(July 26, 1914)
A British regiment was returning from Clontarf, County Dublin, where they had met, but had not interfered with, a group of Irish Volunteers bringing arms from the Howth gunrunning. They encountered a pro-Volunteer crowd at Bachelor's Walk, who threw stones. Shots were fired at the crowd and three were killed and 38 injured. The incident stood in contrast to the tolerant acquiescence to the gunrunning at the Larne and elsewhere by the Ulster Volunteers two months before.
Balbrlggan, sack of (September 20, 1920)
The north County Dublin town was sacked by inebriated members of the Black and Tans in retaliation for the killing of an RIC officer by expanding bullets.
And took command of the home of a widow farmer, Mrs. McCormick. Some Young Ire-landers attacked unsuccessfully, with a few losing their lives in doing so. Police reinforcements arrived and the rebellion ended. Many escaped, but the strongest advocate for rebellion, William Smith O'Brien, was arrested.
Ballynahlnch, Battle of
(June 12-13, 1798)
A battle in County Down between a primarily Presbyterian force of United Irishmen led by Henry Munro and the Irish Militia and Yeo manry. The artillery of the government forces, which were smaller in number, overwhelmed the rebel forces, largely armed only with pikes. There were few government casualties, but hundreds of rebels were killed, including the leader, Munro, who was captured, hung, and decapitated. It was the end of the rebellion in Ulster.
Balfe, Michael William (1808-1870)
Composer
Born in Dublin, Balfe went to London in 1823 and subsequently studied in Italy. He wrote thirty operas, including The Bohemian Girl, cantatas and songs, and arrangements for Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies.
Ballingarry, Battle of (July 1848)
A number of Young Irelanders were gathering in the south County Tipperary village to consider an armed rebellion. Armed police arrived
Ballyseedy Incident (March 7, 1923)
One of a number of atrocities committed by the Irish Free State forces in County Kerry against Irregular prisoners who were forced to dismantle a road block that was in fact heavily mined. Eight were killed. Similar incidents occurred near Killarney and Caherciveen in which four and five prisoners, respectively, were killed.
Baltinglass Rebellion (June 1580)
James Eustace, third viscount Baltinglass, raised the papal banner in a call to fight for "faith and fatherland." This was a significant foretaste of the union of Old English and Irish that would form the Confederation of Kilkenny more than 60 years later. His move took place simultaneous with the rebellion initiated the previous year in Munster by James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald. After some success, his revolt dwindled, while the forces in Munster, joined by Spanish troops at Smerwick, County Kerry, were overwhelmed.
Bantry Bay Expedition
(December 1796)
An invading force of 13,000 French soldiers commanded by General Lazare Hoche left Brest, but almost half were blown off course by storms. The remainder arrived in Bantry Bay on December 22, but prevailing easterly winds deterred them from landing and they ultimately withdrew. Had they landed it might have seriously jeopardized the British position in ireland.
Banville, John (1945- )
Writer
Novelist, playwright, literary editor (1988-98) and literary critic (since 1998) of the Irish Times, Banville wrote such novels as Nightspawn (1971), Doctor Copernicus (1976), and Mefisto (1986), and the plays The Broken Jug (1994) and God's Gift (2000).
Barington, Jonah (1760-1834)
Politician, barrister
A member of the Irish House of Commons from 1790 to 1800, Barington opposed the Act of Union, but he helped bribe others to vote for it. He was knighted in 1807. His financial affairs were extravagant and irregular, which resulted in his going into exile following charges of having misappropriated court funds. He wrote a three-volume Personal Sketches of His Own Times (1827-32) and the Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (1833), which feature vigorous commentaries on many of the central political, social, and cultural figures of the era.
Barnardo, Thomas (1845-1905)
Doctor, philanthropist
Born in Dublin, Barnardo went to London as a young man hoping to be a medical missionary. He turned instead to serving the destitute children of London, founding what would be called the Dr. Barnardo Homes. The governing principle was that no child would be refused admission. Thousands of children were served.
Barry, Kevin (1902-1920)
Rebel
Educated at Belvedere College, Barry studied medicine at University College Dublin. A member of the iRA, he took part in a raid on a military vehicle in which six soldiers were killed, one of whom was younger than himself. Captured at the scene with a weapon, he was tried by courts-martial and executed by hanging on November 1, 1920. His execution stirred immense public outrage and grief because of his youth. The episode became the theme of a patriotic ballad.
Barry, Tom (1897-1980)
Rebel soldier
Born in West Cork, Barry served in the British army during the First World War. He joined the IRA when he returned to Ireland in 1919. He commanded one of the leading iRA Flying Columns during the war of independence. One celebrated exploit was the ambush of a number of Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, County Cork. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, but became a prisoner of the Provisional Government. His republicanism was so strong that it even led to his imprisonment by the government of Eamon de Valera in 1934. He opposed the call for Irish Republicans to support the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Barry withdrew from IRA activism in 1940 and wrote a memoir titled Guerilla Days in Ireland (1949).
Barton, Robert Childers (1881-1975)
Republican politician, agriculturalist Raised in Glendalough, County Wicklow with his cousin, Robert Erskine Childers, Barton attended Rugby and Oxford and was commissioned in the British army during the First World War. He resigned his commission after he was sent to Dublin during Easter Week, where he became a republican. As a Sinn Feiner he was elected from Wicklow to the first and second Bail Aireann and served as minister for agriculture. He was imprisoned several times for his republican activism. Barton was one of the delegates to the conference that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which he signed. However, he took the anti-treaty side afterward. Upon election to the third Bail, he refused to take his seat. He subsequently withdrew from active politics and concentrated on managing his estates, although he did chair the Agricultural Credit Corporation from 1934 to 1954.
