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Death of Michael J. Browne, Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh

Michael J. Browne, an Irish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, dies in Galway, County Galway, on February 24, 1980. He serves as Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh for almost forty years from 1937 to 1976.

Browne is born in Westport, County Mayo, on December 20, 1895. He is an important and outspoken member of the Irish hierarchy. His time as Bishop has been described by the historian James S. Donnelly Jr. as “far-reaching and … controversial,” while the historian of Irish Catholicism John Henry Whyte claims that Browne’s “readiness to put forward his views bluntly is welcome at least to the historian.”

Browne is ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1920, for the Archdiocese of Tuam. He later serves as professor of moral theology at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

On August 6, 1937, at the relatively young age of 41, Browne is appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh by Pope Pius XI, receiving his episcopal consecration from Archbishop Thomas Gilmartin on the following August 10. He supports Taoiseach Éamon de Valera‘s defence of arrests and police searches for cached Irish Republican Army (IRA) arms, declaring, “Any Irishman who assists any foreign power to attack the legitimate authority of his own land is guilty of the most terrible crime against God’s law, and there can be no excuse for that crime – not even the pretext of solving partition or of securing unity.”

In 1939, Browne is selected by Éamon de Valera to chair the Commission on Vocational Organisation.

Browne is attentive to the state of public morality in the diocese, and James S. Donnelly Jr. has noted his role in directing episcopal and clerical censorship of newsagents and county librarians. He is also concerned about public intoxication and other misconduct at the Galway Races, controversies over dancing and the commercial dance halls, as well as immodesty in dress and the closely related issue of so-called “mixed bathing” in Galway and Salthill.

Like other members of the Irish Catholic hierarchy, Browne regularly condemns communism in his pastoral letters. When Cardinal József Mindszenty is detained by Hungary‘s post-war communist government, Browne in 1949 forwards protest resolutions from Galway Corporation, Galway County Council and the University College Galway student body to Pope Pius XII. He also frequently condemns the Connolly Association, an Irish republican socialist group in Britain close to the Communist Party of Great Britain.

In 1957, in response to a growing tension between Catholics and Protestants at Fethard-on-Sea, including the Fethard-on-Sea boycott, Browne says, “non-Catholics do not protest against the crime of conspiring to steal the children of a Catholic father, but they try to make political capital when a Catholic people make a peaceful and moderate protest.”

The most enduring monument or physical legacy of Browne’s time as Bishop is the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, commonly known as Galway Cathedral, which is dedicated in 1965 by Cardinal Richard James Cushing of Boston, Massachusetts. The site of the old jail had come into the possession of the diocese in 1941 and Browne leads the campaign to construct a new Cathedral. This includes a 1957 audience with Pope Pius XII where the plans are approved.

Browne attends the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965 and retires in 1976. He dies four years later in Galway, at the age of 84, on February 24, 1980.

Browne is parodied in Breandán Ó hÉithir`s novel Lig Sinn i gCathu, which fictionalises late 1940s Galway as “Baile an Chaisil” and Browne as “An tEaspag Ó Maoláin.”

The Irish cabinet minister Noël Browne (no known relation) in his 1986 memoir Against the Tide describes the physical attributes of his episcopal namesake:

“The bishop had a round soft baby face with shimmering clear cornflower-blue eyes, but his mouth was small and mean. Around his great neck was an elegant glinting gold episcopal chain with a simple pectoral gold cross. He wore a ruby ring on his plump finger and wore a slightly ridiculous tiny scullcap on his noble head. The well-filled semi-circular scarlet silk cummerbund and sash neatly divided the lordly prince into two.”


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The Funerals of the Bloody Sunday Victims

The funerals of eleven of those killed on Bloody Sunday take place on February 2, 1972. Prayer services are held across Ireland. In Dublin, over 30,000 march to the British Embassy, carrying thirteen replica coffins and black flags. They attack the Embassy with stones and bottles followed by petrol bombs. The building is eventually burned to the ground.

