February – Feabhra
February 1 Imbolc, Feast of St Brigid (Secondary Patron of Ireland) and Lá Feabhra, the first day of Spring
1177 - John de
Courcy invades Ulster and seizes Down; he defeats its king, Rory MacDonlevy,
twice, even though
the
northern clergy use sacred relics as talismans on MacDonlevy's behalf
1315 - Edward the Bruce of
Scotland and his Irish allies win the battle of Skerries in Kildare
1754 - Denis O'Neal, having
been convicted of a footpad robbery and sentenced to death, is executed on this
date
despite an appeal to the Chief Secretary by Charles O'Neill, MP for
Randalstown, to have him spared
1796 - Theobald Wolf Tone,
United Irish leader, arrives in France seeking assistance
1814 - The Belfast
Academical Institution - later the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, a
Presbyterian college -
is
opened
1815 - Daniel O'Connell,
having killed Norcot d'Esterre in a duel fought on this date, repudiates
violence
1878 - Thomas MacDonagh, patriot,
poet, critic and scholar, is born in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary
1895 - Birth of Sean
Aloysius O'Fearna, better known as film director, John Ford
1925 - The Derry to
Burtonport train crashes in Co. Donegal, killing 14 people
1943 - establishment of
the Central Bank of Ireland
1967 - The Northern Ireland
Civil Rights Movement is founded
1994 - The US Government
breaks its policy of "censorship by visa denial" and allows Sinn Féin
president
Gerry
Adams to make a speech in New York City
February 2 - Candlemas,
more commonly, in Ireland, called the Presentation of the Lord
1172 - Last day
King Henry II holds his court in Dublin
1172 - The Synod of Cashel:
the Bishops of Ireland, under duress, pledge allegiance to Henry II of England
1880 - Charles S. Parnell
addresses the U.S. Congress
1882 - Birth in Dublin of
James Joyce
1882 - James Stephens, poet
and novelist, is born in Dublin
1922 - James Joyce's
"Ulysses" published in Paris - on his birthday
1972 - The British embassy
in Dublin is destroyed by a furious crowd of demonstrators protesting over the
shooting
deaths of 13 people in Londonderry on Sunday, January 30
1998 - Terror gangs on both
sides of the religious divide in the North issue threat and counter-threat as
fears
grow
of another bloody month of sectarian slaughter
February 3 - feast of Saint
Blaise
1537 -Thomas
FitzGerald, Lord of Offaly and five of his uncles are executed in London. This is the end of the FitzGeralds as a major power
1729 - Foundation stone
laid of the new Irish Houses of Parliament in College Green
1744 - Lord Netterville,
indicted in August 1743 for the murder of Michael Walsh, is tried by his peers
in the
parliament
house and honourably acquitted
1801 - Prime Minister
William Pitt resigns over royal veto on Catholic emancipation
1881 - Irish Land League
organizer Michael Davitt is arrested again in Dublin
1919 - Harry Boland and
Michael Collins engineer Eamon de Valera's escape from Lincoln Jail in England.
He is dressed as a woman
February 4
1775 - Birth of
Robert Emmett, Irish patriot
1830 - O'Connell enters
parliament, having taken the new oath of allegiance
1868 - Birth of Irish
patriot and revolutionary, Countess Constance Markievicz, née Gore-Booth
1921 - Sir James Craig
succeeds Lord Edward Carson as Ulster Unionist leader
1992 - Mary Robinson becomes
the first Irish President to visit Belfast
February 5
1820 - Death of
William Drennan; physician, poet, educator and political radical, he was one of
the chief
architects
of the Society of United Irishmen. He is also known as the first to refer in
print to Ireland
as
"the Emerald Isle". Burial takes place in Clifton Street
burial-ground in Belfast and, according to
his
will and with deliberate symbolism, his coffin is borne to the grave by three
Catholics and three Protestants
1880 -The Irish Rugby
Football Union is founded in Dublin
1921 - death of Katherine
Parnell (Kitty O'Shea), widow of Charles Stewart Parnell
February 6 - Feast of St. Mel, patron
of the Diocese of Ardagh
1685 - Coronation
of King James II
1900 - John Redmond is
elected leader of the Irish Party
1918 - The silent film
version of Charles Kickham's popular novel ‘Knocknagow’, about life in a Tipperary village,
is
shown for the first time
1971 - first British
soldier killed in Belfast during The Troubles
2002 - The jinx on famine
replica ship, the Jeanie Johnston, continues as the High Court grants an order
against
the
owners and all persons claiming an interest in the ship
February 7
1875 - Sir Alfred
Chester Beatty, mining engineer, philanthropist, art collector and the first
honorary citizen of
Ireland, is born in New York
1877 - John O'Mahony,
founder of the Fenian Brotherhood in US, dies in New York
