland, he has a better understanding of the advantages from working with local chiefs in the Scottish Highlands. However, as in other Irish lordships, the 1603 peace involves O’Neill losing substantial areas of land to his cousins and neighbors, who would be granted freeholds under the English system, instead of the looser arrangements under the former Brehon law system. This is not a new policy but is a well-understood and longstanding practice in the Tudor conquest of Ireland.

On September 10, 1602, the Prince of Tyrconnell has already died, allegedly assassinated, in Spain, and his brother succeeds him as 25th Chieftain of the O’Donnell clan. He is later granted the Earldom of Tyrconnell by King James I on September 4, 1603, and restored to a somewhat diminished scale of territories in Tyrconnell on February 10, 1604.

In 1605, the new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester, begins to encroach on the former freedoms of the two Earls and The Maguire, enforcing the new freeholds, especially that granted in North Ulster to the O’Cahan chief. The O’Cahan had formerly been important subjects of the O’Neills and required protection; in turn, Chichester wants to reduce O’Neill’s authority. O’Cahan has also wanted to remove himself from O’Neill’s overlordship. An option is to charge O’Neill with treason if he does not comply with the new arrangements. The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the same year makes it harder for Catholics to appear loyal to both the crown and the papacy. A lengthy legal battle however finds in O’Neill’s favor.

By 1607, O’Neill’s allies the Maguires and the Earl of Tyrconnell are finding it hard to maintain their prestige on lower incomes. They plan to seek Spanish support before news of the Battle of Gibraltar arrives. When their ship drops anchor, O’Neill seems to have joined them on impulse. He had three options:

  • Flee with his friends and hope for a reinvasion by Spain
  • Go to London and stay at court until his grievances are redressed
  • Do nothing and live on a reduced income as a large landowner in Ulster

Fearing arrest, they choose to flee to Continental Europe, where they hope to recruit an army for the invasion of Ireland with Spanish help. However, earlier in 1607 the main Spanish fleet in Europe had been defeated by the Dutch in the Battle of Gibraltar. But the oft-repeated theory that they are all about to be arrested contradicts writer Tadhg Ó Cianáin, the main historical source on the Flight, who says at the start of his account that O’Neill heard news of the ship anchored at Rathmullen on Thursday September 6, and “took his leave of the Lord Justice (Chichester) the following Saturday.” They had been meeting at Slane for several days, and there is no proof that warrants for his arrest have been drawn up, nor is it a hurried departure.

Also, as the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) has been ended by the Treaty of London in 1604, King Philip III of Spain wants to remain at peace with England under its new Stuart dynasty. As a part of the peace proposals, a Spanish princess is to marry James’ son, Henry, though this never happens. Spain had also gone bankrupt in 1598. Tyrone ignores all these realities, remains in Italy, and persists with his invasion plan until his death in exile in 1616.

The earls set sail from Rathmullan, a village on the shore of Lough Swilly in County Donegal, with some of the leading Gaelic families in Ulster. Several leave their wives behind, hoping either to return or retrieve them later. They travel down Lough Swilly on a French ship. Their departure is the end of the old Gaelic order, in that the earls are descended from Gaelic clan dynasties that had ruled their parts of Ulster for centuries. They finally reach the Continent on October 4, 1607.

Their destination is Spain, but they disembark in France. The party proceeds overland to Spanish Flanders, some remaining in Leuven, while the main party continues to Italy. Tadhg Ó Cianáin subsequently describes the journey in great detail. While the party is welcomed by many important officials in the Spanish Netherlands, he makes no mention of any negotiations or planning between the earls and the Spanish to start a new war to regain the earls’ properties.

James I soon plants the O’Neill and O’Donnell lands with Protestant settlers, helping to sow the seeds of the present “Troubles.” O’Donnell dies in Rome in 1608 and O’Neill dies there also in 1616.

Ó Cianáin’s diary is important as the only continuous and contemporaneous account of the Flight. Its original title, Turas na dTaoiseach nUltach as Éirinn – the departure of the Chiefs of Ulster from Ireland – has been changed since the creation of the more dramatic phrase “Flight of the Earls” to the latter’s modern literal translation, Imeacht na nIarlaí.

