LUAIN -- On August 9, 1876, Josephine Bracken, whose parents were from Belfast, was born in Victoria City, British Hong Kong. Her father James, a soldier in the British army, was a native of County Offaly. Josephine's mother, a McBride, died in childbirth. She…

DOMHNAIGH -- On Aug. 1, 1915, the funeral of Fenian Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was held before a huge crowd at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Rossa's body had been returned from New York where he died June 30. He had been exiled by the British…

LUAIN -- On July 26, 1739, George Clinton, soldier, first governor of New York, and vice president of the United States was born in Little Britain, N.Y., of Irish Protestant parents. Clinton served in his father's New York state militia unit during the French and Indian War before…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 18, 1874, Irish revolutionary Cathal Brugha (left) was born Charles William St. John Burgess on Richmond Avenue in Dublin. Cathal joined the Gaelic League in 1899 and became…

LUAIN -- On July 12, 1691, the Jacobite army in Ireland fought the forces of William of Orange at the Battle of Aughrim. Although the battle of the Boyne fought a year earlier is seen by many today as decisive, the Jacobite army was still a grave threat to…

LUAIN -- On July 5, 1812, Frederick Maning (left), who would become beloved in New Zealand by its native Māori people, was born in Johnville, County Dublin. Maning immigrated to Australia with his father in…

DOMHNAIGH -- On June 27, 1862, the Irish 9th Massachusetts Infantry regiment of the Union Army was heavily engaged at the battle of…

LUAIN -- On June 14, 1690, William of Orange, King of Holland, and recently declared King of England, arrived in Belfast with his fleet. The Catholic King James II had been tolerated by the Protestant nobility for a time because all his possible heirs were…

MÁIRT -- On June 8, 1853, John Mitchel escaped from Australia, eventually making it to the United States. Mitchel, a member of the Young Ireland Party, was born in Comnish, Co. Derry. John was the son of a Presbyterian minister. He obtained a…

MÁIRT -- On May 25, 1798, in Co. Wicklow, as the British authorities began to receive news of people rising up in several parts of the island, anxious loyalist militia units committed two massacres of men they suspected of being rebels. In Dunlavin, 28 or…

LUAIN to MÁIRT -- On May 17-18, 1918, the British government began arresting all the leaders of Sinn Fein that it could round-up. Britain desperately wanted to impose conscription on the Irish to replace its tremendous losses in the trenches of…

LUAIN -- On May 10, 1806, James Shields (left) , who would have one of the most remarkable careers in…

DOMHNAIGH -- On May 2, 1870, Father Francis Duffy, World War I chaplain of the 69th New York, was born in Cobourg, Ontario. Francis moved to New York at age 22 to teach at St. Francis Xavier College but quit to enter the seminary. Father…

MÁIRT -- On April 27, 1779 Irish-born (County Donegal) U.S. Navy Capt. Gustavus Conyngham , "The Dunkirk Pirate," was captured by the British…

Justin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel

LUAIN -- On April 18, 1690, five regiments of Irishmen set sail from Ireland for France. These soldiers, about 5,400 in all, would form the nucleus of…

DOMHNAIGH -- On March 28, 1820, William Howard Russell , (right) among…

DOMHNAIGH -- On March 21, 1763, William MacNeven, United Irishman, was born in Aughrim, County Galway.

(left: The emblem of the United Irishmen. It reads "Equality" above and "It is new strung and shall be heard" below.)

Educated in the…

MÁIRT -- On March 16, 1828, Patrick Cleburne, one of the finest generals produced by either side during America's long, bloody civil war was born at Bride Park Cottage in Ovens Township, Co. Cork, just outside Cork City. Robert E. Lee would one day say of…

DOMHNAIGH -- On March 7, 1921, Limerick Mayor George Clancy was shot and killed in his home. Clancy came from a family with a strong republican tradition. In college, he joined the Gaelic League, forming a branch at University College Dublin and recruiting…

LUAIN -- On February 22, 1886, Conservative Party politician Lord Randolph Churchill, father of Winston Churchill, gave what many consider one of the single most destructive speeches in Irish history, inciting militant loyalists at…