February 8
1872 - Captain
John Philip Nolan, a supporter of home rule and tenant rights, defeats
Conservative William
Le
Poer Trench in a Co. Galway by-election
2000 - US President Bill
Clinton makes it clear to the Irish and British Governments he is ready to
become
actively
involved in trying to save the Northern Ireland government if needed
February 9
1731 - Birth of
Sir Lucius O'Brien, opposition politician; he will eventually be described as
'a man who disagrees
with
the rest of mankind by thinking well of himself'
1903 - Charles Gavan Duffy,
the first editor and proprietor of The Nation newspaper, dies in Nice
1932 - The Army Comrades
Association is formed; later to be called the National Guard and nicknamed the
'Blueshirts'
1923 - Birth in Dublin of
playwright Brendan Behan
1926 - Birth of Irish
statesman, Dr. Garrett FitzGerald. Former Prime Minister. He serves as the
Prime Minister
of
Ireland from June 1981 to March 1982 and again from December 1982 to March
1987. During his time
in
office he attends more than 20 European Council meetings and at different times
serves as President
of
the Council of Ministers and the European Council of Heads of Government. He is
currently a member
of
the Council of State and an active Chancellor of the National University of
Ireland, which comprises four
of
the State's seven universities. Dr. Fitzgerald is also a lecturer, consultant,
company director and writer.
He
is the author of six books, the most recent being "Reflections on the Irish State"
1983 - A nationwide hunt
begins following the kidnapping of prize stallion and 1981 Derby winner Shergar
from the
Aga
Khan's stables in Co. Kildare
2001 - Limerick man Michael
Noonan is elected leader of Fine Gael.
February 10
1844 - Daniel
O'Connell is convicted of "conspiracy," fined and sentenced to 12
months in prison
1889 - Richard Piggott is
exposed as forger of 'Times' Phoenix Park letters
1999 - Bertie Ahern's
minority Coalition suffers another blow to its stability when Fianna Fáil
backbencher,
Beverly
Cooper-Flynn, chooses to back her father, Padraig Flynn, rather than the
Government in a
crucial
Dáil vote
February 11
1858 - The
Miracle of Lourdes takes place when St Bernadette - Bernadette Soubirous - has
her first vision
of
the Virgin Mary
1926 - Rioting greets the
Abbey Theatre performance of Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars because
of
what is viewed as anti-Irish sentiment. Yeats tells the audience 'You have
disgraced yourselves again'
1992 - After Haughey's
resignation as Taoiseach, he is succeeded by Albert Reynolds on this date
February 12
1722 - Thomas
Burgh, MP for Naas, and Richard Stewart, MP for Strabane, receive the first
£2,000 of £8,000
from
the Irish parliament for operating their colliery at Ballycastle, Co. Antrim
1782 - The right of habeas
corpus is introduced in Ireland
1820 - The ships East Indian
and Fanny, with about 350 Irish emigrants aboard, leave Cork for Cape Colony,
carrying
some of the "1820 settlers"
1848 - John Mitchel
publishes first United Irishmen
1930 - The first Free State
Censorship Board is appointed
1989 - Patrick Finucane is
murdered by Unionist assassins; Finucane, who acted as solicitor for republican
hunger
striker Bobby Sands was shot dead at his north Belfast home in front of his
wife and children
1998 - It is confirmed that
Ireland has one of Europe's top economies and our ability to compete globally
outstrips
Germany and France
1999 - Literary legend John
B. Keane discloses that he is back writing again after a four-year break due to
illness
February 13
1689 - William
and Mary - daughter of James II - are proclaimed king and queen jointly
1893 - Gladstone
introduces second Home Rule bill
1898 - Frank Aiken,
revolutionary and politician from Co. Armagh, is born
1998 - It is announced that
Irish Embassy staff in Riyadh and Tel Aviv, the Saudi and Israeli capitals, are
being
kitted
out with special suits to protect them against nuclear, biological or chemical
weapons
1998 - Ireland's electricity
industry, one of the last bastions of the closed market, takes a historic step
towards
open
competition when Enterprise Minister Mary O'Rourke inspects the site of a
Finnish-owned
peat-fuelled
generating station in Offaly
2001 - Kosovar refugees
living in Tralee and Waterford celebrate their right to become Irish citizens,
almost
two
years after they first arrived in Ireland. A total of 140 Kosovar refugees,
displaced as a result
of
an ethnic war in their homeland, are to be allowed live in Ireland permanently
on humanitarian grounds
February 14 - St. Valentine's Day (relics of St. Valentine
held in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church
in Dublin.)