Bax, Sir Arnold (1883-1953)
Composer
Although born and educated in London at the Royal Academy of Music and having no Irish connections, Bax came to consider himself irish after reading "The Wanderings of Oisin" by W. B. Yeats. He published poems under the pseudonym, Bermot O'Byrne, some of which were banned by the British as seditious as they commemorated the Easter Rising. His friends included Padraic Colum, George Russell, Padraic Pearse and other Easter Week leaders. The author of several symphonies that reflected Celtic and irish influences, he also composed for British state occasions and was knighted in 1937.
Beal na mBlath
The site in County Cork where Michael Collins was killed in an ambush on August 22, 1922.
Beaufort, Francis (1774-1857)
Admiral, hydrographer
Born in Navan, County Meath, Beaufort joined the British navy in 1787, in which he served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, during which he was twice wounded. Appointed hydrographer for the navy in 1829, which post he retained for 26 years, he made nautical surveys in various parts of the world. His work gained universal acceptance for its accuracy and was employed in British Admiralty charts. Beaufort invented the scale of wind velocities, which was named after him.
Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989)
Novelist, dramatist, poet
Born in Foxrock, County Bublin, educated at the Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, and Trinity College Dublin, Beckett taught at Campbell College, Belfast, and then at the ficole Normale Superieure in Paris, where he became acquainted with James Joyce who influenced him to begin writing. He taught at Trinity College from 1931 to 1932, but returned again to the Continent and ultimately to Paris, being uncomfortable with the provincialism and nationalism he found in ireland. Buring the second World War, he was involved with the French Resistance, which earned him a Croix de Guerre. He began to write in French in the 1950s. His most celebrated work was Waiting for Godot (1953), an abstract play about people in a nondescript room conversing while waiting for someone who never arrives. His other works, including novels such as Malloy (1951) and The Unnamable (1953), were similarly abstract and removed from concrete circumstances. He earned the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969.
Bedell, William (1571-1642)
Scholar, bishop
Born in Essex, educated at Cambridge, a student of divinity and of languages, Bedell served as Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1617 to 1629. He was appointed Bishop of Kilmore and
Ardagh in 1629, but he resigned from Ardagh in 1633. He favored a more sympathetic apostolic effort on the part of the Church of Ireland rather than a punitive approach to convert the Roman Catholic natives of Ireland to Protestantism. To that end he had catechisms and religious texts printed in Irish, encouraged divinity students to study Irish, and undertook the translation of the Bible into Irish. His manner prompted rebellious Catholics to treat him generously when he was imprisoned in 1641. Confederation of Kilkenny military leaders attended his funeral the following year.
Behan, Brendan (1923-1964)
Writer
Born in Dublin to a strongly republican family, a nephew of Peadar Kearney, Behan left school early and began work as house painter. Involvement with the IRA resulted in his arrest in Liverpool and his sentencing, at 16 years of age, to a Borstal for three years. When he returned to Ireland he was sentenced to 14 years for shooting at a policeman. While in prison, he learned the Irish language from a fellow prisoner. Released as part of a general amnesty in 1946, Behan turned to traveling throughout Ireland and to writing. In 1954 his play, The Quare Fellow, appeared, which gained him international celebrity. Similar success attended his next play, The Hostage (1958), and his autobiography, The Borstal Boy (1958), was a best seller. His subsequent work, including numerous television appearances and travel commentaries, were of less merit. Diabetes and alcoholism brought him a premature death.
Belfast
The principal city of Northern Ireland, a port at the head of Belfast Lough in both Antrim and Down, Belfast in medieval times had been a fortified crossing point on the Lagan River. Arthur Chichester was awarded the land in return for military service to the Crown in 1603. His descendants, the earls and marquises of Donegal, carried out development of the town in the 17th and 18th centuries. The industrialization of the 18th century mushroomed in the 19th, particularly establishment of cotton, then linen, mills and engineering and chemical industries. Later in that century, the shipbuilding firm of Harland and Wolff was formed, reaching its pinnacle of international renown in 1911 with the launching of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. The capital of Northern Ireland was located at Stormont, a suburb of the city. Belfast experienced substantial bombing by German aircraft during the Second World War and has been the site of much of the sectarian confrontations that have plagued Ulster and Northern Ireland from the late 18th century on. Many of the more severe atrocities by republicans and LOYALISTS have occurred in the city. Distinctly sectarian neighborhoods include the Falls Road and the Shankill. Notable sites and institutions include the City Hall, Queen's University, and the Botanic Gardens. Its population of 350,000 makes it the second largest city on the island.
Belfast Boycott (1920-1922)
A boycott in the south of Ireland of goods produced in Belfast that occurred in response to anti-Catholic rioting. It received the formal sanction of the revolutionary government of Dail fiiREANN and it was nominally ended when Michael Collins and James Craig met in early 1922 in an attempt to ease maltreatment of nationalists and Catholics and restrain IRA activism in Northern Ireland.
Bell, The (1940-1954)
Literary magazine
Founded and edited by Sean O'Faolain and then Peadar O'Donnell, it published many of the major writers of the period. It served as an articulate critic of the predominant Catholic, conservative, and nationalist ethos.
Belvedere College
A secondary-level school for boys run by the Society of Jesus, located on Great Denmark
Street between Parnell Square and Mountjoy Square on Dublin's Northside, its students have included many celebrated figures in modern Irish history, including James Joyce, Kevin Barry, and Garret FitzGerald.
Benburb, Battle of (1646)
In one of the greatest victories in history by Irish forces, Owen Roe O'Neill, nephew of the exiled earl of Tyrone, and his force of 5,000 decisively defeated a Scots army of 6,000 commanded by Robert Munro, who lost almost half his forces. However, upon this victory in Armagh, O'Neill moved south to assert supremacy in the Con federation OF Kilkenny, rather than finishing off Munro's forces, who were allowed to regroup and resume harassment of the Irish in Ulster.
