1886 in Ireland

Events from the year 1886 in Ireland.

Events

 * January – Ulster Protestant Unionists begin to lobby against the Irish Home Rule Bill, establishing the Ulster Loyal Anti-Repeal Union in Belfast.
 * 30 January – SS Fulmar sinks off Kilkee with the loss of all 17 aboard.
 * 29 March – Breed standard for Irish Setter agreed.
 * March – Prime Minister William Gladstone announces his support for Irish Home Rule.
 * 8 April – Gladstone introduces the Irish Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons. During the debates on the Bill
 * Financial Secretary to the Treasury H.H. Fowler states his support for the Bill which in his words would bring about a "real Union—not an act of Parliament Union—but a moral Union, a Union of heart and soul between two Sister Nations".
 * Lord Randolph Churchill voices his opposition with the slogan "Ulster will fight, Ulster will be right".
 * 8 June – the First Home Rule Bill fails to pass the British Parliament on a vote of 343–313.
 * June – Protestants celebrate the defeat of the Home Rule Bill, leading to renewed rioting on the streets of Belfast and the deaths of seven people, with many more injured.
 * 12 June – in a statement to Parliament, Gladstone calls for a general election and, with the dissolution of Parliament, an official election is held the next month.
 * 12 July – mid-September: Belfast riots begin with the Orange Institution parades and continue sporadically throughout the summer; clashes take place between Catholics and Protestants, and also between Loyalists and police. Thirteen people are killed in a weekend of serious rioting, with an official death toll of 31 people over the period.
 * October – the first tenant farmers are evicted during the first year of the Plan of Campaign.
 * 15 October – the SS Great Eastern begins a 5-month period on display at the North Wall Quay, Dublin.
 * 30 November – Maud Gonne's father dies leaving her a substantial inheritance ensuring her financial independence.
 * St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin is officially elevated to Pro-cathedral status.
 * Eason & Son, booksellers and stationers, established in Dublin.
 * The 1886 Tramways Act allows the Board of Works to grant loans to railway companies including £54,400 to the West Clare Railway one of the first railways to be built in western Ireland.
 * Charles Cunningham Boycott, who supposedly gave rise to the eponymous word, leaves his land agent's post in Ireland.
 * J. M. Synge joins the Dublin Naturalist's Field Club.

Arts and literature

 * 17 January – the Anglo-Irish writers cousins Somerville and Ross first meet, at Castletownshend.
 * December – W. B. Yeats poem The Stolen Child is published.
 * Yeats's verse play Mosada
 * Edward Dowden's The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley is published.
 * George Moore's Confessions of a Young Man and A Drama in Muslin are published.
 * Emily Lawless's Hurrish is published.
 * T. P. O'Connor's The Parnell Movement is published.
 * Dublin University professor G.T. Stokes' Ireland and the Celtic Church is published.
 * Rev. J. A. Wylie's History of the Scottish Nation, a valuable resource of Celtic Ireland, begins publication.
 * Dublin Lodge of the Theosophical Society is founded.

Athletics

 * December – the Dublin University Harriers Club is founded in an effort to promote cross country running.

Chess

 * March 18 – the Irish Chess Association is invited to a match against the Belfast Chess Club in an advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter and Northern Whig.
 * September 20 – October 1: the Irish Chess Association holds a national tournament, consisting of an even and handicap tournament, as Richard Barnett (although W.K. Pollock gained a full score) defeats British Chessmasters John Blackburne and Amos Burn filling the vacancy by former champion Porterfield Rynd.

Football

 * March – Linfield F.C. is formed in Belfast.
 * International
 * 27 February Wales 5–0 Ireland (in Wrexham)
 * 12 March Ireland 1–6 England (in Belfast)
 * 20 March Ireland 2–7 Scotland (in Belfast)


 * Irish Cup
 * Winners: Distillery 1–0 Limavady Alexander

Gaelic Games

 * The first Gaelic Athletic Association match in the United States is held between Kerry and Galway in Boston, Massachusetts.

Polo

 * Polo player John Watson wins the Irish Dublin Cup.
 * The British polo team, including two players from the All Ireland Polo Club, win the American International Polo Cup.

Births

 * 9 February – Edwin Maxwell, actor (died 1948).
 * 21 March – Oscar Traynor, Fianna Fáil politician (died 1963).
 * 25 March – Jack McAuliffe, boxer (died 1937).
 * 3 April – David Nelson, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 at Néry, France (died 1918).
 * 14 April – Jack Beattie, politician and trade unionist (died 1960).
 * 4 May – George Ivatt, railway locomotive designer (died 1976)
 * 10 May – Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, TD, Cabinet Minister and leader of Fine Gael (died 1971).
 * 5 June – Alexander McCabe, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, Cumann na nGaedheal TD (died 1972).
 * 24 June – George Shiels, dramatist (died 1949).
 * 13 July – Edward J. Flanagan, popularly known as Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town in Nebraska (died 1948).
 * 28 August – Pat Hone, cricketer (died 1976).
 * 4 September – Alice Milligan, nationalist poet and author (died 1953).
 * 4 October – Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (died 1958).
 * 10 October – Louis Meldon, cricketer (died 1956).
 * 15 November – Séamus Dwyer, Sinn Féin politician (shot 1922).
 * 25 November – Frank MacDermot, barrister, soldier, banker and politician (died 1975).
 * 8 December – James Geoghegan, Fianna Fáil TD, Minister for Justice, Attorney General of Ireland and Justice of the Supreme Court (died 1951).
 * 12 December – Owen Moore, actor (died 1939).
 * Full date unknown – W. F. McCoy, Ulster Unionist member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (died 1976).

Deaths

 * 25 February – Lady Katherine Sophia Kane, botanist (born 1811).
 * 12 March – Trevor Chute, British Army officer (born 1816).
 * 28 March – Richard Chenevix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland) (born 1807).
 * 16 April – Andrew Nicholl, painter (born 1804).
 * 4 May – James Muspratt, chemical manufacturer in Britain (born 1793).
 * 11 June – James Alipius Goold, Roman Catholic Bishop and Archbishop of Melbourne (born 1812).
 * 11 June – Thomas Francis Hendricken, first Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island (born 1827).
 * 27 July – Eliza Lynch, former First Lady of Paraguay (born 1835).
 * 9 August – Samuel Ferguson, poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant (born 1810).
 * 10 October – Joseph M. Scriven, poet and philanthropist (born 1820).
 * 10 December – Abraham Dowdney, United States Representative from New York and officer in the Union army in the American Civil War (born 1841).
 * 19 December – Robert Spencer Dyer Lyons, physician and politician (born 1826).
 * 30 December – George Fletcher Moore, explorer and writer (born 1798).