1468 - 8th earl of Desmond
beheaded in Drogheda
1853 - The Queen
Victoria sinks in a storm off Howth, with the loss of 55 lives
1895 - Birth in Tipperary of
Revolutionary, Sean Treacy
1981 - The Stardust Ballroom
in Artane, Dublin goes up in flames; 48 young people are killed and more
than
100 are injured
February 15
1782 - The first
Dungannon Convention of the Ulster Volunteers calls for an independent Irish
parliament;
Grattan
continues to campaign for the same objective
1793 - A third convention of
Dungannon - a gathering of Volunteers from Ulster is held
1794 - The United Irishmen
publish a plan for parliamentary reform, advocating universal male suffrage,
equal
electoral districts and the secret ballot
1874 - Birth in Kilkea, Co.
Kildare of Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton
1966 - Novelist John
McGahern loses his job as a teacher at Clontarf National School because of
‘indecencies’
in
his book "The Dark"
1971 - Ireland switches to
decimal currency
February 16
1768 - The
Octennial Act limits Irish parliaments' life to eight years
1886 - The Irish Catholic
Hierarchy formally endorses Home Rule
1932 - Fianna Fáil wins the
general election; de Valera succeeds Cosgrave as President of the Executive
Council;
Seán
Lemass is Minister for Industry and Commerce
February 17
1896 - In the
House of Commons. Horace Plunkett and W.E.H. Lecky, Irish Unionists, support
John Redmond's
plea
for clemency for Irish political prisoners
1980 - The Derrynaflan
Chalice and other ancient silver and bronze pre-Christian antiquities are
discovered in
Co.
Tipperary
2003 - The famine replica
ship, the Jeanie Johnston, is forced to drop anchor close to the Valentia
Island,
20
hours into her 21-day voyage to Tenerife. Strong winds also lead Aer Lingus to
cancel all flights to
New York.
February 18
1366 - The
Statutes of Kilkenny are passed in an attempt to prevent Norman settlers
becoming “more Irish
than
the Irish themselves”
1478 - George, Duke of
Clarence, is executed for high treason in the Tower of London; according to
Shakespeare,
he
meets his death by being drowned in a butt of malmsey wine
1948 - A coalition
government takes over under Fine Gael's John Aloysius Costello (Taoiseach)
1982 - General election in
the Republic leads to a Fianna Fáil minority government; Haughey succeeds
FitzGerald
as Taoiseach
February 19
1366 - Statutes of Kilkenny
promulgated
1904 - Birth
on the Great Blasket Island of writer Muiris Ó Suilleabhain who is best known
for his book,
"Twenty
Years A-Growing"
1939 - De Valera states his
intention to preserve Irish neutrality in the event of a second world war
1987 - A general election in
the Republic returns a Fianna Fáil government with Haughey as Taoiseach
2001 - According to the
latest price survey, taxes make price of Irish cars highest in the EU
2001 - A 4ft limestone rock
is unveiled at the entrance to Villierstown in west Waterford which is famous
for
the heroic exploits and achievements of John Treacy. Weighing a massive eight
and a quarter tons,
the
stone, which came from the nearby quarry at Cappagh, bears the surnames of all
84 families living
in
the village and the immediate surrounding townlands as of January 1, 2000
February 20
1742 - James
Gandon, architect and builder of the Customs House, the Four Courts and other
Dublin buildings,
is
born in London
1874 - Gladstone resigns; a
Conservative administration under Disraeli takes over
1882 - Birth of Padraic Ó
Conaire, writer and poet, in Galway
1998 - Taoiseach Bertie
Ahern agrees to a demand from Sinn Féin Leader Gerry Adams for a crisis meeting
next
week, amid mounting fears that IRA 'hawks' will attempt to scupper any chance
of Sinn Féin's
return
to the talks
February 21
1775 - Edward
Denny, MP for Tralee, commits suicide
1760 - François Thurot lands
French forces at Carrickfergus in Belfast Lough, increasing English anxiety
about
an Irish-Catholic alliance with the French.
1922 - The Garda Síochána na
h-Eireann - Guardians of the Peace of Ireland - is founded
2001 - Desmond O'Connell
becomes the first Archbishop of Dublin in over 100 years to be installed as a
Cardinal.
