Dublin Diary #OnThisDay
What stories made the news in Dublin over the years during this month?
October 1662 – Smock Alley Theatre, Essex Street, Dublin, opened by John Ogilby, Master of the Revels.
1 to 2 October 1998 – ‘Dublin and its Region: Contemporary Issues and Challenges for the Twenty First Century’ conference at T.C.D., Dublin.
1 October 1874 – Essex Bridge re-opened. It was re-built by Dublin Ports and Docks Board, from the plan of Bindon Blood Stoney, C.E.
1 October 1884 – New public libraries opened at Capel Street (Patrick Grogan, librarian) and Thomas Street (M.D. Wyer, librarian).
1 October 1911 – The Parnell monument in Upper O’Connell Street, Dublin, was unveiled. At the base is a statue of Parnell designed by Augustus St. Gaudens. The monument was unveiled by John Redmond.
1 October 1936 – The Hammond Lane foundry, 111 Pearse Street, Dublin, was destroyed by fire.
2 October 1741 – Fishamble Street Musick Hall opened.
2 October 1911 – The name of Great Britain Street was changed to Parnell Street, by Dublin Corporation.
3 October 1937 – The Dublin building strike ended. Some 11,000 workers had been on strike since 1 April. Losses were estimated at £3m.
5 October 1731 – First meeting of Parliament in the new Parliament House, College Green, Dublin.
5 October 1825 – Dublin city lighted with gas.
5 October 1837 – Death of Arthur Morrison, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1835. At the junction of Anglesea Road and Ailesbury Road, Donnybrook is an obelisk to Morrison, erected in 1838. Alderman Morrison also acted on the Grand Jury of the City and County of Dublin from 1823. He was the owner of Morrison’s Hotel at the corner of Dawson Street and Nassau Street. Morrison is buried at Mount Jerome.
5 October 1936 – Three firemen, William Malone, Peter McArdle and Tom Nugent, lost their lives battling an inferno at the premises of Exide Batteries (Ireland) Ltd., Pearse Street, Dublin.
5 to 17 October 1992 – 33rd annual Dublin Theatre Festival.
6 October 1997 – An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, T.D., opened the new herbarium-library at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.
6 October 1969 – As part of the Dublin Theatre Festival the Abbey Theatre produced Sean O’Casey’s play Juno and the Paycock, starring Niall Buggy, Angela Newman, Dermot Kelly and Bernadette McKenna.
7 October 1930 – The last meeting of Pembroke Urban District Council was held.
8 October 1851 – The Royal Exchange (designed by Thomas Cooley) was transferred by indenture from the Corporation of Merchants or the Guild of the Holy Trinity and vested in the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin. It then became City Hall.
8 October 1863 – Death of Church of Ireland Diocese of Dublin Bishop Richard Whately.
8 October 1899 – Foundation stone of Parnell monument laid at Sackville Street by Daniel Tallon, Lord Mayor of Dublin. John Redmond was the instigator of the monument. He had identified the top of O’Connell Street as the site for the monument. Irish-American Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the foremost sculptor of public monuments in the U.S., accepted the commission, and he was assisted by architect Henry Bacon.
8 October 1939 – The corner stone of the new Corpus Christi Church, Home Farm Road, Glasnevin, was blessed and laid by Bishop Wall.
8 October 1968 – Republic’s first traffic wardens, 20 in number, start work in Dublin.
10 October 1711 – The first meeting of the Board of Linen Manufacture was held at Dublin Castle.
10 October 1770 – Lord Brabazon laid the foundation stone of the new Meath Hospital in the Coombe. In 1774 it became the County Dublin Infirmary.
11 October 1698 – Death of Dublin-born philosopher and patriot William Molyneux. He was born on 17 April 1656 at New Row, Dublin, and educated at T.C.D., and the Inner Temple, London. His most famous work is The case of Ireland being bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated (1698). He was M.P. for Dublin University. Molyneux’s remains were interred at St. Audoen’s churchyard, Cornmarket, Dublin.
11 October 1824 – A great north-north-east gale struck Dublin Bay, causing several ships to sink.
11 October 1866 – Alexandra College opened in Dublin to provide education for young ladies.
11 October 1891 – 100,000 attend the funeral of Parnell from Dublin City Hall to Glasnevin cemetery.
11 October 1897 – Fireman Henry Byrne ‘at great personal risk’ rescued John Leeson from drowning in the River Liffey. Byrne was awarded the Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal. On 7 November 1897 Byrne rescued a man from drowning in the Liffey – and was then awarded the Royal Humane Society Bronze Clasp.
