Dublin Diary #OnThisDay
What stories made the news in Dublin over the years during this month?
What stories made the news in Dublin over the years during this month?
1 July 1701 – The equestrian statue of King William III, by Rotterdam-born Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), was unveiled in College Green, Dublin, on the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. The model was the statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The statue was the only example of Grinling’s work in Ireland. The statue was subjected to much abuse over many years, not least from T.C.D. students who took umbrage because the statue faced Dublin Castle. 1 July 1881 – The Royal Dublin Fusiliers established, as the county regiment of Dublin and Kildare.
1 July 1937 – In the General Election for the 9th Dáil, for the five-seater Dublin North West constituency, Sean O’Kelly and Cormac Breathnach (Fianna Fáil), Archibald Heron (Labour), Alfie Byrne (Independent) and Patrick McGilligan (Fine Gael) were elected. The total valid poll was 47,132 and the quota was 7,856. Byrne was the first candidate to be elected to the 9th Dáil.
1 July 1946 – John McCann took office as Lord Mayor of Dublin.
1 July 1957 – Councillor James Carroll was selected as Lord Mayor of Dublin when his name was drawn from a hat, after a tied election with Councillor Robert Briscoe, T.D.
1 July 1985 – Jim Tunney, T.D., elected first Fianna Fáil Lord Mayor of Dublin in 20 years.
1 July 1990 – Nelson Mandela signed the Freedom Roll in Dublin – he was granted Honorary Freedom on his birthday, 18 July 1988.
1 July 1996 – Councillor Brendan Lynch, P.C., elected Lord Mayor of Dublin City Council.
2 July 1813 – An ‘Act for inclosing, lighting and improving Fitzwilliam Square.
2 July 1829 – First stone of church of St. Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin was laid (opened 3 May 1832).
2 July to 12 September 1965 – Strike by printers closes newspapers and Dublin commercial printing houses.
2 July 1998 – Pearse Park (formerly Queen’s Park), Dublin is officially re-opened. The Park was first opened to the public in 1889.
2 July 2001 – Cabra Public Library was officially opened by Dublin City Lord Mayor Maurice Ahern in the presence of An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, T.D.
2 July 2003 – Dublin Library and Archive opened at the former Gilbert Library, Pearse Street, Dublin.
3 July 1837 – The Dublin Police Act (1 Vict., c.25) redefined the 1835 DMP District. On 6 July 1837 the first member of the DMP was enrolled.
3 July 1978 – Cllr. Patrick Belton took office as Lord Mayor of Dublin.
3 July 1995 – Alderman Sean D. Dublin Bay Rockhall Loftus elected Lord Mayor of Dublin City Council – he had been a City Council member since 1974.
3 July 2000 – Alderman Maurice Ahern (Fianna Fáil) was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin.
4 July 1836 – The Dublin Police Act (6 & 7 Will. IV, c.29) established two police magistrates and the Dublin Metropolitan Police under the Lord Lieutenant.
4 July 1845 – Birth of Thomas John Barnado in Dublin, philanthropist and founder and director of homes for destitute children.
4 July 1955 – At a meeting of Dublin City Council, Labour T.D. and Councillor Denis Larkin was elected Lord Mayor. He defeated outgoing Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne by 23 votes to 22.
4 July 1977 – Councillor Michael Collins took office as Lord Mayor of Dublin.
4 July 1994 – Councillor John Gormley was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin City Council.
5 July 1892 – Trinity College Dublin celebrated its Tercentenary.
5 July 1955 – John P. Keane appointed City Manager and Town Clerk of Dublin, until 1958.
5 July 1976 – Councillor James Mitchell (Fine Gael) took office as Lord Mayor of Dublin.
6 July 1907 – The Insignia of the Order of Saint Patrick, the Irish State jewels, valued at £50,000, missing from Dublin Castle; never recovered. The Insignia had been presented to the Order in 1831 by King William IV.
6 July 1923 – Death of George Vanston, legal adviser to the Local Government Board from 1900 to 1922. He was born in Terenure, Dublin and educated at T.C.D. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1878. Among his published works are Law relating to local government in Ireland (2 vols., 1899 and 1909), The law of public health in Ireland (1892, and The law relating to municipal boroughs in Ireland (1905).
