DOMHNAIGH -- On November 10, 1896, Lady Mary Heath (born Sophie Catherine Pierce), pioneer aviator and athlete, was born in Newcastlewest, County Limerick. Sophie was brought up in Newcastlewest and Dublin, where she attended a boarding school. At the outbreak of World War I,…

DOMHNAIGH -- On Nov. 3, 1815, John Mitchel ,…

CÉADAOIN -- On Oct. 30, 1892, Eoin O'Duffy, revolutionary and organizer of the infamous Blueshirts, was born in Castleblayney, County Monaghan.

(Right: O'Duffy's Blueshirts rally in a Dublin cemetery, 1934)

O'Duffy was…

DOMHNAIGH -- On October 20, 1881, the Irish National Land League was outlawed by the government. From the start (see below) the League had been a thorn in the side of government of British Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone. The passage of the second Land Act in 1818 failed to mollify many of the…

LUAIN -- On Oct. 14, 1814, Thomas Osborne Davis, the poet laureate of the Young Ireland party and one of its founders, was born in Mallow, Co. Cork. Like many other revolutionary Irish leaders, Davis was of an Anglo-Irish family; his father was a British army surgeon. He graduated from…

DOMHNAIGH -- On October 6, 1649 Owen Roe O'Neill (left), nephew of Hugh O'Neill and an officer in the Spanish army, died at Cloughoughter Castle on an island in Lough Oughter in County Cavan. Owen is thought to have been born in 1585, probably near Loughgall in County Armagh. He left Ireland…

DOMHNAIGH -- On Sept. 29, 1972, Kathleen Clarke, wife of Easter Rising martyr Tom Clarke, died in Liverpool, England. Kathleen's uncle was Fenian John Daley, who…

MÁIRT -- On Sept. 17, 1860, units of the Irish Battalion of St. Patrick of the Papal army fought a Piedmontese army allied with Garibaldi at Spoleto. Spoleto was a walled city south of Florence with the fortress of Rocca on the side…

DOMHNAIGH -- On September 8, 1798, Lord Charles Cornwallis and General Gerard Lake cornered French…

DOMHNAIGH -- On September 1, 1864, Irish patriot Roger Casement was born at Sandycove, County Dublin. Casement joined the British colonial service and was knighted in 1911 for his work on behalf of African and South American native workers who were being exploited by…

National Gallery of Ireland Irish martyr Robert Emmet, from a miniature by John Comerford.

DOMHNAIGH -- On August 25, 1803, the British captured one of the most…

LUAIN -- On August 19, 1504, the battle of Knockdoe was fought northeast of Galway by the forces of Gerald Fitzgerald, 'The Great Earl,' and his Anglo-Irish allies, against those of his son-in-law, Ulick de Burgh, or Burke of Clanrickard, husband of his daughter, Eustacia.…

DOMHNAIGH -- On August 11, 1744, during the War of Austrian Succession, the Irish Brigade of Spain fought at the battle of Velletri, in Italy, against an Austrian army commanded by Irishman Field Marshal Count Maximillian Ulysses Browne, of Limerick. The surprise attack of Browne's…

MÁIRT -- On August 6, 1775, Daniel O'Connell , 'The Liberator,' one of the most influential men in Irish history was born near Cahirciveen, County Kerry. Raised by his uncle, Daniel learned the Irish language and Irish lore in Kerry. O'Connell did part of his schooling in France…

LUAIN -- On July 29, 1693, units of the Irish Brigade of France fought at the…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 21, 1861, at the battle of 1st Bull Run, the first major engagement of the American Civil War, the…

DOMHNAIGH -- On July 14, 1798, brothers John (left) and Henry Sheares, who were both lawyers and United Irishmen, were hung,…

LUAIN -- On July 8, 1770, Mary Ann McCracken -- patriot, philanthropist and sister of United Irish martyr Henry Joy McCracken -- was born in Belfast. Mary Ann was the fiercely independent daughter of a Presbyterian sea captain. With her sister, Margaret, she started a small muslin business while only…

LUAIN -- On July 1, 1897, Gen. Tom Barry , one of the…

LUAIN -- On June 24, 1797, John Hughes, the first archbishop of New York, was born in Annaloghlan, County Tyrone. Hughes emigrated to the United States in 1817 and was ordained in Maryland in 1826. Appointed bishop in New York in 1842 and archbishop in 1850, Hughes was a fierce defender…