April 1
1329 - From April onwards there are risings by the native Irish in various parts of Munster and Leinster, and reprisals against them. This will continue into 1330
1716 - The first Doggett Coat and Badge sculling race takes place on the Thames; one of the oldest sporting fixtures in the British sporting calendar, it is founded by Thomas Doggett, an Irish actor and theatre manager
1730 - Samuel Boyse, MP for Bannow, dies as a result of a duel at the age of 33
1776 - Irish-born Edward Hand is appointed a Brigadier General in the Continental Army
1839 - St. Clair Mulholland, Union Civil War General and Medal of Honor winner, is born in Lisburn, Co. Antrim
1848 - Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor, is born in Dublin
1911 - The Titanic is launched in Belfast
1919 - DeValera is elected president of the first Dáil Éireann
1935 - Death of Francis Arthur Fahy from Kinvara, Co Galway, who wrote the ballad Galway Bay
1966 - Death of writer Brian O'Nolan, also known as Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen
1986 - US sub Nathaniel Green runs aground in the Irish Sea
1998 - The European Commission serves notice on the Government that Ireland faces prosecution in the European Court on charges of damaging the environment and failing to provide secure habitats for some of our most endangered bird species
1999 - One thousand people, the entire population of Belmullet in Co. Mayo, are evacuated from the town following a fire in a rubber factory
2000 - John Dennehy, Secretary General of the Department of Education and Science, makes academic history by being elected Chairman of the Education Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for a three year period. He is the first Irish person to be appointed to this position
2001 - One of Irish television’s most familiar faces, Brendan O’Reilly, passes away. The 71 year old former television and radio broadcaster and commentator had been ill for a number of months
2001 - The Department of Agriculture orders the slaughter of all the remaining 15,000 or so sheep in the Cooley Peninsula, Co. Louth
2002 - Loyalist thugs posing as Glasgow Celtic supporters are hunted by police after a series of attacks in flashpoint north Belfast.
2003 - Veteran actress Pat Leahy, 66, collapses on the set of Fair City
April 2
1871 - A census on this date shows the population of Ireland to be 5,412,377; only 285 Jews are recorded in the census
1902 - Premiere of Yeats' Cathleen ni Houlihan starring Maud Gonne
1914 - Cumann na mBan, Irish women's Republican movement, is founded
1970 - Several days of rioting following Easter rising commemorations end on this date
1972 - Radio na Gaeltachta goes on the air for the first time and is launched by Eamon De Valera
1973 - Special Powers Act replaced by Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act
1998 - Dissident republicans, aligned to the 32 County Sovereignty Committee and a Louth-based former IRA Quartermaster are said to be behind a massive explosives find in Dun Laoghaire
1998 - Mentally exhausted and following the advice of his doctor, Christy Moore announces in an open letter to fans that he is taking a year off from live performances
1999 - More than 170 staff at the biggest Dunnes Stores branch in the west of Ireland are suspended in a row over a worker facing dismissal because she sampled food at the delicatessen counter
2000 - Westlife make pop history with five consecutive British number one chart hits
2002 - Linda and Declan Fleming win the second largest individual jackpot in Lotto history - £5.26 million
2003 - Protestors against the war in Iraq clash with gardaí outside the Dáil.
2003 - Pat Leahy, star of Fair City for eleven years, dies of kidney failure
April 3
1793 - Dionysius Lardner, scientific writer and lecturer, is born in Dublin
1798 - Writer John Banim, who was praised by Yeats as a writer who tried to "make one see life plainly," is born in Kilkenny
1807 - Maurice FitzGerald, MP for Co. Kerry, resigns as Commissioner of the Treasury (UK) over the issue of Catholic relief
1825 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Young Irelander, journalist and promoter of Canadian Federation, is born
1843 - Birth of James McCudden, WWI ace
1846 - Death of Michael Moran, aka Zozimus, balladeer and storyteller
1900 - Queen Victoria arrives at Kingstown for a three-day visit to Ireland
1946 - Birth of Ruari Quinn, former Labour leader
1951 - Birth of Michael Morris, jockey, winner of the 1977 Irish Grand National, trainer, and son of Lord Killanin
1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announce that with ''realistic negotiation'', agreement in the Northern Ireland peace process could be reached by Thursday's deadline
1998 - Witnesses for the new inquiry into Bloody Sunday launched on this date in Derry, will not be offered blanket immunity from prosecution, according to the presiding chairman of the tribunal
2000 - Thousands of gallons of diesel oil are pumped off a storm-stricken Dutch barge which ran aground on a sandbank in Bray Harbour, Co. Wicklow
2000 - At the Special Criminal Court, John Gilligan denies having any involvement in the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin
2001 - The Government agrees to a £2 million package to bail out the financially troubled Jeanie Johnston famine ship project
2001 - The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson changes her mind about stepping down from the post on foot of a pledge that funding and staffing problems in her office will be addressed
2001 - It is announced that towns and villages within the current foot-and-mouth exclusion zone in Co. Louth have been barred from this year’s national tidy towns’ competition
2001 - Farm leaders from North and South meet in Dublin to pursue an agreed objective — the highest animal health status for all of Ireland.
April 4
1774 - Death of Oliver Goldsmith
1818 - Mayne Reid, pseudonym of Thomas Mayne; soldier, journalist, and writer of boys' stories, is born in Ballyroney, Co. Down
1933 - Paddy Hopkirk, international rally driver, is born in Belfast
1934 - Birth of novelist and journalist Mary Kenny
1951 - The Catholic hierarchy condemns the "Mother and Child" plan for free medical services, fearing the consequences of health education for women. Dr Noel Browne, Minister for Health, resigns; the scheme is abandoned on 6 April
1951 - Birth of singer and actress Adele King, better known as Twink
1952 - Gary Moore, rock guitarist, is born
1966 - Pirate Radio Scotland changes name to Radio Ireland
1994 - Riverdance appears in public for the very first time at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin
1999 - Sinn Féin warns that the peace process stands in crisis over provocative demands for arms decommissioning
1999 - The annual World Irish Dancing Championships come to an end in Ennis
2001 - Former employees and staff join three generations of the Barry family in a celebration of 100 years in business for a firm which has become an Irish institution
2001 - Dublin-born Butch Moore, the first singer to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest, dies after a very short illness
2001 - The Supreme Court strongly criticizes the State’s failure to provide official Irish translations of laws and important legal materials.
2007 - History is made as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and DUP leader Ian Paisley shake hands for the first time in public prior to their milestone meeting at Farmleigh House in Dublin.
April 5
1806 - William Dool Killen, ecclesiastical historian, is born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim
1818 - Bernardo O'Higgins defeats the Spanish at the battle of Maipo River, Chile
1855 - The Dublin-Belfast railway line is completed
1869 - Birth in Dublin of Margaret Tennant, née Abraham; trade unionist and campaigner for improved working conditions
1900 - Spencer Tracy, the son of an Irish father, is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1916 - Patrick Pearse denies rumors of a possible rising to Irish Volunteer Chief of Staff Eoin MacNeill
1938 - Bill Attley, trade unionist, is born in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin
1961 - Death of Oscar-winning Irish actor of stage and screen Barry Fitzgerald. Born in Dublin in 1888, he pursues an acting career at the Abbey Theatre and then heads for Hollywood where he becomes Paramount's resident Irishman in such films as "Going My Way" for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. His finest works are under director John Ford, including "How Green Was My Valley" and "The Quiet Man."