On the morning of Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment enters Derry to assume their positions. The planned march is due to start at Bishop’s Field in the Creggan housing estate and continue to the Guildhall in the city center, where the day is to end in a peaceful rally. Ten to fifteen thousand people set off at 2:45 p.m.

The march makes its way down William Street, but when it approaches the city center, the protestors find their way blocked by the British Army. At approximately 3:45 p.m., the organizers tell the protestors to change the direction of the march to go down Rossville Street, intending to hold the rally at Free Derry Corner instead. Most of the marchers follow the organizers’ instructions. At this point, some protestors break away from the march and start throwing stones at the soldiers handling the barriers. The soldiers fire rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons at the breakaway contingent. At this stage, witnesses report that the discord is no more violent than usual. Some of the rioters continue throwing rocks at the soldiers, but they are not close enough to the military men to inflict any damage. At about 3:55 p.m., the paratroopers start firing at the protestors. More than one hundred rounds are fired by the soldiers, who do not issue a warning before they open fire. In total, of the 26 civilians who are shot, 13 died that day, and one dies more than four months later.

On February 2, 1972, the funerals of eleven of the dead are held. Thousands of mourners gather at St. Mary’s Church for a mass funeral, with Northern Ireland MP Bernadette Devlin in attendance. The event is a significant demonstration of the civil rights movement’s commitment to the cause of the victims and their families. The funeral procession is a symbol of the ongoing struggle for civil rights and justice in Northern Ireland.

The Republic of Ireland holds a national day of mourning, while a general strike is held the same day. The strike is the largest that Europe has seen since World War II in relation to the size of Ireland’s population. Catholic and Protestant churches as well as synagogues hold memorial services across Ireland. In Dublin, between 30,000 and 100,000 march to the British Embassy carrying thirteen coffins and black flags. A crowd later attacks the embassy, burning the Chancery down to the ground.

The President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera, and Taoiseach Jack Lynch, attend special church services in Dublin, while at the demonstrations outside effigies of the British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, are burned alongside pictures of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Brian Faulkner.

(Pictured: Thousands congregate at St. Mary’s Chapel in Creggan for the funerals on February 2, 1972, photo credit: Derry Journal)


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Death 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, dies on January 31, 2016, at his home in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. 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, the elder of two children, is born at Cleary’s Nursing Home, Elm Park, Limerick, County Limerick, on August 3, 1938. 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 in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England.

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 of 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.


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Death of Jim Tunney, Fianna Fáil Politician

James C. Tunney, a Fianna Fáil politician, dies in Dublin on January 16, 2002.

Tunney is born on December 25, 1924, in Finglas, Dublin, the fourth child among three sons and five daughters of James Tunney, a farmer and Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) and senator, and M. Ellen Tunney (née Grimes), who both come from outside Westport, County Mayo. He is educated at St. Vincent’s C.B.S. in Glasnevin.

Tunney works in the Department of Agriculture from 1943 to 1955 and it is during this period that he studies part-time at University College Dublin (UCD), where he takes a BA in drama, English, and Irish before studying for a postgraduate qualification in Irish. From 1955 to 1962 he teaches drama at Vocational Education Committees (VEC) in Lucan, Balbriggan, and Garretstown, before being appointed headmaster of Blanchardstown VEC in 1962.

Tunney also plays at senior level for the Dublin county football team. He is on the winning side for Dublin in the 1948 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship.

A snappy dresser who earns the nickname “the yellow rose of Finglas,” Tunney is sometimes seen as pompous, a perception possibly attributable to his acting background, which once leads to an audition at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.

In 1963 Tunney joins Fianna Fáil, and stands for the party at the  1965 Irish general election but is not elected. He is elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Dublin North-West constituency at the 1969 Irish general election. He serves continuously in the Dáil until losing his seat at the 1992 Irish general election, having been a TD for Dublin Finglas from 1977 to 1981 when Dublin constituencies are reconfigured as 3-seaters, before being returned for Dublin North-West in 1981.

