28 MAY

BRITISH SOLDIERS OPEN FIRE ON DUBLIN CROWD AFTER CHILDREN THROW ORANGE PEEL On the evening of Sunday 26 July 1914 three Dubliners were shot dead by British troops on Bachelor Street. They were Mary Duffy, a 50 year old widow, Patrick Quinn, a coal labourer and father of six, and James Brennan, an eighteen year…

THE TIMES WARNS FAMINE STRUCK IRELAND TO EXPECT LESS RELIEF [ 30 August 1848 ] Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, writing about the political debate over how Britain should respond to the Irish famine of the 1840s, observed that ‘an extraordinary and universal importance attaches to the views of The Times.’1 BOMBING NORTH WEST…

  THATCHER REFUSES TO DISCUSS NELSON MANDELA’S RELEASE [ 15 July 1988 ] On this day in 1988, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher replied to Bishop Trevor Huddleston, who was asking her to pressure the South African government to release Nelson Mandela.  He had requested that she might meet himself and 25 activists who were…

BRITISH CLUSTER BOMBS KILL 38 AND INJURE 156 IRAQI CIVILIANS 31 March 2003 – British artillery fired cluster munitions during operations in the Iraqi city of Hillah, 100 km south of Baghdad. According to Human Rights Watch – “In the neighborhood of Nadir, a slum on the south side of the city, every household Human…

THE FIRST LIVERPOOL SLAVE SHIP SETS SALE [ 3 October 1699 ] On 3 October 1699, the first slave ship set sail from Liverpool. The Liverpool Merchant, under the command of Captain William Webster, sailed down the Mersey headed for the coast of West Africa where she picked up her captive human cargo. BRITISH SPECIAL NIGHT…