Tralee Times
SELECTED IRISH HISTORICAL
EVENTS
OCTOBER
|
October 1
1600 - Robert Grave, Church of Ireland Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, and his family
drown in Dublin Bay on their way home to Wexford by sea
1796 - The Royal College of St. Patrick. a Catholic seminary, is opened in Maynooth,
Co. Kildare
1761 - In the climate of sectarian tension created partly by the Mathew-Maude
controversy, the Whiteboys, a violent agrarian protest movement, begins in Tipperary
and spreads through Munster and West Leinster
1911 - Statue of Charles Stewart Parnell is unveiled in Dublin
1979 - RTÉ broadcasts Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland
2000 - Eight men, including one Irishman, are feared dead after their fishing vessel sinks
off the Clare coast in gale force winds and treacherous seas
2000 - President Mary McAleese leads the tributes to the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop
Luciano Storero, who died at 8am this morning in the Mater Hospital in Dublin at the age
of 74
2001 - Journalists from all over Ireland gather to pay tribute to colleague Martin O'Hagan
who was gunned down last week. More than 1,500 people attend his funeral in his
hometown of Lurgan, County Armagh
2001 - The Black & White Pub of The Year Award 2001 goes to Fitzpatrick's Bar of
Jenkinstown, Co Louth.
October 2
1600 - O'Neill engages Mountjoy's forces in the Battle of Moyry Pass
1833 - Birth of Father William Corby who became Chaplain of the Irish Brigade in Detroit,
Michigan
1852 - William O'Brien, writer and nationalist, is born in Mallow, Co. Cork
1879 - Kate Coll arrives in New York from Ireland on board the SS Nevada. She later
marries Juan Vivion de Valera, and gives birth to Éamon on October 14, 1882 in New
York
1942 - The British cruiser Curaçao sinks off Donegal after colliding with the Queen Mary;
338 lives are lost
2002 - A 1.3 acre site at Railway Square in Waterford city is sold at auction for €4.9
million – over twice its guide price and a record for the region.
October 3
1691- Treaty of Limerick is signed by Ginkel and Sarsfield, ending the Williamite War in
Ireland; the treaty allows evacuation of the Irish army to France and promises tolerance
of Irish Catholics
1961 - Ireland applies for membership of the European Economic Community on 1
August and joins UNESCO on this date
1971 - Death of Seán Ó Riada, founder, composer, and arranger for the Chieftains. He
composed Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland). Guided by his vision, traditional music
changed radically, and became accessible to a modern Irish audience, and through this
traditional music, the cultural life of Ireland was invigorated. (taken from the book
"Bringing It All Back Home" by Nuala O Connor)
1975 - Dr Tiede Herrema, chief executive of the Dutch-owned Ferenka factory in
Ballyvarra, County Limerick, is kidnapped by the IRA
1981 - In the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, ten IRA and INLA hunger-strikers die
between 5 May and 12 August; the hunger strike is called off on this date
2000 - The death toll in storms that have raged for two days off the coast of Galway
reaches 20
October 4
1582 - Pope Gregory reforms the calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45BCE: 4
October is followed by 15 October. However, the reform will not be implemented in
Ireland till 1752
1693 - Irish Brigade of France fights in the battle of Marsaglia
1733 - Henry Boyle, the future Earl of Shannon, is unanimously elected Speaker of the
Irish parliament. He will serve till 1756 - the longest-serving Speaker of the 1692-1800
parliaments
1959 - Direct dialing is launched in Ireland
1961 - General election is held in the Republic. Fianna Fáil gains 70 of the 144 seats
1999 - Aer Lingus announces it will drop its Knock Birmingham route. The decision by
the national airline to cease operations on this route also means the severing of its only
regular link with Knock Airport. A spokesperson for Aer Lingus confirms that the last
flight on the Knock Birmingham route will be on October 29
2001 - Cork will be Europe's Culture Capital in 2005 after landing the prestigious title
ahead of Galway
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St. Francis. Traditionally, many people
have their pets blessed in honor of the patron saint of all animals.
