April  (Aibrean) 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

1996 - James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke criminal, dies at 64

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 (Villanova) 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.