1962 - Guinness formally adopts the harp as its symbol
1975 - L'escargot, ridden by Tommy Carberry, wins the Aintree Grand National
Art Print by G. Isom from All-Posters
1998 - All sides in the Northern peace talks talk up the chances of a new peace agreement as Stormont sources reveal that both Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair will fly to Belfast for the final hours of talks on Thursday
1998 - Cannabis worth £2 million is seized during a dramatic early morning raid by members of the National Drugs Unit (NDU) in Ashbourne, Co Meath
1999 - More than 300 Co. Waterford people armed with gloves and plastic bags brave a driving mist and head for the hills for the annual Clean up the Comeraghs campaign
1999 - The first major event of the Loyalist marching season a controversial Apprentice Boys parade along the predominantly Nationalist Ormeau Road in Belfast - passes off peacefully
2000 - Debbie Walsh and Jennifer McCarthy are shown at the opening of 'the father of the modern day submarine' exhibition in Cobh heritage centre. This year is the 100th anniversary of the commissioning of the first US submarine invented by John Phillip Holland from Liscannor, Co. Clare
Photo Credit: Michael MacSweeney/Provision
2000 - Marine Minister, Frank Fahey, announces new moves to protect Irish fishing vessels from harassment outside the 12 mile limit
2001 - Gardaí attempt to trace the origin of a herd of Friesian cattle found roaming without ear tags on a roadside at Rosadrehid in the Glen of Aherlow, Co. Tipperary
2002 - Forty-four young police graduates march their way into the North's history books as they become the first fully-fledged members of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
2003 - Attended by the entire cast of Fair City, the popular RTÉ television soap in which she starred for 11 years, the funeral of veteran actress Pat Leavy takes place at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ballyroan, south Dublin.
2011 - Filmmaker and lecturer Barry Dignam and and his partner of 17 years, Hugh Hugh Walsh become the first gay couple in Irish history to enter into a civil partnership. The event takes place at the Registry Office in Dublin city centre.
Photo Credit: A Images/Niall Carson
April 6
1830 - James Augustine Healy, the first black Roman Catholic bishop in America, was born to an Irish planter and a slave on a plantation near Macon, Georgia
1889 - Actor Barry Macollum is born
1926 - Birth in Armagh of Ian Paisley, clergyman and Unionist politician
1947 - Death of Henry Ford, automobile production pioneer and son of Irish immigrants
1954 - The Flags Emblems Act legislates against interference with the Union Jack, effectively prohibiting display of the tricolor in Northern Ireland
1956 - Kerry GAA footballer Seanie Walsh is born
1964 - Birth of Nick Popplewell, former rugby international
1965 - Former international footballer Norman Whiteside is born
1982 - James Prior launches 'rolling devolution' for Northern Ireland
1998 - Hopes of an historic peace deal are put at "less than 50%" as the multi-party talks deadline looms
1998 - Telecom Eireann launches a commemorative 50 unit Call Card to mark the 25th anniversary of the University of Limerick
2000 - Gregory Peck receives an honorary Doctor of Literature from the National University of Ireland in recognition of his contribution to the art of film
2000 - British soldiers and police search the perimeter fence of Ebrington Army Base in Derry after a bomb explodes inside the base
2001 - The Government pledges to give the GAA £60 million over the next three years in return for their commitment to staging matches — including All Ireland semi finals — in the new National Stadium. This deal effectively undermines the argument to open up Croke Park for rugby and soccer matches
2001 -The Parades Commission agrees to allow an Apprentice Boys’ march along Belfast’s flashpoint Ormeau Road on Easter Monday
2002 - Galway man Richard Donovan becomes the first person in history to run a marathon at both the North and South Pole.
April 7
1720 - The Declatory Act defines the right of the British Parliament to legislate for Ireland and denies the appellate jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords
1801 - The trial of United Irishman, Napper Tandy, begins
1861 - A census shows the population to be 5,798,967. Only 393 Jews are recorded
1922 - Special Powers Act is introduced in Northern Ireland
1926 - Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose
1927 - The world’s first ever paid television broadcast takes place. An Irishman, Mr. A. Dolan was employed by the American Telephone and Telegraph company to provide a “short act of monologue and song”. Interestingly, the first professional artist to be seen on television in Britain, a year later, was Irish singer Peg O'Neil
1941 - A Luftwaffe bomb kills 13 people in Belfast. Ultimately, the city is devastated by air raids; 700 people are killed and 400 seriously injured in what becomes known as Belfast's Blitz. The British government appeals to De Valera for help and he authorizes fire brigades from Dublin, Dundalk, Drogheda and Dun Laoghaire to give assistance
1973 - Death of Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid
2000 - Four environmental protesters, including Diana Peuker shown here, who had been jailed for their part in the Glen of the Downs protest in Co. Wicklow, are freed in the High Court
Photo Credit: Colin Keegan
2001 - The longest running legal action in the history of the State ends when the Superwood Group of companies, which claimed £90 million compensation from three insurance companies, are awarded a total of £300,000
2003 - A member of the British army's 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, Lance Corporal Ian Malone from Ballyfermot, Dublin, is killed in the battle for Basra in southern Iraq.

April 8
1719 - Birth of Viscount Edmond Pery, speaker of the House of Commons from March 1771 to September 1785
1805 - Sir William Rowan Hamilton, mathematician and astronomer, is born in Dublin
1816 - Sir Frederick Burton, painter, is born in Corofin, Co. Clare
1835 - Jonah Barrington, the Irish Parliament's leading opponent of the Union with Britain and author of The Rise and Decline of the Irish Nation, dies
1861 - John George Adair evicts 244 tenants on his estate at Derryveagh, Co. Donegal
1867 - A. E. (George Russell), pivotal Irish Renaissance poet, painter, journalist and mystic, is born
1886 - Home Rule Bill introduced in English Parliament by Gladstone
1923 - Edward Mulhare is born in Co. Cork; he grew up to become an actor and starring roles include Capt. Daniel Gregg in the 1968 release of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Photo Credit: Hazelyn
1930 - Birth in Dublin of Frank Cluskey, politician and Labour Party leader from 1977-1981
1930 - Writer and critic John Jordan is born in Dublin
1933 - The Army Comrades' Association parades in blue shirts on this date
1951 - A census on this date shows the population of the Republic to be 2,960,593 and that of Northern Ireland is1,370,921
1960 - The Royal Showband is forced to change its name to the Waterford Showband for an appearance at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London because two members of the British royal family are in attendance
1981 - Death of Greta Bowen, artist known as "The Irish Grandma Moses"
1999 - The peace process is plunged into a new crisis after mainstream loyalist paramilitaries make it clear they have no intention of handing over weapons and the Sinn Fein's leadership brands the Hillsborough Declaration "unacceptable"
1999 - The Department of Education unveils a new primary school curriculum which replaces the one of 1971
2002 - The IRA makes a second and substantial gesture of putting arms beyond use which is broadly welcomed by political leaders in Dublin, London and Belfast
2003 - U.S. president George W. Bush leaves Belfast at the end of a two-day summit attended by British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern
2003 - Paul Muldoon wins the Pulitzer prize for poetry. The 51-year-old Belfast poet is awarded the prestigious prize for his work Moy Sand and Gravel.
April 9
1346 - Death of Ralph de Ufford, justiciar
1793 - The Relief Act grants Catholics parliamentary franchise and certain civil and military rights
1807 - After resigning as Commissioner of the Treasury (UK) over the issue of Catholic relief, Maurice FitzGerald, MP for Co. Kerry states on this date that their war effort alone merits concessions to Irish Catholics
1837 - Edward Hallaran Bennett, surgeon, is born in Cork
1916 - The merchant ship Aud leaves Germany for Ireland with arms for the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1917 - Birth of legendary racehorse trainer, Vincent O'Brien
1921 - Dr. William Walsh, archbishop and nationalist, dies
1926 - Birth in Belfast of Lord Gerry Fitt, politician
1961 - A census on this date shows the population of the Republic to be 2,818,341 and that of Northern Ireland is 1,425,642
1961 - Mark Kelly, rock keyboard musician, is born in Dublin
1981 - IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands wins a seat in the British parliament in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election
1984 - Leslie De Barra, revolutionary, wife of General Tom Barry, dies
1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is back in Norther Ireland to resume his bid with Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to save the peace talks
2000 - Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela, arrives in Ireland to commence a four day private visit. During his visit, he is to receive an honorary degree in law at Trinity
2001 - Celebrities from the entertainment world turn out in force for the funeral mass of former lead singer with the Capital Showband, Butch Moore, at St Canice’s Church in Finglas
Photo Credit: Billy Higgins.