11 October 1985 – Death of Christopher Stephen ‘Todd’ Andrews, revolutionary and public servant at his residence in Dundrum, Co. Dublin. He was born at Summerhill, Dublin, in 1901. In 1966 He was appointed chairman of the RTE Authority. His son David was a Fianna Fail T.D.
12 October 1704 – Foundation stone laid for the Dublin City Workhouse (later known as the Foundling Hospital) by Duchess of Ormonde.
12 October 1778 – The first regiment of Dublin Volunteers were formed under the command of the Duke of Leinster.
12 October 1896 – Dublin Corporation passed a motion to change the name of Love Lane to Donore Avenue, ‘to the mutual benefit and advantage of all parties’.
12 October 1908 – Dublin Corporation put forward a decision to change the name of Bonny’s Lane to St. Kevin’s Avenue, and was finally adopted in 1909.
12 October 1912 – Strike in Dublin docks.
12 October 1930 – Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Jellicoe, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., President of the British Legion, addressed a crowd estimated at several thousands including many Great War veterans at Dublin’s Mansion House.
12 October 1931 – The renovated and reconstructed Fourt Courts in Dublin were opened.
12 October 1970 – Death of Dublin-born sculptor and designer John A. Danford. He was born on 12 July 1913. He was educated in England. He was awarded MBE and OBE. He died at his residence Ballinacurra, Co. Cork.
13 October 1881 – Charles Stewart Parnell committed to Kilmainham Gaol, after his election as president of the Land League (released on 2 May 1882).
13 October 1890 – Grand procession in commemoration of the Father Matthew centenary – the top stone on his monument in Sackville Street was laid by Lord Mayor E.J. Kennedy.
13 October 1981 – Death of sculptor Oisin Kelly, whose works include the James Larkin memorial, O’Connell Street, Dublin.
14 October 1857 – A statue erected in memory of poet Thomas Moore was unveiled in College Street, Dublin.
14 October 1928 – The Gate Theatre, Dublin, opened at the Peacock Theatre and played there for several months until the building of the Gate Theatre is completed.
14 October 1930 – The first meeting of the newly-elected Dublin City Council. The chair was taken by the first City Manager, Gerald J. Sherlock who presided over the election of Senator Alfred Byrne as Lord Mayor of Dublin City. Byrne was re-elected each year until his last re-election as Lord Mayor on 27 June 1938. Byrne was also elected Lord Mayor on 28 June 1954.
14 – 22 October 1952 – Dublin’s first Tea Fair was opened at the Mansion House. A six-years-old elephant from Duffy’s Circus set off from Nelson’s Pillar laden with 400lbs. of tea and on arrival at the Mansion House 20 minutes later, the tea was handed over to Lord Mayor Senator Andrew Clarkin by the Dublin Tea Bureau, to be distributed among 16 Dublin charities. The Fair had been organised to encourage tea consumption after a prolonged period of rationing.
15 October 1683 – The first recorded meeting of the Dublin Philosophical Society took place.
16 October 1816 – The foundation stone of the Whitworth Bridge was laid by Earl Whitworth.
16 October 1854 – Birth of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, wit and dramatist, at 21 Westland Row, Dublin.
16 October 1881 – Rioting in Dublin, and other cities, on account of the arrest of John Dillon, M.P., and other Land Leaguers.
16 October 1936 – Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne, T.D. welcomed the German football team to the Mansion House.
16 October 1989 – The £18m. 200-room Conrad Hotel on Earlsfort Terrace is officially opened.
17 October 1882 – Formation of Irish National League at the Antient Concert Rooms, Dublin.
17 October 1936 – Ireland beat Germany 5 – 2 in the first-ever football game between the two countries. Some 30,000 attended the Dalymount Park game.
17 October 2000 – Opening of Noel Purcell Exhibition at Dublin Civic Museum, by Lord Mayor of Dublin City Alderman Maurice Ahern.