The Flight of the Earls is a watershed event in Irish history, as the ancient Gaelic aristocracy of Ulster goes into permanent exile. Despite their attachment to and importance in the Gaelic system, the Earls’ ancestors had accepted their Earldoms from the English-run Kingdom of Ireland in the 1540s, under the policy of surrender and regrant. Some historians argue that their flight is forced upon them by the fallout from the Tudor conquest of Ireland, while others that it is an enormous strategic mistake that clears the way for the Plantation of Ulster.

From 1616, a number of bards outside Ulster have a poetic debate in the “Contention of the bards” and one of the arguments celebrates King James’s Gaelic-Irish Milesian ancestry through Malcolm III of Scotland. So, it is debatable whether the Gaelic order has ended or is evolving.

(Pictured: A bronze sculpture commemorating the Flight in Rathmullan, County Donegal)


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Mary Peters Becomes First Irish Woman to Win an Olympic Gold Medal

Lady Mary Elizabeth Peters, LG, CH, DBE, Northern Irish former athlete and athletics administrator, wins the women’s pentathlon on September 3, 1972, at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, becoming the first Irish woman to win an Olympic Gold medal.

Peters is born on July 6, 1939, in Halewood, Lancashire, England, later living at 5 Mere Avenue in Alkrington, where she goes to primary school. She moves to Ballymena (and later Belfast) at the age of eleven when her father’s job is relocated to Northern Ireland. As a teenager, her father encourages her athletic career by building her home practice facilities as birthday gifts. She qualifies as a teacher and works while training.

After Ballymena, the family moves to Portadown where she attends Portadown College. The headmaster, Donald Woodman, and the PE teacher, Kenneth McClelland, introduce her to athletics, McClelland being her first coach. She is head girl of the school in 1956.

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Peters wins the gold medal in the women’s pentathlon. She had finished 4th in 1964 and 9th in 1968. To win the gold medal, she narrowly beats the local favourite, West Germany’s Heide Rosendahl, by 10 points, setting a world record score. After her victory, death threats are phoned into the BBC: “Mary Peters is a Protestant and has won a medal for Britain. An attempt will be made on her life, and it will be blamed on the IRA … Her home will be going up in the near future.” But Peters insists she will return home to Belfast. She is greeted by fans and a band at the airport and paraded through the city streets but is not allowed back in her flat for three months. Turning down jobs in the United States and Australia, where her father lives, she insists on remaining in Northern Ireland.

In 1972, Peters wins the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award: “Peters, a 33-year-old secretary from Belfast, won Britain’s only athletics gold at the Munich Olympics. The pentathlon competition was decided on the final event, the 200m, and Peters claimed the title by one-tenth of a second.”

She represents Northern Ireland at every Commonwealth Games between 1958 and 1974. In these games she wins two gold medals for the pentathlon, plus a gold and silver medal for the shot put.

Peters establishes a charitable Sports Trust in 1975 (now known as the Mary Peters Trust) to support talented young sportsmen and -women, both able-bodied and disabled, from across Northern Ireland in a financial and advisory capacity. The trust has made a large number of awards and has a list of well-known alumni that includes Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Jonathan Rea, Darren Clarke, David Humphreys, Bethany Firth, Ryan Burnett, Carl Frampton, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Kelly Gallagher, and Michael McKillop.

In May 2001, following her athletic career, Peters becomes a Trustee of The Outward Bound Trust and is Vice-President of the Northern Ireland Outward Bound Association. She is also Patron of Springhill Hospice in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Peters is appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to athletics in the 1973 New Year Honours. For services to sport, she is promoted in the same Order to Commander (CBE) in the 1990 Birthday Honours and again to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 2000 Birthday Honours. In the 2015 New Year Honours, she is awarded as Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH), also for services to sport and the community in Northern Ireland, and in 2017, she is made a Dame of the Order of Saint John (DStJ). She is appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) on February 27, 2019, and therefore granted the title Lady. She represents the Order at the 2023 coronation.

Northern Ireland’s premier athletics track, on the outskirts of Belfast, is named after Peters. A statue of her stands within it.

In April 2009, Peters is named the Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast; she retires from the post in 2014, being succeeded by Fionnuala Jay-O’Boyle. She is a Freeman of the Cities of Lisburn and Belfast.

Peters now lives in Derriaghy, within the Lisburn and Castlereagh district, just outside Belfast.


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Death of Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly

Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald, Irish magnate, soldier, and Justiciar of Ireland from 1272 to 1273, dies in Ross, County Wexford, on September 2, 1277. His family comes to epitomise the ideal of cultural synthesis in Ireland, becoming “more Irish than the Irish themselves,” fusing Gaelic and Norman customs in Irish identity.