October 5
1731 - Parliament meets at the new parliament house in College Green for the first time
1878 - New York Gaelic Society is formed
1938 - Frank Patterson, tenor, is born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
1968 - Police clash with Derry civil rights marchers, giving birth to the civil rights
organization People's Democracy
2000 - In one of the largest operations in the history of the State, over 150 gardaí and
officers from the FBI search a warehouse and distribution center. At the centre of the
investigation is a Shannon based company that is alleged to have sold counterfeit
aircraft parts to aircraft maintenance and repair facilities
2000 - Ireland's ban on tobacco advertising stands despite the decision by the European
Court of Justice to knock down an EU wide ban
2000 - Michael Collins who wrote ‘The Keepers of Truth’ and Brian O’Doherty who wrote
‘The Deposition Of Father McGreevy’ are among the six authors shortlisted for Britain’s
Booker Prize
2000 - The World Windsurfing Grand Prix is held in Ireland for the first time
2000 - Midleton Distillery in Co. Cork wins the Distillery of the Year award
2001 - Ten thousand rail travellers are delayed when Dublin's Heuston railway station
closed because of a bomb alert
2003 - First Sunday edition of the Star newspaper is published.
October 6
1175 - Under the Treaty of Windsor, concluded on this date, Rory O'Connor recognizes
Henry as his overlord and agrees to collect tribute for him from all parts of Ireland. Henry
agrees that O'Connor can be king of the areas not conquered by the Normans. But
O'Connor cannot control the territories of which he is nominally king, and Henry and his
barons annex further land without consulting him
1216 - The union of the diocese of Glendalough with that of Dublin, having been
promulgated by Pope Innocent III last year, is confirmed by Pope Honorius III
1649 - Owen Roe O'Neill dies
1798 - Grattan removed from Irish Privy Council, falsely charged with being a sworn
member of United Irishmen
1891 - Death of Charles Stewart Parnell, champion of tenants rights and co-founder of
the Land League; often called the "Uncrowned King of Ireland"
1903 - Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton is born at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. He and Sir
John Douglas Cockcroft were awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneer
work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles
1928 - Death of Galway man Pádraic Ó Conaire, who was among the first writers to
develop a new modern literature in the Irish language
1970 - Opening of the arms trial involving Charles Haughey
2000 - It is announced that John Monks, a pig farmer from Cloughran, north Dublin who
died last year, left almost £8 million in his will; he accumulated the vast sum from selling
land to developers
2000 - The High Court grant gardaí the right to detain Slobodan Milosevic if he sets foot
in Ireland
2002 - Some of the highest tides in a century are set to swamp the Irish coastline this
week, prompting flood contingency plans in a number of high-risk areas.
October 7
1731 - A complaint is made to the House of Commons 'that Mr Anthony Tenison did, in a
violent and notorious manner, assault John Bourke, Esq., a Member of this House, by
presenting a pistol to his breast, and threatening to shoot him, on the thirtieth of
December last'
1919 - A cabinet committee is appointed to consider Irish self government
1935 - Birth of Thomas Kineally, Irish-Australian author of ‘Schindler’s List’ which was
originally called ‘Schindler's Ark’.
