1879 in Ireland

Events

• Second year of the Irish Famine which has its greatest impact in the "wet" West of Ireland where the potato harvest is greatly reduced, and the peat and cereal crops are too wet to harvest.
• 20 April – first of many "monster meetings" of tenant farmers held in Irishtown near Claremorris, County Mayo, marking the start of the Land War.
• 8 June – Charles Stewart Parnell at Westport, County Mayo meeting.
• 21 June – new Roman Catholic Thurles Cathedral consecrated.
• 16 August – Land League of Mayo founded at Castlebar.
• 21 August – claimed apparition at Knock, County Mayo, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist and Jesus Christ.
• 21 October – Irish National Land League founded at Dublin.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Repeal of Convention Act 1793.
• :*The Royal [Dublin Society] acquires its modern-day premises at Ballsbridge.
• :*The Royal University of Ireland Act allows women to take university degrees on the same basis as men.
• :*The Religious Sisters of Charity open Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross, Dublin.
• :*The Star of Erin Music Hall is established on Crampton Court, Dublin.

Arts and literature

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

Sport

• The Irish Rugby Football Union is founded, being an amalgamation of the Irish Football Union and the Northern Football Union of Ireland.
• 20 September – Cliftonville F.C. is founded in Belfast.

Births

• 16 February – Hubert de Burgh, cricketer and naval officer.
• 20 March – Terence MacSwiney, playwright and poet, member of 1st Dáil, Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork.
• 9 April – William Meldon, cricketer.
• 20 April – Robert Wilson Lynd, journalist and nationalist.
• 22 May – Jack White, soldier, trade unionist, one of the co-founders of the Irish Citizen Army.
• 30 May – Elizabeth Cronin, traditional singer.
• 1 June – Freeman Wills Crofts, detective novelist and railway engineer.
• 2 June – Patrick Keohane, navy officer, member of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition.
• 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.
• 15 July
• *Margaret Buckley, president of Sinn Féin from 1937 to 1950.
• *Joseph Campbell, poet and lyricist.
• *James Crichton, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1918 at Crèvecœur, France.
• 17 July – Seumas O'Sullivan, poet and editor.
• 3 August – Mary Devenport O'Neill, poet and dramatist.
• 20 August – Tom Barry, hurler .
• 8 September – Hugo Flinn, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 23 September – E. Temple Thurston, poet, playwright and author.
• 15 October – Sara Allgood, actress.
• 10 November – Patrick Pearse, teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, executed.
• 4 December – Hamilton Harty, conductor and composer.
• 7 December – Austin Stack, Sinn Féin MP and TD, member of 1st Dáil.
• 11 December – Caitlín Brugha, née Kathleen Kingston, Sinn Féin TD.
• Full date unknown – Sir Samuel Kelly, coal merchant, businessperson and philanthropist, founder of John Kelly Limited.

Deaths

• 22 January – Nevill Coghill, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the Battle of Isandhlwana, South Africa.
• 28 January – Hugh McNeile, Anglican churchman.
• 19 April – Francis Kelly, surveyor, business agent, farmer, and politician in Canada.
• 5 May – Isaac Butt, Irish Conservative Party MP and founder of the Home Rule League.
• 17 May – John McClintock, 1st Baron Rathdonnell, politician and Lord Lieutenant of County Louth 1866–1879.
• 9 June – Edward Butler, lawyer and politician in Australia.
• 28 June – John Pitt Kennedy, British military engineer, agricultural reformer and civil servant.
• 10 July – John Byrne, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1854 at the Battle of Inkerman, Crimea.
• 3 September – Walter Hamilton, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1879 at Futtehabad, Afghanistan.
• 15 September – Thomas Roberts Ferguson, businessman and politician in Ontario.
• 24 September – John Holmes, surveyor and politician in Ontario.
• 29 September – Edmund Falconer, actor-manager and dramatist.
• 6 November – Dennis Mahony, a founder of the Herald newspaper in Dubuque, Iowa.