During this period Tunney serves as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (after 1978, Minister of State at the Department of Education) in three governments. He serves as Leas-Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1981 to 1982, and from 1987 to 1993. He is also chair of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for ten years. He is a member of Dublin City Council, and serves as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1984 to 1985.

Following Tunney’s death, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern describes him as “a parliamentarian and a gentleman who was passionately committed to serving his country.” Ahern adds, “he was not only a man of substance but one of style. From the flower that was always in his buttonhole to the elegance of his language in both Irish and English he had a commanding and stylish presence.”

Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan says Tunney had gained “the widespread affection and respect of colleagues of all political parties.”

Leader of the Labour Party Ruairi Quinn describes Tunney as a “thoughtful and courteous colleague” who carried out his duties with “fairness but also with wit and style.”


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Birth of Gaetano Alibrandi, Papal Nuncio to Ireland

Gaetano Alibrandi, a senior papal diplomat of the Catholic Church and former Personal Secretary to Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini (later Pope Paul VI), is born on January 14, 1914, at Castiglione di Sicilia in the province of Catania, Sicily.

Alibrandi is ordained priest on November 1, 1936, and obtains a Doctor of Divinity from the Pontifical Lateran University and a Doctorate on Civil and Canon Law. He enters the Diplomatic Corps of the Holy See in 1941, serving for five years in the Vatican Secretariat of State and is then a staff member in the apostolic nunciatures in Italy and Turkey before coming to Ireland as a counsellor at the Apostolic Nunciature for two years from 1954 to 1956. He later describes his first Irish posting as “a spiritual bath.”

In 1961, Alibrandi receives episcopal consecration as titular Archbishop of Binda by Cardinal Fernando Cento upon his appointment as Nuncio of Chile, followed quickly by similar appointments in Lebanon (1963). As Apostolic Nuncio to Chile, he leads the Chilean delegation to the Second Vatican Council.

Alibrandi is appointed Papal Nuncio to Ireland on April 19, 1969, shortly after the outbreak of the Troubles. 

This is a challenging time for the Catholic Church in Ireland, then led by Cardinal William Conway, as it adjusts to both the internal changes generated by the Second Vatican Council and the wider social changes. He is ill-suited to coping with these changes and in particular the violence in Northern Ireland. It is widely assumed that he sees to it that the more overtly nationalist Tomás Ó Fiaich is appointed to Armagh in 1977 after the death of Cardinal Conway. The journalist and author Ed Moloney in his book on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) asserts that Alibrandi’s “sympathy for the IRA was a constant source of friction with the government in London.”

Alibrani plays a major role in the 1971 decision by the Vatican to accept the resignation of John Charles McQuaid as Archbishop of Dublin. This comes as a shock to McQuaid, who expected that he would be allowed to remain for some time after the normal retirement age of 75.

In many of the episcopal appointments made while Alibrandi is nuncio, he favours doctrinally “sound,” right-of-centre priests and in the case of the Archdiocese of Dublin picks two priests, Kevin McNamara and Desmond Connell, who are notably ill-suited. In a profile of the Archbishop at the time of his retirement, T. P. O’Mahony observes in The Tablet, “although he rarely gave interviews, and never overtly intervened in policy-making or in public controversies, it is beyond dispute that Archbishop Alibrandi wielded considerable influence behind the scenes.”

The respected academic and church historian Dermot Keogh assessing this period argues that “there was a general view that the best candidates had not been appointed…that a number were not up to the job, that most of the appointees shared a defensive attitude to matters of church and state.”

Alibrandi has “a very testy relationship with three Taoisigh – Jack Lynch, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald.” After reaching the retirement age of 75, he returns to his home town in Sicily where he dies on July 3, 2003. His funeral Mass was celebrated on Saturday in Castiglione di Sicilia by Archbishop Paolo Romeo, Apostolic Nuncio to Italy. A memorial Mass for Archbishop Alibrandi will be celebrated by Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, on Friday, 11 July at 19.30 in the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians, Navan Road, Dublin.

