Organised by the Gaelic League, the first, official Irish ceilidh was held in the Bloomsbury Hall, on this day in 1897. While I find it difficult to be certain, the address appears to be at 5-7 Tavistock Place, Mary Ward House (Mary Ward Centre is on Queen’s Square).
Wilhelmina Geddes, perhaps, the world’s greatest stained-glass artist, had her studio here, the Glass House 9-12 Lettice Street, Fulham SW6 4EH (although born Leitrim in 1887, Wilhelmina considered herself “a Belfast girl”).
Happy St Brigid’s Day.
Sam Maguire, born Mallabracca 1877, died 1927. Sat on the London County Board with Liam MacCarthy. Recruited Michael Collins into the IRB. London Hibernians to their All-Ireland finals at the turn of the century. Worked at Mount Pleasant Post Office, Clerkenwell EC1A 1BB. Best remembered by the All-Ireland senior football trophy, The Sam Maguire Cup.
Picture credit: Alfred Leete [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Horatio Herbert Kitchener (Lord Kitchener of Khartoum), secretary of State for War. Born Ballylongford Co. Kerry 1850 lost at sea 1916 when his ship, HMS Hampshire, hit a mine (the subject of conspiracy theories, one involving Irish Republicans).
All Souls’ Chapel in the North West of St Paul’s Cathedral is dedicated to Lord Kitchener’s memory.
By Stephen Dickson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo http: National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/flickr-commons.aspx via Wikimedia Commons
Sir Roger CASEMENT born Sandycove, Co Dublin 1864, executed 1916 in Pentonville Prison London, following a period in the Tower of London.
Yes, Roger Casement was all of these things. In 1904 he produced the Casement Report exposing the brutalities of the rubber industry in the Congo Free State which was run as a personal possession of the Belgian King, Leopold II. Later, as Consul General in Rio de Janeiro he investigated the brutal activities of the Peruvian Amazon Company against the Putumayo Indians.
During the first world war Roger Casement tried unsuccessfully to raise an Irish brigade in Germany. On Good Friday 1916, three days before the 1616 rising, he was put ashore on Banna Strand from a submarine and was promptly arrested. A shipment of arms he had organised was intercepted on the same day.
His trial attracted controversy and his conviction hung on the the placing of a comma in the Treason Act of 1351. As well as this, the British government secretly circulated sections of Casement’s Journals known as the Black Diaries, to undermine support by portraying him at the time as being sexually suspect.
His remains were repatriated to Glasnevin, Dublin 50 years ago when he received a state funeral.
on pavement grey 