Stair na hÉireann / History of Ireland

Stair na hÉireann / History of Ireland Stair na hÉireann / History of Ireland tells the story of Ireland — its history, culture, legends, and people. © Stair na hÉireann / History of Ireland.

All Rights Reserved. 2013 Stair na hÉireann is steeped in Ireland's turbulent history, as well as it's culture, music, and is populated in myth and characters. © Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland 2013. All Rights Reserved.

in 1831 – Dublin Zoo opened its gates for the first time. 🦁🇮🇪On 1 September 1831, the Zoological Gardens Dublin opened...
01/09/2026

in 1831 – Dublin Zoo opened its gates for the first time. 🦁🇮🇪

On 1 September 1831, the Zoological Gardens Dublin opened in Phoenix Park, marking the beginning of what would become one of Ireland’s best-known institutions.

The Zoo grew out of the Zoological Society of Ireland, founded on 10 May 1830 at a meeting in Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital. The Society was established by physicians, anatomists, academics and other scientists interested in the study of zoology and in creating a collection of living animals along the lines of the Zoological Society of London.

When the Zoo opened, its collection consisted of 46 mammals and 72 birds, many of them donated by London Zoo. Admission initially cost sixpence, making it largely an attraction for the more affluent.

In 1840, however, the Society introduced one-penny admission on Sundays, opening the Zoo to a much wider section of Dublin society and beginning its transformation into what became known affectionately as the “People’s Zoo.”

Dublin Zoo remains in Phoenix Park today, nearly two centuries after it first opened its gates.

in 1945 – Van Morrison, “Van the Man,” is born in Belfast.Born George Ivan Morrison on 31 August 1945, the Belfast-bor...
31/08/2026

in 1945 – Van Morrison, “Van the Man,” is born in Belfast.

Born George Ivan Morrison on 31 August 1945, the Belfast-born singer, songwriter and musician would become one of Ireland’s most distinctive and enduring musical voices.

Morrison first made his mark as the lead singer of Belfast R&B band Them, recording his own composition “Gloria” in London in July 1964. Released later that year as the B-side of “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” the song would become a rock classic and one of the most widely covered songs of its era.

Then came an extraordinary solo career.

From the irresistible “Brown Eyed Girl” and the mystical beauty of “Into the Mystic”, to the poetic “Coney Island” and “I’m Tired Joey Boy,” Morrison’s music has travelled effortlessly between R&B, soul, jazz, folk, blues and spiritual music.

Both “Coney Island” and “I’m Tired Joey Boy” appeared on his 1989 album Avalon Sunset.

A bold claim, perhaps, but there is certainly an argument to be made that Van Morrison is one of the finest songwriters and composers ever produced by Ireland.

And unmistakably Belfast.

Happy 81st birthday to Van the Man. 🎶☘️

in 1848 – Francis O’Neill, the Chicago police chief who became one of the most important collectors of Irish tradition...
28/08/2026

in 1848 – Francis O’Neill, the Chicago police chief who became one of the most important collectors of Irish traditional music, is born in Tralibane, near Bantry, Co. Cork.

Francis O’Neill was born on August 28, 1848, the youngest of seven children in a musical family in West Cork. Music, song and dance were an important part of life in his community, and O’Neill developed a lifelong love of traditional music from an early age. (ITMA)

At sixteen, he left Ireland and spent several years at sea before eventually settling in Chicago. In 1873, he joined the Chicago Police Department, where he steadily rose through the ranks. On April 30, 1901, he became General Superintendent of Police — commonly known as Chief O’Neill — a position he held until 1905. (Digital Chicago History)

But O’Neill’s greatest legacy would be outside the police force.

A passionate flute, fiddle and pipe player himself, he began an ambitious effort to collect and preserve Irish traditional music. Working with fellow musicians — including other members of the Chicago police — he gathered tunes remembered from Ireland as well as melodies circulating within Chicago’s large Irish immigrant community. (DIB)

His work resulted in some of the most influential collections of Irish traditional music ever published.

In 1903, he published O’Neill’s Music of Ireland, Eighteen Hundred and Fifty Melodies. In 1907, he followed it with The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems, which became so influential that musicians simply referred to it as “the book.” (Digital Chicago History)

O’Neill also began making Edison cylinder recordings of Irish traditional musicians in 1902, providing some of the earliest sound recordings of the tradition. (DIB)

Francis O’Neill died in Chicago in 1936, but his legacy lives on every time an Irish musician plays one of the thousands of melodies he helped preserve.