1998 - The Bank of Ireland announces an unprecedented 20-year fixed rate of 6•99%
within the first of a wave of interest cuts that will bring Irish rates into line with Europe for
the introduction of the euro on January 1
1999 - Ireland moves a step closer to raising the recruitment age of the armed forces
from 16 to 18
2000 - The tenants of a Dublin inner city community refuse to leave their houses after
been evicted. The tenants of 28 cottages - - almost all single mothers - block access to
their homes when they go up for viewing to prospective buyers
2001 - The 46th Murphy's Cork Film Festival opens with a showing of Disco Pigs which
was partly filmed in the city
October 8
1962 - Kerrygold butter is launched on the world market
1974 - Seán MacBride, President of the International Peace Bureau, Geneva,
Switzerland, and President of the Commission of Namibia, United Nations, New York,
USA, is awarded a half share of the Nobel Peace Prize
1998 - Minister for Defence, Michael Smith TD strongly defends his decision to close
down six army barracks after several delegates stage a walk-out at the PDFORRA
conference in Ennis, Co Clare
2000 - Catholic bishops begin a three-day meeting in Maynooth during which they will
attempt to reach agreement on the ordination of lay people as deacons
2000 - More than 40,000 jubilant supporters turn out to welcome the victorious Co. Kerry
football team and the Sam Maguire Cup back to the Kingdom
2002 - Catholic Bishops back the Nice Treaty, stating there is a stronger case for voting
in favour than against.
October 9
1651 - The Navigation Act provides that goods imported to any Commonwealth lands
shall be carried in English ships only
1849 - First tenant protection society established at Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
1968 - Champion racehorse, Arkle, is retired to see out the rest of his days in
Bryanstown, Kildare
2001 - Nearly 450 jobs are lost as the economic fallout from the 9/11 terrorist attacks in
the US continues to hit home. More than 1,600 workers at Waterford Crystal are also
preparing for a complete shutdown next week for five days
2003 - The famous cranes at Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyard, which dominate the
city's skyline, are listed as historic monuments to ensure their preservation.
October 10
1084 - Patrick, Bishop of Dublin, dies in a shipwreck
1771 - During his visit to Ireland, Benjamin Franklin attends a meeting of the House of
Commons on this date
1790 - Birth in Co. Tipperary of Fr. Theobald Matthew, “The Apostle of Temperance”
and campaigner against alcohol
1990 - RTÉ reports on the closure of Phoenix Park Racecourse
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern joins the ranks of the publicly contrite world leaders when
he finally apologises to three journalists for the tapping of their telephones in the early
'80s
2002 - After 22 years at the National Museum in Dublin, an eighth-century silver chalice,
silver paten and stand and a decorated bronze strainer ladle are returned to their
original resting place at the monastic site of Derrynaflan, near Littleton Bog, Co
Tipperary.
October 11
1649 - Massacre at Wexford when the town falls to Cromwell
1921 - Anglo-Irish negotiations open with Griffith and Collins leading the Irish delegation
1922 - The Irish Constitution for the Free State, drafted by the Thomas Cosgrove Dáil, is
adopted
1974 - Adoption of the Celtic League American Branch
1999 - Hospitals begin scaling down their services after nurses vote overwhelmingly to
go on strike
2000 - In an historic move, Ireland’s Bishops vote at the autumn meeting of the Irish
Bishop’s Conference in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth to seek the permission of Pope
John Paul II to establish a Permanent Diaconate in Ireland. What this means is that Irish
men will be ordained as deacons in the Catholic Church within the next five years and will
have powers to officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals
2002 - Geraldine Kennedy is appointed editor of The Irish Times and becomes the first
female editor of a national daily newspaper
In the liturgical calendar, today is the feast day of St. Chainnigh.
