15 December-Buck Whaley Castletown Castle

Castletown Castle is located on the Bunclody road about 5km to the south east of Carlow town, Ireland. The castle, which has been extended and upgraded down the centuries, incorporates the fabric of a tower house dating from 1550. Today it is the home of the Monahan family but has been owned at various times by Kavanaghs, Bagenals and the Earl of Kildare. During the 1780’s Thomas ‘Buck’ Whaley an MP in the Irish Parliament and a gambler was the owner of the castle.

Thomas ‘Buck’ Whaley was born at 86 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin in December 1766. 86 St Stephen’s Green became Newman House in 1854 when The Catholic University of Ireland was established there. The Catholic University of Ireland was the precursor of University College Dublin. Whaley was educated in Dublin until the age of sixteen. He was then sent to Paris to continue his education. He became involved in gambling and built up large debts. He returned to Ireland and in 1784 was elected to serve in the Irish House of Commons for Newcastle Co Dublin.

In 1788 Whaley, who was a member of the Hellfire Club, made a wager for £15,000 that he would travel to Jerusalem, play handball against its walls and return in less than a year. He succeeded in the venture, leaving Dublin in October 1788 and returning in summer 1789. As a result he was sometimes referred to as Jerusalem Whaley.

Whaley continued to gamble. In the early 1790’s, having sold most of his estate to pay off his debts, he moved to the Isle of Man. He wrote his memoirs but these were not published until 1906. He returned to Ireland in 1798 and was elected MP for Enniscorthy. During the debates on the Act of Union he is reported to have offered his vote to the highest bidder. Whaley died on November 2nd 1800 at the age of 34 in Knutsford, Cheshire while travelling to London.

Thomas ‘Buck’ Whaley, gambler, politician and onetime owner of Castletown Castle in Carlow, Ireland was born in the year 1766 On This Day.

Buck Whaley’s – Leeson street by infomatique on 2009-04-11 15:28:36

Castletown Castle photo

Castletown, Isle of Man by ahisgett on 2007-10-24 15:01:49

14 December-Irish Women’s Right to Vote

Women in Ireland began campaigning for the right to vote on the same basis as men from the mid-19th century onwards. Following the introduction of the Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898 women, with certain restriction were allowed to vote in and sit on district councils and town commissions. The campaign to be allowed to vote in all elections continued.

In the 1918 General Election women in Ireland were allowed to vote for the first time. In that election men could vote at age 21. Women were allowed to vote provided they were age 30 or over and were property owners. Following independence in 1922 men and women in Ireland were given equal voting rights.

Women in Ireland, provided they were age 30 or over and were property owners, were given the right to vote for the first time in a General Election in the year 1918 On This Day.

Suffragettes

 

 

12 September-First Long-distance Radio Transmission

Guglielmo Marconi was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was a native of Italy. His father Giuseppe was from Bologna, Italy. His mother was Annie Jameson from Daphne Castle, Co Wexford, Ireland. Marconi’s great grandfather was John Jameson, founder of Irish whiskey distillers Jameson & Sons. Through his own research and using research carried out by others Marconi developed the first effective system of radio communication.

On December 12th 1901 Marconi succeeded in sending the first wireless signal across the Atlantic to America. He routed the signal through Marconi House, Rosslare, Co Wexford and Clifden in Co Galway. The signal was received 3,500km (2,200 Miles) in Newfoundland.

Marconi founded the Marconi Telephone Company and became a successful businessman. He continued to experiment with radio technology. In 1907, having built high-powered radio transmission stations on both sides of the Atlantic, he established regular transatlantic transmissions. Marconi died in Rome on July 20th 1937.

Routing signal through Rosslare, Co Wexford and Clifden, Co Galway, Marconi succeeded in sending the first wireless signal across the Atlantic in the year 1901 On This Day.

12 December-Peter Fenelon Collier of Co Carlow

Peter Fenelon Collier who was a native of Co Carlow, Ireland was the founder of the publishing company P.F Collier & Son in the United States of America. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1866 when he was 17 years old. His company, which published books, magazines and encyclopediae, became one of the most successful in its time in the United States.

Peter Fenelon Collier was born in Myshall Co Carlow in 1849. He received his initial education in Carlow. Following arrival in America the Collier family settled in Dayton Ohio. Peter attended St Mary’s Roman Catholic Seminary in Cincinnati for four years with the intention of becoming a priest. He left the seminary in 1880 and began working as a salesman for the school book publisher Sadler and Company. Collier relocated to New York in 1874 and with the $300 he had saved established his own publishing company.

At first Collier’s company printed books for the Roman Catholic market. These included a biography of Pope Pius IX which he published in 1874. His firm began the practice of selling books on the basis that customers could purchase them by paying in monthly instalments. He went on to publish several editions of the Bible and books such as Chamber’s Encyclopedia and Collier’s Encyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information. His company became very successful achieving huge sales in The US and Canada. He also founded a magazine called Colliers Weekly which became one of the largest selling magazines in the United States. Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was one of his employees and Colliers published some of Twain’s books.

By the early 1900’s book sales at P.F Collier & Son had exceeded 52 million and the company was continuing to thrive. Peter Collier enjoyed horse riding and hunting and was a member of several riding clubs. He was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 1908 from Seton Hall University, New Jersey, the oldest diocesan university in the United States. On April 23rd 1909 he died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 59.

Peter Fenelon Collier, founder of publishers P.F Collier & Son in the US, was born in Myshall Co Carlow, Ireland in the year 1849 On This Day.

Collier’s illustrated weekly. Woman’s number, New York, November 15th, 1902. by Boston Public Library on 2013-09-03 13:52:07

Image from page 291 of “Collier’s new encyclopedia : a loose-leaf and self-revising reference work … with 515 illustrations and ninety-six maps” (1921) by Internet Archive Book Images on 1921-01-01 00:00:00 

Myshall photo

Church of Ireland Adelaide Memorial Church of Christ the Redeemer in Myshall Co Carlow Ireland is a miniature of Salisbury Cathedral

A Mini Salzburg Cathedral by IrishFireside on 2007-06-19 15:24:59

Photo by IrishFireside

11 December-Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the sixth and last of the United States landing of humans on the moon. The three member crew consisted of Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt. As well as being an astronaut Schmitt was also a geologist and became the first member of NASA’s first scientist-astronaut group to fly in space. Harrison Schmitt was the 12th and to date the last person to set foot on the moon in the year 1972 On This Day

Apollo 17 photo

 

Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

Apollo 17 photo

Photo by NASA on The Commons