April 10
1346 - Following the death of Ralph de Ufford, Roger Darcy is appointed justiciar
1650 - Cromwell's New Model Army is victorious at Macroom, Co. Cork
1662 - A charter of Charles II replaces Cromwell's charter of Londonderry
1726 - Birth of William Brownlow, parliamentarian and Volunteer
1816 - Birth of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, nationalist, in Monaghan
1838 - Fr. Theobald Mathew, with the support of William Martin, a quaker, founds the total abstinence movement in Cork
1865 - Oliver Sheppard, sculptor, is born in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone
1866 - Campobello New Brunswick Irish-American Fenians attack Campobello Island from Eastport, Maine; they are persuaded to leave by British warships and US agents
1867 - George William Russell (pseudonym A. E. Russell); poet, painter, writer, economist and mystic, is born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh
1918 - British Parliament proposes conscription in Ireland
1923 - Liam Lynch, chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army, is mortally wounded by Free State troops in the Knockmealdown Mountains, Co. Tipperary; Frank Aiken takes over as IRA chief of staff
1940 - Gloria Hunniford, TV personality, is born in Portadown, Co. Antrim
1966 - The widespread and prolonged commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising begins throughout the island
1990 - Death of Wexford hurling legend, Nicky Rackard
1992 - A huge IRA bomb explodes in London's financial district; three people are killed and 91 injured
1998 - The Peace Agreement comes under fire with both unionist and republican camps facing internal revolt, as the battle to sell the deal intensifies
1998 - A bronze bust of world-renowned Irish aviator, Colonel James 'Fitz' Fitzmaurice who, along with two Germans, made the first east-west transatlantic crossing in 1928, is unveiled in his hometown of Portlaoise
1998 - The Northern Ireland peace talks end with an historic agreement. The accord - dubbed the Good Friday Agreement - is reached after nearly two years of talks and 30 years of conflict.
2008 - Many of the main players who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement meet in Belfast for a conference to mark its 10th anniversary. Notable by their absence are former US President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Also absent is David Irvine who died after suffering a heart attack and later a stroke and a brain hemorrhage in January 2007.
Left to right front: Monica McWilliams, George Mitchell, Bertie Ahern and John Hume.
Left to right back: Gerry Adams, David Adams, David Andrews, Dawn Purvis, Reg Empey, General de Chastelain, Liz O'Donnell, Mark Durkan, Paul Murphy and Lord Alderdice.
April 11
1603 - In the revolt of the towns, or recusancy revolt, Catholic worship is re-established in Kilkenny and the main Munster towns between this date and 10 May, in the hope that James I will grant religious toleration; Mountjoy marches south and forces the towns to submit
1700 - Richard Levinge, an Irish MP and later a prominent Tory, who had been committed by the English House of Commons to the Tower of London on 16 January for speaking ill of his fellow Commissioners of Forfeited Estates is released on this date
1878 - Kathleen Daly Clarke, Irish patriot, is born
1966 - Herbert Asquith introduces the third Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons
1971 - The GAA lifts its ban on members playing or attending 'foreign' sports such as soccer or rugby
1986 - Brian Keenan is taken hostage in Beirut
1999 - The Northern Ireland peace process faces collapse as politicians prepare to return to Stormont, with agreement on the key issue of disarmament as distant as ever
1999 - Despite reports to the contrary, manager Louis Walsh insists pop group Boyzone will stay together for at least another year
2000 - In a dramatic end to the two-month trial, a jury at the Central Criminal Court finds Catherine Nevin guilty of all four charges against her arising out of the shooting death of her husband in 1996
2000 - The newspaper known as The Examiner is re-launched as The Irish Examiner
2000 - Nelson Mandela receives a hero's welcome as spectators turn out in droves in Dublin to honour the former president of South Africa prior to his receiving an honorary degree at Trinity. He is the first African leader to be so honoured. He already is a Freeman of the City, an honour granted shortly after being freed from jail
2002 - During a remembrance ceremony at St Colman's Cathedral, candles are lit for each of the 79 people who boarded the Titanic on her maiden and final voyage which departed from Cobh, then known as Queenstown, on this date in 1912.
April 12
1654 - The Ordinance of Union comes into effect, uniting Ireland and Scotland with England
1816 - Sir Charles Gavan Duffy is born in Co. Monaghan. He is self-educated as a journalist and founds the Nation, a nationalist weekly journal with Thomas Davis and John Dillon in 1842; ultimately, he emigrates to Australia and while determined to avoid politics, he is induced to enter the Victorian Parliament where he fills in succession the position of minister of public works and minister of public lands; for a brief period he is prime minister
1824 - An Act establishes free trade in manufactured articles between Britain and Ireland
1837 - Birth in Galway of Patrick Ford, journalist in the USA and fund-raiser for Irish causes
1847 - The American relief ship, Jamestown, lands supplies in Cork for famine victims
1861 - The American Civil War begins; 150,000 Irishmen will serve with the Union forces, and 40,000 with the Confederacy
1889 - Patrick McGilligan, pro-Treaty nationalist and politician, is born in Coleraine, Co. Derry/Londonderry
1914 - George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" opens in London with Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle and Sir Herbert Tree as Professor Higgins
1923 - The Shadow Of A Gunman by Sean O'Casey premieres at the Abbey Theatre
1960 - The Broadcasting Authority Act grants Radio Éireann authority to provide and maintain national radio and television service
1999 - The country's biggest building project, the giant Citibank site in Dublin's financial services centre, is hit when 600 workers walk off the job in solidarity with striking scaffolders
1999 - Demands for IRA disarmament are stepped up following fresh evidence that they are harbouring advanced anti-aircraft missiles
1999 - A United Nations report points to evidence of security force collusion in the murder of leading Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane
2000 - Queen Elizabeth II presents the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery
2000 - The Irish Red Cross launches an appeal for approximately £3 million in an effort to avert the impending famine in Ethiopia
2000 - A safety probe gets underway following an explosion at the SIFA Limited chemical plant in Co. Clare. Seven people suffering from shock and hearing difficulties are transferred to Limerick Regional Hospital and are later released
2000 - The first of two side-by-side castles on Dublin's Dalkey seafront comes up for auction. Inniscorrig, built in 1847, has a starting price of £3.5m. The Herbert Park house has a pre-auction guideline of £3m.
2001 - Ted Sweeney, the weather forecaster instrumental in saving the D Day landings from disaster, dies in his native Blacksod near Belmullet in Co Mayo. In 1944, Ted Sweeney claims a special place in world history by filing a famous weather report which delays the D Day landings in Normandy for 24 hours
2001 - Preliminary test results on a suspected foot and mouth case in Co. Tyrone are negative
2001 - The Real IRA threatens a fresh campaign of violence and vows to attack British targets in their quest for a united Ireland
2002 - A blockade by salmon fishermen at the Port of Cork passes off without incident
2003 - Hopes are raised of a breakthrough in the stalled Northern Ireland peace process, when the IRA outlines its future intentions to the Irish and British Governments. In a statement, the IRA sets out its position on the peace process, its ceasefire, and its approach to a third act of decommissioning.
2008 - The sixth president of Ireland,, Dr. Patrick Hillery passes away after a short illness at age 84. Born on May 2, 1923 in Milltown Malvay, Co. Clare, he attended Rockwell College and University College, Dublin, studying sciences and medicine. His practice of medicine yielded to politics in 1951, when as a member of the Fianna Fáil party he won election to Parliament.