It is reported in September 2012 during the second Dr. Garret FitzGerald Memorial Lecture at University College Cork (UCC) by Seán Donlon, former secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs, that “It came to our [Department of Foreign Affairs] attention that a substantial amount in three bank accounts in Dublin [held by the archbishop] were way in excess of what was needed to run the nunciature. The source [of the money] appeared to be South America.” Donlon goes on to say, “Because of its size, we thought it appropriate to ask if the funds belonged to the Holy See.” When contacted for an answer, Alibrandi “quickly answered ‘no’ and that they belonged to ‘family’. When it was pointed out to him that the money was then liable under Irish taxation law to DIRT, he said he would retire shortly and the accounts would be closed.”


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Founding of European Movement Ireland

European Movement Ireland (EM Ireland) (Irish: Gluaiseacht na hEorpa in Éirinn) is founded in Dublin on January 11, 1954. EM Ireland is an independent not-for-profit organisation that campaigns for every Irish person to get involved in the European Union (EU) and by doing so, help shape it. It is the oldest Irish organisation dealing with the EU, pre-dating Ireland’s membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 by almost twenty years. The organisation is headed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Noelle Connell. Julie Sinnamon acts as Chair of the EM Ireland Board.

One hundred people meet in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on January 11, 1954, and found the Irish Council of the European Movement. Signing the Articles of Association that found the EM Ireland are seven pioneers of Ireland’s future in Europe. They are: Donal O’Sullivan, university lecturer; Garret FitzGerald, economist; Louis P. F. Smith, economist; Denis Corboy, barrister; George Colley, solicitor; Declan Costello, barrister; and Sean J. Healy, secretary.

These seven signatories lay the first stone paving Ireland’s way to full membership of the EU. The aim of the Irish Council is to inform Irish individuals and organisations about the EU. One of its primary objectives is for Ireland to gain membership of the European Communities (EC) (principally the European Economic Community (EEC), as the EU is then known). Former Taoisigh Garret FitzGerald and Jack Lynch, and former President Mary Robinson back the initiative. After a referendum is held on the Third Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which is overwhelmingly approved by voters in May 1972, Ireland joins the European Communities as a full member state on January 1, 1973.

The Irish Council later becomes European Movement Ireland. Today the organisation claims to act as source of information for Irish citizens regarding the work of the EU and its stated aim is to promote reasoned robust and fair debate about EU in Ireland.

EM Ireland retains an affiliation with the European Youth Parliament, a youth organization which runs events for secondary school age children along the structure of a mock European Parliament.

EM Ireland is part of a pan-European network. European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it. It seeks to encourage and facilitate the active participation of citizens and civil society organisations in the European Union as it develops. The European Movement network is represented in over 41 countries and has over 20 international organisations as members. The current President of European Movement is the former MEP from Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt. For a full list of all European Movement offices, and an outline of the history of the international network visit the EM International website at http://www.europeanmovement.eu/


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Death of T. K. Whitaker, Economist, Politician and Civil Servant

Thomas Kenneth Whitaker, Irish economist, politician, diplomat and civil servant, dies in Blackrock, Dublin, on January 9, 2017, a month after his 100th birthday. He serves as Secretary of Ireland’s Department of Finance from 1956 to 1969, as Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland from 1969 to 1976 and as a Senator from 1977 to 1982, after being nominated by the Taoiseach. He is considered one of the most influential civil servants in the history of the Irish State, with his economic policies greatly influencing the development of modern Ireland.