FitzGerald is born in 1238 in Wexford, the second son of Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly, and Juliana de Grenville. He has three brothers, Gerald FitzMaurice II, Thomas FitzMaurice and David FitzMaurice. He is known by the nickname of Maurice Mael (from an old word meaning “devotee” in Irish). He is granted his father’s lands in Connacht in exchange for quitclaiming the barony of Offaly sometime before May 20, 1257, when his father, Maurice FitzGerald II, dies at Youghal Monastery.

Before his father’s death, FitzGerald is custos of Offaly, but after the 2nd Lord of Offaly dies, the countess of Lincoln, Margaret de Quincy, sues him for custody of Offaly.

Terrible feuds rage in his time between the Geraldines and the De Burghs. FitzGerald and his nephew John, son of his brother Thomas, capture the justiciar, Richard de la Rochelle, Theobald Butler IV, and John de Cogan I (whose son is married to Maurice FitzGerald III’s sister, Juliana). The capture of the three magnates leads to a private war in Ireland, with the Geraldines on one side and Walter de Burgh and Geoffrey de Geneville on the other. However, the Second Barons’ War in England forces them to come to a temporary peace while they battle Montfortians in the English Midlands in 1266.

In May 1265, FitzGerald is among the chief magnates in Ireland summoned to inform King Henry III of England and his son Prince Edward about conditions in the country, and again in June 1265. These are the result of the private war between the Geraldines and Walter de Burgh, lord of Connacht (who is later made the 1st Earl of Ulster). He is appointed Justiciar of Ireland on June 23, 1272, following the accidental death of his predecessor, James de Audley, on June 11 of that year. His father had served in the same capacity from 1232 to 1245. He holds the post until September 1273, when he is succeeded by Sir Geoffrey de Geneville, Seigneur de Vaucouleurs.

FitzGerald holds four knight’s fees in both Lea and Geashill from Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, who had inherited them from his wife, Maud de Braose.

In 1276, FitzGerald leads a force of men from Connacht against the Irish of County Wicklow. His contingent joins the main army of English settlers jointly commanded by his son-in-law, Thomas de Clare, Lord of Inchiquin and Youghal, who had been made Lord of Thomond earlier that same year, and Sir Geoffrey de Geneville, Maurice’s successor as Justiciar of Ireland. The English under Thomas de Clare and Geoffrey de Geneville attack the Irish at Glenmalure, but are defeated and suffer heavy losses.

Shortly before October 28, 1259, FitzGerald married his first wife, Maud de Prendergast, daughter of Sir Gerald de Prendergast of Beauvoir and Matilda de Burgh, daughter of Richard Mór de Burgh. Together they have two daughters:

FitzGerald is Maud’s third husband. She dies on an unknown date. In 1273, he marries his second wife, Emmeline Longespee (1252–1291), daughter of Stephen Longespée and Emmeline de Ridelsford. He and Emeline have no issue.

FitzGerald dies September 2, 1277, at Ross, County Wexford. Emmeline Longespée then fights until her death to claim her dower against her daughter, Juliana, her stepdaughter, Amabilia, and John FitzGerald, who is created 1st Earl of Kildare on May 14, 1316. John is the son of his brother, Thomas by Rohesia de St. Michael. John sues or physically takes lands from the bailiffs of Emmeline, Juliana, and Amabilia.

There is some confusion as to whether Gerald Fitzmaurice FitzGerald is the first or second son of Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly. Most, like M. Hickson, of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI) say he is the eldest. Lord Walter FitzGerald says he is the second. In any event, he predeceases his father in 1243. His son, Maurice FitzGerald, drowns in the Irish Channel in July 1268. His son is Gerald FitzMaurice III, born in 1263. Gerald’s marriage is sold to Geoffrey de Geneville, who matches Gerald with his own daughter, Joan, but he dies childless on August 29, 1287.

Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald 3rd Earl of Offaly, is succeeded by his nephew John, son of his younger brother Thomas FitzMaurice FitzGerald.


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Birth of John Redmond, Irish Nationalist Politician

John Edward Redmond, Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, is born to an old prominent Catholic family in Kilrane, County Wexford on September 1, 1856. He is best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) from 1900 until his death. He is also leader of the paramilitary organisation the National Volunteers.