April 13
1593 - Birth of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford/Viceroy of Ireland
1722 - Charles Leslie, Irish controversialist, dies
1728 - Samuel Molyneux, former MP for the University of Dublin and son of the writer William Molyneux, collapses in the British House of Commons and dies on this date, aged 38
1780 - Alexander Mitchell, civil engineer and inventor, is born in Dublin
1742 - Handel's Messiah is performed for the first time, conducted by the composer, at Mr. Neale's Great Musick Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin, before an audience of 700
1825 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Nationalist, writer, and Canadian politician is born in Carlingford, Co. Louth
1829 - The Catholic Emancipation Act receives royal assent on this date; it permits Catholic men who can afford the poll tax to enter Parliament and hold civil and military offices
1906 - Birth of Samuel Beckett in Foxrock, Co. Dublin
1920 - Liam Cosgrave, Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach, is born
1926 - Birth of Peter Carrol, optical physicist
1939 - Poet, Seamus Heaney, is born in Mossbawn, near Belfast
1952 - Jockey, Jonjo O'Neill, is born in Castletownroche, Co. Cork
1968 - Cliff Richard comes second in the Eurovision Song Contest with the Phil Coulter composition, Congratulations; It subsequently outsells the winner throughout Europe
1998 - RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan warns that Northern Ireland could explode into renewed street violence during the Summer marching season
1998 - One of Ireland's leading three-day event riders, David Foster is fatally injured in a fall at a show near his Co. Meath home
1998 - The Northern Ireland peace settlement clears another crucial hurdle last night when the first contentious day in the marching calendar draws to a close without incident. An Apprentice Boys' parade in Belfast stops short of the Catholic Lower Ormeau Road, a flashpoint for serious violence in previous years
1999 - Track star Sonia O'Sullivan receives an honorary Doctor of Philosophy, the first such conferring by the Dublin Institute of Technology
2001 - A second foot-and-mouth outbreak in Northern Ireland is confirmed after secondary tests on samples from cattle on a large dairy farm, near the shores of Lough Neagh, prove positive
2001 - In what has become an Easter tradition, Our Lady’s Choral Society choristers accompanied by soloist Emmanuel Lawlor and the National Sinfonia conducted by Prionnsias O’Duinn performs excerpts from Handel’s Messiah on the site of Neal’s Music Hall, Fishamble Street, where his famous musical work was first performed in 1742
2001 - Well-known musician and music center/hostel owner, Larry O'Brien, dies in a fire which guts part of the Boghill Centre near Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare.
April 14
1661 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Thomas Molyneux, scientist, archaeologist, physician and MP; first to assert that the Giant's Causeway is a natural phenomenon
1848 - In Dublin, the tricolor national flag of Ireland is presented to the public for the first time by Thomas Francis Meagher and the Young Ireland Party
1886 - Jack Beattie, socialist politician and trade unionist, is born in Belfast
1912 - The Titanic, the world's largest ship built at Belfast's Harland and Wolfe, hits an iceberg
1917 - Birth of actress Valerie Hobson in Larne, Co. Antrim
1919 - Limerick Soviet commences general strike in protest against English militarism in Ireland; for three weeks in April, the city's Trades Council takes over the entire running of the city, publishes their own newspapers and issues their own currency. The Soviet receives worldwide publicity and is seen by the British government as a major threat to their power in Ireland
1922 - Led by Rory O'Connor, forces against the Anglo-Irish Treaty seize the Four Courts in Dublin. The provisional government later attacks the garrison, which starts the civil war
1836 - Pat Kirby, handballer, is born in Tuamgraney, Co. Clare
1972 - Terry Wogan launches his first British radio show
1998 - Patrick J. Kennedy, son of Edward and nephew of JFK, unveils a commemorative plaque and declares the fully refurbished and redecorated White House Hotel in Kinsale open once more
1998 - Poll results indicate that Unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland will have equal representation on a power sharing executive if the 1997 General Election results are repeated
2003 - An international survey rates Dublin as one of the safer cities in the world. At 18 in the rankings, it is well ahead of many other cities.

April 15
1642 - Ormond defeats insurgents at Kilrush, Co. Kildare
1642 - A Scottish army under Robert Munroe lands at Carrickfergus
1707 - Birth of Sir Henry Cavendish, MP and incompetent Teller of the Exchequer who left chaos in his wake
1784 - First unmanned balloon in Ireland is launched by Richard Crosbie
1840 - The Repeal Association is founded by Daniel O'Connell
1848 - On Abbey Street in Dublin, the tricolor national flag of Ireland is presented to the public for the first time by Thomas Francis Meagher and the Young Ireland Party
1864 - The first Dublin Horse Show is held
1882 - Mary Swanzy, painter, is born in Dublin
1908 - Birth in Greenock, Scotland of Dennis Devlin, poet, translator and diplomat
1912 - The Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage with the loss of 1,513 souls, many of them Irish; 732 survive
1931 - Birth of Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, Northern Ireland public servant
1968 - Birth of rock guitarist Ed O'Brien, grandson of a Tipperary emigrant
1951 - John O'Keeffe, Kerry Gaelic footballer, is born
1974 - The 78th Boston Marathon is won by Neil Cusack of Co. Limerick in 2:13:39. He is the first Irishman to win this race
1998 - Englishman Mark Robins is awarded £3,000 after winning the first racial abuse case to be heard in Northern Ireland
2000 - The generosity of two Londoners, Alice and Charles Armstrong, turns a dream into reality as a new state-of-the-art lifeboat is handed over to the RNLI. The craft is named Alice and Charles after its benefactors
Photo Credit: Maurice O'Mahoney
2001 - Security on the border is tightened after a third case of foot-and-mouth is confirmed in Cushendall, Co Antrim
2001 - Hundreds of people greet the relics of St Therese of Lisieux at Rosslare for the start of a 75 day tour of the country
2003 - The peace process remains deadlocked as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair continue to press the IRA for more clarity about its intentions.
April 16
1660 - Sir Hans Sloane, physician and naturalist, is born in Killyleagh, Co. Down
1701 - Some MPs and gentlemen of Co. Carlow petition against the return and residence of Mark Baggot, 'a violent Papist', in that county, of which he was 'titular High Sheriff' in 1689
1752 - The first regular stage-coach service between Dublin and Belfast commences
1782 - Irish Parliament declares its independence from the English Parliament
1850 - Samuel Butcher, scholar, is born in Dublin
1871 - John Millington Synge, poet, playwright, and student of Irish language and culture, is born in Dublin
1939 - Pop singer Dusty Springfield, whose real name is Mary O'Brien, is born to Irish parents in London
1947 - Singer Gerry Rafferty is born in Paisley, Scotland to an Irish father and a Scots mother
1970 - Protestant right-winger the Reverend Ian Paisley wins a seat in Northern Ireland's parliament
1999 - Supreme Court Justice Hugh O'Flaherty and High Court Judge Cyril Kelly are given 72 hours to quit by the Government — or else face unprecedented impeachment proceedings
1999 - Union officials at the centre of the scaffolders strike predict chaos within the building industry as over 800 workers place unofficial pickets on countrywide sites following the breakdown of crisis talks
1999 - David Trimble admits for the first time that he accepts it is unlikely the Provisional IRA will return to violence in the short-term
2001 - The Government iprepares to re-institute draconian restrictions in a last desperate attempt to prevent the foot and mouth plague sweeping the country. Fresh cases of the disease in Northern Ireland have stunned Department of Agriculture officials and Minister Joe Walsh admits that it now appeared that foot and mouth is rampant north of the border
2002 - Beginning with a 'park-up' outside John A Woods and ReadyMix sites in Cork, Kerry and Limerick, as many as 300 truck drivers transporting sand and gravel take their trucks off the road in protest at strict weight restrictions, high insurance costs and low pay
2003 - A spokesman for the British Government says that it is sticking with its plans for Assembly elections in Northern Ireland next month, even if efforts to restore devolution fail.
