September (Meán Fómhair) 28th


1678 - 'Popish plot' is alleged in England


1690 - Marlborough takes Cork for the Williamites (see Siege of Cork)


1703 - Francis Annesley is expelled from the Irish Commons for his part in The Report of the Commissioners appointed by Parliament into the Irish Forfeitures, printed in London, containing the paragraph: 'And indeed it does appear to us, that the Freeholders of this Kingdom, through length of time and by contracting new friendship with the Irish, or by inter-purchasing with one another, but chiefly through a general dislike of the disposition of the forfeitures, are scarce willing to find any person guilty of the late rebellion, even upon full evidence.' The House has found that Annesley 'scandalously and maliciously misrepresented and traduced the Protestant Freeholders of this Kingdom and thereby endeavoured to create a misunderstanding and jealousy between the people of England and the Protestants of this Kingdom'

 

1902 - Ed Sullivan TV variety show host/gossip columnist (Ed Sullivan Show) born


1912 - Edward Carson, leader of Ulster Unionists, stages signing of "Southern League and Covenant" against Irish Home Rule

1920 - Cork No. 2 Brigade, IRA, attacks and captures a military barracks in Mallow, Co. Cork. English forces later burn and sack the town (see Anglo-Irish War)


1960 - RTÉ broadcasts a report on the re-opening of Bunratty Castle to the public after extensive refurbishing


1964 - Divis Street riots follow Ian Paisley's insistence that the RUC remove the Tricolour from a window at Sinn Féin’s Belfast headquarters.
In 1964, Billy McMillen stood as a Republican candidate for the Belfast West constituency in the Westminster election. His office was in Divis Street and the Irish tricolour alongside the Starry Plough of James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army in was displayed in the window. The public display of the flag of the Republic of Ireland was banned by the Northern Ireland government at that time. Protestant preacher Ian Paisley insisted that the Royal Ulster Constabulary remove the flag or he would organise a march and remove it himself.[1] The police feared a backlash from Loyalists, and removed it. There was unrest and rioting from the Catholic community.

 

1974 - Calif Angel Nolan Ryan 3rd no-hitter beats Minn Twin, 4-0


1978 - Pope John Paul I dies after just 33 days in office aged 65 - the shortest reign in the entire history of the Papacy


1987 - U2 is joined by the New Voices of Freedom choir onstage at Madison Square Garden in New York for a performance of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"


1998 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern vows to hand over all necessary papers to the Flood Tribunal investigation into alleged planning irregularities


1998 - The final strains of the Last Post symbolically close a 200-year-old military history in Fermoy and Ballincollig as the Tricolour is lowered and the troops leave the barracks. Both camps are closing and the soldiers are being transferred to Cork


1999 - The home of dual Olympian and arguably Ireland’s greatest ever athlete, the late Dr Pat O’Callaghan, is demolished in his adopted Clonmel to make way for a Rehab training facility


1999 - Larchill Arcadian Gardens in Co. Kildare win's the top prize in the ESB Community Environment Awards


2000 - The Ulster Unionist Party warns that it may withdraw from all North South bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement unless guarantees are forthcoming on IRA decommissioning, and policing


2000 - According to official figures, the number of mobile telephone connections in Ireland exceeds the fixed line total for the first time


2000 - A call for the IRA to be disbanded is made by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he reiterates the view that Fianna Fáil cannot go into government with Sinn Féin while that party remains linked to an armed force.

 

Feast Days

St. Conwall of Scotland
(Conval)

Died c. 630. The Irish priest, Conwall, was a disciple of Saint Kentigern (f.d. January 14) who preached and died in Scotland (Benedictines).

St. Machan of Scotland, Bishop

Date unknown. A Scottish saint trained in Ireland and consecrated bishop in Rome (Benedictines). Ecelesmachan in Linlithgowshire, is said to have been a disciple of St. Cadoc of Llancarvan; if so, he was contemporary with Kentigern.

We know almost nothing about him. There was a fair formerly held at Ballasalla on September 29th, which, though held on St. Michael the Archangel's day, may have been previously dedicated to St. Machan.

In the Inquest of David I made about 1116 AD when he was Prince of Cumbria, concerning the lands belonging to the Church of Glasgow a number of old churches can be recognised.....Among them is the name Mecheyn, i.e. Machan. 'When Cadoc quitted Scotland, on his way back to Wales, he left behind him an earnests worker to develop his mission among the Britons and the Picts. He was Machan, who had been trained in Ireland, but who now devoted the rest of his life...to the Clyde Valley. One of his centres was Dalserf, a parish formerly known as Machanshire. In the north end of the parish there is a property still called Machan, or Auld Machan, while the whole of the higher and bleaker lands to the south, between Auld Machan and Draffan in the parish of Lesmahagow, are still entitled Machanshire or Machanmuir.