#OnThisDay 1916 At Guillemont, Monaghan man Pte Thomas Hughes was awarded the Victoria Cross. Wounded, He dashed out in front of his company, shot a machine-gunner & single-handedly captured the gun. Though again wounded, he brought back 3 or 4 prisoners.
#OnThisDay 1916 The 16th (Irish) Division attacked &took the French village of Guillemont, but at a terrible cost.’Of the nearly 11,000 officers &men who arrived there on September 1st, more than 4,300 were wounded. The number of KIA 1,067′.
#OnThisDay 1658 Oliver Cromwell died. ‘It is thought that Cromwell’s death was caused by septicemia brought on by a kidney infection/problem from kidney infection, although his grief following the death of his supposed favourite daughter Elizabeth the previous month from what is thought to be cancer certainly contributed to his rapid decline.’
#OnThisDay 1939 De Valera declares Ireland would be neutral during WW2, better known as ‘The Emergency’. Of course, Ireland was not neutral in the strictest sense but rather “neutral but on the Allies’ side”.
Listen here to John Dorney from The Irish Story and I talk about Ireland during the Second World War here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/irelands-neutrality-in-second-world-war-john-dorney/id1365677620?i=1000474907990
#OnThisDay 1922 While Free State soldiers were parading in front of the City Club in Cork, the IRA drove past in a lorry & fired on them with a machine-gun killing 2 & injuring 6. In Dublin, three IRA officers were shot dead by CID.
The Irish at War 