1538 in Ireland

Incumbent

• Lord: Henry VIII

Events

• Dissolution of the Monasteries: the following establishments are among those suppressed:
• * Timolin Priory.
• * Ferns Abbey.
• * Navan Abbey.
• * Priory of All Hallows, Dublin.
• July 11 – Galway is visited by Lord Deputy of Ireland, Leonard Grey. This is the first visit of a King's Deputy to the town, and marks the start of closer relations between the sometimes-beleaguered town and the Anglo-Irish administration in Dublin. He is lavishly entertained and stays for seven days.
• December – the Franciscan Friary at Cashel is rented to Edmund Butler, Archbishop of Cashel.
• Newry Abbey becomes a secular collegiate church.
• Church of Ireland Kilkenny College is founded as Kilkenny Grammar School by Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, and his wife, Margaret, to replace the School of the Vicars Choral.
• Ulick na gCeann Burke deposes his uncle Richard Bacach Burke as The Clanricarde and Chief of the Name.

Deaths

• Richard Bacach Burke, the Clanricarde and Chief of the Name.