October 12
1645 - Archbishop Rinuccini arrives in Ireland
1798 - French fleet intercepted off Donegal. Wolfe Tone captured when the Hoche
strikes its colors
1975 - Sir Oliver Plunkett is canonised
1999 - Former US Senator George Mitchell moves his make or break review of the Good
Friday Agreement to London, just hours after new Secretary of State Peter Mandelson
arrives in Northern Ireland to meet the North’s political leaders
2000 - Roman Catholic and Protestant Bishops are on a collision course following
Archbishop Dr Desmond O’ Connell’s backing of the controversial document “Dominus
Iesus” which proclaims the Catholic Church to be the one true church
October 13
1494 - Poynings lands at Howth and summons a parliament to Drogheda. He then
campaigns in the north
1881 - Charles Stewart Parnell and others are arrested for Land League activities
1923 - Republican prisoners in Mountjoy prison begin mass hunger strike
1928 - The Dublin Gate Theatre Company produces its first play - Ibsen's Peer Gynt - in
the Peacock Theatre
1998 - Farmers, furious over the collapse in cattle prices, stage an overnight sit-in
protest at the Department of Agriculture and Food in Dublin and warn much tougher
action will be taken
October 14
1693 - The Earl of Tyrone dies and apparently appears promptly to Lady Nicola
Hamilton, the widow of Tristram Beresford MP; he makes a number of predictions that
turn out to be correct; one of them was that she would die on her 47th birthday
1702 - Irish Brigade of France fights in the battle of Friedlingen
1791 - Wolfe Tone visits Belfast for the first time; the Society of United Irishmen is
founded there on this date by Tone, Henry Joy McCracken, Thomas Russell and Samuel
Neilson
1882 - Eamon de Valera, nationalist campaigner, Fianna Fáil leader, Taoiseach and
president of Ireland, is born in Brooklyn, New York of a Spanish father and an Irish
mother
1920 - Tipperary IRA man, Sean Treacy, is killed in a gun battle in Talbot Street, Dublin
1932 - Between October 4 and this date, strikes, marches and protests are held in
Belfast against low unemployment payments, temporarily uniting Catholic and Protestant
unemployed; payments are raised
2001 - The first multiple State funeral is held in honour of 10 IRA Volunteers, including
Kevin Barry, who were executed for their role in the War of Independence. More than 80
years after they were buried in the grounds of Mountjoy Prison, the bodies of the 10 men
were exhumed and reinterred in a special new plot at Glasnevin Cemetery. The ten men
were Kevin Barry, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood, Patrick Moran, Thomas
Whelan, Bernard Ryan, Thomas Traynor, Edmond Foley and Patrick Maher.
October 15
1582 - Pope Gregory reforms the calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45BCE: 4
October is followed by 15 October. However, the reform will not be implemented in Britain
and Ireland till 1752
1690 - After taking Cork on 28 September, Marlbourough takes Kinsale for the
Williamites, who now control Munster
1763 - Birth of United Irish leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald at Carton House in Co. Kildare
1842 - First issue of "The Nation" published
1949 - Death of Eoin MacNeill, Irish historian and founder of the Irish Volunteers
1964 - UK general election; unionists win all 12 Northern Ireland seats; Harold Wilson
forms a Labour government
1995 - Seamus Heaney wins the Nobel Peace Prize
1999 - The music world mourns the death in Co. Kildare of Derry-born tenor Josef Locke
2001 - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asks Ireland to use its influence on the UN
Security Council to help resume peace talks in the Middle East
2002 - The hero of the Polish Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, makes an impassioned
plea to the Irish people to vote Yes to Nice.
October 16
1678 - Proclamations against Catholic clergy and schools in Ireland are issued
1854 - Oscar Wilde, playwright, novelist and essayist is born in Dublin
1890 - Michael Collins is born in Clonakilty, Co. Cork
1961 - RTÉ reports on the closure of the West Clare Railway
1961 - Opening of Cork Airport
1981 - Ben Dunne, joint managing director of Dunnes Stores, is kidnapped by the IRA
October 17
1171 - Henry II, fearful that Strongbow will grow too powerful in Ireland, lands at
Waterford with an army. The Normans, Norse and Irish all submit to him, except for the
most remote Irish kings
1803 - Birth of Young Irelander, William Smith O'Brien in Dromoland, Co. Clare
1882 - The Irish Nationalist League is founded
1886 - John Dillon announces "Plan of Campaign" for Irish tenants against unfair rents
October 18
1791 - First public meeting of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast
1881 - A “no rents manifesto” is issued by the Land League under the guidance of
Parnell
2000 - More than 20,000 passengers are stranded as Aer Lingus grounds planes in the
worst strike to hit the airline in 20 years
October 19
1610 - Birth of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond; royalist soldier; and three times Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland
1745 - Jonathan Swift dies
1955 - Archbishop McQuaid calls for an international football match against Yugoslavia
in Dublin to be cancelled, but it goes ahead in front of a capacity crowd
1991 - Seán Kelly wins the Tour of Lombardy
1998 - Justice Minister John O'Donoghue imposes tough new visa rules to curb the
arrival of Slovakian gypsies, following an influx of 1,600 in search of asylum in Britain in
just two months
1998 - Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh admits that the Irish beef crisis, which has seen
prices collapse to a 25-year-low, could deteriorate even further
1999 - On the first day of their historic industrial action, thousands of striking nurses
take to the picket lines
2000 - The Dalai Lama meets with fellow Nobel peace laureate John Hume MP at the
Ulster Hall, Belfast. The Buddhist spiritual leader is in Belfast for three days at the
invitation of the World Community for World Peace.