Whitaker is born in Rostrevor, a small town in the south of County Down, to Roman Catholic parents on December 8, 1916, and is reared in Drogheda, County Louth, in modest circumstances. Neither of his parents are from Ulster. His mother, Jane O’Connor, comes from Ballyguirey East, Labasheeda, County Clare. His father, Edward Whitaker, hails from County Westmeath and is assistant manager of a linen mill. He receives his primary and secondary education at the local CBS in Drogheda. He studies mathematics, Celtic studies and Latin by correspondence course at University of London, and is awarded external degrees in economics: a bachelor’s degree in 1941 and a master’s degree in 1952.

In 1956, Whitaker is appointed Secretary of the Department of Finance, at the age of thirty-nine. His appointment takes place at a time when Ireland’s economy is in deep depression. Economic growth is non-existent, inflation apparently insoluble, unemployment rife, living standards low and emigration at a figure not far below the birth rate. He believes that free trade, with increased competition and the end of protectionism, will become inevitable and that jobs will have to be created by a shift from agriculture to industry and services. He forms a team of officials within the department which produce a detailed study of the economy, culminating in a plan recommending policies for improvement. The plan is accepted by the government and is transformed into a white paper which becomes known as the First Programme for Economic Expansion, and quite unusually is published with his name attached in November 1958. The programme becomes known as the “Grey Book” which many argue brings the stimulus of foreign investment into the Irish economy. However, other reforms such as the Department of Industry and Commerce‘s export profits tax relief introduced in 1956, are opposed by Whitaker.

In 1977, Taoiseach Jack Lynch nominates Whitaker as a member of the 14th Seanad. He serves as a Senator from 1977 to 1981, where he sits as an independent member.

In 1981, Whitaker is nominated to the 15th Seanad by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, where he serves until 1982. FitzGerald also appoints him to chair a Committee of Inquiry into the Irish penal system, and he chairs a Parole Board or Sentence Review Group for several years.

Whitaker also serves as Chancellor of the National University of Ireland (NUI) from 1976 to 1996. He was also President of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and as such, a member of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland, from 1985 to 1987. He has a very strong love for the Irish language throughout his career and the collection of Irish poetry, An Duanaire: Poems of the Dispossessed 1600–1900, edited by Seán Ó Tuama and Thomas Kinsella is dedicated to Whitaker. From 1995 to 1996 he chairs the Constitution Review Group, an independent expert group established by the government, which publishes its report in July 1996.

Whitaker receives many national and international honours and tributes for his achievements during his lifetime, most notably the conferral of “Irishman of the 20th Century” in 2001 and Greatest Living Irish Person in 2002. In November 2014, the Institute of Banking confers an Honorary Fellowship on him and creates an annual T. K. Whitaker Scholarship in his name. In April 2015, he is presented with a lifetime achievement award by University College Dublin‘s Economics Society for his outstanding contribution to Ireland’s economic policy.

In November 2016, to mark his centenary year, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council acknowledges Whitaker’s “outstanding and progressive contribution to Irish public service and to society.” The Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Cormac Devlin, presents a special award to Whitaker which is accepted by Ken Whitaker on behalf of his father.

Whitaker marries Nora Fogarty in 1941 and they have six children. After his wife’s death in 1994, he remarries, to Mary Moore in 2005. The couple is invited to Áras an Uachtaráin in 2006 for his 90th birthday by the President of Ireland Mary McAleese. Mary Moore Whitaker dies in 2008. T. K. Whitaker turns 100 in December 2016 and dies a month later on January 9, 2017, having survived both of his wives. He is buried at Shanganagh Cemetery, Shankill, Dublin.

The main administrative building in Dundalk Institute of Technology is named after him, the T.K. Whitaker Building. Whitaker Square in the Grand Canal Dock area of Dublin 2 is named in his honour. The offices of the Economic and Social Research Institute are located on the square.


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NI Prime Minister Terence O’Neill Meets Taoiseach Jack Lynch

Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O’Neill calls on the Taoiseach Jack Lynch at Iveagh House in Dublin on January 8, 1968. There is no advance publicity, largely to ensure that Ian Paisley is not able to upstage the meeting with his antics. The dozen reporters present are impressed at the friendly informality.

