1916 in Ireland

Events

*January 14 - Michael Collins quits his job in London and returns to Ireland. [Mackay, James (1998). Michael Collins, A Life (1998 Reprint of 1997 ed.). Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1 85158 949 x. p44]
*February 14 - John Redmond is re-elected Chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Dublin.
*February 29 - The week long Derry Feis opens in the city.
*April 21 - Roger Casement and two others are arrested at Banna Strand, County Kerry for landing arms and ammunition.
*April 22 - Eoin MacNeill, Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers cancels all manoeuvres of Volunteers planned for the following day.
*April 23 - Easter Sunday: The military council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood meets at Liberty Hall and decides to begin the planned insurrection at noon the next day. The Proclamation of the Republic is signed by the seven leaders.
*April 24 - The Easter Rising begins. The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army occupy the GPO, City Hall, the College of Surgeons, the Four Courts, Jacob's Factory, Boland's Mills, the South Dublin Union, and the Mendicity Institution. At noon Pádraig Pearse reads the proclamation on the steps of the General Post Office, Dublin.
*April 25 - Martial law is declared in Dublin for a period of one month.
*April 26 - Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre are summarily executed at Portobello Barracks.
*April 27 - Major-General John Maxwell arrives in Dublin to take control. 12,000 British troops are now in Dublin and the city centre is cordoned off.
*April 29 - At 3.45pm, Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh surrender unconditionally as the Easter Rising collapses.
*May 1 - The Easter Rising collapses. Sir John Maxwell, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces announces that all involved in the insurrection have surrendered.
*May 3 - Following their courts martial, Pádraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas J. Clarke are executed at Kilmainham Gaol.
*May 4 - The executions continue. Joseph Plunkett, Michael O'Hanrahan, Edward Daly and Willie Pearse are executed for their part in the Rising. The Chief Secretary of Ireland, Augustine Birrell, resigns.
*May 5 - John MacBride, another leader of the Rising, is executed today. W. T. Cosgrave is sentenced to death, however, this is later commuted to penal servitude for life.
*May 8 - Another four leaders of the Easter Rising are executed. They are Eamon Ceannt, Con Colbert, Michael Mallin and Seán Heuston.
*May 11 - During a debate in Westminster on the Irish crisis, John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party calls on the British government to end the executions of the Easter Rising leaders.
*May 12 - Two more leaders, Seán MacDiarmada and James Connolly are executed. Connolly, who was wounded in the fighting, is strapped to a chair and shot. Meanwhile Prime Minister H. H. Asquith arrives in Dublin for a week-long visit.
*May 15 - The trial of Roger Casement began in London today. He is charged with high treason for his part in the Easter Rising.
*May 17 - Thomas O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, refuses a request to discipline two of his curates who expressed republican sympathies. He reminds General Maxwell that he had shown no mercy to those who surrendered.
*May 21 - Daylight Saving Time begins for the very first time as people in Britain and Ireland put their clocks forward one hour. The purpose is to reduce the number of evening hours to save fuel.
*June 26 - Roger Casement goes on trial at the Royal Courts of Justice on a charge of treason. He has been stripped of his knighthood.
*July 1 - The Battle of the Somme begins. The 36th Ulster Division sustains 5,000 casualties on the first day.
*July 23 - Thousands attend an open-air meeting at the Phoenix Park in Dublin to discuss the British government's Irish partition proposals. It is the first open-air meeting since martial law was proclaimed.
*July 26 - The date of August 3 is set as the execution date of Roger Casement.
*August 3 - Roger Casement is hanged at Pentonville Prison for high treason.
*August 7 - There is a large audience at the Bohemian Theatre in Dublin for the first screening of the Film Company of Ireland's first film 'O'Neill of the Glen.'
*August 19 - The "Irish Times" publishes a 264-page handbook detailing the events of the Easter Rising.
*October 29 - John Redmond demands the abolition of martial law, the release of suspected persons, and that Irish prisoners be treated as political prisoners.
*November 18 - Battle of the Somme ends after 141 days; stopped by foul weather and with thousands of Irish casualties
*December 21 - In the British House of Commons, it is announced that all Irish prisoners are to be released.
*December 25 - The last group of Irish prisoners, 460 men, arrive from Reading Gaol to Dublin. Seán T. O'Kelly and Arthur Griffith are among those released.