6 July 1951 – Lord Mayor Andrew Clerkin accompanied by Dublin City Manager Dr. P.J. Hernon left Dublin for a three-day visit to Paris as part of the Muncipal Council’s bi-millenary celebrations.
6 July 1992 – Alderman Gay Mitchell, T.D., a member of Dublin City Council since 1979, elected Lord Mayor of Dublin City.
7 July 1862 – The foundation stone of the new College of Physicians in Kildare Street was laid by the lord lieutenant, the earl of Carlisle.
7 July 1908 – Death in London of Dublin-born essayist and poet Charles James Dunphie. He was born c.1820, the son of Michael Dunphy of Fleet Street, Dublin. He was London correspondent of the Belfast News Letter for many years.
7-12 July 1911 – George V visits Dublin and neighbourhood.
7 July 1982 – The Chariot of Life monument at Irish Life Plaza, by Oisin Kelly, was unveiled.
7 July 1986 – Alderman Bertie Ahern, T.D., was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin City Council, vice Alderman Jim Tunney, T.D. Ahern was proposed by Alderman Ned Brennan and seconded by Alderman Vincent Brady, T.D.
7 July 1997 – Councillor John Stafford elected Lord Mayor of Dublin.
9 July 1797 – Death of Dublin-born orator Edmund Burke. He was born at 12 Arran Quay on 12 January 1729, the son of a Protestant solicitor and a Catholic mother. He entered T.C.D. in 1744.
9 July 1826 – Some 200 weavers from Liberties area of Dublin march from Wellington Testimonial, Phoenix Park, to Royal Exchange in protest against severe unemployment in textile industry.
9 July 1867 – New water supply system for Dublin city from River Vartry at Roundwood reservoir, Co. Wicklow.
9 July 1934 – The Old Dublin Society was formed at a meeting of 48 Dubliners in the Engineers’ Hall, Dawson Street. Alderman Tom Kelly, T.D. organised the meeting and was elected first president. Peter Kearney was elected secretary. The first formal meeting was held in the City Assembly House on 17 September 1934. The Society first published the Dublin Historical Record in 1938. Kelly had been chairman of the Lane Bequest Claim Committee. Kelly, a dealer in books and pictures, had been a Sinn Féin City Councillor. He became a T.D. for South Dublin City in 1933.
9 July 2001 – The O’Connell Street of Dublin area was designated an Architectural Conservation Area.
10 July 1821 – Catholic meeting at D’Arcy’s Tavern, Dublin, accepts invitation to combine with corporation in celebrating King George IV’s coronation.
10 July 1854 – Dublin and Wicklow Railway opened.
10 July 1949 – Last tram runs from Nelson’s Pillar, O’Connell Street, Dublin, to Dalkey, Co. Dublin.
10 July 1945 – Death of Dublin-born sculptor Albert Power in Dublin. He lived all his life in Dublin where he had a stone-yard in Berkeley Street. He was elected to the R.H.A. in 1919.
10 July 1902 – Death in London of popular Dublin-born author Mrs Alexander (Annie French). She is buried in Kensal Green cemetery, London.
11 July 1753 – Death of Dublin property magnate Luke Gardiner in Bath.
11 July 1932 – The thirteenth annual River Liffey handicap race took place. 85 entrants started out on the one and a quarter miles course from Kingsbridge but only 64 reached the finish point midway between Butt Bridge and O’Connell Bridge.
11 July 1971 – Oisin Kelly’s bronze sculpture, ‘The Children of Lir’, is unveiled in the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin.
11 July 1985 – The Brazen Head Inn, reputed to be the oldest in Dublin, offered for sale.
12 July 1967 – President Eamon de Valera opened the new library buildings at Trinity College Dublin, designed by Paul Koralek.
12 July 1967 – The D’Oyly Carte Opera began a three-week run at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre.
12 July 1976 – Bing Crosby gave the first of two concerts in Dublin’s Gate Theatre.
13 July 1975 – Death of Dublin-born landscape painter Gerald Donnelly at his home, 99 Mourne Road, Drimnagh. He was born in the Liberties on 12 October 1911, and attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art evening classes. He first exhibited at the RHA in 1936.
14 July 1876 – Death of Dublin-born poet and classicist James Henry, M.D. He was a well-known commentator on Virgil. He was born in Dublin on 13 December 1798 and was educated at T.C.D. He came in to a legacy and gave up his clerical profession to travel in Europe and published several books on Virgil. He died near Dalkey.