Several of Redmond’s relatives are politicians. He takes over control of the minority IPP faction loyal to Charles Stewart Parnell after Parnell dies in 1891. He is a conciliatory politician who achieves the two main objectives of his political life: party unity and, in September 1914, the passing of the Irish Home Rule Act.

The Irish Home Rule Act grants limited self-government to Ireland, within the United Kingdom. However, implementation of Home Rule is suspended by the outbreak of the World War I. Redmond calls on the National Volunteers to join Irish regiments of the New British Army and support the British and Allied war effort to restore the “freedom of small nations” on the European continent, thereby to also ensure the implementation of Home Rule after a war that is expected to be of short duration. However, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Irish public opinion shifts in favour of militant republicanism and full Irish independence, resulting in his party losing its dominance in Irish politics.

In sharp contrast to Parnell, Redmond lacks charisma. He works well in small committees but has little success in arousing large audiences. Parnell had always chosen the nominees to Parliament. Now they are selected by the local party organisations, giving Redmond numerous weak MPs over whom he has little control. He is an excellent representative of the old Ireland but grows increasingly old-fashioned because he pays little attention to the new forces attracting younger Irishmen, such as Sinn Féin in politics, the Gaelic Athletic Association in sports, and the Gaelic League in cultural affairs.

Redmond never tries to understand the unionist forces emerging in Ulster. He is further weakened in 1914 by the formation of the Irish Volunteers by Sinn Féin members. His enthusiastic support for the British war effort alienates many Irish nationalists. His party has been increasingly hollowed out, and a major crisis, notably the Easter Rising, is enough to destroy it.

Redmond is increasingly eclipsed by ill-health after 1916. An operation in March 1918 to remove an intestinal obstruction appears to progress well initially, but he then suffers heart failure. He dies a few hours later at a London nursing home on March 6, 1918.

Condolences and expressions of sympathy are widely expressed. After a funeral service in Westminster Cathedral his remains are interred, as requested in a manner characteristic of the man, in the family vault at the old Knights Templars‘ chapel yard of Saint John’s Cemetery, Wexford, amongst his own people rather than in the traditional burial place for Irish statesmen and heroes in Glasnevin Cemetery. The small, neglected cemetery near the town centre is kept locked to the public. His vault, which has been in a dilapidated state, has been only partially restored by Wexford County Council.


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The Establishment of the Irish Legion

The Irish Legion, a light infantry regiment in service of the French Imperial Army for an anticipated invasion of Ireland, is established on August 31, 1803, in Morlaix, France. Bernard MacSheehy, an Adjutant-General in Napoleon‘s army, is assigned to form the regiment. Later expanded to four battalions and a depot, the legion wins distinction in the Walcheren Expedition, the Peninsular War, and the German Campaign of 1813. Following the disbandment of the foreign regiments in 1815, the regiment’s personnel are distributed.

The first officers include members of the Society of United Irishmen who had fled to France in 1797. It also includes Irishmen who had been taken during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 who were freed during the short peace effected by the Treaty of Amiens on condition of exile, and who had sailed for France in June 1802. The treaty breaks down in May 1803 with the start of the War of the Third Coalition. As a part of Napoleon’s planned invasion of the United Kingdom in 1803–05, the Irish Legion is to provide the indigenous core for a much larger invasion force of 20,000 earmarked to take Ireland, known as the Corps d’Irlande.

The purpose of the Legion is to align the Irish hearts to the French cause in the imminent invasion of Ireland. General Charles-Pierre Augereau is ordained to lead the invasion and wants Irishmen to serve in his army. However, the Battle of Cape Finisterre and the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 make a safe sea crossing uncertain at best, and Napoleon is forced to abandon his plans for Ireland. He shifts his focus towards Austria and Eastern Europe and launches the Austerlitz campaign in late 1805. The legion remains on the French coast on garrison duty and coastal defence.

The Legion is eventually expanded from a battalion to a regiment and there is greater demand for more soldiers. These make a varied group; some are former United Irishmen who were taken prisoner in 1798-99 and then freed during the peace that followed the Treaty of Amiens (1802–03), some had been impressed into the Royal Navy and deserted, and some were German or Polish. While the Legion is stationed at the Fortress of Mainz in 1806, they are joined by 1,500 Poles and many Irishmen who were sent in 1799 to serve the King of Prussia. Its headquarters is at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, known to the French as Bois-le-Duc, in what is then the Kingdom of Holland.

