#OnThisDay 1926 The Honourable Violet Albina Gibson from Dublin shot Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini twice in the face. Both bullets passed through his nose & her third shot misfired. Deported to the UK, she lived out her days in a psychiatric hospital.
#OnThisDay 1919 Michael Collins was sneaked into Great Brunswick Street DMP Station (Now Pearse St) by Ned Broy to go through all the intelligence files that the G-Division had on the IRA. He also took names of all the most dangerous ‘G-Men’ to have them shot.
#OnThisDay 1919 Bobby Byrne was the first Volunteer to die during the War of Independence. Hospitalised after a hunger strike, a rescue mission was launched. However, the RIC constable guarding Byrne, rather than see Byrne escape, shot & mortally wounded him.
(However, Byrne being the first Volunteer to die during the WoI is contested for a number of reasons,
1. If the usual accepted start date of the War of Independence is accepted as 21/1/1919, then yes Byrne was the first to die.
2: However, if you stretch the dates back to after the Rising when Volunteers started attacking RIC barracks and constables, as early as 1918, Bobby Byrne is not the first to die. Two Volunteers died attacking an RIC barracks in Gortnalea, Kerry in 1918. Dan Gandy in Derry died on the 20th of January 1919 and some would argue that he was the first to die during the WoI.
As aforementioned, it depends on which metric you use as the start of the Independence movement to figure out which Volunteer was the first to die.
#OnThisDay 1865 At the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Irish-American Maj Gen Philip Sheridan captured 1/4 of General Robert E. Lee’s Army, including six generals (& son). The restructured Irish Brigade took part in the battle too. Lee surrendered three days later.
Nora Connolly O’Brien was ordered to Tyrone during the Easter Rising to mobilise Volunteers but not enough rose up. She eventually got back to Dublin but the Rising was over. She had this photo taken as a joke & sent it to her dad, signed ‘Your loving son”.
The Irish at War 