A small nationalist group murders two senior…

A small nationalist group murders two senior politicians in the 1882 Phoenix Park Murders, heightening tensions already frayed by the ongoing Land War.

The newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish—who is married to Lucy Cavendish, the niece of Prime Minister Gladstone, and had worked as Gladstone's personal secretary —arrives in Ireland the day he is murdered.

He and Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Undersecretary, the most senior Irish civil servant, are attacked in Phoenix Park, Dublin, as they walk to the Viceregal Lodge, the "out of season" residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Thomas Myles, resident surgeon at the nearby Dr Steevens' Hospital, is summoned to render medical assistance to the victims.

The then Lord Lieutenant, Lord Spencer, described suddenly hearing screams, before witnessing a man running to the Lodge grounds shouting "Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke are killed."

Responsibility for the assassinations is claimed by a small hitherto unheard-of Republican organization called the Irish National Invincibles.