Related Archive: Armagh History

Pigott, Armagh and Oisín

Archived: 10 October 2026

Abstract

In 1889, Richard Pigott’s forged letters linking Charles Stewart Parnell to the Phoenix Park murders collapsed under cross-examination, vindicating Parnell though the Special Commission continued. Rural conflict persisted around the Plan of Campaign and coercive enforcement, despite reduced official proclamations. The Armagh railway disaster killed 80 people and injured 260, prompting railway safety legislation. Horace Plunkett began co-operative experiments at Doneraile. Cultural developments included Yeats’s The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems and Douglas Hyde’s Irish-language folktale collection. Parnell’s year ended ominously when Captain William O’Shea filed a divorce petition, foreshadowing the crisis of 1890 and the ensuing party split.

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1561 CE

Armagh’s Besieged Cathedral

Archived: 18 October 2026

Abstract

In 1561, Shane O’Neill’s contest with the Dublin administration over authority in Ulster became Ireland’s principal political crisis. After capturing An Calbhach O’Donnell in May, O’Neill disrupted a planned alliance of Ulster and Scottish opponents. Sussex proclaimed him traitor, marched north, and fortified St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, as a royal garrison. O’Neill’s forces besieged the post and inflicted a reverse on crown troops during their July withdrawal. A September expedition to Lough Foyle also failed to establish control. Negotiations followed, leading to O’Neill’s safeguarded journey to England in December. Coinage proclamations and correspondence revealed wider governmental, economic and diplomatic pressures.

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