The Irish Book of Days

October 12 - Archbishop Rinuccinin arrives in Ireland (1645).

October 13 - Sara Atkinson, a writer on religious and historical subjects, is born (1823).

October 14 - The Dublin Gate Theatre Company produces its first play, Ibsen's Peer Gynt, in the Peacock Theatre (1928).

October 15 - Republican prisoners set fire to buildings at Maze prison in Long Kesh (1974).

October 16 - Oscar Wilde, playwright, novelist, and essayist, is born in Dublin (1854).

October 17 - The Irish National League is founded (1882).

October 18 - Mairtin O Cadhain, writer in Irish, dies (1970).

October 19 - Writer Emily Lawless dies (1913).

October 20 - The Irish Free State government purchases the copyright of Peadar Kearney's "The Soldiers Son," which becomes the Irish national anthem (1933).

October 21 - Douglas Hyde's Casadh an tSugan (The Twisting of the Rope), a play based on Irish folklore, is presented at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, becoming the first staged Irish-language play (1901).

October 22 - The Ulster Rebellion begins, resulting in many Protestant deaths in the ensuing six months (1641).

October 23 - Beckett is awarded the Nobel prize in literature (1969).

October 24 - The Ladies' Land League is founded in New York (1880).

October 25 - Terence MacSwiney, the mayor of Cork, dies in prison in London after seventy-three days on a hunger strike (1920).

October 26 - Comhdhail Naisiunta na Gaeilge, the coordinating body for Irish-language organizations, is formed (1943).

October 27 - A proclamation declares the banishment of Catholic bishops and regular priests, and the closure of religious houses and schools under Charles II's reign (1673).

October 28 - William Howard Glover, music critic and composer, dies (1875).

October 29 - Michael William Balfe's opera Siege of Rochelle is first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre, London (1835).

October 30 - Northern Ireland Secretary of State William Whitelaw's paper "The Future of Northern Ireland" declares no UK opposition to unity by consent (1972).

October 31 - A committee is formed to examine the extent of the potato crop loss and to suggest remedies (1845).