Events for December 18

December 18, 1782

Barry Yelverton introduces the bill that will become Yelverton's Act

Barry Yelverton, 1st Viscount Avonmore, PC (Ire) KC (28 May 1736 – 19 August 1805), was an Irish judge and politician, who gave his name to Yelverton’s Act 1782, which effectively repealed Poynings’ Law and thus restored the independence of the Parliament of Ireland.

December 18, 1980

Prisoners in Armagh and Long Kesh end their 53 day hunger strike on promises of political status. The promises are not kept

A hunger strike in 1980 was also undertaken by seven men in the H-Blocks and three women in Armagh Gaol, but it ended on 18 December after 53 days, without any gains for the prisoners.

December 18, 1878

Joseph James O'Neill, writer and civil servant, was born 18 December 1878 at Tuam, Co. Galway

Joseph James O’Neill (1886-1952) was an Irish novelist and civil servant and was born on December 18, 1878. O’Neill claimed later in his life that he was born in the Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland, in 1886, but he was in fact born in the inland Galway town of Tuam, preferring, as a writer, the perceived romance of being born in the Gaelic-speaking islands. He did spend much of his boyhood on the Aran Islands where his father, Martin O’Neill, a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and his wife Mary (née Quigley) had been stationed. Irish was the language of the household.