18 October 1805 – The foundation stone of the Smithfield Penitentiary laid.
18 October 1875 – The Annual Business Meeting of the Irish Association for Closing Public Houses on Sundays was held in the Mansion House, Dublin.
18 October 1958 – Timothy C. O’Mahony appointed City Manager and Town Clerk of Dublin, until 1965.
18 October 1973 – Eileen O’Casey unveiled a plaque to her playwright husband Sean at his birthplace, 85 Upper Dorset Street, Dublin.
19 October 1745 – Death of Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and political commentator and satirist.
19 October 1919 – Constable Michael Downing, DMP 11346, was shot and wounded at High Street, Dublin, and died at Mercer’s Hospital. He was buried at Adrigole, Co. Cork, on 22 October 1919. He was born in Adrigole in 1894 and had two years’ DMP service.
19 October 1953 – Official opening of central bus station Áras Mhic Diarmada, later better known as Busáras, Store Street, Dublin; architect, Michael Scott.
20 October 1837 – Death of Dublin-born landscape painter and engraver Henry Brocas Senior. He was born in 1762, and contributed to many Dublin periodicals. In 1801 he was appointed master of the landscape and ornament school of the RDS, a position he held until his death. His son Samuel Frederick Brocas was also a landscape painter.
20 October 1870 – Death of composer Michael William Balfe. He was born at 10 Pitt Street (now Balfe Street) on 15 May 1808. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. His most popular opera was The Bohemian Girl.
20 October 1899 – The first battle of the Boer War started at 2.30pm when the Royal Dublin Fusiliers clashed with Luke Meyer’s scouts at Smith’s Nek Pass, east of Dundee.
20 October 1972 – Death of Dublin-born designer and artist in metal Mia Cranwell. Owing to poor health she was educated at home. The last of ten years of her life were spent at Alexandra Guild House, Dublin, where she died.
21 October 1809 – Nelson’s Pillar was opened to the public for the first time, on the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
21 October 1978 – Death of Dublin-born portrait and landscape painter Ernest Columba Hayes, RHA. He was born on 26 October 1914. He studied under Sean Keating at the Dublin Metropolitan Schools of Art, 1931-34. He first exhibited at the RHA in 1932. In 1935 he became a member of the Dublin Sketching Club. By the early 1940s his studio was at 64 Dawson Street, Dublin. From 1956 to 1959 he lived in London. In 1965 he settled in Co. Wicklow.
21 October 1984 – Ireland’s first toll bridge for motorists, the £8m. East Link Bridge, opened in Dublin. The bridge was designed by McCarthy and Partners.
22 October 1856 – Banquet held in Stack A, Custom House Docks, Dublin, for the Irish regiments returned from the Crimean War.
22 October 1937 – Ringsend and Marino public libraries opened by Lord Mayor Alfred Byrne, T.D. Marino library was part of a new technical school complex designed by Robinson and Keefe, Architects, 8, Merrion Square, Dublin.
22 October 1999 – Death of Alice Dalgarno, born in 1916, she arrived in Dublin in 1939 to form the Royalettes. She died in a Lincolnshire hospital having suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for several years. After the Theatre Royal closed in 1962 she found work at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre.
23 October 1758 – Crow Street Theatre, built on the site of an old music hall, opened under Spranger Barry’s management.
23 October 1886 – Guinness brewery became a public limited company. £6m. of stocks and shares offered for subscription.
24 October 1707 – Dublin Ballast Office established (Act, 6 Anne, c.20) at the north-west corner of Westmoreland Street, Dublin. The building was demolished in 1979.
24 October 1733 – Incorporated Society in Dublin for Promoting English Protestant Schools established by Charter.
24 October 1775 – In an address to King George III some 3,000 freemen of Dublin urge a conciliatory policy towards the American colonists; they were assembled at the tholsel (City Hall), urge peace between Britain and American colonists.
24 October 1789 – The Royal Canal Company founded.
25 October 1808 – Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, Grand Canal Street opened.
25 October 1825 – The first stone of Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, Whitefriar Street, was laid by rev. Dr. Daniel Murray, Archbishop of Dublin. The church was opened in 1827. The architect was George Papworth. The remains of St. Valentine were presented to the Carmelite monastery by the Pope.
