#OnThisDay 1951 PFC William Francis Murphy, from Cork died while in a POW camp during the Korean War. Serving with the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Murphy had been taken prisoner during fighting in South Korea on February 12, 1951. His remains were never recovered.
#OnThisDay 1974 Three bombs were detonated across rush hour Dublin & a fourth in Monaghan town. 34 people were killed including an unborn infant, the entire O’Brien family & an 80 year old man. Over 300 people were injured. This was the bloodiest single event of the Troubles.
The loyalist UVF claimed responsibility in 1993 but nobody was ever charged. Sammy Smyth, then press officer of both the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Workers’ Council (UWC) Strike Committee, said,
“I am very happy about the bombings in Dublin. There is a war with the Free State and now we are laughing at them.”
Important forensic evidence was sent to Britain but all came back with negative results. It is very likely that the British Government was involved in some aspect of this terrorist attack. This is confirmed by many ex MI-5 personnel. The Irish Government also come under attack for a lacklustre response.
Nobody has ever been charged for this attack.
#OnThisDay 1921 Two RIC were killed & 2 wounded when their bicycle patrol was ambushed by IRA in Kinnitty, Offaly. It is said that Fr. Houlihan saved Kinnitty village from being burned in a Black & Tan reprisal when he intervened while they were unloading petrol cans.
#OnThisDay 1918 Over 150 Sinn Féin leaders are arrested & interned under the “German Plot”, i.e. another German backed military rebellion in Ireland, for actively opposing the introduction of conscription. There was no plot, it had been created by the British. It backfired on the British Government as it did not arrest the more hardline IRB leadership who were able to consolidate power and push for an armed conflict. As well as that, conscription was never introduced in Ireland.
Note: Who’s that Edmond De Valera lad?
#OnThisDay 1650 Hugh Dubh O’Neill inflicts the highest number of casualties (3000) on Oliver Cromwell’s army at the Siege of Clonmel. O’Neill had created a murder zone just inside the walls when the New Model Army had created a breach. Cromwell negotiated fair terms of surrender with the mayor not knowing that O’Neill’s army had already slipped out of the town. Annoyed Cromwell, for once, kept the terms of the surrender and did not kill the inhabitants of the town.
The Irish at War 