1685 in Ireland

Incumbent

• Monarch: Charles II, then James II

Events

• 6 February – James II becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland upon the death of Charles II.
• 1 October – Henry Hyde, 2nd [Earl of Clarendon], appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
• The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards is raised as a cavalry regiment of the British Army, the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers, by the regimenting of various independent troops, and ranked as the 6th Regiment of Horse.

Publications

• August? – the News-letter first published in Dublin.
• Rev. William Bedell's Old Testament translation into Irish, transcribed by Uilliam Ó Duinnín and revised by Rev. Narcissus Marsh with the aid of Jesuit scholars Andrew Sall and Paul Higgins and scientist Robert Boyle, is published posthumously in London in a new typeface designed by Sall and made by Joseph Moxon.
• Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh semi-mythical history of Ireland, Ogygia: seu Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia & etc., is published.
• Sir William Petty's Hiberniae Delineatio, the first printed atlas of Ireland is published.

Births

• 11 March – William Flower, 1st Baron Castle Durrow, politician.
• 12 March – Bishop George Berkeley, philosopher and writer.
• Samuel Haliday, Presbyterian minister.
• Henry Ponsonby, soldier and politician.
• approximate date
• *Henry Colley, politician.
• *Alexander Cosby, soldier in Nova Scotia.
• *Edward England, born Edward Seegar, pirate
• *Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe, Graf von Taaffe, soldier.

Deaths

• 17 March – Sir Richard Bulkeley, 1st Baronet, politician.
• 18 March – Francis Harold, Franciscan scholar.
• William Alington, 3rd Baron Alington, peer.
• John Eyre, Cromwellian settler and Mayor of Galway.