A
large Irish contingent from Church and State, along with family and friends of
the Cardinal attend
the
installation which for the first time takes place at the front of the entrance
to St Peter’s Basilica
2003 - A rare political
letter written by Michael Collins fetches a record price of €28,000 at an
auction in James
Adam
showrooms on Dublin’s Stephen’s Green. Despite fierce bidding by the National
Library,
the
letter is purchased by singer Enya’s manager Mickey Ryan who says he wants the
letter to remain
in
Ireland.
February 22
1797 -The last
invasion of England: Small French force commanded by Irishman William Tate
lands in Wales
1832 - The first burial
takes place at Glasnevin Cemetery
1886 - At Ulster Hall in Belfast, Lord Randolph Churchill gives his destructive speech which includes the
incendiary
comment, "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right." The speech
instills fear of rule by
Roman
Catholics in Dublin and incites militant loyalists
February 23
1317 - Bruce's
army marches south and reaches Castleknock, within sight of Dublin. The mayor
of Dublin
has
imprisoned the Earl of Ulster, who is suspected of being sympathetic to Bruce.
The citizens
of
Dublin destroy some of the northern and western suburbs, to prevent Bruce from
using them
as
a base - to the later inconvenience of the administration, as many of the
buildings it uses as
law
courts etc. are obliterated
1649 - Giovanni Battista
Rinuccini returns to Rome. Originally from Rome, he takes his doctorate in law
at the
University of Pisa. During the next decade he wins distinction at the ecclesiastical courts
in Rome
and
is made Archbishop of Fermo in 1625. In 1645, Pope Innocent X sends him to
Kilkenny - then the
capital
of Ireland - to support the Catholics with arms, money and diplomacy. His
determined support
of
the militant anti-English faction is doomed to failure, but gains him fame and
infamy in Anglo-Irish history
1944 - Children's allowances
are introduced in the Free State
1965 - Roger Casement's body
is returned from England to be re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin
February 24
1582 - Pope
Gregory XIII announces the new Gregorian calendar, replacing the Julian
calendar
1692 - The Treaty of
Limerick is ratified by William of Orange
1780 - A British Act opens
colonial trade to Irish goods
1850 - Paul Cullen is
consecrated Catholic archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland
February 25
1570 - Elizabeth I is excommunicated by Pope Pius V
1934 - Ireland’s first ever World Cup match takes place in Dublin. The Irish draw with Belgium 4-4
1937 - The Imperial Airways
flying boat Cambria is delivered to Shannon to begin the first trans Atlantic
air service
2001 - It is announced that
the birthplace of Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator, is for sale. The historic
property
at
Carhan just outside Caherciveen, where O’Connell was born on August 6, 1775, is
being put on
the
market by his descendants, a local family of O’Connells
February 26
1797 - The Bank
of Ireland suspends gold payments
1854 - William Smith
O'Brien, leader of the 1848 rebellion, is pardoned
1962 - Due to "lack of
support", the Irish Republican Army ends what it calls "The Campaign
of Resistance
to
British Occupation"; which is also known as the 'Border Campaign'
February 27
1495 - Garret
More Fitzgerald, Eighth Earl of Kildare, is arrested in Dublin by Sir Edward
Poynings, Lord Lieutenant
of
Ireland
1760 - François Thurot holds
the castle and the town of Carrickfergus until this date
1792 - The Irish House of
Commons is partly destroyed by fire
1841 - William Bruce, Sr.,
the last surviving member of the Ulster Volunteer convention of 1783, a group
that
fostered
efforts towards reform, dies
1997 - After a contentious
court battle contesting the referendum, the new divorce law in the Republic is
enacted
2000 - President Mary
McAleese and former Taoiseach Charles Haughey are among the many people to pay
tribute
at the funeral of North Kerry Fianna Fáil TD and former minister, Tom
McEllistrim
February 28
1713 - Henry
Pyne, MP for Dungarvan, aged about 24 and the father of three children, is
killed in a duel
with
Theophilus Biddulph at Chelsea Fields, London; Biddulph will later be convicted
of manslaughter
1790 - The Northern Whig
Club is founded in Belfast
1799 - William Dargan,
railway engineer and philanthropist, is born in Carlow
1884 - Seán MacDiarmada,
revolutionary, is born in Kiltycolgher, Co. Leitrim
1965 - state funeral
begins (with reinterment on March 1) of Roger Casement who was executed in 1916
1973 - General election in
the Republic leads to a Fine Gael-Labour coalition government; Liam
Cosgrave becomes Taoiseach