#OnThisDay 1861 The New York 69th had their first taste of battle at First Bull Run, lead by Sligo man Colonel Michael Corcoran, though it did not go as planned. The Union line fled but the 69th made an orderly withdrawal. Corcoran was captured &held for years.
#OnThisDay 1798 Two United Irishmen leaders, Fr Mogue Kearns & Col Anthony Perry, were hanged in Edenderry, Offaly (my home town). Both fought at Vinegar Hill, escaped&made their way north. Kearns had allegedly escaped a lynching mob in Paris in the Revolution.
#OnThisDay 1933 Eoin O’Duffy, ex Chief of Staff of the IRA, General & admirer of Benito Mussolini, was made leader of the Army Comrades Association i.e. the Blue Shirts, a quasi fascist organisation that later joined with other parties to become Fine Gael.
#OnThisDay 1798 William Aylmer & his United Irishmen surrender at Timahoe, Kildare.”The rank & file were allowed to give up their arms & leave unmolested although the leaders were arrested” some escaped. Aylmer ended up fighting with Simón Bolívar in Venezuela.
#OnThisDay 1616 Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone died in Rome of a fever. O’Neill took on & almost beat Elizabethan England in the Nine Years War. The Flight of the Earls in 1607 saw O’Neill & followers leave Ireland for Europe hoping to return with an army.
The Irish at War 