April 17
1172 - Henry II returns to Britain on this date, having granted a charter to Dublin - the first granted to an Irish town
1656 - William Molyneux, statesman, philosopher and scientist, is born in Dublin
1783 - The British Renunciation Act acknowledges the exclusive right of the Irish parliament and courts to make and administer laws for Ireland
1875 - Election of Charles Stewart Parnell as MP for Meath
1920 - The inquest into the death of Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork killed by policemen in disguise on 19 March, returns a verdict of wilful murder against the RIC, and indicts Lloyd George and the British government
1936 - Brendan Kennelly, poet, is born in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry
1944 - Michael 'Babs Keating, Tipperary hurler, is born in Ardfinnan, Co. Limerick
1961 - New Civic Arts Theatre building is opened on Botanic Avenue in Belfast; originally called the Mask Theatre it is renamed the Civic Arts Theatre in 1947. Eventually, it will close due to lack of funding
1966 - A census shows the population of the Republic to be 2,884,002.
1969 - Bernadette Devlin is elected MP for Mid Ulster, standing as the Independent Unity candidate; at 21 years old, she is Britain's youngest ever female MP and the third youngest MP ever
1984 - Death of lyricist and songwriter Jimmy Kennedy from Omagh; his songs include The Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Red Sails In The Sunset
1998 - The Black Pearl, Paul McGrath, decides to end a lengthy and honour-strewn career in football
1999 - The Real IRA-linked 32 County Sovereignty Movement launches a major recruitment campaign in west Belfast
2000 - It is reported that Northern Ireland sporting hero, Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, is seriously ill in hospital
2000 - New licensing laws go into effect which give drinkers an extra half hour in the pub
2003 - The country sizzles as the temperature soars to 24ºC/72ºF
2003 - The Irish and British governments debate whether to continue efforts to reach agreement on the future of the Good Friday Agreement following Sinn Féin president Gerry Adam's failure to make a watershed speech
2003 - Sunset in Belfast port marks an historic occasion as the Tricolour and the Royal Navy’s White Ensign are lowered together. The Irish Naval Service’s LE Eithne and Britain’s HMS Tyne both exchange personnel for the ceremonial event as both fishery patrol vessels berth side-by-side at Queen’s Quay in the heart of the northern capital. The five-day Belfast engagement for the LE Eithne marks the first-ever visit to a Six Counties’ port by an Irish navy boat.
April 18
1608 - Sir Cahir O'Doherty of Inishowen revolts and sacks Derry
1689 - Siege of Derry begins
1690 - Five regiments of Irishmen sail for France and form the nucleus of France's Irish Brigade
1768 - Daniel Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, is born in Arklow, Co. Wicklow
1778 - William Bunbury, MP for Co. Carlow, dies after being thrown from his horse
1792 - Langrishe's Catholic Relief Act allows Catholics to practise law, and Protestants and Catholics to intermarry
1802 - Robert Patterson, naturalist, is born in Belfast
1817 - Michael Roberts, Irish mathematician and author of the theory of invariants, covariants and hypereliptic functions, is born in Cork
1870 - Birth in Dublin of Robert Tressell, born Noonan, author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
1875 - Novelist Katherine Cecil Thurston,née Madden, is born in Cork
1930 - Victor Conlon, Irish activist, is born
1949 - The Republic of Ireland withdraws from the British Commonwealth. The British Parliament recognizes the declaration but asserts sovereignty over the six northern counties. Ireland does not recognize the claim
2000 - Tony Blair arrives in Northern Ireland in an effort to kickstart the ailing peace process
2000 - A plaque is unveiled in Belfast commemorating those killed or injured in paramilitary violence
2000 - RTÉ confirms that Glenroe's Mary McEvoy will be killed off in dramatic fashion. For 17 years, she has played the role of Biddy Byrne; however, she is requesting that she be written out in order to take on other challenges
2000 - The low-fares war on the Shannon-London route intensifies with Ryanair accusing Richard Branson's Virgin Express of copycat tactics
2000 - According to an annual survey released on this date, Ireland is named the seventh most competitive nation in the world.
April 19
1366 - The parliament, alarmed at the apparent undermining by native influences of the settler population's Englishness, passes the 'Statute of Kilkenny'. This aims to halt the widespread adoption by the Norman-Irish, especially in frontier areas, of Gaelic Irish culture, customs and language. It bans the use of the Irish language (insisting 'that every Englishman use the English language', though it is written in French) and Irish names within the colony, intermarriage with the native Irish, the playing of hurling, and so on. Pejorative name-calling between the English of England and the English of Ireland is prohibited. In fact, at this time there is a strong mutual influence: the Gaelic Irish are adopting some Norman-Irish practices, too. Also, most of the 'new' laws merely reiterate old ones (the exceptions being those on the Irish language and Irish minstrels)
1780 - Henry Grattan moves resolutions in favour of legislative independence in Irish House of Commons
1798 - The Earl of Clare begins a 3-day visit to Trinity College, Dublin to purge United Irishmen; 19 are expelled
1875 - Charles Stewart Parnell is elected MP for Co. Meath
1909 - Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, master mathematician, expert on codes, and chess champion, is born in Cork; he learns chess at the age of 8. From a Londonderry college he goes to King Edward's School, Birmingham, where as a schoolboy he wins the Birmingham Post cup, which carries with it the unofficial championship of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Going on to Cambridge, he not only wins the University championship four years in succession, but picks up first-class honours. He wins the British championship in 1938
1969 - Fierce rioting breaks out in Derry after the RUC ban a civil rights march from Burntollet Bridge
1972 - Lord Widgery's report exonerating "Bloody Sunday" troops is issued
1998 - Key members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, led by the sister of H-Block hunger striker, Bobby Sands, meet to draft an outright condemnation of the Good Friday peace deal
2003 - The British army is called in to deal with rioting in North Belfast where up to 200 people are involved in disturbances at the junction of Limestone and Halliday Roads
2001 - Jenny Hegarty, a 72-year-old Dublin grandmother, takes on a host of international players and wins £10,000 at the Irish and European Open Poker Championship
2001 - EU restrictions on farm exports due to foot and mouth are lifted one month after the Republic’s only outbreak
2002 - Ireland's first cash-free petrol station, Carrigdhoun Service Station, near Ballygarvan, Co Cork, opens with all business being transacted by credit card or petrol card.
2003 - Bono surpasses competition from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac to become Europe’s greatest hero. The U2 lead singer is picked by online voters from a list of 36 other Europeans compiled by Time magazine.
