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
Today In History
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
September 8, 1994
A Roundabout Theater Company revival of Brian Friel's famous 1964 play "Philadelphia Here I Come!" opens at the Criterion Center in New York. The production starred Robert Sean Leonard as Gareth O'Donnell as well as a supporting cast of notable Irish character actors, including Milo O'Shea, Pauline Flanagan, Leo Leyden and Jarlath Conroy. "This 1964 work established the Irish … [Read more...] about September 8, 1994