October

Birth of James Logan, Colonial statesman and scholar in Lurgan, Co. Armagh

October 20, 1674

Two hundred passengers are lost in the shipwrecks of the brigs Trevor Totty and Nonpareil

October 20, 1775

Duel between John Gustavus Crosbie and Sir Barry Denny, the sitting MP, the first fire Denny is shot fatally

October 20, 1794

Michael William Balfe, composer, dies in Dublin

October 20, 1808

Daniel Owen considered the greatest Welsh language novelist, born

October 20, 1836

A writer, considered the national novelist of Wales. He was a natural storyteller whose works, set in his own time, introduced a wealth of vivid and memorable characters that have given him a place in …

The Land League is outlawed

October 20, 1881

Birth near Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan of General Eoin O’Duffy, first commissioner of the Garda Síochána (Blue Shirts)

October 20, 1892

Explosion at Clarkston Toll shopping centre, killing, 12.

October 20, 1971

Execution of Thomas Russell, United Irishman, in Downpatrick for “high treason”

October 21, 1803

The Irish dead at the Battle of Trafalgar include Lieutenant William Ram, son of Abel Ram, MP for Co. Wexford, who is killed on board the Victory

October 21, 1805

Irish National Land League founded in Dublin.

October 21, 1879

In 1879 agricultural depression began to set in. Organised land agitation began in Co.

Douglas Hydes Casadh an tSúgán - The Twisting of the Rope - is presented at The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and becomes the first staged Irish-language play

October 21, 1901