Events for March 17

March 17, 1969

Longhope lifeboat sank in the Pentland Firth with the loss of eight men on board, all from the small island of Hoy.

An RNLI lifeboat has been stationed at Longhope since 1874; the old lifeboat house is now a museum with a former Longhope lifeboat Thomas McCunn on display. On 17 March 1969 the station suffered one of the worst tragedies in British lifeboat history when its 47-ft wooden lifeboat, T.G.B., capsized with the loss of all eight crew after answering a mayday call from the Liberian cargo vessel Irene during a gale of Force 9.

March 17, 1864

Charlotte Milligan Fox, collector of folk music, is born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone

Charlotte Olivia Milligan Fox (17 March 1864 – 25 March 1916) was an Irish composer, folk music collector and writer.

March 17, 1903

St. Patrick's Day, becomes a bank day

Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit. ’the Day of the Festival of Patrick’), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. 385 – c. 461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

March 17, 1852

Patrick Sheehan, Canon Sheehan, priest and writer, is born in Mallow, Co. Cork

Patrick Augustine Sheehan (17 March 1852 – 5 October 1913) was an Irish Catholic priest, author and political activist. He was usually known as Canon Sheehan after his 1903 appointment as a canon of the diocese of Cloyne, or more fully as Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, after the town of Doneraile where he wrote almost all of his major works and served as parish priest.