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For the latest headlines about "Bloody Sunday" and Northern Ireland, visit Newshound, at Nuzhound.com VISIT THESE OTHER FINE IRISH SITES: Tara Hall, Headquarters for 'Fighting 69th' and Irish Brigade Memorabilia, online at Fighting69th.com. Irish Culture and Customs: Traditions, folklore, and more.
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LUAIN -- On May 5, 1981, Bobby Sands  died
on hunger strike at Long Kesh prison. He had begun the strike on March 1, in protest over the removal of
political status for IRA prisoners. Hunger strikes were an old republican strategy going back to Terence
MacSwiney's famous hunger strike in 1920, which had helped turn the tide of world opinion against England
during the War of Independence. Other prisoners at Long Kesh soon followed Sand's example. On April 9, the
republican community in the six counties showed its support of Sands by electing him to the British Parliament for Fermanagh-Tyrone. The "Iron Maiden," British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, would remain unmoved by Sand's death, and those of the nine whose deaths followed his extending through mid-August.
 was sunk near Old Head, off the southern Irish coast. The liner had left New York bound for Liverpool on May 1. German intelligence believed, and most historians now believe, that the ship was carrying munitions. The German Ambassador had warned Americans against traveling in British ships in wartime. Kapitan-Leutnant Walther Schwieger and his U-20 put only one torpedo into her just after 2 a.m. and the ship sank quickly after a second explosion inside the ship. Among the 1,200 who died were 118 Americans. This incident would cause severe problems for Irish-Americans who supported nationalist movements in Ireland and were courting German help. At the British Admiralty hearing into the incident, British officials would claim two torpedoes hit the Lusitania. They knew this claim was false, having intercepted and decoded a transmission from the U-20, but they lied to cover the fact that their own munitions might have caused the second explosion.
 , who would have one of the most remarkable careers in American history, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland. Coming to the United States, he first settled in Illinois. While there, Shields fought in the Black Hawk War and nearly fought a duel with Abraham Lincoln, with whom he was later very friendly. Shields was a brigadier general of volunteers during the Mexican War and fought at Cerro Gordo; he was commended by Winfield Scott, commander of the American invasion force. After the war, he was elected Senator, first from Illinois and later from Minnesota. At the start of the Civil War, his former enemy, Lincoln, appointed him brigadier general. His war record was not outstanding, but he was one of the few Federal commanders to ever defeat "Stonewall" Jackson, at the 1st Battle of Kernstown in March 1862. Of course, Jackson would more than avenge that defeat later. After the war, Shields was appointed Senator from Missouri, making him the only man in U.S. history to represent three states in the Senate. He died June 1, 1879, while on a speaking tour in Ottumwa, Iowa. James Shields is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Carrollton, Missouri.
. The brigade was led by Lord Clare, comprising six regiments. Dillon's regiment, which had already been badly shot up earlier in the fight, along with the brigade's other five, charged the British as they seemed on the verge breaking the French line. Fifty years of Irish frustration and British betrayal now came back to haunt the British. As the men of the Irish Brigade closed through a hail of British bullets, their shouts were heard above the din: "Cuimnidh ar Luimneach agus ar Feall na Sasanach!" -- Remember Limerick and the Saxon Faith (i.e., English betrayal). Nothing could have withstood the wave of hatred and revenge that broke on the hapless British line that day – the English went reeling to the rear. The victory was won but the cost was high; Col. Dillon was dead, Lord Clare wounded twice. The brigade suffered 656 casualties in all, the highest percentage of all the French units, but it was a day never to be forgotten by the Irish worldwide. At Manassas, Virginia, 116 years later, Thomas Francis Meagher would cry out to the 69th New York, another regiment of Irishmen, "REMEMBER FONTENOY!"
VOICES They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken. -- Bobby Sands How fierce the look these exiles wear, who're wont to be so gay, The treasur'd wrongs of 50 years are in their hearts today! The treaty broken, ere the ink wherewith 'twas writ could dry, The plunder'd homes, their ruin'd shrines, their women's parting cry, Their priesthood hunted down like wolves, their country overthrown -- Each looks, as if revenge for ALL were stak'd on him alone. On FONTENOY, on FONTENOY, nor ever yet elsewhere, Rush'd on to fight a nobler band, than these proud exiles were! -- 'Fontenoy' by Thomas Davis BIRTHS May -- Bealtaine 5, 1864 - Mary Jane Cochran (Nellie Bly) (Journalist) 7, 1865 - John MacBride (Soldier, leader in 1916 Rising - Westport, Co. Mayo.) 10, 1810 -James Shields (Union General - US Senator from three different states - Co. Tyrone) 10, 1832 - William Grace (First Irish Catholic Mayor of New York - Cobh, Co. Cork.) 11, 1788 - Henry Cooke (Cleric - Maghera, Co. Derry) 5, 1795 - House of Commons rejects Grattan's Catholic relief bill, by 155 to 84. 5, 1844 - Bishop Hughes of New York threatens to burn down the city if his churches are attacked (as were churches in Philadelphia). 5, 1906 - First issue of Sinn Féin. 5, 1916 - John MacBride executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail. 5, 1981 - Bobby Sands dies on hunger strike at Long Kesh prison. 6, 1882 - Phoenix Park murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish and T.H. Burke by Fenians. 6, 1897 - Count Arthur Nugent, colonel in the Austrian army and son of Field Marshal Count Laval Nugent, dies in Bosiljevo, Croatia. 7, 1915 - The Lusitania is sunk off the southern Irish coast. 8, 1567 - Battle of Farsetmore. 8, 1857 - William Brown, of Co. Mayo, Admiral in the Argentine navy, dies. 8, 1916 - Èamonn Ceannt executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail. 8, 1916 - Michael Mallin executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail. 8, 1916 - Seán Heuston executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail. 8, 1916 - Con Colbert executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail. 9, 1766 - Count Lally executed by French for losing India. 9, 1916 - Thomas Kent executed by firing squad in Kilmainham jail. 10, 1318 - Battle of Dysert O'Dea. 10, 1795 - United Irishmen of Ulster secretly meet in Belfast and adopt new constitution. 11, 1745 - Battle of Fontenoy, charge of Irish Brigade of French army breaks English line.
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