Beresford, Lord John George (1773-1862)
Archbishop of Armagh, primate of all Ireland The Dublin-born, and Eton - and Oxford-educated member of one of Ireland's wealthiest families, Beresford served as bishop in various dioceses of the Church of Ireland before coming to Armagh in 1822. He vigorously opposed Catholic emancipation national schools, preferring a more distinctly Protestant system. He restored the cathedral in Armagh, but he also brought immense wealth to himself and his family through his various church offices.
Bergin, Osborn (1872-1950)
Linguistics scholar
A native of the city of Cork, Bergin studied at Queens College, Cork, and in Berlin and Freiburg, Germany. Involved with the School of Irish Learning and its journal, Eriu, which marked the commencement of the scientific study of Irish, he was the first professor of early and medieval Irish at University College Dublin from 1909 to 1940 and served briefly as the first director of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1940.
He wrote extensively and completed numerous translations from and into Irish.
Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Philosopher, bishop
Born in Kilkenny and educated at Trinity Col lege Dublin, where he served as a tutor and a fellow, Berkeley traveled extensively on the Continent and in America. Ordained in 1709, he returned to Ireland and became bishop of Cloyne beginning in 1734. He remains celebrated as a philosopher. His works include A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710). Berkeley could be categorized as an idealist in that he regarded the existence of the physical world as dependent on the mind's awareness of it, which awareness is a gift of God. The city in California where the celebrated branch of the University of California is located was named after him.
Bernard, John Henry (1860-1927)
Academic, archbishop
Educated at Trinity and ordained in 1886, Bernard served as dean of St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin from 1902 to 1911. He became bishop of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin in 1911 and archbishop of Dublin in 1915. He was provost of Trinity from 1919 to 1927. He advocated stern repression of the Easter Week rebels. He participated in the failed Irish Convention of 1917. Bernard was one of the southern unionists who negotiated with the Provisional Government in 1922 regarding the formation of the Irish Seanad.
Best, George (1946-2005)
Athlete
A native of Belfast, Best became one of the foremost players for the Manchester United Football (soccer) team, which he joined in 1963. He scored 136 goals in 361 appearances with the team, and he won the league title in 1965 and 1967 and the European Cup in 1968. Best was named the European Player of the Year in 1968.
He also played for Northern Ireland in European competitions between 1964 and 1977. Unfortunately, a disorderly lifestyle, particularly addiction to alcohol, necessitated his retirement at the age of 26. During the past 30 years, he has been imprisoned for drunk driving and assault, has suffered a marital breakup, and has undergone a liver transplant. On November 25, 2005, Best died due to his alcoholism.
To writing highly successful novels, beginning with Light a Penny Candle (1982) and including Firefly Summer (1987) and Glass Lake (1994), and collections of short stories, such as The Copper Beech (1992). Her works deal with such themes as relationships with family and friends, personal secrets, women's experiences in modern Ireland, small-town narrowness, and the concerns of modern popular Irish culture.
Bianconl, Charles (1785-1875)
Businessman
Born in Italy, Bianconi came to Ireland in 1802. A traveling peddler until 1806, he started a shop in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, and subsequently in Waterford, where Ignatius RICE taught him English. He started to run a coach regularly from Clonmel to Cahir in 1815, which by the 1830s had expanded into a system with over 900 horses and more than 60 cars covering on a scheduled basis more than 4,000 miles a day. With the development of railroads he transformed his system into one that provided service to stations from more remote locations. Bianconi became an Irish citizen in 1831 and was a very strong supporter of Daniel O'Connell.
Birmingham, George (1865-1950)
Clergyman, writer
The pen name of James Owen Hannay, Birmingham was a Belfast-born Church of Ireland clergyman who was curate in Delgany, County Wicklow, and rector in Westport, County Mayo. He was active in the Gaelic League and supported NATIONALISM, arguing that the gentry should lead the Irish cause. His criticism of the Catholic clergy prompted his resignation from the Gaelic League. He served as a British army chaplain in 1916 and after the First World War worked in British parishes. His numerous novels dealt with the condition of Ireland. The titles included Spanish Gold (1913), The Lost Tribes (1914), and Up the Rebels (1919).
Biggar, Joseph Gillis (1828-1890)
Politician
Born in Belfast, a provisions merchant, and a Presbyterian, Biggar joined the IRB. He was elected to parliament from Cavan as a Home Rule supporter in 1874. He was an advocate of obstructionist tactics in parliament, which were taken up by Charles Stewart Parnell to advance the cause of home rule. The IRB expelled him in 1877 for his parliamentary involvement. Biggar converted to Catholicism the same year.
Binchy, Maeve (1940- )
Writer
Dublin-born, Binchy was a secondary school teacher who turned to journalism with in writing for the IRISH TIMES in 1968. She then turned
Birmingham Six
The nickname given to six Irishmen found guilty of the bombing of two Birmingham public houses in 1974 in which 22 were killed. Considerable public and international agitation asserting their innocence finally resulted in the convictions being overturned and their release in 1991. Their names are Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power, and John Walker.
Birrell, Augustine (1850-1933)
Politician
Born in Liverpool, Birrell was a Liberal and served as chief secretary for Ireland from 1906 to 1916. While he held that position, the Irish Universities Act (1908) and another Land Purchase Act (1909) were passed. A failure to foresee the brewing tensions leading up to the Easter Rising prompted his resignation.
Black, Mary (1955- )
Singer
Born in Dublin, Black made two albums with a group called De Danann in 1983. Holding a strongly traditional musical background, she also includes contemporary songs in her repertoire. Her solo albums, such as No Frontiers and Babes in the Wood, have enjoyed great success in Ireland and internationally.
