Irish drug baron and gangster George "The Penguin" Mitchell was arrested in Amsterdam on this day in 1998, after being caught stealing five million pounds worth of computer parts. A native of Ballyfermot in Dublin, he became involved with associates of the murdered gangland boss Martin "The General'' Cahill, and participated in a number of their robberies. He moved from Dublin … [Read more...] about March 5, 1998
Today In History
March 2, 1998
The Kerry Bog Pony, an old Mountain and Mooreland breed (aka the "hobby") originating in the south-west of Ireland, received its official "passport" from Weatherbys on this day in 1998. This breed of pony was traditionally used for light work on small farms. Its presence in Ireland began to wane during the famine, and then further during the Napoleonic Wars, when British … [Read more...] about March 2, 1998
December 28, 1997
On this day in 1997, the British government deployed the SAS, or the Special Air Service corps of the British Army, in Mid-Ulster, Northern Ireland. The goal was to prevent another Loyalist Volunteer Force riot, while IRA commanders met in Tyrone to put in motion the plan to continue the Provo ceasefire. … [Read more...] about December 28, 1997
October 15, 1995
Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature on this day in 1995. Heaney became the fourth Irish writer to be honored with the Nobel Prize, following WB Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett. The Nobel committee awarded Heaney for his "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." … [Read more...] about October 15, 1995
March 9, 1995
U.S. President Bill Clinton approved a visa for Irish nationalist leader Gerry Adams to enter the United States on this day in 1995. Adams is the current president of Sinn Féin who, in the late 1980s, became an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process. Several days after granting Adams' visa, President Clinton welcomed him as a guest to Congress's 1995 St. … [Read more...] about March 9, 1995