Storm clouds over a beach in Mayo (though not the one mentioned below).
Today marks two anniversaries – each posing a ‘what if’ alternative scenario in Irish history. On this date 213 years ago, three French ships – the Concorde, Franchise and the Médeé – landed just over a thousand French troops on a beach in Co. Mayo. It was one of three interventions by the French in order to help spread revolution to Ireland, but the revolt of 1798 was short-lived and brutally suppressed. British rule in Ireland would continue for another 123 years until a more successful rebellion forced Britain to partition the island, and give independence to 26 southern counties. The treaty signed by the Irish rebels caused a partition among themselves, and on this date, in 1922, the leader of the Irish rebellion, Michael Collins, was killed in a gun battle with anti-Treaty republicans in Co. Cork.