10 May 1318: The Battle of Dysert O'Dea near Corofin, Co Clare on this day during the Bruce Invasion. The Anglo Norman Lord Richard De Clare ( a descendant of Strongbow) attacked the Irish chieftain Conor O’Dea chief of the Cineal Fearmaic and ally of King Muircheartach O’Brien of Thomond. De Clare made the mistake of dividing his army in three in the face of the enemy and he led the van towards Castle Dysert O’Dea – the home of the Irish Chieftan. O’Dea held them at the ford of Fergus and sent messengers out to bring up reinforcements as De Clare charged at his opponents only to be surrounded and cut down by the axe of Conor O’Dea himself. As the rest of the Anglo Norman force came up they waded into the Irish and were on the point of extracting a bloody revenge when Felim O'Connor's troops charged down the hill of Scamhall (Scool) and cut a path through the English to join the battle. De Clare's son then arrived on the scene and was cut down and killed by Felim O'Connor. As the two forces were locked in this deadly struggle both expected reinforcements to arrive and as King Muircheartach O'Brien’s men galloped onto the scene Conor O’Dea almost lost heart until he heard the Irish war cries and knew the victory was won. Soon Lochlann O'Hehir and the MacNamaras joined the fight and it was all over for the English who went down fighting. The power of one of the great Anglo Norman families was shattered forever. In the wake of this victory King Muircheartach O'Brien advanced upon Bunratty Castle, home of the De Clare’s to find it burnt by De Clare’s widow who promptly fled to England. The De Clare’s never returned and Thomond west of the Shannon remained under Irish rule until the early 17th Century. It was the greatest Gaelic victory of the Bruce Invasion.
10 May 1650: Battle of Macroom, Co Cork. A force of 2,000 men under David Roche (the Irish commander in western Munster) on its way to relieve the siege of Clonmel, was defeated here by Lord Broghill. His cavalry force of some 800 overran the Irish infantry and up to 600 were killed in the attack; the rest escaped into the hills and bogs where Broghill’s cavalry could not follow.
10 May 1739: Birth of John Troy, the future Archbishop of Dublin , at Castleknock, County Dublin.
10 May 1795: United Irishmen of Ulster secretly meet in Belfast and adopt a new Constitution.
10 May 1830: At a meeting called and chaired by the Duke of Leinster in the Rotunda, Dublin, on this day it was decided to establish The Zoological Society of Dublin "to form a collection of living animals, on the plan of the Zoological establishment of London."
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