1 October 1761 – The first major outbreak of violence by “Whiteboys” begins in Tipperary. The Whiteboys were a secret Irish agrarian organization that used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer’s rights.
5 October 1911 – Brian O’Nolan, alias Flan O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen, wit, novelist and Irish Times columnist, is born in Strabane, Co. Tyrone.
5 October 1995 – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.
6 October 1891 – Death of Charles Stewart Parnell, champion of tenant’s rights and co-founder of the Land League.
8 October 1974 – Sean MacBride becomes the first Irishman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
12 October 1975 – Canonization of Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, the first Irishman to be made a saint since Laurence O’Toole in 1226.
14 October 1882 – Eamon de Valera, nationalist campaigner, Fianna Fail leader, Taoiseach and president of Ireland, is born in Brooklyn, New York to a Spanish father and Irish mother.
16 October 1890 – Michael Collins is born in Clonakilty, Co. Cork.
20 October 1870 – Death of composer Michael William Balfe in Dublin. He is best known for his opera The Bohemian Girl.
22 October 1641 – The start of the Ulster Rebellion, when rebel Catholics surprised Protestant settlers, massacring large numbers.
