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George Mackay Brown, poet and novelist, died.
George Mackay Brown, poet and novelist, died. George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. …

The Stone of Destiny, stolen on Christmas Day, was returned to Westminster Abbey
The Stone of Destiny, stolen on Christmas Day, was returned to Westminster Abbey The Stone of Scone, (pronounced scoon) also commonly known as the Stone of Destiny or the Coronation Stone (though the former name sometimes refers to Lia Fáil) is a block of sandstone historically kept at the now-ruined abbey in Scone, near Perth, Scotland. It was used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, the monarchs of England, and, more recently, British monarchs. Other names by which it has sometimes been known include Jacobs Pillow Stone, Jacobs Pillar Stone, and the Tanist Stone. …

Liam Cosgrave, Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach, is born
Liam Cosgrave, Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach, is born Liam Cosgrave (13 April 1920 – 4 October 2017) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977, Leader of Fine Gael from 1965 to 1977, Leader of the Opposition from 1965 to 1973, Minister for External Affairs from 1954 to 1957, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce and Government Chief Whip from 1948 to 1951. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1943 to 1981. …

Birth of Samuel Beckett in Foxrock, Co. Dublin
Birth of Samuel Beckett in Foxrock, Co. Dublin Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and tragicomic experiences of life, often coupled with black comedy and nonsense. His work became increasingly minimalist as his career progressed, involving more aesthetic and linguistic experimentation, with techniques of stream of consciousness repetition and self-reference. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin ……

The Catholic Emancipation Act receives royal assent on this date
The Catholic Emancipation Act receives royal assent on this date The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, also known as the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, removed the sacramental tests that barred Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom from Parliament and from higher offices of the judiciary and state. It was the culmination of a fifty-year process of Catholic emancipation which had offered Catholics successive measures of “relief” from the civil and political disabilities imposed by Penal Laws in both Great Britain and in Ireland in the seventeenth, and early eighteenth, centuries. …

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Young Irelander, journalist and promoter of Canadian Federation, is born
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Young Irelander, journalist and promoter of Canadian Federation, is born Thomas D’Arcy McGee (13 April 1825 – 7 April 1868) was an Irish-Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, poet, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was an Irish Catholic who opposed British rule in Ireland, and was part of the Young Ireland attempts to overthrow British rule and create an independent Irish Republic. He escaped arrest and fled to the United States in 1848, where he reversed his political beliefs. He became disgusted with American republicanism, Anti-Catholicism, and Classical Liberalism. McGee became intensely monarchistic in his political ……

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Nationalist, writer, and Canadian politician, born in Carlingford, Co. Louth Thomas D’Arcy McGee (13 April 1825 – 7 April 1868) was an Irish-Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, poet, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was an Irish Catholic who opposed British rule in Ireland, and was part of the Young Ireland attempts to overthrow British rule and create an independent Irish Republic. …

Alexander Mitchell, civil engineer and inventor, is born in Dublin
Alexander Mitchell, civil engineer and inventor, is born in Dublin Alexander Mitchell, (13 April 1780 – 25 June 1868) was an Irish engineer who from 1802 was blind. He is known as the inventor of the screw-pile lighthouse. …

Samuel Molyneux, former MP for the University of Dublin collapses in the British House of Commons and dies
Samuel Molyneux, former MP for the University of Dublin collapses in the British House of Commons and dies Samuel Molyneux FRS (16 July 1689 – 13 April 1728) was an amateur astronomer and politician who sat in the British House of Commons between 1715 and 1728 and in the Irish House of Commons from 1727 to 1728. His work with James Bradley attempting to measure stellar parallax led to the discovery of the aberration of light. The aberration was the first definite evidence that the earth moved and that Copernicus and Kepler were correct. …

Charles Leslie, Irish controversialist, dies
Charles Leslie, Irish controversialist, dies Charles Leslie (27 July 1650 – 13 April 1722) was a former Church of Ireland priest who became a leading Jacobite propagandist after the 1688 Glorious Revolution. One of a small number of Irish Protestants to actively support the Stuarts after 1688, he is best remembered today for his role in publicising the 1692 Massacre of Glencoe. …