15 July 1919 – Birth in Phibsborough, Dublin, of author and philosopher Iris Murdoch
15 July 1865 – Birth of Alfred Harmsworth, at Sunnybank, Chapelizod, Dublin, founder of modern popular journalism, found/owner of the Daily Mail, created Lord Northcliffe in 1919. He sponsored Bleriot’s flight in 1909 and also Alcock and Brown.
15 July to 31 August 1914 – The Civic Exhibition held in the Linenhall Buildings and the grounds of the King’s Inns attracted over 9,000 visitors on opening day.
15 July 1942 – St. Mary’s Church, Crumlin, was consecrated by Archbishop of Dublin, Rev. Dr. A.W. Barton.
15 July 1967 – The new Coombe Hospital at Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin, was officially opened by Minister for Health, Sean Flanagan, T.D.
16 July 1841 – At the midsummer assembly of Dublin City Council, it was resolved that the freedom of the city of Dublin be granted to Lieutenant George Alexander Frazer of the Royal Navy, in appreciation of his survey of the coastline from Kingstown to Wicklow, ‘a work essentially necessary to the preservation of the lives and properties engaged in the commercial and other intercourses with this [Dublin] port.’
16 July 1912 – Death of Thomas Fitzpatrick, cartoonist and journalist at his residence, 10 Cabra Road, Dublin. Cork-born Fitzpatrick founded The Lepracaun, and had earlier worked at City Printing Ltd., Dublin. He wrote for a number of Dublin newspapers, and also drew gentle but satiric cartoons.
16 July 1936 – Two men and an elderly woman drowned after their car swerved and went into the Liffey at the North Wall. The car, its doors closed, was discovered in 16ft. of water.
17 July 1784 – The foundation stone of the Assembly Rooms, Cavendish Row
17 July 1899 – Death of Rev. Charles Graves, D.D., Bishop of Limerick. He was born in Dublin on 6 November 1812 and educated at T.C.D., where he graduated B.A. in 1835, Fellow in 1836, M.A. in 1838 and D.D. in 1851. He was Dean of Chapel Royal, Dublin, and in 1866 was appointed Bishop in 1866. He was a notable mathematician and poet, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His brother Rev. Robert Percival Graves (died, 5 October 1893) was also a poet and contributor to Dublin University Magazine.
17 July 1985 – A bronze bust of A.E. (George Russell), writer, poet, painter, co-operator, theosophist, was unveiled in Merrion Square, Dublin, by his grand-daughter Maureen Russell.
18 July 1735 – Roger Kendrick was appointed Dublin City Surveyor.
18 July 1832 – The foundation stone of an episcopal chapel for seamen at Forbes Street, near the Grand Canal Basin, was laid by vice-Admiral Oliver – the chapel opened in 1833.
18 July 1866 – Loughlinstown, Killiney and Ballybrack were formed into a township.
18 July 1912 – Several suffragettes attempted to set fire to the Theatre Royal, Dublin.
18 July 1938 – Douglas ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan landed at Baldonnel aerodrome, Dublin. The 31-years-old Los Angeles aviator crossed the Atlantic from New York in a battered nine-years-old Curtiss Robin single-engined aircraft. With no luggage and $15 in his pocket, he told reporters that he believed he was ‘on his way home’.
18 July 1942 – James Murray, V.C., of Lower Wellington Street, Dublin died. A lance-corporal in the Connaught Rangers, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in rescuing comrades in the fight against the Boers on 16 January 1881. He was interred at Glasnevin.
18 July 1951 – The auditorium and stage of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, destroyed by fire (see also 3 September 1963). The Abbey company moved first to the Peacock, later to the Rupert Guinness Hall, and finally to the Queen’s Theatre, Pearse Street which is used until 1966, pending building of the new Abbey Theatre.
18 July 1954 – The Senior Skiff Race for the Croke Cup in the British Railways Regatta at Dun Laoghaire was won by the Stella Maris crew of Ringsend.
19 July 1785 – Richard Crosbie became the first Irish aeronaut by ascending from Leinster Lawn in a balloon which landed in the sea off Dun Laoghaire where a barge towed it to safety.
20 July 1739 – Henry Gonne, on the retirement of his father Thomas, appointed Town Clerk of Dublin, until 1770.
21 July 1809 – The Meath Charitable Loan was established. Sums between £5 and £20 were loaned from its premises at 51 Thomas Court.
