1862 in Ireland

Events

• 1 January – a formal partnership between Edward Harland and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff establishes the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff.
• 12 May – the Ulster Hall, a concert hall in Belfast, is opened.
• July – the Glasgow & Stranraer Steam Packet Company's enters service on the first Stranraer to Larne ferry service.
• 10 September – Eliza Lynch becomes de facto First Lady of Paraguay.
• 3 December – the Midland Great Western Railway extends from Longford to Sligo.
• ;Undated
• :*The Dublin Fire Brigade is established under the Dublin Corporation Fire Brigades Act.
• :*Publication of The Leadbeater Papers, containing the first edition of the Annals of Ballitore by Mary Leadbeater.

Arts and literature

• Julia Kavanagh publishes French Women of Letters.
• Charles Lever publishes the novel Barrington serially.

Births

• 2 April – Bryan Mahon, British Army general, Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and Senator.
• 27 May – John Edward Campbell, mathematician.
• 10 June – John de Robeck, admiral in the British Navy.
• 11 June – Violet Florence Martin, author.
• 14 June – John J. Glennon, Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis and Cardinal.
• 21 September – Sir Thomas Esmonde, 11th Baronet, peer, MP and Seanad member.
• 14 October – Samuel Cunningham, politician and Irish Privy Councillor.
• 6 November – Edward Bulfin, British general during World War I.
• 15 December – Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey, boxer.
• Gertrude Kelly, surgeon and radical activist in New York.

Deaths

• 6 April – Fitz James O'Brien, author.
• 21 May – John Drew, actor.
• 18 July – John George de la Poer Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh .
• 30 July – Eugene O'Curry, scholar.
• 30 November – James Sheridan Knowles, dramatist and actor.