Arts and literature

port

occer

*Irish League::Winners: Linfield

*Irish Cup::Winners: Linfield 1 - 1, 1 - 0 Glentoran

Gaelic Games

:Football

:*Senior Football Championship Winners: Wexford :::Wexford 3-4 : 1-2 Mayo

:Hurling

:*Senior Hurling Championship Winners: Tipperary :::Tipperary (Boherlahan) 5-4 : 3-2 Kilkenny (Tullaroan)

Births

January to June

*19 March - James Jackman, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1941 at Tobruk, Libya. Killed in action the next day. (d.1941).
*19 March - Dr. Peter Kavanagh, writer, scholar and publisher (d.2006).
*20 May - Francis Blackwood, 10th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye (d.1991).
*21 May - Sam Thompson, playwright (d.1965).
*30 May - Jackie Power, Limerick hurler and Gaelic footballer (d.1994).

July to December

*6 July - Hugh Gibbons, Roscommon Gaelic footballer and Fianna Fáil TD (d.2007).
*23 July - Tom O'Higgins, barrister and judge, Irish Chief Justice, Fine Gael TD and twice defeated Irish presidential candidate (d.2003).
*31 July - Brian Inglis, journalist, historian and television presenter (d.1993).
*4 September - Alexis FitzGerald, Snr, solicitor, Fine Gael Seanad member (d.1985).
*8 September - John M. Feehan, author and publisher (d.1991).
*24 September - Robin Kinahan, Unionist politician and businessman (d.1997).
*3 October - Frank Pantridge, physician, cardiologist and inventor of the portable defibrillator (d.2004).
*17 October - Jack Bowden, cricketer and hockey player (d.1988).
*27 October - Nigel Trench, 7th Baron Ashtown, peer and diplomat.
*10 November - Louis le Brocquy, artist.
*14 December - Tomás de Bhaldraithe, Irish language scholar and lexicographer (d.1996).
*16 December - Michael Carty, Fianna Fáil TD (d.1975).
*21 December - Seán Brosnan, barrister, Fianna Fáil TD and Senator (d.1979).
*25 December - Noel Larmour, cricketer and diplomat (d.1999).

Full date unknown

*Gerard Dillon, artist (d.1971).

Deaths

January to June

*9 January - Ada Rehan, actress (b.1860).
*16 February - Adelaide Maria Guinness, wife of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, first owner of Farmleigh.
*18 March - Stopford Augustus Brooke, Anglican clergyman and writer (b.1832).
*26 April - Francis Browning, cricketer (b.1868).
*26 April - Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, suffragist, pacifist and writer, murdered by British Army (b.1878).
*29 April - The O'Rahilly, killed during the Easter Rising (b.1875).
*3 May - Patrick Pearse, teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, executed (b.1879).
*3 May - Tom Clarke, nationalist, rebel and organiser of the Easter Rising, executed (b.1857).
*3 May - Thomás MacDonagh, nationalist, poet, rebel and Easter Rising leader, executed (b.1878).
*4 May - Edward Daly, took part in Easter Rising, executed by firing squad (b.1891).
*4 May - Joseph Mary Plunkett, nationalist, poet, journalist, and one of leaders of the Easter Rising, executed (b.1887).
*4 May - Willie Pearse, took part in the Easter Rising, executed, brother of Patrick Pearse (b.1891).
*5 May - John MacBride, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader, executed (b.1865).
*8 May - Éamonn Ceannt, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader, executed (b.1881).
*8 May - Cornelius Colbert, nationalist and rebel, took part in Easter Rising, executed (b.1888).
*8 May - Seán Heuston, Fianna Éireann member, took part in the Easter Rising, executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail (b.1891).
*8 May - Michael Mallin, second in command of Irish Citizen Army, took part in the Easter Rising, executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail (b.1874).
*9 May - Thomas Kent, nationalist and rebel, executed following a gunfight with the RIC (b.1865).
*12 May - Seán Mac Diarmada, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader, executed (b.1883).
*12 May - James Connolly, socialist, trade unionist, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader, executed (b.1868).
*5 June - Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British Field Marshal and statesman (b.1850).

July to December

*1 July - William Crozier, cricketer (b.1873).
*23 July - Thomas MacDonald Patterson, politician and newspaper publisher in the USA (b.1839).
*3 August - Roger Casement, British diplomat, nationalist, poet and Irish revolutionary, executed at Pentonville Prison (b.1864).
*25 August - Maurice O'Rorke, politician and Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives (b.1830).
*9 September - Thomas Kettle, writer, barrister, Nationalist politician and economist (b.1880).
*19 October - Alexander Young, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1901 at Ruiterskraal, South Africa, killed in action (b.1873).
*25 October - John Todhunter, poet and playwright (b.1839).
*2 November - Frank Hugh O'Donnell, writer and nationalist politician (b.1846).
*18 December - Henry Mitchell Jones, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1855 at Sebastopol, Crimea (b.1831).

References