From West Cork to Chicago — a police chief who became one of the great chroniclers and champions of Irish traditional music. 🎶🇮🇪

This was the family home of the Kerins family in Ballymote, Sligo where Andrew Kerins was born in 1840, before the Great...
28/08/2026

This was the family home of the Kerins family in Ballymote, Sligo where Andrew Kerins was born in 1840, before the Great Hunger. He experienced the famine and left for Glasgow in 1855, where he would later join the Marist Brothers. He saw the struggles of the impoverished Irish in Glasgow's east end and was the founder of world famous Glasgow Celtic in 1887. He set up the soup kitchens and a sense of community for the Irish immigrants to Scotland. The Marist Fathers is a Catholic organisation whose members are referred to as Brothers. They were founded in France in 1816. Andrew Kerins joined the group after moving to Scotland in 1855 from county Sligo. His religious name was Brother Walfrid and there are statues of him in Ballymote Country Park and outside Glasgow Celtic Football Club. It was Brother Walfrid who founded Glasgow Celtic in 1887 as part of his mission to help the poor in Glasgow's east end. He is fondly remembered by thousands of people around the world because of his efforts in helping the poor, mainly Irish immigrants.

☘️ in 1913 — The Dublin Lockout beginsOn 26 August 1913, Dublin tram drivers and conductors walked off the job, markin...
26/08/2026

☘️ in 1913 — The Dublin Lockout begins

On 26 August 1913, Dublin tram drivers and conductors walked off the job, marking the beginning of what would become one of the most bitter and consequential labour disputes in Irish history.

Led by “Big” Jim Larkin, the dispute soon developed into the Dublin Lockout, as employers led by businessman William Martin Murphy sought to prevent workers from joining Larkin’s Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU).

Larkin had founded the ITGWU in January 1909, bringing together skilled and unskilled workers in an effort to improve wages and working conditions. James Connolly later became one of the union’s leading figures.

By September 1913, more than 20,000 workers and their families were caught up in the conflict. What followed was months of poverty, hardship and violence.

On 31 August, the infamous Bloody Sunday saw the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary baton-charge crowds on O’Connell Street, leaving hundreds injured. Two men died from injuries sustained during the violence.

The Lockout finally collapsed in February 1914. Exhausted and facing severe hardship, many workers returned to their jobs without securing recognition of the ITGWU. Yet the struggle helped transform Irish trade unionism and left a lasting mark on the political and social history of Ireland.

The Dublin Lockout of 1913–14 remains one of the defining chapters in the history of the Irish labour movement.

#1913

in 1803 – James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot and revolutionary, dies in exile in Bordeaux, France.Born in Dublin around...
25/08/2026

in 1803 – James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot and revolutionary, dies in exile in Bordeaux, France.

Born in Dublin around 1740, Tandy was educated at the Quaker boarding school in Ballitore, Co. Kildare, a school whose distinguished pupils included Edmund Burke.

A prominent Dublin political reformer, Tandy became one of the leading figures in the early Society of United Irishmen and played an important role in establishing its Dublin organization.

Facing arrest for his revolutionary activities, Tandy fled Ireland in 1793, eventually making his way to France. There, he sought French support for an Irish rising and was given the rank of general in the French service.

In September 1798, Tandy sailed aboard the Anacreon with a small force of Irish and French supporters. On 16 September, he landed on Rutland Island off the coast of Donegal, hoping to support the French-backed rebellion. But General Humbert’s forces had already surrendered at Ballinamuck, and Tandy’s expedition was abandoned after only a few hours.

Captured after making his way through Europe, Tandy was eventually released following French intervention and returned to France. He spent his final years in Bordeaux, where he died on 24 August 1803.

A controversial and colorful figure of the United Irish movement, Napper Tandy remains part of the popular memory of the revolutionary era in Ireland. 🇮🇪

#1798

in 1170 — Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, better known as Strongbow, landed near Waterford, marking a pivotal mome...
23/08/2026

in 1170 — Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, better known as Strongbow, landed near Waterford, marking a pivotal moment in the Anglo-Norman intervention in Ireland.

The story had begun several years earlier.

In 1166, Diarmait Mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurrough), King of Leinster, was deposed and driven from Ireland by a coalition led by Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht and High King of Ireland, and Tigernán Ua Ruairc.

Diarmait sought assistance from Henry II of England, who authorised him to recruit support among the Anglo-Norman and Cambro-Norman lords. Among those he approached was Richard de Clare, Strongbow.

An agreement was reached: Strongbow would provide military assistance, and in return Diarmait promised him his daughter Aífe (Aoife) in marriage, along with succession to his position in Leinster.

On 23 August 1170, Strongbow landed near Waterford with a substantial force. Waterford was captured, and Strongbow and Aífe were married shortly afterward at Christ Church Cathedral in Waterford.