Black and Tans
Auxiliaries recruited in Britain in 1920 to reinforce the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary whose numbers had seriously declined because of IRA attacks and numerous resignations. The nickname was given because uniform shortages required they wear a mixture of the RIC tunics and the British military trousers. They gained a bad reputation for brutality and reprisals. Estimates of their numbers have been placed at about 7,000. They were joined in the middle of 1920 by another force, the Auxiliaries, who were better paid and recruited from among discharged army officers, but whose reputation was as, if not more, ominous.
Blackburn, Helen (1842-1903)
Suffragist
Born in Valentia island, County Kerry, the daughter of the manager of the island's slate quarries, Blackburn moved with her family to London in 1859. She became involved in the movement for women's suffrage, editing the journal, Englishwoman's Review from 1881 to 1890 and later wrote several books, including The Condition of Working Women (1896), Women and the Factory Acts (1903), and Women's Suffrage: A Record of the Movement in the British Isles (1902).
Blackrock College
A secondary school for males in Blackrock, County Dublin, run by the Holy Ghost Fathers, many of its students have played significant roles in the political and cultural life of modern ireland. Eamon de Valera attended and later taught there.
Blaney, Nell (1922-1995)
Politician
A native of County Donegal, in 1948 Blaney succeeded his father who had been a Fianna Fail TD since 1927. He became minister for posts and telegraphs in 1957 and the same year became minister for local government, which he held until 1966, when he became minister for agriculture and fisheries. He was dismissed by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, in 1970 because of his alleged involvement in importing arms for the Provisional IRA. He was subsequently acquitted when charged for doing such. Afterward, Blaney represented himself as a member of independent Fianna Fail. He was always very supportive of a strong republican position on Northern Ireland. He remained a member of the Dail fiiREANN until 1994. He was also a member of the European parliament for Connacht-Ulster from 1979 to 1984 and from 1989 to 1994.
See also Boland, Kevin; Haughey, Charles J.
Blaqulere, John (1732-1812)
Politician
Born in London of Huguenot descent, Blaquiere became chief secretary for Ireland in 1772. He was one of the first to effectively replace the Undertakers in managing the government's business in the irish parliament, of which he became a member himself in 1773. He remained in ireland after leaving his post in 1776.
Blarney Castle
A castle in County Cork that had been the residence of the McCarthys of Muskerry, it is a celebrated tourist attraction. Kissing the "Blarney
Blarney Castle in County Cork (Library of Congress)
Stone," a stone on the exterior of one of its higher walls, is reputed to give one a gift of eloquence. The origins of the practice stem from a claim that an earlier occupant of the castle had been so eloquent in evading Queen Elizabeth I's demand that he surrender his estates, which would be regranted to him as her vassal, that she remarked that she had enough of his "blarney."
Blasket Islands
A group of islands off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, whose population reached nearly 200 in the early 20th century, but which became uninhabited in 1953. The islands had been a major source for students of the Gaelic language revival. Several autobiographies by natives such as Tomas O Criomhthain, Muiris O'Suilleabhain, and Peig Sayers that depicted the traditional way of life became well known in both Irish and English versions. The former Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey, owns one of the islands, Inishvickillane, and has a holiday residence there.
Blood, Thomas (1618-1680)
Adventurer
A colonel in the Parliamentary Army in the English Civil War who received land in Ireland, Blood led an unsuccessful plot in 1663 of Cromwellians faced with the loss of lands after the Restoration to seize Dublin Castle and overthrow the duke of Ormond, the lord lieutenant under Charles II.
Bloody Friday
On Friday, July 21, 1972, in Belfast the IRA set off 22 bombs within an hour and a quarter in bus and railway stations and shopping centers. Hoax warnings further confused the security and rescue services. Eleven people were killed and 130 were injured. The savagery of the assault, especially the close-up television news coverage of the removal of remains, countered any sympathy the republican cause had gained from the atrocity of Bloody Sunday in Derry a few months before. The British army was subsequently emboldened to under take "Operation Motorman" in bringing an end to the no-go places in Catholic areas that had been tolerated by the authorities since August 1969.
Bloody Sunday, 1921
Michael Collins directed raids on the residences of suspected British agents in Dublin early on the morning of Sunday, November 21, 1920. Fourteen agents were killed and six other were wounded. That afternoon, Auxiliaries, ostensibly searching for IRA members, but more probably in retaliation, fired on a crowd at a football match in Croke Park. Thirteen were killed and 60 were wounded. The same day three republi can prisoners were killed "trying to escape" from Dublin Castle.
Bloody Sunday, 1972
Civil rights demonstrators staged a march attended by at least 10,000 in Derry on Sunday, January 30, 1972, protesting the policy of INTERNMENT. The authorities had outlawed such marches and were able to confine the area of the march to the republican Bogside area. In the late afternoon, members of the Parachute Regiment were ordered to undertake arrests after some disturbances had occurred. The members of the regiment had in the previous weeks undergone encounters with the IRA and its members were primed for armed confrontation. Claiming they were under fire, the soldiers began to fire on the marchers. Fourteen were killed and 12 were wounded. A government appointed commission lead by Lord Widgery issued a report on the event, which exonerated the soldiers, but it was condemned by the nationalist community and many independent observers present at the incident as a whitewash. Outrage at the event stirred protests throughout Northern Ireland, Ireland, and the United States. In Dublin a protest march ended in the burning of the British embassy on Mer-rion Square. In 1998 British prime minister Tony Blair established a new commission headed by Lord Saville to report on the events of Bloody Sunday. The report is awaited.
Blount, Charles, Lord Mountjoy See
Mountjoy, Charles Blount, Lord.
