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1831 On this day, 18 January 1831 – Daniel O’Connell was convicted of conspiracy. He was known as The Liberator, petitioned for Catholic emancipation This is a quote from one of his letters.
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1882 On this day, 18 January 1882, Oscar Wilde met Walt Witman. Wilde was on a successful speaking tour of America, and he spent an afternoon with 62-year-old Walt Whitman drinking home-made elderberry wine together. On arrival Wilde said, “I come as a poet to call upon a poet.”
It was a successful meeting – Whitman described Wilde as “a fine large handsome youngster.” Wilde said of Whitman, “I have an admiration for that man which I can hardly express.”
Oscar Wilde quotes here on anything and everything.
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1914 The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union strike ended on this day in 1914. James Larkin had organised the workers and set up the union in order to get better pay and conditions. The strike was ultimately unsuccessful, when it had to end when Larkin failed to gather enough support from British unions, but it did unite the skilled and unskilled workers in Ireland for the future.
Larkin was the man that coined the phrase: “A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.”
Click here to read more about James Larkin
James Larkin Quotes here
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1997 On this day, 18 January 1997 Gerard Slevin died. He was born in Cork, and was the Chief Herald of Ireland (this department grants of ‘coats of arms’ to Irish bodies and Irish people. He is best remembered for designing the EU flag.
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1998 The Loyalist Volunteer Force kidnapped and shot dead Catholic civilian Fergal McCusker on this day in 1998. The murder was one of a string of attacks on Catholics in Northern Ireland, as the LVF retaliated to the killing of their leader Billy Wright in Maze prison.
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2000 Good news for Irish tourism on this day in 2000, as the Michelin Guide travel advisors add 54 hotels and 27 restaurants from around the country.
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