January 15
1821 – Thomas Clarke Luby, Fenian, is born in Dublin
1939 – IRA Army Council and Republican survivors of 2nd Dáil Éireann declare war on England
1920 – Sinn Féin takes control of most borough and urban councils in local elections
1988 – Sean McBride, Irish patriot and human rights activist, dies.

January 16
1822 – Thomas Clark Luby, co-founder of the Fenian Brotherhood, is born
1904 – In reaction to attacks on Jews in Limerick, Michael Davitt, a leader of the Irish Land League, protests “as an Irishman and a Catholic against this spirit of barbarous malignity”
1913 – Home Rule bill passes in the House of Commons
1922 – Michael Collins takes over control of Dublin Castle from the British authorities on behalf of the new Irish state
1935 – Gobnaitt NiBhruadair (Albinia Broderick), Irish republican activist, dies
1981 – Northern Ireland civil rights campaigner and former Westminster MP, Bernadette McAliskey, is shot by gunmen who burst into her home at Coalisland in County Tyrone
2002 – Richard Haass, US President George Bush’s special adviser on Northern Ireland, urges Sinn Féin to drop its objections to the new Police Board

January 17
1649 – Marquis of Ormond James Butler and the confederates sign a peace treaty which grants toleration for Catholics in exchange for troops
1860 – Birth in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, of Douglas Hyde, playwright, folklorist, founder of The Gaelic League and the first president of Éire
1964 – The Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) is formed. It is the forerunner of the civil rights movement and begins a programme of publicising what it sees as widespread discrimination, in a number of areas of life, against Catholics in Northern Ireland
1992 – Seven Protestant constructions workers at a security base in Co. Tyrone are killed by an IRA bomb. The driver of their bus also dies

January 18
1671 – Catholic gentry present petition to Charles II
1831 – Daniel O’Connell is convicted of conspiracy
1913 – The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union strike ends
1998 – The fourth revenge killing of a Catholic by LVF murder squads since ruthless warlord Billy Wright was gunned down, is committed in Maghera, Co. Derry
2001 – The right of Travellers to pursue their traditional lifestyle on their own land was yesterday rejected by the European Court of Human Rights

January 19
1920 – IRA attacks Drombrane barracks, Co. Tipperary
1998 – The Northern peace process are close to collapse after a 52-year-old Catholic taxi driver is killed in an attack which bears all the hallmarks of the UDA/UFF

January 20
1841 – James Armour, Presbyterian minister and political activist is born in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim
1902 – Kevin Barry, medical student and nationalist revolutionary, is born in Dublin
1902 – In the House of Commons, John Redmond criticizes the use of concentration camps by the British in South Africa
1916 – Secret negotiations result in alliance of the Irish Citizen Army with the Irish Republican Brotherhood
1973 – Whiskey In The Jar by Thin Lizzy enters the British charts
1998 – Hope remain high that the IRA ceasefire will hold despite escalating violence in the North and Sinn Féin’s implacable opposition to the Anglo-Irish blueprint
1999 – The Loyalist Volunteer Force announces plans for a second round of arms decommissioning which could include the handover of explosives
2000 – According to a major international survey, Ireland is one of the least corrupt countries in the industrial world
2002 – Rioting erupts on the streets of north Belfast as angry mobs throw petrol bombs and blast bombs at police.


January 21
1876 – James Larkin, organizer of Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and socialist politician, is born in Liverpool
1919- Daíl Éireann, chaired by Sean T. O’Kelly meets for the very first time at Mansion House in Dublin
1919 – Two members of Royal Irish Constabulary are shot dead by Irish Volunteers including Seán Treacy and Dan Breen in an ambush at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary: this is regarded as the first incident in the ‘War of Independence’ (Anglo-Irish War). Attacks on policemen continue for the rest of the year
1998 – A controversial deal is agreed by the British and Irish governments to transfer the IRA gang which carried out the Guildford and Woolwich bombings to Portlaoise prison
1998 – The North is plunged into a new crisis after Benedict Hughes, a Catholic, is shot dead in south Belfast in the latest murder aimed at wrecking the peace process
1998 – The IRA dramatically rejects the Anglo-Irish Stormont settlement plan
2002 – Sinn Féin MPs will never sit in the British parliament, Gerry Adams vows as they move into Commons offices for the first time. Party policy is also changed to allow MPs to sit in the Dáil.