Events from the year 1919 in Ireland. Events 21 January – Dáil Éireann meets for the very first time in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Dublin. It comprises Sinn Féin members elected in the 1918 general election who, in accordance with their manifesto, have not taken their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom but chosen to declare an independent Irish Republic. In the first shots of the Irish War of Independence, two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) members are killed by Volunteers of the Third Tipperary Brigade in the Soloheadbeg Ambush in Tipperary. 27 January – general strike call over working hours led by engineering workers in Glasgow and Belfast; in Belfast the strike collapses after a month. 3 February – Éamon de Valera, the leader of Sinn Féin, John Milroy and John McGarry escaped from Lincoln Prison in England in a break arranged by Sinn Féin members including Michael Collins and Harry Boland. 1 April – fifty-two members of Sinn Féin attend the second meeting of Dáil Éireann. Seán T. O'Kelly is elected Ceann Comhairle and Éamon de Valera is elected President of Dáil Éireann. 2 April – Constance Markievicz is appointed Minister for Labour, becoming the first Irish female Cabinet Minister (the only one for sixty years) and the first in Western Europe. 15–19 April – "Limerick Soviet": a general strike called by the Limerick Trades and Labour Council, as a protest against the declaration of a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act covering of most of the city of Limerick and its surroundings. 18 April – 1,000 delegates from all over Ireland attend the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in Dublin. Éamon de Valera is elected President of the organisation. 19 April – Sinn Féin proposes an Executive Council of the Irish National Alliance to challenge the right of any foreign parliament to make laws for Ireland. 13 May – two Royal Irish Constabulary members are killed and Irish Republican Army volunteers, Dan Breen and Seán Treacy are wounded while rescuing Seán Hogan from a guarded train carriage at Knocklong, County Limerick. 17 May – the first Republican law court is set up, at Ballinrobe, County Mayo. 14 June – Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown arrive in Clifden, County Galway following their 1,900-mile transatlantic flight. 18 June – Dáil establishes the National Arbitration Courts. 30 July – first assassination of a Royal