April 20
1176 - Strongbow, Anglo-Norman lord, dies in Dublin
1608 - James I grants a licence to the Old Bushmills distillery in Co. Antrim which is thought to date from at least 1276 - the oldest distillery in the world
1696 - The Guild of Brewers and Maltsters is founded in Dublin; Richard Forster, former MP for Swords and a Dublin brewer, is a member
1772 - William Lawless, surgeon, United Irishman and general in Napoleon Bonaparte's revolutionary army, is born in Dublin
1791 - William Tone, soldier, author and son of Theobald Wolfe Tone is born in Dublin
1812 - Maurice FitzGerald, MP for Co. Kerry, presents the Irish Protestant petition for Catholic relief and calls for measures against grain scarcity in Ireland
1829 - Margaret Anna Cusack is born to an aristocratic family of English origin in Coolak, Co. Dublin; she is the founder of the first Poor Clares convent in the west of Ireland and also a talented writer who publishes on the issues of social injustice. Her writings and actions focus on advocacy of women's rights including equal pay, equal opportunity for education and legal reform to give women control of their own property
1857 - Sir Thomas Myles, surgeon, is born in Limerick
1879 - Robert Lynd, essayist and critic, is born in Belfast
1896 - A demonstration of the cinématographe is held in Dublin at Dan Lowrey's Star of Erin theatre of varieties, now the Olympia Theatre
1912 - Death of Dublin writer Bram Stoker, creator of Dracula
1945 - Alan Dukes, politician and Fine Gael leader is born in Dublin
1954 - Michael Manning becomes the last man to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland: he is hanged on this date at Mountjoy jail, Dublin, for the murder of a nurse
1874 - The conflict in Northern Ireland claims its 1,000 victim, petrol station owner James Murphy of Co. Fermanagh
1991- Sean O'Faolain, writer, dies at 91; he is best known for his short stories, collected in such volumes as Midsummer Night Madness, The Man Who Invented Sin, The Heat of the Sun, and The Talking Trees (1971). Among his novels are A Nest of Simple Folk and Come Back to Erin
2001 - Two cases of suspected foot-and-mouth rock the North’s agricultural community. Stormont Minister Bríd Rodgers admits her department is concerned about symptoms in animals at Ballintoy, near Ballycastle, and in a herd at Ardboe.
April 21
1738 - A Mr Lorimer, receiver of Sir Arthur Acheson (MP for Mullingar), is killed in a duel
1816 - Daughter of an Irish father, Charlotte Bronte, eldest of the three Bronte Sisters and author of Jane Eyre, is born
1871 - John Fitzpatrick, Labor leader and Irish nationalist is born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath
1874 - Walter Wilson, mechanical engineer, designer of cars and tanks, is born in Blackrock, Co. Dublin
1875 - Michael, "The O'Rahilly," Irish Volunteers leader, is born in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry
1879 - Birth of novelist Maurice Walsh in Listowel
1901 - Death of James Stephens, Kilkenny-born founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1907 - The nationalist groups, Cumman na nGaedheal and Dungannon Clubs, combine to form the Sinn Féin (Ourselves) League
1916 - The Aud arrives at Banna Strand, Co. Kerry, from Germany with 20,000 rifles for use of the Volunteers in the Easter Uprising; they are discovered by the British and the crew scuttles the ship. Roger Casement, who is following behind the Aud in a submarine, lands safely, but is captured later
1970 - The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is founded on this date, with Phelim O'Neill as leader
1994 - 'Guildford Four' man, Paul Hill, wins his appeal against a conviction for an IRA murder in Northern Ireland
1998 - In its annual study, the International Institute of Management Development ranks Ireland as the 11th most competitive country in the world – ahead of global economic powers such as Japan, Germany and Britain
1999 - Paddy McDonagh, a former Irish soldier caught transporting a massive bomb across the border on the day the Good Friday Agreement referendum votes are counted, is jailed for six years by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin
2000 - Dissident republicans threaten fresh violence as Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams claim hope in Northern Ireland had plunged to an all time low
2001 - The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland orders Levi’s to remove posters featuring semi naked models from bus shelters and near schools
2002 - The IRA denies that it responsible for last month's break-in at Special Branch offices in Belfast. The organisation also insists it is not involved in targeting politicians and said its ceasefire remains intact.

April 22
1365 - Lionel returns to England, leaving Ormond as his deputy
1671 - An English Navigation Act prohibits direct importation of sugar, tobacco and other produce from the colonies to Ireland; act expires in 1681 but is renewed in 1685 and extended in 1696
1717 - John Marshall, a successful attorney and father of Robert Marshall, a future MP for Clonmel and an executor of Hester Vanhomrigh (Vanessa), commits suicide in Boate Street, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
1834 - Daniel O'Connell introduces debate on Repeal of Union bill in the House of Commons
1905 - Capt. William O'Shea, politician and accuser of Parnell, dies in Hove
1918 - A general strike takes place throughout Ireland against the British government's attempts to introduce conscription
1945 - Birth of Alan Dukes Irish President (Fine Gael)
1967 - Actor and writer, Walter Macken dies at his home in the gaeltacht village of Menlo, Galway. A prolific author, he is best known for his novel Rain on the Wind and his trilogy about the famine - Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind
1999 - In Washington DC, the House International Relations Committee hears allegations of continuing abuses against citizens by security forces in Northern Ireland
1999 - Sinéad O'Connor is ordained in Lourdes by the dissident bishop Michael Cox
1999 - An historic meeting between David Trimble and the Pope takes place in Rome yesterday; careful stage-management ensures there are no public photographs of the two men close together. Mr Trimble is the first unionist leader to meet a Pope
1999 - Sir Peter Ustinov receives his 14th honorary degree — doctor of laws - from the National University of Ireland
2002 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sends a blunt pre-election warning to the Progressive Democrats that he is determined to have a national stadium and sports campus built if he is returned to power
2003 - It is announced that gardaí are to be given video cameras to record drink-related offences at pubs, nightclubs and takeaways, as part of a new clampdown on public order offences. Special units in 25 Garda districts will be provided with hand-held cameras.
April 23
1014 - The Dublin Norse and the king of Leinster, with Viking allies from overseas, are defeated by Brian Boru's army at Clontarf. Brian, now an old man, is killed. This thwarts the potential domination of Ireland by the Norse, but they are well established in the coastal towns, and will continue to have a major influence. Máel Sechnaill succeeds Brian as high king
1357 - Four days after the end of his campaign against the O'Tooles, O'Byrnes and O'Nolans in Leinster, justiciar Thomas Rokeby dies on this date at Kilkea, Co. Kildare
1723 - Mervyn Archdall, antiquary, is born in Dublin
1727 - Actress George Anne Bellamy is born in Fingal, Co. Dublin. The illegitimate daughter of Lord Tyrawley, British ambassador at Lisbon, her mother marries a Captain Bellamy and the child receives the name George Anne, by mistake for Georgiana. She grows up to become an accomplished actress and plays on the stage in London and Dublin. She is a contemporary of Sheridan and Garrick, and is patronized by aristocratic society.
1792 - Thomas Romney Robinson, astronomer and physicist, is born in Dublin
1805 - James Henthorn Todd, scholar, is born in Dublin
1918 - The Military Service Act18 April threatens conscription for Ireland: there is a one-day general strike in protest (except in Ulster) on this date
1926 - Son of irish immigrants, J.P. Donleavy, author of The Ginger Man, is born in New York; he emigrates to Ireland during World War II and becomes an Irish citizen. He now lives in Westmeath
1927 - Shamrock Rovers player Bob Fulham scores Ireland’s first international goal, against Italy
1947 - Birth of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone; she is the youngest MP ever to be elected to Parliament
1961 - A census shows the population of Northern Ireland is1,425,642; an earlier census on April 9 shows the population of the Republic to be 2,818,341
1967 - A local parish priest voices his extreme opposition to the appearance of Jayne Mansfield at the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, and the concert is duly cancelled. Three weeks later, she is killed in a car accident
1998 - The Government's package of measures designed to dampen down rocketing house prices — particularly in the Dublin area — draws mixed reaction
1998 - The largest dry bulk carrier ever to dock at an Irish port, the 183,000-tonne Buccleuch, arrives at the deep-water jetty of the ESB's generating station at Moneypoint, Co. Clare
1999 - It emerges that detectives from outside the Royal Ulster Constabulary are being drafted into Northern Ireland to join the murder squad hunting the killers of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson
2002 - Just months after voting No to Nice, Irish support for EU membership hits a record high, according to the latest survey carried out among the 15 member States
2003 - Key questions to the IRA posed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair spark an angry reaction from Sinn Féin but are supported by the Government. According to Mr Blair, the deadlock in the Northern Ireland peace process is down to uncertainty over the IRA’s future intentions.
