1849 in Ireland

Events from the year 1849 in Ireland.

Events

 * 30–31 March – Doolough Tragedy: at least 16 die when hundreds of the destitute and starving are forced to make a fatiguing journey on foot to receive outdoor relief in County Mayo.
 * 21 April – Great Famine: 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse have died over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high. This year's potato crop again fails and there are renewed outbreaks of cholera.
 * 12 July – Dolly's Brae conflict: Up to 1,400 armed Orangemen march from Rathfriland to Tollymore Park near Castlewellan, County Down. When 1000 armed Ribbonmen gather, shots are fired, Catholic homes are burnt and about eighty Catholics killed.
 * 16 July – Donaghadee to Portpatrick packet service withdrawn.
 * 2–12 August – visit of Queen Victoria to Cork, Dublin and Belfast, landing on 3 August at Cove, which is renamed Queenstown in her honour, and departing from Kingstown. She officially opens Queen's Bridge in Belfast.
 * 18 October – Great Southern and Western Railway opens to Cork.
 * Construction begins on the 18-arch Craigmore Viaduct near Newry, on the Dublin-Belfast railway line (opened in 1852).
 * George Boole appointed as first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork.
 * William Thompson begins publication (in London) of The Natural History of Ireland with the first volume on birds.

Births

 * 31 January – Robert James McMordie, solicitor, politician and Lord Mayor of Belfast (died 1914).
 * 12 February – John Edward Robinson, Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church (died 1922).
 * 18 May – John Clark, boxer (died 1922).
 * 9 July – Robert McCall, lawyer (died 1934).
 * 1 August – William Larminie, poet and folklorist (died 1900).
 * 16 August – James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington, businessman and philanthropist (died 1935).
 * 24 October – Nugent Everard, soldier, Seanad member (died 1929).
 * 19 November – James Mason, chess player and writer (died 1905).
 * 12 December – Peter F. Collier, publisher (died 1909 in the United States)
 * Charles James O'Donnell, colonial administrator and MP (died 1934).

Deaths

 * 21 January – Anthony Manahan, businessman and politician in Upper Canada (born 1794).
 * 26 January – Thomas Arbuthnot, British military officer (born 1776).
 * 7 March – Maurice FitzGerald, 18th Knight of Kerry, Whig politician (born 1774).
 * 27 March – Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford, MP, Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada and Governor General of British North America (born 1776).
 * 22 May – Maria Edgeworth, novelist (born 1767).
 * 28 May – Joseph Blake, 3rd Baron Wallscourt, socialist (born 1797).
 * 20 June – James Clarence Mangan, poet (born 1803) (cholera).
 * September – Daniel Robertson, architect and garden designer (born c. 1770 in British North America).
 * 27 December – James Fintan Lalor, revolutionary, journalist and writer (born 1807).