Poster depicting the victims of the massacre at Derry known as "Bloody Sunday,” 1972 (Library of Congress)
Blueshirts
Originally called the Army Comrades Association, and formed in 1932 by Irish Free State army veterans, the group drew support from the ranks of Cumann na nGaedheal supporters after Eamon de Valera came to power and especially from strong farmers faced with loss of markets for their cattle when the Economic War set in after de Valera refused to forward annuities to Britain. When Eoin O'Duffy was dismissed by de Valera as police commissioner in 1933, he became the head of the movement, which began to assume a fascistic style with the wearing of the same colored shirt, marches, and raised arm salutes. An intellectual foundation was provided by the corporatist social position advanced by a number of Irish academics such as Michael Tier ney and James J. Hogan. The movement also presented itself as a protective force for critics of the government who feared attacks by the IRA to whom the de Valera government had granted tolerance. De Valera forbade a contemplated march by the movement on Dublin that O'Duffy had called to commemorate the pro-treaty figures, Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and Kevin O'Higgins on August 12, 1933. That rebuff, which had come after Fianna Fail's overwhelming victory in the January 1933 general election, prompted the Blueshirts to join with Cumann na nGaedheal and the Centre Party to form a new group called Fine Gael, which O'Duffy would head. Failure at the local government elections in early 1934 and O'Duffy's extravagant style caused a loss of support and he resigned the party leadership, and subsequently lost even the leadership of the Blueshirts. The movement itself soon faded. However, O'Duffy did lead about 700 of his followers to spain in support of the Nationalist cause in the Spanish Civil War.
Blythe, Ernest (1889-1975)
Politician
Born in Magheragall, County Antrim and a Protestant, Blythe joined the Gaelic League and the IRB. He was imprisoned in 1916. He represented Monaghan in the Dail Aireann from 1919 to 1933 and was in the Seanad from 1933 to 1936. He was minister for trade and commerce during the first and second Dail and minister for local government in the Provisional Govern ment. He became minister for finance in the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1923 until 1932. He was also vice president of the Executive Council from 1927 to 1932. He promoted a policy of fiscal orthodoxy as a means of enhancing the credit of the new state. Toward that end, he secured an unpopular reduction of the old age pension. After he withdrew from politics he became managing director of the Abbey Theatre, for which he had earlier secured public assistance. A vigorous champion of the Irish language, Blythe wrote several books, some of which, including two volumes of autobiography, are in Irish.
Boland, Eavan (1944- )
Poet
Born in Dublin and educated in London and New York, the daughter of an Irish diplomat, Frederick Boland, Eavan Boland was lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, a literary journalist for the Irish Times. She has taught at Trinity College, University College, and Bowdoin College, and was a member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and, since 1996, a professor at Stamford University in California. She has published several collections of her poems, including New Territory (1967), The War Horse (1975), In Her Own Image (1980), Night Feed (1982), Outside History (1990), and In a Time of Violence (1994). She has also written a prose memoir, Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time (1995). Her work has dealt with contemporary Irish society in general, but with women's concerns in particular. She holds a position of preeminence especially among female poets, as well as among the many celebrated poets of Ireland in the second half of the 20th century.
Boland, Frederick Henry (1904-1988)
Diplomat
Born in Dublin, educated at Clongowes Wood College, Trinity College Dublin, and the King's
Inn, Boland joined the Department of External Affairs in 1929. He served as principal officer in the Department of Commerce from 1936 to 1938, but returned to External Affairs where he was secretary of the department until 1950. He became ambassador to the United Kingdom and then Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1956 to 1964. He was an extraordinary diplomat dealing with such strong willed ministers for foreign affairs as Sean MacBride and Frank Aiken, as well as representing non-aligned Ireland in the beginning and at the height of the cold war. His most celebrated role was in 1961, when, as president of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he gavelled Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to order when he was disrupting a speaker.
Boland, Gerald (1885-1973)
Politician
Born in Manchester, Boland took part in the Easter Rising. He represented Roscommon in the Dail from 1919 to 1961, although not attending from 1922 to 1927 as an opponent of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. A founding member of the Fianna Fail Party, he served as minister for posts and telegraph from 1933 to 1936, for lands from 1936 to 1939, and for justice from 1939 to 1948. In the later post, he implemented stringent measures against the IRA, including establishment of military tribunals and institutional internment, and he had to contend with hunger strikes and carry out executions. Boland sat in the Seanad from 1961 to 1969.
Boland, Harry (1887-1922)
Republican revolutionary
Born in Dublin, Boland joined the Irish Repub lican Brotherhood and was active in the Gaelic Athletic Association. He was a very close friend of Michael Collins. Imprisoned for his part in the Easter Rising, he was involved in the reorganization of the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Fein, while remaining prominent in the IRB. Along with his brother, Gerald Boland, he represented Roscommon in the first and second Dail Aireann. He was a member of the Dail delegation to the United States during the war of independence, where he was closely associated with Eamon de Valera in contending with rival American support groups. Boland opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and sided with the insurgents in the civil war. He was shot in its early stages and died a few days later as a prisoner.
Boland, Kevin (1917-2001)
Politician
Son of Gerald Boland, Kevin Boland was born in Dublin and was a Fianna Fail member for Dublin South from 1957 to 1970. He served as minister for defense from 1957 to 1961, for social welfare from 1961 to 1966, and for local government from 1966 to 1970. He broke with the government of Jack Lynch over the dismissal of Neil Blaney and Charles J. Haughey in 1970 over alleged importation of weapons to republi cans in Northern Ireland. Expelled from the parliamentary party, he resigned from Fianna Fail that same year and started his own movement, Aontacht fiireann, which failed to gain any significant following. He continued to attack the Irish government's failure to pursue a more vigorous irredentist policy on Northern Ireland and unsuccessfully challenged the Sunningdale Agreement in the Supreme Court on the grounds that the Irish government ought not to acknowledge British sovereignty over Northern Ireland.
