The Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Company's well-received revival of 19th century playwright Dion Boucicault's 1874 melodrama, The Shaughraun , has exended its run to Jan. 24, 1999. The show, which began previews Oct. 30 and opened Nov. 12, had unofficially been scheduled to end Jan. 3, 1999.

Boucicault's London Assurance was recently given a well-received staging at the Roundabout Theatre Company, starring Brian Bedford. The Shaughraun (loosely translated as "The Vagabond") was written some 34 years after Assurance and was Boucicault's last success. He died in 1890.

The play, set during the Irish Fenian Uprising in 1866, concerns a ne'er do well Irishman, who brings mischief and mirth everywhere he travels, and a English solider who falls in love with an Irish woman.

The cast is full of such Irish Rep regulars as Patrick Fitzgerald and Daniel Gerroll (both in the Rep's The Importance of Being Earnest). Other cast members include Jimmy Cunningham, Terry Donnelly, Lucinda Faraldo, Jason Killalee, Paul McGrane, Marion Thomas Griffin, Ciaran O'Reilly (The Irish, And How They Got That Way ), Amy Redmond, Peter Rogan, Geddeth Smith and Fiona Walsh. Irish Rep artistic director Charlotte Moore directs.

Irish Rep is located in Chelsea at 132 W. 22nd St. For ticket information, call (212) 727-2737. -- By Robert Simonson and Sean McGrath and David Lefkowitz