The Irish Legion has its own flag, and in December 1805 receives an eagle. The Legion is the only group of foreign soldiers in the French military to whom Napoleon ever gives an eagle. Wearing a green uniform, its maximum size is about 2,000 men.

The regiment is greatly assisted from 1807 by Napoleon’s war minister Marshal of France Henri Clarke, who was born in France to Irish parents and whose family had close links to the ancien regime Irish brigade that had served the kings of France. He and his father had served in Dillon’s Regiment, and his mother’s father and several uncles served in Clare’s Regiment. In August 1811, the Legion is renamed the 3e Regiment Etranger (Irlandais) (3rd Foreign Regiment (Irish)), but throughout the unit’s history it is always referred to as the Irish Regiment.

The regiment divides in loyalty during the “Hundred Days,” and is officially disbanded by King Louis XVIII on September 28, 1815. Its flags are burned and its eagle, like many, disappears.

(Pictured: Regimental Colours of the Irish Legion (Obverse))


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Birth of Thomas Pringle, Irish Independent Politician

Thomas Pringle, an Irish independent politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency since the 2016 Irish general election, is born into an Irish Republican family in Dublin on August 30, 1967. From 2011 to 2016 he is the TD for the Donegal South-West constituency.

Pringle’s father, Peter, is a supporter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and is convicted of the killing of two members of the Gardaí in 1980, a conviction that is subsequently declared as unsafe, although it has not been certified as a miscarriage of justice. Pringle is a patron of the People’s Movement, which campaigns against the Treaty of Lisbon. He is previously a member of Donegal County Council, where he manages a water treatment plant and is a shop steward, having been elected as an independent member in the 1999 Irish local elections, and then as a Sinn Féin candidate in the 2004 Irish local elections. He leaves Sinn Féin in 2007 and retains his seat as an independent in the 2009 Irish local elections.

Pringle is elected as a TD for the Donegal South-West constituency at the 2011 Irish general election, unseating the incumbent Tánaiste Mary Coughlan. He quickly becomes an ally of Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, elected as an independent TD at the same time as Pringle, but for the Roscommon–South Leitrim constituency. Flanagan and Pringle go on to support each other on many issues, including reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and opposition to the Mercosur deal. Even when Flanagan is elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Midlands–North-West constituency after spending three years in the Dáil, he and Pringle continue to work together, and Flanagan visits Donegal to canvass for Pringle ahead of the 2020 Irish general election.

On December 5, 2011, Pringle delivers a televised address to the nation, representing the technical group of TDs in Dáil Éireann. He does so in response to Taoiseach Enda Kenny‘s address to the nation of the previous evening. Later that month, he calls on people for support in a campaign not to pay a new household charge brought in as part of the latest austerity budget and announces that he will not register for the tax or pay it.

In February 2012, Pringle publishes his expenses online. He is elected leader of the technical group in Dáil Éireann in March 2012.

In May 2012, Pringle brings an unsuccessful High Court challenge over the 2012 European Fiscal Compact referendum and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Treaty which is appealed to the Supreme Court in July 2012. In July 2012, the Irish Supreme Court decides to refer three questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) arising out of his challenge of the European Stability Mechanism Treaty and doubts about the ESM’s legality under the Treaties of the European Union. The CJEU holds an oral hearing on the referral on October 23, 2012. It is the first time that the full court sits to hear a reference from a member state of the Union. The 27 judges hear oral arguments from the counsel for Pringle, Ireland, nine other member states, the Commission, the Council, and the European Parliament. On November 27, 2012, the EU Court of Justice dismisses Pringle’s arguments and rules that the ESM is in accordance with the Treaties.

In the 2016 Irish general election, after a re-drawing of constituency boundaries, Pringle campaigns in the new five-seater Donegal constituency. He is re-elected to the final seat by a margin of just 184 votes over Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn. During negotiations to form a government, Pringle says he is glad not to have signed up to the Independent Alliance, after that group enters talks with Taoiseach Enda Kenny. He says that unless Kenny or Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin sign up to Right2Change, he will not support either as Taoiseach.

As of April 2016, Pringle had become a member of the Independents 4 Change technical group in the Dáil.

In May 2016, Pringle introduces legislation designed to retain water in public ownership and avoid further privatisation.

Pringle puts forward a bill calling on the government to end public spending from fossil fuels, which passes, making Ireland the first country to fully divest public money from fossil fuels. In June 2022, he puts forward a bill proposing a referendum on lowering the voting age to sixteen.