Bombing campaigns in Britain
Irish revolutionary nationalists have always been drawn to the concept of taking the war to the enemy, that is, to the British mainland. Efforts to the end have very often backfired in that the casualties were frequently innocent bystanders and popular outrage spurred vigorous opposition to the perpetrators of the deeds. A gunpowder explosion at Clerkenwell prison in London in 1867 in an attempt to free Fenians failed in its objective, but the incident produced a good number of innocent victims. The IRA declared war on Britain in early 1939 and planted a number of bombs or explosive devices throughout the country in railroad stations, public lavatories, and postboxes. About half a dozen people were killed and over a hundred were wounded. During the modern troubles, since 1969, there were various bombings in Britain of public figures, the military, public houses, department stores, and major buildings. A car bomb planted by the Official IRA at the Aldershot Military Barracks in February 1972 killed five female employees, a gardener, and a Catholic chaplain. Eleven British soldiers died as a result of explosions at Knightsbridge and Regent's Park, London. Ten bandsmen were killed and more than a score injured from a bomb at the Royal Marines School of Music in Kent. A bomb planted in his car parked at the House of Commons killed the Conservative spokesperson on Northern Ireland, Airey Neave, in March 1979. A bomb explosion in October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference killed five and injured several others, and narrowly missed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Bombings of pubs in Guildford and in Birmingham in October and November 1974 in which a total of more than 20 were killed and more than two hundred injured stirred great outrage and prompted the introduction of severe antiterrorist legislation. Several people were wrongly convicted in both cases, although exonerated many years later. Extensive damage to the London Stock Exchange in 1990, the Baltic Exchange in 1992, and the Nat-West Tower in 1993, which also saw a smaller number of deaths, suggested a new IRA tactic of aiming to inflict substantial material damage as a means of discouraging British commitment to the maintenance of the union with Northern Ireland. The 1994 IRA cease-fire was called off in February 1996 by means of a bomb near the Carnary Wharf building in London at which two were killed and more than a hundred injured. Before the current cease-fire was called in 1997, there was also a massive bombing in the center of Manchester where almost miraculously there were no deaths. Some argue that it was the later bombings more than the earlier ones, which had more personal but less material damage, that made the British government more disposed to deal with the IRA in the hope it would confine its activities to Northern Ireland.
See also Birmingham Six; Guildford Four.
Bonner, Packie (I960- )
Football player
A native of County Donegal, he played as goalkeeper for the Glasgow Celtic from 1979 until 1994, and with them he made around 500 League appearances and won four League Championship badges, three Scottish Cup winners' medals, and a League Cup winners' medal. He became a regular on the irish team under the management of Jack Charlton, achieving legendary status during the European Championship campaign in 1988 and in the World Cup competition in 1990 where Ireland reached the quarter-finals and where his skill in a penalty shootout against Romania even received the acknowledgment of Pope John Paul II. He retired in 1994.
Bono See U2.
Border Campaign
A series of bombings and raids by the iRA in Northern ireland, especially near the border, that began in late 1956 and was called off in 1962, although it had petered out long before then. The more enthusiastic participants were iRA members from the Republic, two of whom were killed in a foiled raid on a RUC barracks at Brookes-borough, County Fermanagh. One of them, Sean South of Garryowen, County Limerick, received an unofficial hero's funeral, and four Sinn Fbin candidates were returned to the Dail Aireann in the next general election. However, the authorities in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic acted firmly against the campaign, imposing internment in both jurisdictions. The lack of sympathy with the campaign on the part of the Catholic population in Northern Ireland, especially in cities such as Derry and Belfast, ultimately convinced the leaders of its futility. Nineteen people died as a result of the campaign.
Bord Failte Eireann
(Irish Tourist Board)
A public board established in 1955 to promote tourism to Ireland, it replaced earlier agencies, which had become dormant during the Second World War or had concerned themselves with domestic tourism. The new board sought to draw external visitors to Ireland by carrying out advertising and promotional campaigns overseas by establishing standards by monitoring hotels, guesthouses, and restaurants within Ireland, and by subsidizing local agencies promoting festivals and tourist attractions. Its overseas role was absorbed by Tourism Ireland in 2001, a joint venture by the governments of both Ireland and Northern Ireland. It continues, however, its domestic activities of monitoring and promotion.
Bord Na Mona
Originally established as the Turf Development Board Ltd in 1933, it received its new title in 1946. The agency carries out drainage of substantial bogs in Ireland and harvests the turf or peat extracted from them to fuel electric generating stations, to make peat briquettes for domestic fuel purposes, and to produce horticultural peat moss for a worldwide market. Its director from 1934 to 1958 was C. S. "Todd" Andrews.
Boucicault, Dion (1820-1890)
Dramatist
A Dublin native, Boucicault was one of the most successful and popular dramatists of the 19th century whose work appeared in Ireland, Britain, France, the United States, and Australia. His numerous plays ranged from comedy to melodrama. Three in particular carried an Irish theme: The Colleen Bawn (1860), Arrah-na-Pogue (1864), and The Shaughraun (1874). His spendthrift life style was unrestrained.
