#OnThisDay 1916 James Connolly was taken from the State Apartments in Dublin Castle, taken to Kilmainham Gaol, tied to a chair & executed. Before he was shot Connolly said to his wife Lillie, “Hasn’t it been a full life, Lillie and isn’t this is a good end?”
Of the 260 civilian deaths during the Easter Rising, nearly 40 were children, under 16 years of age. Christina Caffrey (2) was shot dead while held in her mother’s arms. John Foster (2) was shot in his pram on Easter Monday, supposedly by an English lancer.
#OnThisDay 1745 At the Battle of Fontenoy, the Irish Brigade of France charged the English & allied army as the French line was about to collapse (supposedly) shouting Remember Limerick & the Saxon betrayal!! This attack clutched French victory from defeat.
#OnThisDay 1689 The French & English navies fought each other for the first time since 1545 at the Battle of Bantry Bay. The French managed to unload supplies for James’s Irish campaign & inflicted more damage but the battle is deemed inconclusive.
Rosie Hackett was republican & an active trade unionist her entire life. Hackett mobilised workers during the Dublin Lockout, set up soup kitchens to feed them & lost her own job from Jacob’s. She helped print the Proclamation & spent the Rising in the RCSI.
The Irish at War 