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#OnThisDay 1919 RIC District Inspector Michael Hunt was shot dead in Liberty Square, Thurles by IRA Volunteer Jim Stapleton. Hunt was a hardline anti-republican, breaking up republican meetings and tearing down the Tricolour and who had already had several attempts on his life.
The horse racing still went on despite the 60 British soldiers standing on the race course with fixed bayonets. When the races finished, the crowds swarmed into Thurles town and at Market Square, Hunt in full uniform was shot.

Three shots were fired by “Big Jim’ Stapleton, who kept the pistol in his pocket to avoid detection, two hitting & instantly killing Hunt. The third hit a 12 year old boy, Danny Maher, in the left kneecap. Maher was taken to see a local doctor, who couldn’t retrieve the bullet so the young boy walked the eight miles back home. (The next day Maher got the train to the Mater hospital in Dublin to get x-rayed and proper medical attention. He lived well into his 80s)

#OnThisDay 1922 Sir Henry Wilson, ex-head of British Army & Unionist politician, was assassinated by the two IRA (and ex WW1 veterans) outside of his home in London. It is said that his death was ordered by Michael Collins (though never proven) & was in response to the Catholic pogroms and deaths in Ulster.

Wilson, from Ballinalee, Longford, had served in the British Army, though thrice failed to gain entry into Sandhurst and twice into Woolwich, serving in the militia first in various theatres like the Boer War and then the First World War. He advocated conscription and played a roel in the Curragh Mutiny of 1914, where he encouraged senior officers to resign rather than force Ulster Unionists to accept Home Rule.

He became the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (Head of the British Army) in 1918 and promoted to Field Marshal the following year. He left the Army and became a politician in Ulster. He advocated police reforms but was blamed by Nationalists for the violence visited upon Catholics and even Michael Collins called him a  “a violent Orange partisan“.

He was shot dead by two IRA men, Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan, outside of his home in Eaton Place, London having returned from giving a speech at Liverpool Station Great War Memorial. He was in full uniform and is reported to have charged his assassins with his sword out, though this is contested. His assassins were caught and hanged in August 1922.

#OnThisDay 1921 In Belfast, King George V called for peace in Ireland;

‘I am emboldened by that thought to look beyond the sorrow and the anxiety which have clouded of late My vision of Irish affairs. I speak from a full heart when I pray that My coming to Ireland to-day may prove to be the first step towards an end of strife amongst her people, whatever their race or creed. In that hope, I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment, and goodwill.

It is My earnest desire that in Southern Ireland, too, there may ere long take place a parallel to what is now passing in this Hall; that there a similar occasion may present itself and a similar ceremony be performed.’

He hoped to bring a favourable end to Irish War of Independence. However he was speaking at the opening of the Belfast Parliament, which split Ireland in two, something in which Republicans would fight over too. His speech was most likely ‘influenced’ by Lloyd George too.

#OnThisDay 1917 Captain ‘Dynamite’ Johnny O’Brien passed away in a hotel in New York City.
Born in NYC in 1837, O’Brien was a wild man and supporter of all rebel causes, you could argue. He was involved in conflicts from Haiti to Colombia, and from Mexico to Honduras but closest to his heart was Cuba.
“Being of Irish parentage I was favourably disposed towards dynamite on general principal,”

Both his parents were Irish, from Cavan & Longford (and quite likely knew General Phillip Sheridan’s folks too). He left home at 13 to work on ships, working his way up the ranks. He was third officer on the Union navy The Illinois but subsequently ended up running guns for the Confederates through the Gulf of Mexico to Texas.

In 1888 he transported 60 tons of unnatural dynamite which could explode at any second through a storm to Columbia to aid some revolutionaries there.

During the Cuban-Spanish war, he through his lot in with the Cubans and ferried
“2500 rifles, a 12 pounder Hotchkiss field gun, 1500 revolvers, 200 short carbines. 1000 pounds of dynamite, 1200 machetes, an abundance of ammunition” and one-General Calixto Garcia-to the Island.” Another time he landed guns and supplies only three miles from the Presidential palace in Havana.

O’Brien was offered the job of Chief Havana Harbour Pilot by the first president of Cuba-Thomas Estrada Palma which he took and settled in Cuba for years. He returned to New York where he died and was buried in the Sailors’ Cemetery. His funeral was paid for by the Cuban Government and he was buried in a large bronze casket.

#OnThisDay 1854 Midshipman Charles Davis Lucas from Armagh, was aboard the HMS Hecla during a battle at sea against the Russian navy in the Gulf of Bothnia during the Crimean War. The attack was against an enemy who outgunned them with over 100 guns compared to 38 between the Hecla, Odin and Valourous. when a live shell landed on deck. Lucas picked up the shell with burning fuse & threw it overboard saving many lives. He was immediately promoted to Acting Lieutenant.
For this, he was awarded the first ever Victoria Cross medal in 1857. On the train back to his home in Scotland, Lucas left all his medals including his new Victoria Cross in the carriage and had to be send a replacement one without the engraving on the back.
Lucas finished off his naval career as Captain before being promoted to Rear Admiral on the retired list.