October 20
1775 - Two hundred passengers are lost in the shipwrecks of the brigs Trevor Totty and
Nonpareil. Among the casualties are The Hononorable Major Francis Caulfield, MP for
Charlemont, his wife and daughters; also lost is Mr French, Member for the County of
Roscommon
1794 - John Gustavus Crosbie, candidate in a parliamentary by-election for Co. Kerry,
takes offence at some real or supposed breach of neutrality on the part of Sir Barry
Denny, the sitting MP. A duel follows on this date; at the first fire Denny is shot fatally
through the head 'by the haphazard aim of a man who had never before discharged a
pistol in his life'
1881 - The Land League is outlawed
1892 - Birth near Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan of General Eoin O’Duffy, first
commissioner of the Garda Síochána (Blue Shirts)
1933 - The Irish Free State government purchases the copyright of Peadar Kearney's
"The Soldiers Song" which becomes the national anthem
1999 - Death in Dublin of former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch
2001 - President Bill Clinton calls on all sides not to give up on the Good Friday
Agreement; he also pledges to visit Northern Ireland while still in office
2002 - The Irish vote Yes to the Nice Treaty.
October 21
1879 - Founding of the Land League by Michael Davitt
1803 - Execution of Thomas Russell, United Irishman, in Downpatrick for “high treason”
1805 - 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
1901 - Douglas Hyde's Casadh an tSúgán - The Twisting of the Rope - is presented at
The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and becomes the first staged Irish-language play
1904 - Birth of poet Patrick Kavanagh in Inishkeen, Co. Monaghan
1999 - President Mary McAleese leads mourners at the removal of former Taoiseach
and Fianna Fáil leader, Jack Lynch, from Dublin’s Royal Hospital to the Church of St
Paul of the Cross, Mount Argus
1999 - Hundreds of striking nurses from the midlands join a rally through the streets of
Dublin
2001 - Gas pipeline work on a hillside at Kilmacanogue in the Wicklow Mountains
uncovers the remains of a house dating back to 2,000 BC. Only eight similar discoveries
have been made thus far in Ireland
2002 - Even on paper Keane is faster than McCarthy; on the day of its launch, just one
copy of Mick McCarthy’s World Cup diary is sold at Waterstones outlet on Dawson Street
in Dublin
2003 - The last flight of the Concorde supersonic jet arrives at Belfast International
Airport, Aldergrove.
October 22
1641 - Rory O'More, Lord Maguire and Sir Pheilim O'Neill initiate a major revolt in
Armagh. Known as the Ulster Rebellion, in the ensuing six months, at least 4, 000
Protestants are killed and Catholics are massacred in reprisals
1993 - Former South African President Nelson Mandela visits Dublin
1998 - Demonstrations by construction workers sweep the country in protest at the
jailing of two builders in Mountjoy for a second night. A number of protesters are
arrested after they clash with gardaí in Dublin
1998 - The remains of four males are uncovered by workmen during excavation work for
a new drainage system to serve the South Tipperary town of Carrick-on-Suir. A coin
dated 1805 found nearby, leads locals to believe the remains date from the early 19th
century when a fever hospital stood on a nearby site, now occupied by St Brigid's
Hospital
1999 - The coffin of former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, is removed from St. Paul of the
Cross Church, in Harold's Cross in Dublin, after an interdenominational service, on the
first leg of its journey to Cork city, where a state funeral will take place
2002 - Some of the worst storms on record lash the North wreaking havoc on roads and
flooding hundreds of homes.