April 24
1596 - Pacificatie of Ireland drawn
1718 - Nathaniel Hone, portrait painter, is born in Dublin
1764 - Thomas Emmet, nationalist and brother of Robert Emmet, is born in Dublin
1857 - William Thompson, journalist, is born in Derry/Londonderry
1906 - Son of an Irish father, William Joyce aka 'Lord Haw-Haw'; fascist and broadcaster of Nazi propaganda in World War II is born in Brooklyn, New York
1912 - Irish novelist, historian and politician, Justin McCarthy, dies
1913 - Large supply of guns from Germany are landed at Larne for the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
1916 - On Easter Monday, the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army seize the General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin and demand Irish sovereignty
1927 - Bishop Eamon Casey is born
1945 - Singer Johhny McEvoy is born
1948 - Birth of writer, Clare Boylan
1951 - Birth of Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael
1961 - Laura Magahy, head of development of Temple Bar, Dublin, is born
1993 - A massive IRA bomb rips through the City of London, killing one and injuring more than 40
1998 - The Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Freedom Fighters' Inner Council - the North's largest loyalist paramilitary group - backs the Stormont Agreement, saying it secures the state's place within the United Kingdom
1998 - The second-largest ever construction project in the history of the State, a £120m drainage system designed to make Cork's River Lee and Lough Mahon pollution free in four years time and create up to 500 jobs during construction, is announced
2002 - The IRA is accused of being part of a global terrorist network after a US inquiry claims the group has sent up to 15 members to Colombia to train Marxist rebels
2003 - The United States backs British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s demand that the IRA should clarify its commitment to the peace process.
April 25
1185 - Henry II sends his son John to Ireland; John lands at Waterford on this date to assert control over Hugh de Lacy, but he fails to achieve this. Henry still suspects that de Lacy wants to be king of Ireland
1681 - Count Redmond O'Hanlon (outlawed chief) is shot dead by his foster-brother
1707 - Thomas Erle, MP for Cork city, commands the centre at the Battle of Alamanza and loses his right hand on this date; David Dunbar, later MP for Blessington, is wounded and captured in the same battle, and John Upton, later MP for Co. Antrim, distinguishes himself
1819 - Vere Foster, philanthropist and educationist, is born in Copenhagen; he is the inventor of copy books used in schools throughout Ireland until the 1950s
1861 - William Ford, who crossed the Atlantic from Ireland by steerage, marries fellow country woman Mary O'Hern. Their son Henry Ford, pioneered the mass manufacturing of the automobile
1877 - Ralph Henry Byrne, architect, is born in Dublin
1918 - Irish Labour Party declares one-day strike in protest over conscription act
Anglo-Irish agreements on defence, finance and trade (25 April) end the 'Economic War': the 'Treaty' ports are ceded by Britain; the Irish Government pays £10 million to settle financial claims; both sides repeal penal duties on imports
1938 - Anglo-Irish agreements on defence, finance and trade end the 'Economic War': the 'Treaty' ports are ceded by Britain; the Irish Government pays £10 million to settle financial claims; both sides repeal penal duties on imports
1946 - Birth of Peter Sutherland; in 1981, he becomes Ireland's youngest ever Attorney-General in the Fine Gael–Labour coalition government. In 1997, he becomes chairman of BP and when BP merges with Amoco in 1998 he becomes non-executive chairman of the new company. BP Amoco has a market value of about $40 billion. Sutherland is also on the boards of ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., Investor AB and Eriksson. He is chairman of the Overseas Development Council in Washington and the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and awards in Europe and America.
1976 - About 10,000 people attend the Easter week commemorative rally at the GPO, convened by the Provisionist IRA, despite government prohibition
1998 - The first ever mass demonstrations against immigration laws and racism take place in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. At the same time, protests are staged by Irish people outside embassies all over Europe and the United States. Dublin edges close to a standstill as more than 1,000 protesters march from St Stephen's Green to the GPO
1999 - The RUC strongly denies fresh claims of police collusion and cover-up in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings that claims 33 lives in the Republic 25 years ago
2003 - Sinéad O’Connor announces her retirement from the music business.
April 26
1718 - Thomas St Lawrence, 13th Baron of Howth, receives £215 14s 1 1/2d for the expense he incurs in building a quay at Howth for landing coals for the lighthouse
1745 - On this date, John Allen (3rd Viscount Allen), former MP for Carysfort, kills a dragoon in a street brawl. ‘His Lordship was at a house in Eustace Street. At twelve in the night, three dragoons making a noise in the street, he threw up the window and threatening them, adding as is not unusual with him a great deal of bad language. The dragoons returned it. He went out to them loaded with a pistol. At the first snapping of it, it did not fire. This irritated the dragoon who cut his fingers with his sword, upon which Lord Allen shot him.’ The wound occasions a fever which causes Lord Allen’s death on 25 May
1756 - John Ponsonby is unanimously elected Speaker of the Irish parliament
1784 - Death of Nano Nagle, 'God's Beggar', founder of the Order of the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary
1808 - Benjamin Burton, son of William Burton (former MP for Gowran and Co. Carlow) fractures his skull in a fall from his horse while hunting but, having apparently recovered, goes out again with the hounds and dies from 'brain fever'
1895 - The trial of Oscar Wilde for homosexuality, then a crime, begins at the Old Bailey
1904 - Edward VII begins a visit to Ireland on this date
1916 - Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, writer, suffragist, pacifist and patriot, is apprehended while trying to stop Easter Rising looting and is later executed by the British without a trial
1932 - Aengus Finucane, priest, and charity worker deeply involved with the organization, Concern, is born in Limerick
1998 - Catriona McKiernan becomes the first Irish woman to win the London Marathon
1999 - Former Supreme Court Justice, Hugh O'Flaherty, confirms he will give a full and frank account of his role in the Philip Sheedy affair before the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights
2001 - Leading Sinn Féin members are among the 5,000 people who attend the funeral of former chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, Joe B. O'Hagan. Party president Gerry Adams gives the oration at the graveside when the leading republican figure is buried in Lurgan, Co Armagh
2002 - More than a million postcards are delivered to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales as part of an Irish bid to have the Sellafield nuclear installation closed down. People throughout Ireland posted the cards after weeks of campaigning, backed by celebrities such as soccer international Roy Keane and pop stars Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba
2003 - The Government says a deal securing the future of the North’s power-sharing executive is now close following the latest statement from Sinn Féin. Irish and British governments hail a speech by the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, as a significant advance
2003 - Police in North Belfast try to keep rival factions apart after rioting erupts in the Limestone Road area of the city
April 27
1696 - Act 'for encouraging the linen manufacture of Ireland': Irish linen gains duty-free access to the British market on this date
1739 - Lord Barry of Santry is tried by his peers in the parliament house for the murder of his former servant Laughlin Murphy in August 1738. They unanimously find him guilty, but recommend him to the royal mercy. The Lord Lieutenant endorses this plea, and Santry is pardoned under the great seal on 17 June. His estates, which had been forfeited for life, will be restored in 1741
1827 - Mary King Ward, Irish naturalist and astronomer is born
1880 - The Royal University of Ireland is founded by charter
1891 - The first ever Irish musical comedy, The Irish Girl, written by Percy French and Dr. W. Houston Collisson, is staged at the Queen’s Theatre, Dublin
1904 - Cecil Day-Lewis, poet, novelist, critic, and Ireland's poet laureate from 1968 to 1972, is born in Ballintogher, Co. Sligo
1920 - Georgina Frost wins a legal battle to allow her to be clerk of the petty sessions for Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare; she is thus the first woman to hold public office from central government in the UK
1923 - De Valera announces end of operations against the Irish Free State, effectively ending the Irish Civil War
1937 - The Most Rev. Robert Eames, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, is born
1953 - 1953 - Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress Maude Gonne McBride dies in Roebuck, Clonskeagh, and is later buried in Dublin in the Glasnevin Cemetery. She is best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats.
