#OnThisDay 1921 Sean MacEoin made a lucky escape from a cottage in Ballinalee, Longford, surrounded by Crown forces. MacEoin walked out the front door, shot & killed the first man, D.I. McGrath, & then cleared himself a path by throwing a grenade at the others.
#OnThisDay 1878 John O’Neill passed away. Born in Monaghan, he emigrated to the US during the Famine. He fought in the US Civil War & in 1866 launched the ill-fated Fenian invasion of Canada, winning the battle of Ridgeway but not having much other success.
To Markievicz
Skinnider
Kearns
O’Malley
Hackett
Coyle
Wyse-Power
Gifford
Sweeney
O’Farrell
Moloney
Lynn
Sheehy Skeffington
Spring Rice
Stopford Price
Gifford
Bourke
And all the powerful Irish women from history, the present and the future
Happy #nollaignamban
#OnThisDay 1969 George Nagle (23) from Clonmel was killed in action while serving in the Australian Army in the Vietnam War. Nagle was killed by a claymore mine. Nagle joined the British Army at 14 as a boy soldier, then left after two years, came back to Ireland, then joined the Irish Army at 16/17 & served as a UN Peacekeeper in Cyprus. Then he moved to Australia, worked some different jobs & joined the army there. He was only in country a few minutes when he was killed, two weeks before his 24th birthday.
#OnThisDay 1920 Longford IRA attack the Drumlish RIC barracks. The IRA had two large bombs which failed to detonate because the gelignite had been frozen. Sean MacEoin was later thankful of this because they were too close when they tried to detonate it & they would’ve all been killed by the explosion. Eventually the IRA withdrew. No casualties on either side.
The Irish at War 