The Return of "This Day" Sept 12, 2013

Day 2,123, 13:22 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Anthony Colby


I can see you read the article so please vote.


September 12

1653 - Ireland and Scotland are represented by six and five members respectively in the 'Barebones' parliament which is in effect from 4 July to this date
1798 - Rebels attack Castlebar and are repulsed
1907 - Louis McNeice, poet and classical scholar is born in Belfast
1919 - Dáil Éireann is declared illegal
1951 - Birth of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
1957 - Birth of Mal Donaghy, former NI and Manchester United player
1983 - The first episode of RTÉ’s Glenroe is broadcast
1999 - It is announced that every household in Ireland is to receive a millennium candle to light when the sun sets on New Year’s Eve
2001 - Irish aid agencies pull out of Afghanistan amid growing fears of a possible US retaliation on the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden
2001 - Families in Limerick take in American tourists grounded since 9/11 at Shannon Airport after all flights in and out of the US are cancelled.
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, Tipperary.

Although it is hard to imagine, the first drums were supposed to be blown.

As with the iceberg, much of the Earth's landmass lies beneath the surface.

Canada Bill Jones Supplement:
A Smith & Wesson beats four Aces.

Weiler's Law:
Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it himself.

Musial's Law:
The driver's side windshield wiper always streaks and wears out first.


Did You Know

• Ireland's largest church is St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin?

• The Popularity of Patrick as a Christian name in Ireland is due to the great 17th century general, Patrick Sarsfield, not our patron saint?

• The word íochtar (eek-tur) literally means lower part and is often used for the youngest child in an Irish family?

• George Bernard Shaw bequeathed one third of his estate to the National Gallery in Dublin, claiming that he received his education there?

• Guinness's fermenting vessel ferments 2,304,000 pints at one brewing?

• According to old custom, a piece of candle, a coin and a small quantity of wine or spirits should be placed next to someone who has died? The candle was to give the deceased light, the coin was to pay the fare over the river of death, and the liquor was to sustain him or her on their journey.

• Mass has been celebrated every Sunday at Ballintubber Abbey in Co. Mayo since 1216?

• Swallowing a live frog was an old Irish cure for a stomach ache?

• St. James's Gate Brewery is built on the site where, since medieval times, Dubliners held an annual drinking festival every 25th July to celebrate the feastday of St. James?

• Emmett Square in Birr, Co. Offaly, marks the centre of Ireland?

• Dublin was originally called Dubh Linn meaning Black Pool? The pool to which the name referred is the oldest known in Northern Europe and currently forms the centre-piece of the penguin enclosure in Dublin Zoo.

• Chieftains in medieval Ulster went out of their way to marry Scotswomen because their dowries consisted of axe-wielding galloglass mercenaries? When Turlough Luineach O'Neill married Lady Agnes MacDonald of Kintyre in 1568, she brought 10,000 troops with her.

• Ireland's smallest church is at Portbraden in Co. Antrim? Only ten feet long by six feet wide, the structure is dedicated to St. Gobhnan - the patron saint of builders. (huh?!)

• Mulgrave Street in Limerick, which contains two hospitals, a prison and a lunatic asylum, is known as 'Calamity Avenue' by the locals?

• The sinister sounding Bloody Foreland in County Donegal owes its name to its magnificent sunsets?

• Every spring, more than twenty million eels swim into the River Bann to breed?

• In the village of Ballyporeen, Co, Tipperary, there's a pub called The Ronald Reagan Bar?

• Charles Stuart Parnell was known as the Uncrowned King of Ireland?

• Irish women received the right to vote before American women?

• A river called the Poddle runs under Dublin Castle?

• The largest town in Offaly is Tullamore?

• Fota in Co. Cork is a wildlife park?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read. Please tell your friends. Subscribe and shout.

Anthony Colby