25 October 1889 – Tenants’ Defence Association launched at the Mansion House, Dublin, supported by Parnell.
25 October 1981 – The First Dublin City Marathon took place.
25 October 1987 – Death of Ivan Beshoff, founder of fish and chip shops in Dublin that bore his name. He was believed to be the last-surviving mutineer of the 1905 Potemkin mutiny.
26 October 1881 – The South City Market was opened by Lord Mayor George Moyers, LL.D., J.P.
26 October 1967 – Henry Moore’s bronze memorial to W.B. Yeats is unveiled at St. Stephen’s Green.
27 October 1915 – Dublin dockers on strike and all ships between Dublin and Liverpool stopped.
27 October 1947 – Death of William Fay (75), actor-producer, and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1904.
28 October 1862 – Death of Dublin-born landscape and subject painter Louis King Bradford. He was born in 1807, the son of George Bradford, cutler, of 8 Grafton Street. He was elected ARHA in 1855. He resided from 1828 to 1842 at 1 Fairview Avenue, where his mother kept a ladies’ school. He later resided at 4 Lower Fitzwilliam Street where he died.
28 October 1881 – Death of Dublin-born (1800) clergyman Tresham Dames Gregg at his home in Sandymount. He served as minister (1837-40) at Swift’s Alley Free Church in Dublin. In 1841 he established the Dublin Protestant Operative Association. He was active promoting continued union of church and state and toured, wrote, and lectured extensively. He was buried at Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin.
28 October 1928 – Shamrock Rovers beat Bray Unknowns 11 – 0 at Milltown, an Irish record.
28 October 1958 – Dublin City Council granted the Honorary Freedom of the City of Dublin to Most Rev. Dr. John F. Norton, Bishop of Bathurst, New South Wales. He was born in Lucan, educated in local schools and at the Christian Brothers, James’s Street. He entered All Hallows College, Drumcondra to prepare for the priesthood.
28 October 1986 – A fire destroyed the last Huguenot church in Dublin – St. Nicholas Without and St. Luke’s in the Coombe. It had been in constant use from 1714 to 1974.
29 October 1786 – Death of Dublin-born (1729) John Carpenter, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. He was buried at St. Michan’s Church, Dublin. Having studied at Lisbon, where he was ordained, he returned to Dublin to spend 15 years as an assistant at St. Mary’s Chapel, Liffey Street, Dublin. He was appointed archbishop of Dublin in 1770.
29 October 1824 – Publication of first issue of the Dublin Morning Register, founded by Michael Staunton.
29 October 1899 – Death of Dublin-born geologist Patrick Ganly. He worked in Griffith’s Boundaries Office and next in the Ordnance Survey Office. His massive geological map of Ireland was on display at the 1853 Dublin Industrial Exhibition. The second edition of 1855 is still valuable for geologists. He died at his residence, 52 Main Street, Donnybrook and he was buried in an unmarked grave in Glasnevin cemetery.
29 October 1987 – Death of Monk Gibbon, writer, at his Dalkey, Co. Dublin, home. He was buried at St. Nahi’s cemetery, Dundrum, Co. Dublin.
30 October 1751 - Birth in Dorset Street, Dublin, of playwright and Whig politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He was the long-term owner of the <a href="https://twitter.com/theatreroyaldl">@TheatreRoyalDL</a> and is also known for his plays such as The Rivals, and School for Scandal. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
30 October 1679 – The first recorded appointment of a Dublin City Surveyor – made at a meeting of the City Assembly, when John Greene received the office.
30 October 1824 – Death of Charles Robert Maturin, also known as C.R. Maturin (born September 25, 1782 in Dublin), Anglo-Irish Protestant clergyman (ordained by the Church of Ireland) and writer of gothic plays and novels. Descended from a Huguenot family, he attended Trinity College, Dublin. Although his early works were unsuccessful, his writing caught the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended Maturin's work to Lord Byron. Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire later expressed fondness for Maturin's work, particularly his most famous novel, Melmoth the Wanderer. Maturin married Henrietta Kingsbury, a sister of Sarah Kingsbury, whose daughter, Jane Wilde, was the mother of Oscar Wilde. Thus Charles Maturin was Oscar Wilde's great-uncle by marriage. Maturin died in Dublin.
30 October 1986 – The Lord Mayor of Dublin City Council Alderman Bertie Ahern, T.D., officially opened the Greater Dublin Drainage Scheme.
© Dublin City Council.