Boundary Commission
Established in accord with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 when Northern Ireland opted out of inclusion in the Irish Free State, it sought to revise the boundary between both sections "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions." The commission was not formed until the later part of 1924, with delays occasioned by British efforts to develop alternative compromises to the commission. The members were to be appointed by the governments of Northern Ireland, the Irish Free State, and Great Britain, respectively, with the appointee of the latter serving as chairman. Eoin MacNeil was the Free State member and Richard Feetham, a South Africa justice, was the British appointed chair. A further delay resulted from the Northern Ireland government's refusal to appoint a member to the commission. A ruling by the Privy Council required legislation, passed in both Britain and the Free State, to authorize the British to appoint someone for them. A Northern barrister and a unionist, J. R. Fisher, was named. The commissions' inquiry took several months from late 1924 through early 1925. To avoid the inevitable social disharmony that would ensue from the publication of its report, which would take effect immediately, the commissioners agreed to issue a single report without a minority statement. Unfortunately, the Free State member did not understand until the end that the chair was operating from different premises as to their mandate. Feetham assumed, and Fisher concurred, that they were to make adjustments, rather than substantial revisions, of the boundary so that the integrity of Northern Ireland would not be endangered. This conception clashed with the expectation of the nationalists in both jurisdictions that there would be substantial changes of territory. On November 7, 1925, a Conservative newspaper, the Morning Post, leaked the expected report ahead of time and it caused immense consternation in the Free State since it called for relatively minor transfers of territory and population, with part of the transfer involving territory from the Free State,
See Shannon, Henry Boyle,
Rather than exclusively from Northern Ireland. MacNeill refused to sign the final report and resigned from the commission and from his position as minister for education. A Free State delegation, led by the president of the Executive Council of the Free State, William T. Cosgrave, and the vice president and minister for justice, Kevin O'Higgins, negotiated with members of the British cabinet and with James Craig, the Northern Ireland prime minister, from November 28 through December 3. Agreement was reached to maintain the status quo boundary, to suspend and keep secret for almost 40 years the still unpublished commission report, and to relieve the Free State of its treaty obligation to assume liability for its proportionate share of the United Kingdom's public debt at the time of the treaty, which sum had not yet been determined.
Bowen, Elizabeth (1899-1973)
Writer
Born and raised in Dublin as well as in the family home in Cork, Bowen's Court, Mitchelstown, Bowen lived at different times in Ireland, England, and the United States. She moved permanently to Kent in 1959 after selling the house that was the subject of her 1942 book, Bowen's Court, which gives a picture of Anglo-Irish Ireland. The theme of the "Big House" and of ancestors appears in much of her writing such as the novel The Last September (1929). She reported on Irish attitudes to the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Another novel, A World of Love (1955), was set in Ireland. She also wrote Seven Winters: Memoirs of a Dublin Childhood (1943). Her many other novels are not Irish in subject or theme, but reflect the same introspective character, such as The Hotel (1927), The House in Paris (1935), and Friends and Relations (1931).
Boycott, Captain Hugh (1832-1897)
Land agent
He was the agent on the Earl of Erne's estate at Lough Mask, County Mayo, who was the object of the "moral Coventry" called for by Charles Stewart Parnell in September 1880 to be employed against the opponents of the LAND League. The refusal of locals to work for him necessitated transporting laborers from Ulster; however, the cost of protecting them with troops far outweighed the return from the harvest. His name became the common word in the English language for similar protests of abstaining from dealing with an offending person or enterprise.
Boyle, Henry
EARL of.
Boyle, Richard (1566-1643)
Adventurer, politician
Born in Canterbury, England, Boyle came to Ireland in 1588 and soon established a fortune by challenging the title to various properties of the native Irish. He purchased the estate in Munster that Sir Walter Raleigh had acquired as the plantation in the province. He constructed towns, bridges, roads, and ironworks, and was an improving landlord. He was made Earl of Cork in 1620 and a lord justice of Ireland in 1629. He resisted Thomas Wentworth's ascendancy in Ireland in the 1630s and was a leading champion of Protestant interests during the wars of the 1640s.
Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)
Scientist
The youngest son of Richard Boyle, the earl of Cork, Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, County Waterford. Educated in England, he spent most of the rest of his life there, although he possessed Irish estates. A classic example of an empiricist and discipline of the scientific method, he devoted his energies to scientific enquiry, although he also wrote on philosophy and theology. Called the "father of chemistry," Boyle contributed to the emergence of the discipline from alchemy to an experimental science. He invented the vacuum pump and developed "Boyle's Law," which deals with the inverse proportion of the pressure and the volume of a gas.
Boyne, Battle of the
The battle between the armies of King William III and King James ii on July 1, 1690 (July 12 in the newer or Gregorian calendar later adopted in Britain), which turned the tide decisively in favor of the Williamite forces. The armies were quite international in character as William's force of 36,000 included English, Dutch, German, and Ulster Protestants, while James's army of 27,000 included 7,000 French. Louis XiV of France supported James as a means to distract the international alliance that had been created to oppose him. in the battle itself, some of William's forces crossed the Boyne River to the west prompting major portions of James's forces to be drawn toward them, and leaving the eastern front relatively exposed. William then sent the bulk of his army across the river at that point outflanking James, whose forces then retreated in panic. Total casualties were relatively small, 1,000 Jacobites and 500 Williamites. James fled to France and William gained control of most of the east of ireland. The final defeat of the Jacobite forces would not be for more than another year, but the annual commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne by Unionists in Northern ireland has made it the more remembered victory.
Bracken, Brendan (1901-1958)
Politician, publisher
Born in Templemore, County Tipperary, Bracken left school at Mungret College, Limerick, and went to Australia, and then to England, where he became involved in publishing, founding the Banker, which was later called Investor’s Chronicle, and later becoming chairman of the Financial Times and founder of History Today. He worked in Winston Churchill's election campaigns, himself served in parliament from 1929 to 1951, and became parliamentary private secretary to Churchill from 1939 to 1941 and minister of information from 1941 to 1945. Bracken was made a viscount in 1952.
Branagh, Kenneth (1960- )
Actor, director
Born in Belfast to a working-class family, Branagh moved with his family to Reading when he was nine years old. He was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company when he was 23, and he secured several leading roles. He performed in television plays; particularly a trilogy entitled Billy about Northern ireland Protestantism. He started his own company, the Renaissance Theatre Company, in 1987 and directed and acted in several of its films. One of the more celebrated, Henry V, gained Academy Award nominations for best director and actor. Branagh has continued to both act in and direct a number of other films, most notably Shakespearean plays but also others, such as Dead Again (1991), Peter’s Friends (1992), and Wild Wild West (1999).
