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On the 13th of June 1865 one of the towering figures of Irish literature, the Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount, Dublin. Yeats was a poet and playwright, a central figure in the Irish cultural revival of the early twentieth century, a founder of the Abbey Theatre and the recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize for literature.
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On the 4th of June 1651 the English Parliamentary Army under the command of Henry Ireton (Oliver Cromwell’s son-in-law) began the siege of the city of Limerick. Under the command of Hugh Dubh O’Neill the city withstood the siege for six months but was forced by hunger and plague to surrender on the 27th of October 1651. The contemporary map of Limerick is from Pacata Hibernia 1633.
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On the 3rd of June 1559 the Priory of St John of Jerusalem in kilmainham, Dublin was dissolved. The Priory of Kilmainham had been founded in 1174 for the Knights Templar by the Earl of Pembroke, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The priory which had been a hospital for the sick and infirm became an asylum for guests and strangers. The site of the Priory is now occupied by the Royal Hospital of Kilmainham. The drawing of the Priory is from the Down Survey map of 1654-5.
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On the 26th of May 1897 Dublin born Bram Stoker's great novel Dracula was first published by Archibald Constable and Company. The image is the cover of the very first edition.
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On the 22nd of May 1946 the great Irish footballer George Best was born in Belfast. Best played for Manchester United and Northern Ireland and was named European Footballer of the year in 1968.
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Starting in 1536 King Henry VIII set about the dissolution of the monasteries of Ireland and the disposal of their assets. pPart way through the process a commission was established on the 20 May 1540 to survey the rents and revenues of suppresed monasteries. The record of this commission provide an invaluable source of information about many of the Irish monasteries in their final days. The great Cistercian monastery of Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny was surrendered by its Abbot on the 18 March 1540 and the commission noted that the roof of the chancel of the Abbey had been thrown down before it was dissolved and the stone, timber and tile of the cloister was valued at £10. This was to be the fate of the monasteries to be carted away as cheap building material. Image Wikipedia.
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On the 19th of May 1870 the Home Government Association was launched by Isaac Butt (pictured) at a meeting in Bilton's Hotel in Sackville St., Dublin. The Association was founded to campaign for Home Rule and became the Home Rule League in 1873.
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On the 14th of May 1784 the Postage Act became law establishing for the first time a separate Irish Post Office under its own Postmaster General, James Agar. A General post Office established in Dublin with sub-offices throughout the country, The famous General Post Office Building in O'Connell Street (pictured) was opened in January 1818.
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On the 13th of May 1554 the earldom of Kildare was restored 17 years after the execution of Silken Thomas when his brother Geraldine Fitzgerald become the 11th Earl of kildare. Gerald lived at Kilkea Castle in Co. Kildare (pictured, image from Smartertravel).
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On the 12th of may 1652 the City of Galway, which had been under siege since November of the previous year, surrendered to Charles Coote and the Parliamentary Army after the outbreak of plague in the city. The images is of Lynch's Castle home to one of the most important families of Galway City.
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On the 9th of May 1671 Irish born Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the British Crown jewels from the Tower of London. Impersonating a parson Blood made the acquaintance of the Assistant Keeper of the jewels and convinced him to let his friends see the jewels. Blood and his friends bound and gagged Keeper and made off with the crown, orb and sceptre, but were soon arrested and Blood was confined in the Tower he had just robbed. The twist in the tale is that King Charles II actually pardoned Blood for the robbery as well as granting him lands in Ireland and a huge pension of £500 a year. Apparently the king enjoyed a good prank.
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Just published: Ancient Ireland – Exploring Irish Historic Monuments by Tarquin Blake and Fiona Reilly. http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/travel/revealing-the-hidden-charms-of-our-ancient-land-30245758.html
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Today, the 1st of May, is the the festival of Beltaine (also known as Lá Bealtaine, Beltany, Bealltainn, Beltain, Beltaine, Boaltinn, Boaldyn, Belotenia and Gŵyl Galan Mai) which marks the beginning of summer in the ancient Celtic calendar. Beltaine is one of the four great festivals that include Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasad. The image is of an ancient ceremonial site associated with Beltaine, the great stone circle at Beltany, Co. Donegal. The name Beltaine literally means bright or goodly fire in Celtic. The festival was marked with the lighting of bonfires and the movement of animal herds away from settlements to summer pastures
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On the 29th of April 1680 the first stone of the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham in Dublin was laid by the Duke of Ormonde and the hospital was opened four years later as a home for retired soldiers. The Hospital remained a home for retired soldiers until 1927 and was sued as a Grad Headquarters from 1930-1950. The building was restored in 1984 and has housed the Irish Museum of Modern Art since 1991.
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On this day 1000 years ago on the 23rd of April in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf the High King Brian Bóruma defeated the Dublin Vikings under Sitric Silkbeard and their allies from Leinster, the Orkneys & the Isle of Man. Brian won the battle but was himself killed. This 1826 painting of the battle is by Hugh Frazer and can now be seen in the Casino at Marino in Dublin.
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The Irish Air Corps fly 7 tonnes of material to Skellig Michael for the restoration of the monastery. Image Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/air-corps-flies-restoration-materials-to-skellig-michael-1.1768328
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On the 21st of April 1875 the 29 year old Charles Stewart Parnell was first elected to Parliament for county Meath in a by-election as the Home Rule League candidate.
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