21 Memorable Events

Daily writing prompt

What major historical events do you remember?

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Before I begin, I should mention the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I was only a baby at the time, but throughout the 1960s, it loomed very large in Ireland. The Irish considered him one of their own. He had visited Cork in 1963.

Many of the events below relate to conflicts. Because this blog is a mix of my personal history, music, and Christianity, I always like to point to YouTube videos. Here are a few Irish songs about peace that I remember from my early years.

And here are 21 events that I vividly remember:

• Vietnam war 1964–1975
  • I don’t remember any particular event apart perhaps from the ending of the war, but it was always on the news while I grew up.
• Northern Ireland Conflict 1969-1998
  • I do remember hearing the specifics about various murders. Though I was a Roman Catholic, as were most in the South, few of us supported or sympathized with the republican side. Sinn Fein (the political party linked with the IRA) has more support now, but only because the violence has stopped. I would think that most of their supporters are more interested in their left-wing views. The final atrocity was the Omagh bomb in 1998, which was planted by a breakaway group from the IRA. I spent a lot of time visiting Baptist churches in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. The only scary incident was at a military checkpoint one dark winter night. After being stopped, I started to drive away, and a soldier drifted in front of my car. It turned out that it was a middle-aged lady, and she turned around, laughed and apologized 🙂. She was dressed in a military uniform, so she was a soldier, probably with the UDR.
• Aer Lingus Viscount Crash – 1968
  • I remember being in Crosshaven that day and hearing about a plane crash. It was only later in the day that I discovered that it was a plane that left Cork Airport. My aunt flew back to London later that day, but could very easily have taken the earlier plane. A priest and a group of others from our local parish were killed.
• Moon Landing – 1969
  • I was woken at 3 AM to watch it live, but I didn’t bother. They told me that I’d be able to tell my grandchildren that I saw the moon landing. Well, I don’t have any grandchildren yet, but if I ever do, l’ll look forward to telling them that I’m such a cool guy that I didn’t bother waking up for the moon landing at 3 AM 🙂.
• Munich Olympic Murders – 1972
  • I was vaguely aware of other terrorists around the world apart from Irish terrorists, but I do remember being shocked and shaken by the murder of Israeli athletes at the Olympics by Palestinian terrorists.
• Watergate Scandal – 1972
  • We didn’t have a huge interest in President Nixon, but it’s just something that was always on the news. In 1985, I remember our Christian Union (CU) in what is now the University of Limerick, showing a film about one of the guys involved, who became an evangelical Christian and wrote the book Born Again – Charles Colson. I don’t remember it being a particularly good film, but back then, before the web, distributing books and showing films was a very popular means of evangelism.
• Tenerife Airport Disaster –1977
  • This was the deadliest aviation accident in history, claiming 583 lives. I remember reading all the newspaper reports at the time.
• Whiddy Oil Refinery Disaster – 1979
  • Betelgeuse, a French oil tanker exploded at Whiddy island in Bantry Bay, County Cork. Over 50 people died.
• Assassination of John Lennon – 1980
  • That was a huge shock to me. I loved his music, and back in 1976, a book containing a 1971 interview, Lennon Remembers, was almost like a Bible to me. The strange thing is, a few years before, I remember having a dream that he had been shot in New York City. I even remember telling my friend about the dream at the time.
• Falklands War – 1982
  • Because the UK was at war, it felt very close to home. I remember later that year hearing Argentinian evangelist Luis Palau at All Souls Church in London. I spent a year as a voluntary evangelist with London City Mission. We were preparing for the 1983-1984 Mission to London campaign. I remember him joking that we might want to spin him as a South American evangelist rather than an Argentinian evangelist 🙂. But I don’t think that British people had any quarrel with the Argentinian people. They were just defending the island, but it’s a shame that the war had to happen in the first place. I’ve known many lovely people from both these nations.
• Air India crash off West Cork – 1985
  • This occurred on June 23, 1985, when Flight 182 was destroyed by a terrorist bomb, killing all 329 people on board. It remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Irish and Canadian history.
• Fall of the Berlin Wall – 1989
  • I remember watching it live on TV. It was such a joyful moment. It’s sad that we appear to be heading back into the cold war again. Back in the 1980s, it was very rare to meet anyone from Eastern Europe in Ireland. You might see them in a circus or occasionally at a Christian meeting. I remember an evangelical from Poland speaking in the YMCA in Cork. Nowadays, most Irish churches have members from Eastern Europe. In fact, an increasing number of church leaders are from that part of the world.
• Ireland Qualify for the World Cup – 1990
  • It was the first time that we qualified. We didn’t win, but we got much further than we anticipated. It was a very joyful summer. Everyone was singing Ole Ole Ole Ole.
• Gulf War – 1990–1991
  • I remember hearing a man from a radio station in Kuwait pleading for help as his country was being invaded. And it filled the news for much of 1991.
• Death of Princess Diana – 1997
  • I remember waking up to hear the news. It was a real shock to hear about someone so famous dying so tragically. It’s just a reminder that none of us really knows when our time is up.
• September 11 Attacks – 2001
  • I was between jobs at the time. I was studying on my computer, listening to BBC Radio 2, and I heard that a plane had crashed into a building in New York. I initially assumed that it was just a little accident with a private plane. Soon what really happened emerged, and I went downstairs and watched it all live on Sky News and saw the buildings collapsing. Then, over the next few years, it led into the war in Afghanistan and the second Gulf war. Maybe many in the West thought that if you get the bad guys out of government, the good guys will come in and replace them. But things aren’t as simple as that are they?
• Indian Ocean Tsunami –2000
  • One of the deadliest natural disasters, killing over 230,000 people. I remember seeing a few kids in a hotel swimming pool and them leaving the pool as the tide came in. I often wonder if they were OK. It’s interesting how 230,000 can seem just like a statistic, but it makes such a difference when you focus on individuals. Year’s back I remember watching Schindler’s List, a film about the man who rescued many Jews from the holocaust. The film was in black and white. You’d see hundreds of Jewish people and one little girl in blue shown in colour, highlighting the fact that these were all individuals.
• Financial Crisis and Banking Collapse – 2008
  • I wasn’t personally affected to any great degree, but many in Ireland were. You’d imagine that the most economically successful and developed nations of the world would be able to prevent that happening. It’s a reminder of how vulnerable we are.
• COVID-19 Pandemic – 2020
  • Well, who doesn’t remember that? But I think of hearing about this scary disease in Wuhan China. Then we saw Milan and how all the shops needed to close. Next, we heard about someone in Ireland getting Covid. There’s much criticism nowadays about governments overreacting. But to me, it’s a reminder of how compassionate modern society is and how people made such huge sacrifices to protect the vulnerable.
• Death of Queen Elizabeth II – 2022
  • I think that Queen Elizabeth II was well-loved in Ireland. You do get types who hate everything English or American. They’re often very vocal, but most people were saddened though not surprised. It felt very much like the end of an era. She got a warm welcome when she visited Cork City in 2011.
• Russian Invasion of Ukraine – 2022
  • Just as the pandemic ended, this became the big story. I remember meeting a Ukrainian man in London back in 1983. The only other one that I met was back around 2017 in Limerick. But nowadays, many Ukrainians live in Ireland. I do hope and pray that the war will end soon.

Matthew 5:9
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”