1966 - Farmers protest against low milk prices; 28 are arrested in Dublin
1998 - Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, forecasts an end to the RUC in its present form. His prediction comes following a 55-minute review with Tony Blair in Downing Street of critical issues arising from the Good Friday settlement
1999 - Legal history is made when the country's first ever convicted gangland murderer, self-confessed drugs dealer and gang boss Joseph Delaney, is jailed for life
2001 - Ireland's foremost literary town officially opens a permanent home for its famous wordsmiths and their works. A 19th century Georgian house, in the heart of Listowel, has become the Kerry Literary and Cultural Centre, where life-size models and audio-visual presentations help portray the personalities and output of various writers. The £1.5 million centre is appropriately named Seanchaí after the art of storytelling and in recognition of the folklore and traditions that inspire great literature.
April 28
1714 - Sir Wentworth Harman, MP for Lanesborough, 'coming in a dark night from Chapel-Izod, his coach overturning, tumbled down a precipice, and he dies in consequence of the wounds and bruises he received'
1794 - Rev. William Jackson, agent of French revolutionary government, is arrested in Dublin
1864 - Birth of William Ellison, clergyman and the sixth director of the Armagh Observatory. On his appointment in 1918, he donates the original late nineteenth-century telescope to the Observatory - an 18-inch Newtonian reflector, made by the famous English telescope maker George Calver; for many years it is one of the largest telescopes in Ireland. During the 1920s and 1930s, Ellison and others use the telescope for observations of the planets and for taking spectral images of the stars, using a spectroscope to split the starlight into its constituent colours
1875 - Teresa Kearney, better known as Mother Kevin, missionary and founder of Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Africa, is born in Knockenrahan, Co. Wicklow
1922 - Nicky Rackard, Wexford hurler, is born in Killane, Co. Wexford
1936 - The Daíl introduces a bill awarding pensions to the Connaught Rangers who mutinied in India in 1920
1943 - Andrews resigns as Northern Ireland Prime Minister and is succeeded by Sir Basil Brooke, later Lord Brookeborough
1969 - Terence O'Neill resigns as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He is succeeded by Chichester Clark
1992 - Death of Dublin-born artist Francis Bacon
1998 - Some 30 years after waiting on Eamonn De Valera and literary luminaries of the day in the Great Southern Hotel in Galway, 57-year old Rita Gilligan from Bohermore is presented with an honorary MBE by UK Culture Secretary, Chris Smith,at London's Hard Rock Cafe where she has worked as a waitress for 27 years
1999 - Ireland's largest convoy packed with 200 tonnes of relief supplies for Kosovar refugees leaves Dublin for Albania
2000 - It is announced that 100 free bicycles will be placed on the streets of Dublin for the Heineken Green Energy Weekend. The free bicycles will be placed outside Trinity College, outside Dublin Castle and at the top of Grafton Street and will be available to anyone wishing to cycle around the city to take in the atmosphere of the Festival
Photo Credit: Nicholas MacInnes / MacInnes Photography.
April 29
1653 - Birth of John Whally, necromancer and charlatan
1665 - Birth of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde and an ancestor of Princess Diana. The Dublin-born Irish general becomes one of the most powerful men in the Tory administration, governing England in the early part of the 18th century - from 1710 to 1714
1680 - The first stone of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham is laid by the Duke of Ormonde
1758 - Wide Streets Commission for Dublin is appointed by the Irish Parliament
1769 - Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman, is born in Dublin
1803 - Paul Cullen, prelate, is born in Prospect, Co. Kildare
1874 - Conal O'Riordan (pseudonym 'F. Norris Connell), writer and theatre manager, is born in in Dublin
1916 - Pearse orders surrender of the Easter Rising rebels on this date. Approximately 64 rebels have been killed, 132 crown forces, and 230 civilians. 2,500 people have been wounded; the centre of Dublin has been devastated by the shelling
1938 - Birth of Ray McSharry, Fianna Fáil politician and EU Commissioner
1941 - Birth of Jonah Barrington, squash player, in Cornwall; a student at Trinity in the late 1950s / early 1960s, it's where he started to play squash; one of the greatest squash players of all time, he is considered to be the father of the modern professional game
1954 - Kevin Moran, football player for Dublin Gaelic, Manchester United, Sporting Gijon, Blackburn Rovers and Republic of Ireland, is born in Dublin
1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis, best actor Oscar winner for My Left Foot, is born
1986 - Seamus McElwaine, IRA-terrorist, is killed
1998 - Triple Olympic champion Michelle De Bruin comes out fighting in response to the most serious drugs-linked threat to her glittering swimming career
1999 - Governor General of Australia, Sir William Deane, is to be conferred with an honorary degree at Trinity, and is the guest of honour at the first state dinner held at Dublin Castle under President Mary McAleese's term
2001 - The Irish Council for Civil Liberties celebrates the 25th anniversary of its foundation
2001 - Des O'Malley pledges his co-operation to a new inquiry into the Arms Crisis of 1970 and challenges Charles Haughey to do the same. Mr O'Malley strongly defends his role as Justice Minister during the turbulent events surrounding the most controversial trial in the State's history
2001 - A monument is unveiled in Inniscarra, Co Cork, in honour of an Ulster chief who could have changed the history of Europe if he hadn't been killed in battle. Chief of Fermanagh, Aodh Mag Uidhir (Hugh Maguire) is shot dead during an ambush in 1600 at Carrigrohane before the Battle of Kinsale the following year, which sees the last struggle for an independent Gaelic Ireland fail. "Maguire was a great strategist, and some believe that had he survived, the result of the Battle of Kinsale might have been different, changing the course of European history. He was the Rommel of the 1600s," says Seán O´ Ceallacháin of the Hugh Maguire Commemoration Committee
2003 - Thornton’s Restaurant in Dublin ranks 25th in Restaurant magazine’s latest list of the top 50 restaurants in the world.
April 30
1428 - Sir John Sutton, Lord Dudley, is appointed lieutenant for two years from this date; he has some success against the various rebels
1795 - Rev. William Jackson of the United Irishmen returns from France, unaware that his travelling companion, John Cockayne, is a spy; Jackson is arrested and found guilty of high treason; he commits suicide in the dock by taking poison
1942 - Because of petrol rationing, all private motoring in Ireland is banned, and bicycle thefts soar overnight
1951 - The first demonstration of television in Ireland is held at the Spring Show in the RDS, Dublin
1970 - "B-Specials" reserves within the Royal Ulster Constabulary formed to contain violence in 1933 (but notoriously violent in their own right) are disbanded
1998 - Michelle de Bruin, whose career has been almost destroyed by claims of drug abuse since her Olympic wins, has never been under suspicion, FINA, the international swimming authority admits
1999 - Lord Killanin, the man credited with saving the Moscow Olympics in 1980, is laid to rest. Many of the leading lights of the world of sport, business and politics in Ireland are present as the remains are buried in the family vault at the New Cemetery in the Bohermore area of Galway city
2001 - According to Dr. Vincent Maher, consultant cardiologist at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, has the highest rate of heart disease in the EU - claiming up to 14,000 victims each year. Lower income households are particularly at risk because of their diet, he says
2002 - Hopes that 325 workers at the Ardagh glass plant in Ringsend, Dublin, could keep their jobs are dashed with a surprise closure announcement by management
2003 - The Russell family decide to sell Dunkathel House, situated on 150 acres on Cork city fringes. The 220-year-old Georgian-style mansion has been open to the public, and is one of the most prominently-sited period homes in the greater city area, overlooking the Jack Lynch tunnel and River Lee at Glanmire. It carries a €15 million price guide.