21 July 1972 – Boxing star Mohammed Ali defeated Al ‘Blue’ Lewis in the eleventh round, at Croke Park, Dublin.
22 July 1847 – Rathmines Township created (see also 1862, 1930).
22 July 1924 – Death of Dublin-born sculptor Albert Bruce-Joy, R.H.A. He was a pupil of J.H. Foley for four years and studied in Rome for a further three. Before he was 25, he had exhibited at the Royal Academy. His statue of Gladstone was unveiled in front of Bow Church, London in 1881. He exhibited over 50 works at the R.H.A. over his lifetime. His statue of Lord Chief Justice Whiteside is in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. He died near Hindhead, Surrey.
22 July 1959 – Richie Ryan (Fine Gael) won by-election for Dublin South West Dail seat.
23 July 1733 – Eight men and two women are admitted as the first patients at Dr. Steeven’s Hospital.
23 July 1967 – The Peacock Theatre, Abbey Street, Dublin opened. The first production was Sean O Briain’s dramatisation of Brian O Nuallain’s An Beal Bocht.
23 July 1984 – Dublin Area Rapid Transit rail link from Howth to Bray started.
25 July 1971 – A memorial plaque to surgeon, poet and senator Oliver St. John Gogarty is unveiled at his birthplace, 5 Rutland (now Parnell) Square, Dublin.
26 July 1856 Birth in Synge Street, Dublin, of playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, and an Academy Award (an Oscar) in 1938.
26 July 1782 – John Field, creator of the nocturne, was born at Golden Lane, Dublin.
26 July 1934 – Dublin newspaper strike – lasts until 2 October 1934.
26 July 1943 – Death of Senator Laurence O’Neill, former Lord Mayor of Dublin City. He was a City Councillor until 1936.
26 July 1967 – Six U.S. Navy vessels, comprising 2,600 men, and lead by the 17,000-ton light cruiser U.S.S. Worcester, berthed at Dublin Port, on a courtesy visit.
26 July 2002 – Death of Séamas de Burca. He was a member of the Bourke theatrical dynasty.
27 July 1880 – St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, opened to the public. The ceremony was performed by Lord Ardilaun (Sir Arthur Guinness). It came under the control of the Board of Public Works. The cost of works was c.£20,000.
27 July 1886 – Lord Edward Street was officially opened by Lord Mayor T.D. O’Sullivan.
28 July 1649 – Royalists take Rathfarnham Castle from Parliamentarians.
28 July 1803 – Death of James Malton, architectural draughtsman, of brain fever at Norton Street (now Bolsover Street), Marylebone, London.
28 July 1875 – A local shower of damp hay fell in the Monkstown district.
29 July 1641 – Charles I created title of Lord Mayor of the City of Dublin.
29 July 1796 – Commercial Buildings in Dublin started, designed by Robert Parke (or Sparks).
29 July 1883 – Assassination of Dublin city councillor James Carey. He had turned Crown evidence against his accomplices in the Phoenix Park Murders case of May 1881. Carey was shot dead aboard the steamship Melrose with his wife and children, as he began a new life in South Africa. The assassin was Patrick O’Donnell who was later hanged.
29 July 1987 – The Irish Traditional Music Archive was inaugurated at a meeting in the offices of the Arts Council, Merrion Square, Dublin.
30 July 1908 – Death of Alfred John Webb, biographer and publisher. He contributed to the Freeman’s Journal and other newspapers. He was best known for his A Compendium of Irish Biography (Dublin, 1877). A Quaker, Webb was interred at the Friends’ Burial Ground, Temple Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.
30 July 1919 – Detective Sergeant Patrick Smyth, DMP 9816, was attacked and shot by five gunmen at Drumcondra Bridge. He died on 8 September 1919 at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital. He was born at Dromard, Co. Longford in 1868 and had over 23 years’ service in the DMP. He was the first DMP member to be shot in the War of Independence.
31 July 1834 – First train runs in Ireland, from Dublin to Kingstown, drawn by horses.
31 July 1918 – A violent explosion at the corner of North Lotts and Lower Liffey Street – caused by a shell from a ship. Two houses were wrecked but no lives were lost.
31 July 1922 – The Royal Dublin Fusiliers disbanded.
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