”How are you, Jack?” O’Neill says as he gets out of the car, extending his hand to the Taoiseach.

O’Neill is accompanied by his wife, Jean, and a number of officials. They have lunch in Iveagh House with the Taoiseach and his wife, Maureen, together with a number of official staff, and five of Lynch’s cabinet colleagues and their wives. The ministers are Tánaiste Frank Aiken, Minister for Finance Charles Haughey, Minister for Industry and Commerce George Colley, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Neil Blaney, and Minister for Transport and Power Erskine Childers.

The official statement at the end of the four-hour meeting states that progress has been made in “areas of consultation and co-operation.” The Taoiseach says they discussed industry, tourism, electricity supply, and trade, as well as tariff concessions, and “measures taken by both governments to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from Britain.”

Afterward, O’Neill returns to Northern Ireland by a different route in order to avoid any possible demonstration. Paisley has been developing a high profile for himself with his attacks on O’Neill in recent months. But he misses the opportunity to protest on this occasion. The next day he issues a statement regretting O’Neill’s return home. “I would advise Mr. Lynch to keep him,” Paisley announces.

Five years earlier, in 1963, O’Neill becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. From very early on, he tries to break down sectarian barriers between the two Northern communities. He also seeks to improve relations with the Republic of Ireland by eradicating the impasse in relations that has existed since the 1920s. He invites then-Taoiseach Seán Lemass to meet him at Stormont on January 14, 1965. Lemass courageously accepts the invitation. At their initial meeting, when they are briefly alone, Lemass says to O’Neill, ”I shall get into terrible trouble for this!” The Northern premier replies, ”No, Mr. Lemass, it is I who will get into terrible trouble.”

O’Neill makes his return visit to Dublin on February 9, 1965, and the two leaders agree to co-operate on tourism and electricity. It is Lemass who makes the most significant concessions, because the Constitution of Ireland does not recognise the existence of the North. Article 2 of the Constitution actually claims sovereignty over the whole island. Thus, by formally meeting the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, O’Neill claims that Lemass accorded him “a de facto recognition.”

The Taoiseach then bolsters this at their follow-up meeting in Iveagh House, Dublin, three weeks later. ”The place card in front of me at Iveagh House bore the inscription, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland,” O’Neill proudly explains. Surely this is tantamount to formal recognition. But many Unionists still have grave reservations about dealing with the Republic of Ireland.

In 1966, Ian Paisley establishes the Protestant Unionist Party (PUP) to oppose O’Neill. He rouses sectarian tension by holding mass demonstrations at which he brands O’Neill as the “Ally of Popery.” Nevertheless, public opinion polls indicate support for O’Neill’s leadership from both communities in the North.

After Jack Lynch replaced Lemass as Taoiseach in late 1966, O’Neill continues with his efforts to improve relations with the Dublin government by inviting Lynch to Stormont Castle. The Taoiseach travels to Belfast by car on December 11, 1967. There is no formal announcement of his visit, but word is leaked to Paisley after the Taoiseach’s car crosses the border.

Paisley arrives at Stormont with his wife and a handful of supporters, just minutes before the Taoiseach. With snow on the ground, two of Paisley’s church ministers, Rev. Ivan Foster and Rev. William McCrea, begin throwing snowballs at Lynch’s car. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) promptly grabs the two ministers. While they are being bundled into a police car, Paisley is bellowing, “No Pope here!” Lynch asks his traveling companion, T. K. Whitaker, “Which one of us does he think is the Pope?”

Paisley demands to be arrested by the RUC, and actually tries to get into the police car with his two colleagues, but he is pulled away. The two clergymen are taken to an RUC station and quickly released. Lynch ridicules the protest. “It was a seasonal touch,” he says. “It reminds me of what happens when I go through a village at home and the boys come and throw snowballs.”

