#OnThisDay 1919 Two RIC constables (not in pic) were shot & killed in an IRA ambush outside of Ennistymon, Clare. Const. Murphy (20) was killed outright but Sgt. Riordan (45) returned fire & hit an IRA vol before being fatally wounded & dying the following day.
#OnThisDay 1914 Britain declared war on Germany after Germany invaded Belgium the day previous. World War One had begun. 58,000 Irishmen were mobilised at once & the total number of Irish that enlisted is estimated at 205,000. Irish women participated too.
Alice Stopford Green, a historian from Kells, Meath was heavily involved in the both the Howth and Kilcoole Gun Runnings in the summer of 1914, holding the purse strings to pay for the guns. She supported the Treaty & became one of four female senators in the Seanad.
Mary ‘Min’ Ryan from Wexford, was a founding member of Cumann na mBan whose house in Ranelagh was a centre for planning the Easter Rising. Min delivered both mobilisation & countermanding orders to Wexford Volunteers & during Easter Week served in the GPO.
#OnThisDay 1960 The first Irish UN Peacekeeping troops left Ireland for the Congo. During the ONUC mission the Irish lost 9 men at Niemba but fought gallantly at Jadotville, 155 of the Irishmen holding out for five days against thousands of enemy.
The Irish at War 