1879 in Ireland

← 1878 1877 1876 1875 1874 1879 in Ireland → 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
See also:	1879 in the United Kingdom Other events of 1879 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1879 in Ireland.

Events

• 20 April - First of many "monster meetings" of tenant farmers held in Irishtown near Claremorris, County Mayo.
• 8 June - Charles Stewart Parnell at Westport, County Mayo meeting.^[1]
• 21 June - New Roman Catholic Thurles Cathedral consecrated.
• 16 August - Land League of Mayo founded at Castlebar.^[1]
• 21 August - Claimed apparition at Knock, County Mayo, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist and Jesus Christ (as the Lamb of God).
• 21 October - Irish National Land League founded at Dublin.^[1]

Full date unknown

• Repeal of Convention Act of 1793.^[1]
• Start of the Land War.^[1]
• The Royal Dublin Society acquires its current premises at Ballsbridge (15 acres (61,000 m²) compared to forty acres (60,000 to 160,000 m²) currently).
• The Royal University of Ireland Act allows women to take university degrees on the same basis as men.^[2]
• The Religious Sisters of Charity open Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross, Dublin.^[3]

Arts and literature

• Charles Kickham's novel Knocknagow, or The Homes of Tipperary is published.

Sport

• The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is founded, being an amalgamation of the Irish Football Union and the Northern Football Union of Ireland.

Births

January to June

• 16 February - Hubert de Burgh, cricketer and naval officer (died 1960).
• 20 March - Terence MacSwiney, playwright and poet, member of 1st Dáil, Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork (died on 74th day of hunger strike, 1920).
• 9 April - William Meldon, cricketer (died 1957 in England).
• 20 April - Robert Wilson Lynd, journalist and nationalist (died 1949 in England).
• 1 June - Freeman Wills Crofts, detective novelist and railway engineer (died 1957 in England).

July to December

• 11 July - Hugh Kennedy, only Attorney-General of Southern Ireland, first Attorney-General of the Irish Free State and first Chief Justice of the Irish Free State (died 1936).
• 15 July
  • Margaret Buckley, president of Sinn Féin from 1937 to 1950 (died 1962).
  • Joseph Campbell, poet and lyricist (died 1944).
  • James Crichton, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1918 at Crèvecœur, France (died 1961).
• 17 July - Seamus O'Sullivan, poet and editor (died 1958).
• 3 August - Mary Devenport O'Neill, poet and dramatist (died 1967).
• 23 September - E. Temple Thurston, poet, playwright and author (died 1933).
• 15 October - Sara Allgood, actress (died 1950 in the United States).
• 10 November - Patrick Pearse, teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, executed (died 1916).
• 4 December - Hamilton Harty, conductor and composer (died 1941).
• 7 December - Austin Stack, Sinn Féin MP and TD, member of 1st Dáil (died 1929).

Full date unknown

• Elizabeth Cronin, traditional singer (died 1956).
• Patrick Keohane, navy officer, member of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition (died 1950).
• Sam Maguire, Irish Republican and Gaelic footballer (died 1927).
• Jack White, soldier, trade unionist, one of the co-founders of the Irish Citizen Army (died 1946).

Deaths

• 22 January - Nevill Coghill, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the Battle of Isandhlwana, South Africa (born 1852).
• 28 January - Hugh McNeile, Anglican churchman (born 1795).
• 19 April - Francis Kelly, surveyor, business agent, farmer, and politician in Canada (born 1803).
• 5 May - Isaac Butt, Irish Conservative Party MP and founder of the Home Rule League (born 1818).
• 17 May - John McClintock, 1st Baron Rathdonnell, politician and Lord Lieutenant of County Louth 1866–1879. (born 1798).
• 9 June - Edward Butler, lawyer and politician in Australia (died 1823).
• 10 July - John Byrne, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1854 at the Battle of Inkerman, Crimea (born 1832).
• 3 September - Walter Richard Pollock Hamilton, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1879 at Futtehabad, Afghanistan (born 1856).
• 15 September - Thomas Roberts Ferguson, businessman and politician in Ontario (born 1818).
• 24 September - John Holmes, surveyor and politician in Ontario (born 1828).
• 6 November - Dennis Mahony, one of the founders of the Dubuque Herald (now the Telegraph Herald), a newspaper in Dubuque, Iowa (born 1821).

Full date unknown

• John Pitt Kennedy, British military engineer, agricultural reformer and civil servant (born 1796).

References