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#OnThisDay 1920 The Government of Ireland Act (Fourth Home Rule Bill) became law creating Northern Ireland & Southern Ireland, both with their own parliaments. This Act was terribly out of touch as the War of Independence waged by Nationalists, sought a republic rather than Home Rule. It also gave Unionists Home Rule which was something that they never wanted in the first place. This Act was a rehash of the 1912 Third Home Rule Bill that was meant to be passed in Ireland prior to the First World War but was delayed until the cessation of hostilities. 

#Ireland #History

#OnThisDay 1917 Flight Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Malcomson Greeves from Belfast died when his Sopwith F1 Camel biplane crashed north of Dunkirk. Malcomson was a chauffeur in the British Red Cross before joining the Royal Naval Air Service in early 1917.

#Ireland #History #WW1

#OnThisDay 1878 Francis Skeffington was born in Cavan. Skeffy was a writer & political activist who took his wife’s surname after marriage becoming Sheehy-Skeffington. He was executed during the Easter Rising despite having no involvement & being a pacifist. A British officer (Bowen-Colthurst mistook Skeff, who was trying to prevent people from looting, as a rabble rouser,) arrested him and shot him dead along with two other civilians the next morning. Bowen-Colthurst was found “guilty but insane” at a court-martial and was sent to Broadmoor prison where he spent less than two years there and was released on 21 January 1918. Skeffy’s wife Hannah refused any compensation from the British Government and travelled the world speaking of Britain’s actions in Ireland.
#Ireland #History

#OnThisDay 1944 Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, commander of the US 101st Airborne Division, who were surrounded by Germans at Bastogne gave his famed ‘NUTS’ response to a German offer of surrender. All of McAuliffe’s grandparents were Irish. #Ireland #History #WW2

#OnThisDay 1920 Two IRA members, William Shanahan & Michael McNamara from Doonbeg Clare were executed after days of imprisonment & torture at the hands of the Black & Tans. McNamara was shot on the road to Ennis, Shanahan was shot after more torture in Kilrush.

#Ireland #History