Paisley says he had come to protest against “the smuggling” of Lynch into Stormont. If he had known about the visit earlier, he says that he would have brought along 10,000 people to protest. Denouncing O’Neill, as a “snake in the grass,” he goes on to accuse Lynch of being “a murderer of our kith and kin.” In an editorial, the Unionist Newsletter proclaims that ”there is no doubt that Capt. O’Neill has the full support of his colleagues and of the country.”

O’Neill’s four formal meetings with Lynch and his predecessor contribute to a thaw in relations at the summit between Belfast and Dublin, but the whole process is exploited by others to fan the flames of Northern sectarianism.

People do not realise it in early 1968, but Northern Ireland is about to explode. On October 5, 1968, people gather in Derry for a civil rights march that has been banned by Stormont. When the march begins, it is viciously attacked by the RUC. This ignites a series of further protests, which ultimately leads to Bloody Sunday, and the eruption of the Troubles for the next quarter of a century.

(From: “Meetings helped thaw relations before the North exploded,” Irish Examiner, http://www.irishexaminer.com, January 8, 2018)


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Birth of Jonathan Philbin Bowman, Journalist & Radio Broadcaster

Jonathan Philbin Bowman, Irish journalist and radio broadcaster, is born in Dublin on January 6, 1969.

Bowman is the son of the historian and broadcaster John Bowman and Eimer Philbin Bowman. He is the brother of comedian and journalist Abie Philbin Bowman. He is educated at Sandford Park School and at Newpark Comprehensive School in Dublin. He chooses to leave formal education in his early teens, a decision he announces to the nation on RTÉ‘s flagship talk programme The Late Late Show.

Bowman works mostly as a freelance journalist. He co-presents a radio show, The Rude Awakening, on Dublin’s FM104 with Scott Williams, George Hellis and Margaret Callanan for two years between 1993 and 1994 before joining the Sunday Independent newspaper as a columnist. He later presents television programmes on RTÉ, such as the quiz show Dodge the Question.

Bowman dies in a fall at his home on Fitzgerald Street in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, on March 6, 2000. He is found lying in the kitchen near the foot of the stairs. His death is believed to be the result of a fall down the stairs or from a stool, which is found nearby. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Glasnevin, County Dublin. Tributes are paid to him by party political leaders. He is survived by his parents, his sister Emma, his brothers Abie and Daniel and his only son Saul Philbin Bowman.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says that he is deeply saddened on learning the news of Bowman’s death. His thoughts and prayers he says are with his family at this very sad time.

The leader of the Labour Party, Ruairi Quinn TD, expresses his shock and sadness on hearing of the death. He says that Bowman was without doubt one of the bright lights of Irish journalism. He extends his deepest sympathies to Bowman’s son, Saul, and to his parents John and Eimer.

The Fine Gael leader, John Bruton, says that few people he knew brought a smile to the face of anyone they met more readily. He says that his infectious good humour and iconoclastic attitude to life conveyed itself to all with whom he came into contact. He adds that Bowman will be missed for many years to come.

The editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, says that Bowman was one of the most brilliant journalists of his generation.


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Birth of Kate O’Connell, Former Fine Gael Politician

Katherine O’Connell (née Newman), a former Fine Gael politician who serves as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency from 2016 to 2020, is born in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath, on January 3, 1980. During her time in the Dáil, O’Connell campaigns in favour of abortion rights as well as pushes for more funding for healthcare services in Ireland.

From 1999 to 2003, O’Connell studies to be a pharmacist at the University of Brighton, graduating with an M Pharm in the United Kingdom. She then works as a hospital pre-registrar in the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, before returning to Ireland to practice as a locum-pharmacist. By 2006, she and her husband open up their first pharmacy in Sandyford, and later open up pharmacies in Rathgar, and Rathfarnham.

O’Connell is a member of Dublin City Council for the local electoral area of Rathgar–Rathmines from 2014 to 2016.