What began as Diarmait’s attempt to regain his kingdom soon became something far larger. The Anglo-Norman intervention would transform the political landscape of Ireland and have consequences that lasted for centuries.

The Irish annals remembered these events in ominous terms — as the beginning of the “woes of Ireland.”

🇮🇪

in 1922 — Michael Collins is killed at Béal na mBláth.On 22 August 1922, Michael Collins set out from Cork City with a...
22/08/2026

in 1922 — Michael Collins is killed at Béal na mBláth.

On 22 August 1922, Michael Collins set out from Cork City with a small National Army convoy on a tour of West Cork. The journey took him through Bandon, Clonakilty and into his native West Cork, where he continued on to Skibbereen before beginning the return journey.

Just over 31 years earlier, on 16 October 1890, Collins had been born at Woodfield, near Sam’s Cross.

That evening, as the convoy passed through Béal na mBláth on its return towards Cork, it came under fire from an anti-Treaty IRA ambush. Collins was fatally wounded and died at the scene.

The tragedy was especially poignant because some of those involved had once been his friends and comrades.

Tom Hales, who had been captured and severely mistreated by British forces during the War of Independence, had refused to give up information about Collins and his fellow republicans. Just two years later, Hales was the officer commanding the anti-Treaty IRA unit at the Béal na mBláth ambush.

Liam Deasy, another former comrade of Collins, later wrote:

“When I first met Michael Collins … I considered him then to be the greatest leader of our generation. I have not since changed that opinion.”

A fitting epitaph.

And Collins himself had spoken just months earlier at Clonakilty:

“Give us the future… We’ve had enough of your past… Give us back our country… to live in, – to grow in, – to Love.”

Michael Collins was killed at Béal na mBláth on 22 August 1922, aged just 31.

A revolutionary leader, soldier, politician and one of the most consequential figures in modern Irish history — gone in the bitter conflict that followed the struggle for independence.

🇮🇪

in 1949 — The birth of Phil Lynott, legendary frontman, bassist and principal songwriter of Thin Lizzy. 🇮🇪🎸Philip Parr...
20/08/2026

in 1949 — The birth of Phil Lynott, legendary frontman, bassist and principal songwriter of Thin Lizzy. 🇮🇪🎸

Philip Parris Lynott was born on 20 August 1949 in West Bromwich, England, to Irish mother Philomena Lynott and Cecil Parris, who was from British Guiana (now Guyana).

As a child, Phil moved to Dublin and grew up with his maternal grandmother in Crumlin. It was there that he developed his love of music and became immersed in Dublin’s vibrant music scene.

In 1967, Lynott joined the Dublin blues-rock band Skid Row, alongside Brush Shiels and Noel Bridgeman. A young Gary Moore joined the group the following year. Lynott would later reunite with Moore in Thin Lizzy.

In 1969, Lynott and drummer Brian Downey co-founded Thin Lizzy with guitarist Eric Bell. The band went on to achieve international fame with songs including Whiskey in the Jar, The Boys Are Back in Town, Jailbreak and Waiting for an Alibi.

Lynott was proudly Irish and his experience as a Black Irishman became an important part of his identity and songwriting. A famous quip attributed to him when asked what it was like to be Black and Irish was: “Like a pint of Guinness.” The quote is widely repeated, although its provenance is uncertain.

Phil Lynott died on 4 January 1986, aged just 36. He remains one of Ireland’s most beloved and influential rock musicians.

☘️🎸 Happy birthday, Phil.

in 1930 – Birth of Frank McCourt, born in Brooklyn, New York.Francis “Frank” McCourt (1930–2009) was an Irish-American...
18/08/2026

in 1930 – Birth of Frank McCourt, born in Brooklyn, New York.

Francis “Frank” McCourt (1930–2009) was an Irish-American writer and teacher, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes.

McCourt was born on 19 August 1930, the eldest of seven children of Malachy McCourt, from Toome, Co. Antrim, and Angela Sheehan, from Limerick.

During the Great Depression, the family struggled in New York. In 1934, when Frank was four, they left Brooklyn and returned to Ireland, eventually settling in Limerick.

There, the family endured extreme poverty. Malachy struggled to find and keep regular employment, and when he did earn money, his drinking often left the family without enough to live on. Angela struggled to provide for the children.

Three of Frank’s siblings died in childhood, while Frank himself survived serious illness and the appalling conditions of the Limerick slums.

McCourt later transformed his childhood experiences into Angela’s Ashes, published in 1996. The memoir became an international bestseller and won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

McCourt went on to become a teacher in New York City, teaching creative writing for almost 30 years. His remarkable literary career brought the hardships, humour and humanity of his Limerick childhood to readers around the world.

☘️📚

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