Breen, Dan (1894-1969)
Revolutionary and politician Born near Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary, this son of a small farmer became involved in the IRB and the Irish Volunteers. He took part in the ambush of police escorts for explosives near Soloheadbeg in which two policemen were killed on January 21, 1919, the same day that the first Dail Aireann assembled. The incident is regarded as the first armed encounter in the war OF INDEPENDENCE. Breen was very active in IRA actions throughout the war in Munster and in Dublin, earning for him the distinction of a formidable price being put on his head by the authorities. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and was an abstentionist TD for Tipperary from 1922 until 1927, when he lost running as an independent. In 1932 he was elected for Tipperary for Fianna Fail and served until 1965. Breen wrote about his revolutionary exploits in My Fight for Irish Freedom (1924).
Brendan, Saint (500-577)
Monk, navigator
Born near Ardfert, County Kerry, Brendan is celebrated for his voyages, described in the early
See BOMBING
Medieval text Naviagatio Brendani, which he made with a dozen associates in a currach. The conclusion can be drawn from the account that they sailed as far as Iceland, Greenland, and possibly the east coast of North America. The feasibility of the exploit has been substantiated by a comparable voyage in a leather boat undertaken by 20th-century explorer Tim Severin, who titled his book, the Brendan Voyage (1977), after the saint's account.
Brennan, Robert (1881-1964)
Revolutionary, diplomat
Born in Wexford, Brennan served as the commander of the Irish Volunteers in Wexford during the Easter Rising, for which he was given a death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment, and soon after released. He organized a Department for External Affairs for the first Dail fiiREANN government in 1919. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. From 1930 to 1934, Brennan was the director of the Irish Press that had been founded by Eamon de Valera to advance the fortunes of his party, Fianna Fail. He returned to diplomatic service and was minister to Washington from 1938 to 1947.
Brian Boru (941-1014)
High king of Ireland
Born in Clare, a member of the Dal Cais family, Brian Boru revenged the death of his brother, who had been king of Munster, and assumed the same title himself in 976. By 1002 he had successfully challenged the O'Neills, usually the holders of the title, to the High Kingship of Ireland, and their acquiescence to his claim was acknowledged in the Book of Armagh. A rebellion in Leinster joined by the Vikings led to a decisive battle at Clontarf, Dublin, on April 23, 1014, where his forces triumphed, but he was killed. The victory ended the Viking challenge to ascendancy in Ireland, even though the Danes had invaded and conquered England the year before.
Brighton bombing
CAMPAIGNS IN BRITAIN.
Brigid, Saint (450-523)
Saint
Foundress of a convent and church in Kildare, Bridget was the subject of biographies that were closely connected with asserting the ascendancy of Armagh in the Irish Church. The devotion to her and the legends that developed as to her miraculous and intercessory powers were often intertwined with and/or drawn from the accounts of a pre-Christian Celtic goddess named Brigantia. Her feast day, February 1, continues to serve as an occasion for practicing traditional folk customs. A St. Brigid's cross, woven from rushes, is common in many households.
Bristol, Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth earl of (1730-1803)
Bishop, patriot
Educated at Cambridge and having taken holy orders, Bristol was made bishop of Cloyne in 1767 and then of Derry in 1768 at a time his brother served as the lord lieutenant of Ireland. He succeeded his brother to the earldom of Bristol in 1774. Despite his background, he was a "Patriot" politically, as he became very involved in the Irish Volunteers, sympathized with the American grievances, and championed political rights for Catholics. He spent many of his later years on the Continent, where he was involved in a scandalous affair with the mistress of King William II of Prussia.
Broderick, John See Midleton, Broder ick, St. John, first earl.
Bronte, Patrick (1777-1861)
Clergyman, poet
Born in County Down, Bronte was educated in Cambridge and ordained in the Church of England. When he arrived in England he changed his name from Prunty. He was a curate in various places in Essex and Shropshire and became permanent vicar in Haworth, Yorkshire, in 1820, where he remained until his death. He wrote poetry, but Bronte is more renowned as the father of three daughters, Anne, Charlotte, and Emily, famous for their writings. He outlived his wife and all seven of his children.
Brooke, Sir Basil, Viscount Brookeborough See Brookeborough, Sir Basil Brooke, Viscount.
In the television detective series Remington Steele. Other films in which he appeared include Mister Johnson (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). In 1995 Brosnan succeeded a series of other actors, including Sean Connery, in being cast as James Bond in GoldenEye (1995) and continued in the role until 2005.
Brookeborough, Sir Basil Brooke, Viscount (1888-1973)
Politician
Born in County Fermanagh, educated at Winchester and Sandhurst, Brooke earned the Military Cross and the Cross de Guerre in the First World War. He resigned from the military in 1920 and was elected to the Northern Ireland Senate in 1921. He resigned from that to head the Ulster Special Constabulary in 1922. Elected to the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1929 as a union ist, he became minister of agriculture in 1933 and minister of commerce and production in 1941. A leader among those who forced the ouster of John Andrews as prime minister to introduce newer and younger figures in government, Brooke succeeded him in 1943 and remained prime minister for 20 years. His period in power coincided with the postwar extension to Northern Ireland of the full benefits of the British welfare state, as all previous fiscal restrictions on the province's receipt of benefits were removed, and with significant economic modernization and improvement. The last factor may well have contributed to the minimal following among the Northern Ireland Catholic community for the IRA's Border Campaign of 1956 to 1962. His attitude toward the Catholic community was narrow and unsympathetic, as he made occasional remarks that were bigoted and dismissed employees from his personal estates because of their religion.
Brosnan, Pierce (1953- )
Movie actor
Born in County Meath, Brosnan's first film role was in The Long Good Friday (1976). He also was
Brown, Christy (1932-1981)
World History
