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1858 On this day in 1858, 14 year old Bernadette Soubirous reported seeing the Virgin Mary at Lourdes.
There were several more sightings in the following weeks, and despite opposition from many of the town’s authorities, the bishop ordered a chapel to be built nearby the site.
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1922 On this day in 1922, several IRA members hijacked a train at Clones station in an attempt to ambush a group of Ulster Special Constabulary policemen. A bloody gunfight followed with four men being killed.
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1926 On this day in 1926, a riot broke out at Abbey Theatre, Dublin, after the audience took offence to the content in Sean O’Casey’s play, The Plough and the Stars. The appearance of a prostitute in one scene, and a feeling that the men who took part in the Easter Rising were being criticised, provoked an angry reaction from the audience resulting in a full scale riot.
WB Yeats, who was a good friend of O’Casey and present on the night, told the rioters that they were “shaming themselves”.
Read more Sean O’Casey quotes here
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1992 Albert Reynolds was elected Taoiseach of Ireland on this day in 1992. He led a coalition government for nearly three years, before Bertie Ahern took over as leader of Fianna Fáil. Reynolds retired from politics in 2002 and received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring a peaceful end to the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland.
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1997 Happy birthday to Madeline Perry, born in Banbridge, Northern Ireland on this day in 1977. She was once the number three ranked women’s squash player in the world and won the Irish Open in 2007.
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2007 Enya, won the latest of her four Best New Age Album Grammys on this day in 2007 for her album Amarantine, which reached the top ten in both the UK and the US charts.
Click here to read more about Enya and see more videos
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