Pringle is married and has three children.


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Death of James Joseph Quinlan, Irish-Born Union Army Officer

James Joseph Quinlan, Union Army officer during the American Civil War and Medal of Honor winner, dies in Queens, New York, on August 29, 1906.

Quinlan is born in Clonmel, County Tipperary on September 13, 1833.

Quinlan is appointed as Major of the 88th New York Infantry in December 1861. He becomes the regiment’s Lieutenant Colonel in October 1862 and is discharged in February 1863.

Quinlan receives America’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, on February 18, 1891, for his actions at the Battle of Savage’s Station in Henrico County, Virginia, the fourth of the Seven Days Battles (Peninsula Campaign). His citation states he “led his regiment on the enemy’s battery, silenced the guns, held the position against overwhelming numbers, and covered the retreat of the Second Army Corps.”

James Joseph Quinlan dies on August 29, 1906, in Queens, New York and is buried at Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York City.


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Birth of Mary Letitia Martin, Novelist & Philanthropist

Mary Letitia Martin, Irish novelist and philanthropist who is known as the “Princess of Connemara,” is born in Ballynahinch Castle, in the Connemara region of County Galway, on August 28, 1815. She publishes two books in her lifetime, and a third is published posthumously.

Martin is born into the chief landowning family of Connemara, the Martins of Ballynahinch Castle, a branch of the Martyn Tribe of Galway. Her parents are Thomas Barnwall Martin and Julia Kirwin. Her paternal grandfather is Richard Martin, a Member of Parliament (MP) for County Galway also known as “Humanity Dick.”

Educated at home in the upper-class style and by herself, Martin becomes fluent in Irish, English, French and a number of other languages. According to Maria Edgeworth, who meets her during her tour of Connemara in 1833, she is courted in 1834 by Count Adolphe de Werdinsky, whom she had met in London earlier in the year. She refuses to marry and de Werdinsky feigns a suicide attempt at Ballynahinch.

Martin publishes her first novel, St. Etienne, a Tale of the Vendean War, in 1845.

In 1847, Martin marries a cousin, Colonel Arthur Gonne Bell. He takes the name of Martin on marriage, by Royal Licence. In the same year, her father dies of famine fever contracted while visiting his tenants in the Clifden workhouse.

On the death of her father, Martin inherits a heavily encumbered estate of 200,000 acres. In the following two years, her remaining fortune is destroyed in the famine as she attempts to alleviate its effects on her tenants. Penniless, she emigrates with her husband to Belgium. There she contributes to a number of periodicals, notably Encyclopaedie Des Gens Du Monde.

In 1850, Martin’s autobiographical novel, Julia Howard: A Romance, is published. Martin and her husband sail to the United States in 1850, but she dies at the Union Place Hotel in New York City on November 7, 1950, ten days after arrival due to complications of premature childbirth in which the baby does not survive.

Martin’s husband returns to England. He arranges for the posthumous publication of her novel, Deed, not Words (1857). In 1883, he is killed in a railway accident.


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Death of Gaelic Footballer Seán Purcell

Seán Purcell, Gaelic footballer who plays at senior level for the Galway county football team, dies in Blackrock, Dublin, on August 27, 2005, following a short illness.

Best known as a centre half-forward, Purcell plays in most outfield positions during his career. In 2009, he is named in the Sunday Tribune‘s list of the “125 Most Influential People in GAA History.”

Born in the family home on the Dublin Road, Tuam, County Galway, on December 17, 1928, the son of John Purcell, journalist and newsagent, and his wife Norah (née Kilkenny). He is educated at the Presentation Convent, Tuam Christian Brothers School and St. Jarlath’s College. He plays in the St. Jarlath’s College side that wins the Hogan Cup in 1947, beating St. Patrick’s Grammar School, Armagh, in the final at Croke Park in Dublin. His nickname “The Master” originates when he teaches at Strawberry Hill National School in Dunmore.

Purcell’s footballing career spans three decades, from the 1940s to the 1960s. He forms a successful on-field partnership with Frank Stockwell at Galway, culminating in the team winning their fourth All-Ireland championship in 1956 and leading to their nickname as the “Terrible Twins.”

Further successes in which Purcell is involved include winning the National Football League title in 1957, three Railway Cups, one of which he captains, the 1950 Sigerson Cup, appearances with the Combined Universities side and ten county titles with the Tuam Stars, including seven in a row from 1954 to 1960.