O’Connell is selected by Fine Gael for the 2016 Irish general election to “recapture” their seat in Dublin Bay South from Lucinda Creighton, who had left the party in 2013 over her objection to the party’s position on abortion and in 2015 founded Renua, an anti-abortion party. During the campaign, O’Connell called Creighton’s anti-abortion views “incredibly sanctimonious” and suggests that Creighton is an “out of touch career politician” whose views on abortion are borne out of a lack of connection with the real world. The Irish Independent refers to these comments as O’Connell “tearing strips off” of Creighton. In the election, O’Connell is elected, while Creighton loses her seat.

In her time in the Dáil, O’Connell campaigns in favour of abortion rights as well as pushing for more funding for healthcare services in Ireland.

In October 2016, O’Connell responds to comments by the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin that TDs should remember their faith when legislating for abortion in Ireland by stating, “I don’t see why the archbishop’s views are in any way relevant. I don’t see why Archbishop Martin should be getting involved in women’s health issues. It is the same as asking my four-year-old. They [the Church] are entitled to their opinion, but I don’t put any weight in them. I don’t see what involvement the Catholic Church should have in women’s health issues”.

In November 2017, O’Connell confronts Barry Walsh, a member of Fine Gael’s executive council, with a dossier of tweets documenting that he repeatedly and frequently derogates women politicians, often calling them bitches, including fellow members of Fine Gael. After the leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar comments that Walsh should resign, he does so.

O’Connell loses her seat at the 2020 Irish general election, placing 5th in the 4-seat constituency. In an August 2020 interview, she attributes her loss, in part, to being the running mate of the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, in an election fought over an ongoing housing crisis in Ireland.

On May 7, 2021, O’Connell declares she will not seek to be the Fine Gael candidate for the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election. She suggests she will not be able to win a party selection again due to her relationship with the Fine Gael leadership souring in the meantime, partially because of her vocal support of Simon Coveney over Leo Varadkar in the 2017 Fine Gael leadership election. She also suggests many local Fine Gael branch members in Dublin South Bay regard her as an outsider and a “parachute candidate” due to the fact she is originally from County Westmeath, and have turned against her over this. The Phoenix offers the view that O’Connell would not be nominated because she has turned the Fine Gael leadership against her while lobbying for her sister, Mary Newman Julian, to be the party’s candidate in a 2018 Seanad by-election. In particular, a meeting between her and Simon Coveney in which her expectations are read as entitled is cited as hurting her relationships. Fine Gael’s candidate in the by-election is James Geoghegan, who had previously left the party to join Lucinda Creighton in Renua, but returns to Fine Gael after that party collapsed. He loses the by-election to Labour‘s Ivana Bacik, a senator for Dublin University and veteran pro-choice campaigner.

In October 2024, O’Connell leaves Fine Gael to contest the next general election in Dublin Bay South as an independent candidate. She fails to be elected or to achieve the one-quarter of the quota necessary to recoup her election expenses.

O’Connell states her family, the Newmans, have been “involved in Fine Gael since the 1960s,” starting when her maternal grandfather ran for Fine Gael as a councillor. Her father, Michael Newman, is also a Fine Gael councillor while Fine Gael minister Patrick Cooney is considered a family friend. O’Connell states that growing up, she and her family were greatly influenced by the progressive politics of Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald. Her sister, Mary Newman Julian, is also active in politics and contests elections for the Dáil in Tipperary and for Seanad Éireann, while another sister, Theresa Newman, works for a period as O’Connell’s political adviser in Leinster House. Her brother-in-law, Hugh O’Connell, is a prominent political journalist and editor who has worked for several Irish publications.

In 2018, during debates in the Dáil regarding abortion, O’Connell discloses personal details of a traumatic pregnancy she herself had experienced. During the pregnancy, she is told her child has only a 10% chance of survival. This prompts her to consider terminating the pregnancy. Ultimately, she decides to continue the pregnancy. The child is born with organs outside of the body but survives the birth. She cites the difficult decisions made during that pregnancy as having greatly informed her views on abortion.