October 23
1662 - The Irish parliament orders the annual observance of this date as a day of
thanksgiving for deliverance from the 1641 rising; for over a century, church services on
this day will remind Protestants of Catholic disloyalty
1771 - Benjamin Franklin ends his visit to Ireland
1931 - The IRA and other organizations are declared illegal in the Free State and the
Catholic Church excommunicates members of all of them, including Saor Eire, which
soon dissolves
1969 - Samuel Beckett wins Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in Foxrock, Dublin on
Good Friday,13 April 1906. (Although his birth certificate says it was a month later).
"Waiting for Godot"
is generally regarded as his best-known play
1970 - Charles Haughey, former Minister for Finance, is acquitted of charges that he
and Neil Blaney, former Minister for Agriculture, imported arms for the IRA
2001 - The Government announces it will sell off one-third of Aer Lingus at a knock-
down price in order to fund a drastic rescue plan for the airline.
October 24
1642 - Irish Confederate rebels establish government at Kilkenny
1789 - Work begins on the construction of the Royal Canal
1854 - Birth of Sir Horace Plunkett, agricultural reformer and politician
1998 - New British proposals for a European defence force which could undermine Irish
neutrality are outlined at a key summit of EU heads of government in Austria
1999 - The first state funeral ever held in Co. Cork takes place for former taoiseach Jack
Lynch at St Mary and Anne’s Cathedral in Cork
2000 - Hallowe'en firework displays are dampened after gardaí seize rockets and
bangers worth close to £1 million in a warehouse north of Omeath, Co. Louth
2002 - President Mary McAleese is named the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year. Northern
Ireland Woman of the Year is awarded to blind world water-skier champion Janet Gray
2003 - A smoking ban in all enclosed workplaces except private dwellings is signed into
law. Prisons will be excluded to prevent security and conduct problems. The law will go
into effect on January 26,
October 25
1212 - John Comyn, Archbishop of Dublin, dies and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral
1909 - The Engineering and Scientific Association of Ireland assures the population that
flying machines will never be of any practical use
1920 - Terence MacSwiney, the Mayor of Cork, dies in a London prison after 73 days on
hunger strike. His last words to a priest by his side were, "I want you to bear witness that
I die as a soldier of the Irish Republic."
1922 - The Dáil approves the Constitution of the Irish Free State
1960 - Death of Harry George Ferguson, environmental pioneer, aircraft designer,
inventor of the Ferguson tractor and revolutioniser of mechanised farming. He was from
Dromore, Co. Down
1985 - First commercial flight from Knock Airport (Horan International Airport) in Co. Mayo
2002 - Limerick-born movie star, Richard Harris, loses his battle to cancer.
October 26
1601 - A Spanish army under Don Juan del Aguila, which had landed at Kinsale on 21
September, is besieged by Lord Mountjoy on this date
1791 - Founding of the United Irishmen movement
1998 - A price war rages over the video of Oscar-winning Titanic, which is set to become
Ireland's biggest selling video of all time.
1999 - A major opinion poll reveals that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would
vote ‘yes’ in a new referendum on the Good Friday Agreement
1999 - A line of tractors backs up for miles as a cavalcade of farmers make their way to
the annual Great Maam Cross Fair - the last great fair of the millennium
2000 - The country’s 350,000 secondary school students are asked by the Department
of Defence to propose a name for a new £20m naval patrol boat.