Purcell’s involvement in the GAA continues long after his playing days as he serves in a number of positions as team mentor and administrator in Galway.

In 1984, the GAA’s centenary year, Purcell is named on the GAA Football Team of the Century and the organisation’s Football Team of the Millennium in 1999. In 1984, the Sunday Independent invites readers to vote for their Team of the Century. Purcell wins more votes than any other player. In 1991, he is inducted into the All-Stars All-Time Hall of Fame. In 2003, he is named on the St. Jarlath’s All Stars team.

Purcell dies on August 27, 2005, at the age of 76, following a short illness at the Blackrock Clinic, County Dublin. He is buried in the Athenry Road graveyard at Tuam.

Purcell marries Rita Shannon in 1961. They have four daughters and two sons before the marriage ends. His son, Robert Purcell, marries Tessa Robinson, daughter of former Irish President Mary Robinson, in 2005. His grandson, Simon Carr, is a professional tennis player. Another grandson, Sam McCartan, has played Gaelic football at senior level for Westmeath. His teenage grandson, Rory Purcell, dies in 2022.


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Death of Gerry Fitt, Northern Ireland Politician

Gerard Fitt, Northern Ireland politician, dies in London on August 26, 2005. He is a founder and the first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a social democratic and Irish nationalist party.

Fitt is born in Belfast on April 9, 1926. He is educated at a local Christian Brothers school in Belfast. He joins the Merchant Navy in 1941 and serves on convoy duty during World War II. His elder brother Geordie, an Irish Guardsman, is killed at the Battle of Normandy.

Living in the nationalist Beechmount neighbourhood of the Falls, he stands for the Falls as a candidate for the Dock Labour Party in a city council by-election in 1956, but loses to Paddy Devlin of the Irish Labour Party, who later becomes his close ally. In 1958, he is elected to Belfast City Council as a member of the Irish Labour Party.

In 1962, he wins a seat in the Parliament of Northern Ireland from the Ulster Unionist Party, becoming the only Irish Labour member. Two years later, he left Irish Labour and joined with Harry Diamond, the sole Socialist Republican Party Stormont MP, to form the Republican Labour Party. At the 1966 general election, Fitt won the Belfast West seat in the Westminster parliament.

Many sympathetic British Members of Parliament (MPs) are present at a civil rights march in Derry on October 5, 1968, when Fitt and others are beaten by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Fitt also supports the 1969 candidacy of Bernadette Devlin in the Mid Ulster by-election who runs as an anti-abstentionist ‘Unity‘ candidate. Devlin’s success greatly increases the authority of Fitt in the eyes of many British commentators, particularly as it produces a second voice on the floor of the British House of Commons who challenge the Unionist viewpoint at a time when Harold Wilson and other British ministers are beginning to take notice.

In August 1970, Fitt becomes the first leader of a coalition of civil rights and nationalist leaders who create the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). By this time Northern Ireland is charging headlong towards near-civil war and the majority of unionists remain hostile.

After the collapse of Stormont in 1972 and the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973 Fitt becomes deputy chief executive of the short-lived Power-Sharing Executive created by the Sunningdale Agreement.

Fitt becomes increasingly detached from both his own party and also becomes more outspoken in his condemnation of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He becomes a target for republican sympathisers in 1976 when they attack his home. He becomes disillusioned with the handling of Northern Ireland by the British government. In 1979, he abstains from a crucial vote in the House of Commons which brings down the Labour government, citing the way that the government had failed to help the nationalist population and tried to form a deal with the Ulster Unionist Party.

In 1979, Fitt is replaced by John Hume as leader of the SDLP and he leaves the party altogether after he agrees to constitutional talks with British Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins without any provision for an ‘Irish dimension’ and then sees his decision overturned by the SDLP party conference. Like Paddy Devlin before him, he claims the SDLP has ceased to be a socialist force.

In 1981, he opposes the hunger strikes in the Maze prison in Belfast. His seat in Westminster is targeted by Sinn Féin as well as by the SDLP. In June 1983, he loses his seat in Belfast West to Gerry Adams, in part due to competition from an SDLP candidate. The following month, on October 14, 1983, he is created a UK life peer as Baron Fitt, of Bell’s Hill in County Down. His Belfast home is firebombed a month later and he moves to London.

Gerry Fitt dies in London on August 26, 2005, at the age of 79, after a long history of heart disease.