May 09

A spectacular blaze at Bells Brae, Edinburgh

May 9, 1957

Viscount Cunningham, British admiral issued his command Sink, burn and destroy; let nothing pass

May 9, 1943

Éamon de Valera is elected Taoiseach

May 9, 1932

John McDermott, Lord Justice of Appeal for Northern Ireland, is born

May 9, 1927

John MacLean, socialist revolutionary, tried in the High Court for sedition

May 9, 1918

Irish Patriot, Thomas Kent, is executed at Cork Detention Barracks

May 9, 1916

Austin Clarke, considered to be the greatest poet of his generation after Yeats, is born

May 9, 1896

The Dublin International Exhibition opens in Earlsfort Terrace

May 9, 1865

Sir James Matthew Barrie, Scottish playwright and novelist and author of Peter Pan born

May 9, 1860

Charles Kickham, Fenian, novelist, and author of Knocknagow, is born in Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary

May 9, 1828

Charles Kickham, Fenian, novelist, and author of Knocknagow, is born in Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary

May 9, 1828

Birth in Dublin of John Brougham, actor and dramatist

May 9, 1814

Thomas Wyatt, architect, is born in Loughlin House, Co. Roscommon

May 9, 1807

The Irish House of Lords expresses hope that union of Ireland and England will follow union of England and Scotland

May 9, 1709

Charles Chalmont is sent by Louis XIV to command the Irish army and arrives on this date

May 9, 1691

Colonel Thomas Blood dresses as a clergyman and attempts to steal the British crown jewels from the Tower of London

May 9, 1671

The Battle of Clonmel begins with the first of two assaults

May 9, 1650

Edmund Mortimer, 8th earl of Ulster, and heir presumptive to the throne of England, is appointed lieutenant

May 9, 1423