1850 in Ireland

Events from the year 1850 in Ireland.

Events

Ongoing – Great Famine subsides.
31 March – the paddle steamer, bound from Cork to London, sinks in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.
October – Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in Dundrum, Dublin, the first secure hospital in Europe.
19 November – the barque Edmond sinks off Kilkee with the loss of 98 of the 216 aboard.
Improved navigation of River Shannon throughout from Killaloe to Lough Key is completed.
The Encumbered Estates Commissioners sell off remaining Donegall estate properties in Belfast to the tenants.
Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast is completed.

Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre's poem Cúirt An Mheán Oíche is first published from the oral tradition in an edition by the scholar John O'Daly.
Tara Brooch found near Laytown, County Meath.

27 February – Abd El Kader wins the Aintree Grand National in England, having been trained at Dardistown Castle by his owner, Joe Osborne.

10 January – William Reid Clanny, physician and inventor of the Clanny safety lamp for miners.
6 August – Windham Quin, 2nd Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, peer.
13 August – Martin Archer Shee, painter.
18 August – Charles Arbuthnot, Tory politician and member of the Privy Council.
10 October – Jon Riley, deserter from United States Army, a founder of the San Patricios.
29 December – William Hamilton Maxwell, novelist.

25 April – William Melville, police officer and first chief of the British Secret Service.
9 June – Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony, Nationalist politician, barrister and philanthropist.
24 June – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British Field Marshal and statesman.
17 July – Edmond Holmes, educationalist, writer on religion and poet.
12 September – James Bernard, 4th Earl of Bandon, Deputy Lieutenant in Ireland.
8 October – Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Nationalist politician, barrister and journalist.
22 December – Thomas O'Shaughnessy, lawyer and judge.
;Full date unknown
:*Thomas Lough, Liberal politician in Britain, Lord Lieutenant of Cavan.
:*Samuel Shumack, farmer and author in Australia.