October 15
Published in On this Day listing- 1171 King Henry II landed in Waterford with 4,000 troops in a mission to underscore his authority and add Ireland to his extensive Anglo-French empire.
- 1919 A government proclamation outlawed Sinn Féin, the IRA, etc. Sinn Féin still held its Ard-Fheis, from midnight to 3am.
- 1968 Nationalist MPs withdrew from Stormont and thereby ceased to be the official opposition in the Northern Ireland parliament.
- 1922 Army Emergency Powers came into effect, empowering military courts to impose the death penalty; 77 Republicans were executed in the Free State between 17 November 1922 and 2 May 1923.
- 1710 Richard Steevens, a physician who left his fortune to establish Dr Steevens’s Hospital (1733), Dublin’s first public hospital, died.
- 1917 Margaretha MacLeod (41), Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan, better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was executed by firing squad in France after being convicted of spying for Germany.
- 1914 Anthony Traill, Ulster unionist, sportsman, chairman of the world’s first electric tramway (Portrush to Bushmills, Co. Antrim, 1883–1947) and provost of Trinity College since 1904, died.
- 1922 Army Emergency Powers came into effect, empowering military courts to impose the death penalty. The first executions of Republicans were carried out the following month.
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