1889 in Ireland

← 1888 1887 1886 1885 1884 1889 in Ireland → 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	1889 in the United Kingdom Other events of 1889 List of years in Ireland

Events

• June — Edward Carson becomes the youngest QC in Ireland (aged 35).
• 12 June — The Armagh rail disaster occurs near Armagh: runaway carriages from a Sunday school excursion collide with an oncoming train, killing 80, the worst railway accident in Ireland ever.
• 16 July — Ballymena and Larne Railway taken over by Belfast and Northern Counties Railway.
• 1 November — Portrush life-boat The Robert and Agnes Blair, going to the aid of the schooner Dryad, capsizes off the coast at Portballintrae with the loss of three of her thirteen crew.
• 24 December — Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell is accused of adultery after Captain Willy O'Shea files for divorce on the grounds his wife Kitty O'Shea had an affair with Parnell. The scandal will later result in the dismissal of Parnell as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
• A religious group of the Order of Carmelites leave Dublin for the United States at the invitation of the New York Archbishop later establishing the Provence of St. Elias.
• The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is founded.
• The Land League builds a house for recently evicted tenant Tom Kelly in Kiltimagh, County Mayo.
• Poet William Butler Yeats is introduced by John O'Leary to Irish nationalist Maude Gonne.
• Union leader James Connolly is married to Lillie Reynolds in Dublin. Connolly later deserts the British Army and flees to Perth, Scotland.
• Industrialist Horace Plunkett returns to Ireland after his father's death.
• The Tropical Ravine House in Belfast Botanic Gardens is built by head gardener Charles McKimm.
• Foundation stone laid for the Albert Bridge, Belfast, by Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor.
• The Cork County Southern Star weekly newspaper is established in Skibbereen, incorporating The Skibbereen Eagle (1857).

Arts and literature

• Percy French writes the comic song Slattery's Mounted Foot.
• John Thomas Gilbert's Calendar of Ancient Records of the Corporation of Dublin is published.
• Arthur Graves writes the lyrics of Father O'Flynn.
• Douglas Hyde publishes Beside the Fire.
• George Moore publishes Mike Fletcher.
• Standish James O'Grady publishes Red Hugh's Captivity.
• Whitworth Porter publishes History of the Corps of Royal Engineers.
• Amye Reade's Ruby is published.
• Dr. G. T. Stokes publishes Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church.
• Oscar Wilde publishes his dialogue The Decay of Lying and story The Portrait of Mr. W. H..
• W. B. Yeats publishes The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (including Down by the Salley Gardens) and Crossways.

Sport

Boxing

• July 8 — The last official bare-knuckle title fight ever held as Irish American Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout lasting 75 rounds in Mississippi.

Football

• International

2 March England 6 — 0 Ireland (in Liverpool)

9 March Scotland 7 — 0 Ireland (in Glasgow)

27 April Ireland 1 — 3 Wales (in Belfast)

• Irish Cup

Winners: Distillery 5 — 4 YMCA

• Glenavon F.C. was founded in Lurgan, County Armagh.

Gaelic Games

• The first GAA Armagh Championship is held.
• The hierarchy of the Catholic Church, including Archbishop Logue, condemn the GAA for its violence and demoralising influences as well as charging the association as a recruiting ground of radical nationalist organizations.
• March 24 — The first Cavan Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) convention is held in Armagh.
• September 8 — The Cavan Gaelic Athletic Association holds a football game between Killinkere and Crosserlough. The game is reported by the The Anglo-Celt as "..More like a contest between 42 dangerous and ferocious wire haired lunatics than any competition."

Golf

• The Royal County Down Golf Club is founded in Newcastle, County Down.
• The Royal Dublin Golf Club moves from Sutton to its present home on Bull Island.
• Golf is first played at the Dooks Golf Club in Killorglin, County Kerry, and at the Portstewart Golf Club.

Births

January to June

• 1 January — Patrick McGill, in Glenties, writer.
• 10 January — Maurice Collis, colonial administrator and writer (died 1973).
• 2 February — Dorothy Macardle, author and historian (died 1958).
• 8 March — Ina Boyle, composer.
• 17 March — Harry Clarke, stained glass artist and book illustrator (died 1931).
• 17 March — Fionán Lynch, Sinn Féin MP and TD, member of 1st Dáil, Cabinet Minister, Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael TD (died 1966).
• 12 April — Patrick McGilligan — Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister (died 1979).
• 13 April — Ernest Blythe, writer, journalist and theatre manager, member of 1st Dáil and Cabinet Minister (born 1975).
• 7 June — Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary (died 1980).
• June — James Sleator, painter (died 1950).

July to December

• 19 July — John Vincent Holland, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1916 at Guillemont, France (died 1975).
• 22 August — Seán MacEntee, Fianna Fáil TD and Tánaiste from 1959 to 1965 (died 1984).
• 17 November — James Duffy, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Kereina Peak, Palestine (died 1969).
• 20 November — Donn Byrne, writer.
• 1 December — Michael Hayes, Pro-Treaty TD, Cabinet Minister, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann member (died 1976).
• 24 December — Patrick MacGill, journalist, poet and novelist (died 1963).

Full date unknown

• Seán Keating, painter (died 1977).
• James Macauley, former soccer player.
• Sean Moylan, Sinn Féin leader, Fianna Fáil TD, member of 9th Seanad.
• Séamus Ó Grianna, writer (died 1969).
• Michael Riordan, San Francisco Police Department Chief (died 1967).
• Helen Waddell, poet, translator and playwright (died 1965).

Deaths

• 9 February — Peter Lalor, leader of the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Australia (born 1827).
• 29 February — Richard Pigott, newspaper editor.
• 16 March — Hans Crocker, lawyer and Wisconsin politician (born 1815).
• 13 April — Thomas Lane, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1860 at the Taku Forts, China (born 1836).
• 10 May — Edward Jennings, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Lucknow, India (b. c.1820).
• 8 June — Gerard Manley Hopkins, English Jesuit poet and scholar (born 1844).
• 19 July — Patrick Green, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Delhi, India (born 1824).
• 6 October — Hans Garrett Moore, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1877 at Komgha, South Africa (born 1830).
• 21 October — John Ball, politician, naturalist and Alpine traveller (born 1818).
• 18 November — William Allingham, poet.
• 7 December — John Tuigg, third Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (born 1828).

Full date unknown

• William Barber, businessman and politician in Ontario.
• Michael Joseph Barry, poet.
• Arthur Gerald Geoghegan, poet.
• Dr. Henry Hudson, magazine editor.
• Charles Lanyon, architect (born 1813).
• Edmund O'Rourke, dramatist.