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In May 1169 a small Norman invading force landed at Bannow Bay in south-east Wexford. A year later they were joined by another contingent of about a hundred men commanded by Raymond le Gros and Hervey de Monte Marisco. Landing at Baginbun Head, they secured their base by building a massive double embankment right across the headland – it’s still there to this day. And to keep themselves supplied in case of siege they rounded up a large number of cattle and kept them within the fort.

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At three o’clock on the afternoon of 8 May 1945 Winston Churchill formally proclaimed the war in Europe to be over (though it was fated to continue in the Far East for another three months). Five days later he broadcast his victory speech to the jubilant British people. Inevitably, perhaps, he was unable to resist a swipe at neutral Éire, which had refused all blandishments to allow her ports to be used by the Royal Navy.

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In 1928 the film maker Walt Disney produced a film called “Plane Crazy”. It featured an animated mouse named Mickey, who is resourceful, irresponsible, and amorous. Inspired perhaps by the exploits of Charles Lindbergh, Mickey decides to build an airplane. When it is complete, he invites his wife Minnie to join him for the inaugural flight. Alas, things go very wrong, the plane goes out of control, and a number of highly improbable adventures follow.

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The history of Lismore as we know it begins with the foundation here of a monastery by St Carthage, a native – like the Wild Colonial Boy – of Castlemaine in co. Kerry. It probably consisted of a number of small stone churches and wooden buildings, surrounded by an enclosing wall of earth and palisades, though as nothing remains of the buildings we can but conjecture.

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I spoke recently of the mad capers of Henry, 3^rd Marquess of Waterford. All that changed abruptly when he gave his heart and hand to one of the great beauties of the day, Louisa Stuart. They were married in 1842, and ten days after the wedding the happy couple arrived at Curraghmore, where they were given a tumultuous welcome by the tenantry and employees. Their period of married bliss was all too short. Just one week after their arrival, Louisa was being driven by her husband in a phaeton pulled by two horses, when they took fright and turned the carriage over. She was unconscious for three days, and although she made a complete recovery she was never able to bear children.

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In May 1812 John Bellingham was a man with a grudge. Back in 1804, when working in Russia as an export agent, he had been arrested on a trumped-up charge instigated by a disgruntled London ship-owner, and had spent five years in a St Petersburg jail. Since his release he had been petitioning the British government for compensation – but in vain.