October 27
1651 - Surrender of Limerick
1673 - A proclamation declares the banishment of Catholic bishops and priest and the
closure of religious houses and schools under Charles II's reign
1878 - Between October 24 and this date, Fenians propose a 'New Departure': an
alliance with the Parnellites
1998 - 200 delegates of the 24,000-strong INO (nurse's union) vote unanimously to
reactivate industrial action if their claims are not met
1999 - Fifty bar workers are to sue their bosses in the first smoking related personal
injury claim in the history of the State
1999 - NUI Galway marks its 150th anniversary
October 28
1758 - Edward Moore, 5th Earl of Drogheda and former MP for Dunleer, drowns with his
son Edward, chaplain to the House of Commons, en route from England to Dublin
1909 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Francis Bacon, painter
1958 - The State Opening of Parliament is televised for the first time
2000 - Athlete Sonia O'Sullivan returns to her hometown of Cobh and is presented with
the Freedom of The Town
October 29
1953 - The Health Act provides for a free mother-and-child healthcare scheme in the
Republic
1958 - The Dáil announces a bill to introduce a system of proportional representation
into the Republic
1998 - The tax on tourists row flares up again when members of the Dáil Committee on
Tourism clash over a proposed £1 levy on visitors to the Aran Islands
1998 - In tribute to emigrants who sailed to the New World on coffin ships,’ Coillte
‘announces plans for the establishment of the Forest of Dunbrody on the outskirts of
New Ross, Co Wexford. The public, and particularly Irish-Americans, will be invited to buy
a tree in the name of their loved ones
2001 - Over £3.5m will be spent converting Limerick's city centre into a pedestrian area.
Within five years, only buses, taxis and delivery vehicles will be able to travel up
O'Connell Street
2002 - Continuous heavy rain brings severe flooding to many parts of the country
2002 - Thousands of homes and businesses face massive disruption to Christmas mail
delivery following a vote by postmasters in favour of industrial action
October 30
1972 - Northern Ireland Secretary of State, William Whitelaw's paper "The Future of
Northern Ireland" declares no UK opposition to unity by consent
2001 - One of the country's largest estates, Farnham, on about 1,200 acres in Cavan, is
bought for around £5m by a locally-born businessman, pharmacist Roy McCabe
2001 - A major anti-litter initiative is launched which will hold every town in Ireland
accountable for its cleanliness
2003 - A wreath to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Monsignor Hugh
O'Flaherty, the Vatican priest who is credited with saving the lives of thousands of
people during the second World War is laid on his grave in Cahersiveen Co Kerry.
October 31
1641 - The Ulster rebels take Dundalk
1838 - General Sir William Frances Butler, soldier and author, is born in Suirville, Co.
Tipperary. He had a remarkable and often controversial military career spanning over 50
years. During the Land War he became a great personal friend of Charles Stewart
Parnell and campaigned for tenants' rights and Home Rule. Late in 1900 Sir William was
promoted to Lieutenant General, a rank he held until his retirement in 1905. The last five
years of his life were spent at Bansha Castle among his own people.
He died in Bansha Castle on June 7 1910 and his funeral to Killaldriffe was one of the
largest seen in the region
1845 - A committee is formed to examine the extent of the potato crop failure and
suggest remedies
1930 - Birth of Michael Collins, an Irish-American born in Rome, and pilot of the
command module of the Apollo 10 lunar landing in 1969
1998 - Dungarvan's milk processing plant in Co. Waterford, operational since the turn of
the century, closes with the loss of 135 full-time jobs
1999 - In Co. Wexford, a millennium party catches the imagination of Halloween revellers
as the ESB Drum Carnival entertains ghouls and goblins of all ages. The carnival
features the largest drum in the world - a staggering 15ft in diameter and part lambeg
and bodhran in design
2002 - Distributors predict the film ‘The Magdalene Sisters’ will hit the €1 million mark
within five weeks, making it one of the biggest-grossing movies ever screened in Ireland
2002 - In a meeting with employers and unions in Dublin Castle, Finance Minister Charlie
McCreevy says the boom is finally over and workers face a pay freeze of up to a year.