On this day 25 June in Irish History

The events which shaped our past which occurred on this day;

1731 - The Dublin Society for Improving Husbandry, (later to become the Royal Dublin Society on June 19, 1820), is founded on this date
1783 - The Bank of Ireland is established in Dublin, by Royal charter. It issues its first notes, and opens to the public on this date; the Irish pound is worth £12/13 sterling
1798 - Northern column fails to take Hacketstown, Co. Carlow and returns to camp at Croghan. Southern column marches from Slatt, to camp at Kilcumney Hill, Co. Carlow
1870 - Erskine Childers, novelist, member of the Royal Navy, and later an Irish nationalist, is born in London. He is famous for the classic spy yarn "The Riddle Of The Sands." For more on his life, please click The Wild Geese
1891 - Charles Stewart Parnell married Katherine O'Shea in England
1938 - Dr. Douglas Hyde inaugurated as first President of Ireland; Seán T O'Ceallaigh, Eamon de Valera and Erskine Childers were all installed on the same day in 1945, 1959 and 1973 respectively
1939 - Garech A Brún, founder of Claddagh Records, music publisher and world-traveller, is born in Glenmaroon, Chapelizod, Co. Dublin. Samuel Beckett, Robert Graves, Patrick Kavanagh and the Chieftains, which he founded, feature among Claddagh's diverse recordings
1950 - Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, writer, drowns while swimming off Co. Galway. He was born on the Great Blasket Island off Co, Kerry in 1904. The English scholar George Thomson, who visited the island for the first time in 1923, encouraged Muiris to write. His book "Fiche Bliain ag Fás" describes his early life on the Great Blasket. In 1933-1934(?), it was translated into English as "Twenty Years A-Growing" the same year it was published in Irish. It was later published into many other languages and has been acclaimed by international critics as a jewel of Irish culture
1970 - Restrictions on Catholics attending Trinity College removed

Quote :

1891 - Charles Stewart Parnell married Katherine O'Shea in England

"One bright sunny day when the House was sitting I drove, accompanied by my sister, Mrs Steele (who had a house in Buckingham Gate) to the House of Commons and sent in a card asking Mr. Parnell to come out and speak to us in Palace Yard.

He came out, a tall, gaunt figure, thin and deadly pale. He looked straight at me smiling, and his ciriously burning eyes looked into mine with a wondering intentness that threw my brain into the sudden thought: "This man is wonderful - and different."
...
In leaning forward to say goodbye, a rose I was wearing in ny bodice fell out on to my skirt. He picked it up and, touching it lightly with his lips, placed it in his buttonhole.

This rose I found years afterwards done up in an envelope, with my name and the date, among his most private papers, and when he died I laid it upon his heart."



Katherine O'Shea wrote a book called 'Charles Stewart Parnell His Love Story and Political Life' and it was published in 1914. I have Volume 1. Above is her account of the day they met. She publishes a lot of letters and telegrams and they alone paint a very different portrait of Parnell than the generally accepted one of him as an aloof and reserved man.

Even to touch and look at, the book is quite something, being almost a hundred years old, bound in the old fashioned way with off-white pages as stiff as card and speckled with age-spots.

The dedication to the book is made up of three lines from Thomas Moore:

'Had the whole rich world been in my power,
I should have singled out thee, only thee,
From the whole world's collected treasury.'

It's many, many years since I read her story and I am glad to be reminded of it. Thanks AT.

1798- Several insurgents were hanged in Wexford town including Fr. Philip Roche and Matthew Keogh.

1876- Custer's Last Stand was fought in Montana. Gen George Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment attacked what they thought was an Indian village. Unfortunately it was full to the neck of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Led by Crazy Horse, the Indians inflicted a heavy defeat on the army. 260 US soldiers died including Capt Myles Keogh from Co. Carlow.

1900- Prince Louis of Battenberg was born in London. Better known as Lord Mountbatten, he was killed by an IRA bomb on his boat in Co. Sligo in 1979.

Other Presidential inaugurations on this day;

1945-Seán T O'Ceallaigh

1959- Eamonn De Valera

1973- Erskine Childers