#OnThisDay 1945 Eamon De Valera’s speech on #Ireland‘s neutrality. “Mr. Churchill is justly proud of his nation’s perseverance against heavy odds. But we in this island are still prouder of our people’s perseverance for freedom through all the centuries”.
#OnThisDay 1921 Daniel O’Brien was executed in Cork Military Barracks after being found guilty, by a Drumhead Court Martial,of being in possession of a revolver &ammo.Before his sentence,O’Brien stated that if he captured a British soldier he wouldn’t shoot him.
#OnThisDay 1918 Private Frank O’Neill, Sherwood Foresters was executed at dawn for desertion. He had two previous convictions. He was the last man to be unrepresented at his trial. He was offered a half pint of brandy before being shot but declined.
#OnThisDay 1968 Captain Edmond Landers from Oola, Limerick was shot dead by a sniper while on a reconnaissance in force patrol near the village of Thu Duc, in the Thu Duc District, northeast of Saigon. (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. Captain Landers was serving as Company Commander of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam.
Landers had been drafted in 1958 & stayed in the Army rising through the ranks. He was 30, newly married and had a three month old daughter.
#OnThisDay 1921 Fr Seamus O’Callaghan was shot & fatally wounded by drunk Black and Tans in Cork city despite saying “ I am only a priest & a guest’. Fr. O’Callaghan was staying the house of a wanted man, Alderman Liam de Roiste, who the Crown Forces had attempted to kill in several raids on his house.
This was in revenge for four RIC officers who had been killed on the street in the Blackpool part of town. During a raid on a house, four constables went into the house and four remained outside when they had a bomb thrown at them by the IRA.
The Irish at War 