DOMHNAIGH -- On May 5, 1981, Bobby Sands (right) died on hunger strike at Long Kesh prison. He had begun the strike on March 1, in…

MÁIRT -- On April 1, 1776, Irish-born Edward Hand (right) was appointed a brigadier general in the Continental Army. Hand first came to the colonies as a surgeon's mate and later an ensign in the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of the British army. In 1774, he resigned from the army and settled…

LUAIN -- On March 4, 1804, in Australia former United Irishmen stage a small insurrection that ended with a short fight at Castle Hill. Starting in 1799 the British had been shipping many of the leaders and participants of the Rising 1798 Rising to “Van Diemen’s Land” (Australia). Once there they…

As the brilliant rays of the morning sun began to flash off the whitewashed adobe wall in Santiago, Cuba, 30-year-old William Albert Charles Ryan reflected that it would be yet another beautiful day on the tropical island he had come to love. He could hear the sweet songs of a few…

LUAIN -- On January 28, 1967 , Helena Moloney, republican and trade unionist, died in Dublin. Moloney was born in Dublin in 1884. While only at teen-ager Moloney heard Maud Gonne give a pro-nationalist speech near the Customs House. Inspired by Gonne, Helena began a…

DOMHNAIGH -- On January 20, 1771, Don Hugo O'Conor was named Commandant Inspector of New Spain (Mexico). O'Conor was born into a Jacobite family in Dublin in December 1734. The family…

DOMHNAIGH -- On October 21, 1879, Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt, and Charles Stewart Parnell met in Dublin and founded one of the most important organizations in Irish history -- the Irish National Land League. The League's purpose was to reform the horrendous conditions faced by…

LUAIN -- On May 7, 1915, the English passenger ship Lusitania was sunk near Old Head, Co. Cork, off the southern Irish coast. The liner had left New York bound for Liverpool on May 1. German intelligence believed, and most historians now believe, that the ship was carrying munitions.…

DOMHNAIGH -- On April 1, 1776, Irish-born Edward Hand (right) was appointed a brigadier general in the Continental Army. Hand first came to the colonies as a surgeon's mate and later an ensign in the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of the British army. In 1774, he resigned from the army and settled in…

DOMHNAIGH -- On March 4, 1804 in Australia former United Irishmen stage a small insurrection that ended with a short fight at Castle Hill. Starting in 1799 the British had been shipping many of the leaders and participants of the Rising 1798 Rising to “Van Diemen’s Land” (Australia). Once there they…

DOMHNAIGH -- On February 18, 1817, Walter Paye Lane, Confederate general in the American Civil War, was born in County Cork. He emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was only 4 years old. Lane grew up in Ohio but traveled to Texas at 18. He fought with Sam Houston at…

MÁIRT -- On February 13, 1782, Dillon's regiment of the Irish Brigade of France helped capture St. Kitts from the British during the American Revolution. Earlier, Dillon's regiment had helped…

DOMHNAIGH -- On January 21, 1876, James "Big Jim" Larkin one of the greatest labor leaders of the 20th century, was born in Liverpool, England, the second son of a poor Irish couple. At 5 he was sent back to Newry, County Down, to live with his grandparents. He returned to…

LUAIN -- On January 15, 1861, Young Irelander Terence Bellew MacManus died in San Francisco. MacManus was born in County Fermanagh in 1811. He later moved to Liverpool, England, where he began a successful shipping agency. In 1843 he returned to Ireland and joined the Repeal Association and the…

LUAIN -- On October 23, 1641, implementing a plan by Rory O'More and led by Phelim O'Neill (left), the Irish rose up against the English. Their plan had called for the seizing of Dublin Castle on the 23rd along with a general uprising in the countryside, but the…

Almost all Americans have experienced the Irish contribution to the United States, but the Irish have been instrumental to the history of many countries. The other most notable after the United States are the settlements of Australia and New Zealand, but they have also influenced many societies…

MÁIRT -- On August 15, 1909, the Ancient Order of Hibernians dedicated a monument to victims of the Great Hunger at Grosse Ile, in Quebec, Canada. More than 60 years had passed since more than 5,000 Irish men, women, and children had perished on the island, which served as a quarantine station on…

LUAIN -- Beginning on April 3 and continuing to May 8, 1781, the Irish Hibernia regiment of Spain helped lay siege to British forces in Pensacola, Florida,…

DOMHNAIGH -- On March 5, 1921 during the Irish War of Independence, an ambush by the Irish Volunteers at Clonbanin, Co. Cork killed British General Hanway Cumming and twelve other British soldiers. Seán Moylan, commander of the North Cork Flying Column, had…

DEARDAOIN - January 22, 1760, at Wandewash, India, General Thomas Arthur Comte de Lally's French army, including his regiment of the Irish Brigade, was defeated by…