1886 in Ireland

Events

• January – Ulster Protestant Unionists begin to lobby against the Irish [Home Rule Bill 1886|Irish Home Rule Bill], establishing the Ulster Loyal Anti-Repeal Union in Belfast.
• 30 January – SS Fulmar sinks off Kilkee with the loss of all 17 aboard.
• 29 March – Breed standard for Irish Setter agreed.
• March – Prime Minister William Gladstone announces his support for Irish Home Rule.
• 8 April – Gladstone introduces the Irish Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons. During the debates on the Bill
• * Financial Secretary to the Treasury H.H. Fowler states his support for the Bill which in his words would bring about a "real Union—not an act of Parliament Union—but a moral Union, a Union of heart and soul between two Sister Nations".
• * Lord Randolph Churchill voices his opposition with the slogan "Ulster will fight, Ulster will be right".
• 8 June – the First Home Rule Bill fails to pass the British Parliament on a vote of 343–313.
• June – Protestants celebrate the defeat of the Home Rule Bill, leading to renewed rioting on the streets of Belfast and the deaths of seven people, with many more injured.
• 12 June – in a statement to Parliament, Gladstone calls for a general election and, with the dissolution of Parliament, an official election is held the next month.
• 12 July - mid-September: Belfast riots begin with the Orange Institution parades and continue sporadically throughout the summer; clashes take place between Catholics and Protestants, and also between Loyalists and police. Thirteen people are killed in a weekend of serious rioting, with an official death toll of 31 people over the period.
• October – the first tenant farmers are evicted during the first year of the Plan of Campaign.
• 15 October – the begins a 5-month period on display at the North Wall Quay, Dublin.
• 30 November – Maud Gonne's father dies leaving her a substantial inheritance ensuring her financial independence.
• St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin is officially elevated to Pro-cathedral status.
• Eason & Son, booksellers and stationers, established in Dublin.
• The 1886 Tramways Act allows the Board of Works to grant loans to railway companies including £54,400 to the West Clare Railway one of the first railways to be built in western Ireland.
• Charles Cunningham Boycott, who supposedly gave rise to the eponymous word, leaves his land agent's post in Ireland.
• J. M. Synge joins the Dublin Naturalist's Field Club.

Arts and literature

• 17 January – the Anglo-Irish writers cousins Somerville and Ross first meet, at Castletownshend.
• December – W. B. Yeats poem The Stolen Child is published.
• Yeats's verse play Mosada
• Edward Dowden's The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley is published.
• George Moore's Confessions of a Young Man and A Drama in Muslin are published.
• Emily Lawless's Hurrish is published.
• T. P. O'Connor's The Parnell Movement is published.
• Dublin University professor G.T. Stokes' Ireland and the Celtic Church is published.
• Rev. J. A. Wylie's History of the Scottish Nation, a valuable resource of Celtic Ireland, begins publication.
• Dublin Lodge of the Theosophical Society is founded.

Sport

Athletics

• December – the Dublin University Harriers Club is founded in an effort to promote cross country running.

Chess

• March 18 – the Irish Chess Association is invited to a match against the Belfast Chess Club in an advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter and Northern Whig.
• September 20 – October 1: the Irish Chess Association holds a national tournament, consisting of an even and handicap tournament, as Richard Barnett defeats British Chessmasters John Blackburne and Amos Burn filling the vacancy by former champion Porterfield Rynd.

Football

• March – Linfield F.C. is formed in Belfast.
• ;International
• :27 February Wales 5–0 Ireland
• :12 March Ireland 1–6 England
• :20 March Ireland 2–7 Scotland
• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Distillery F.C.|Distillery] 1–0 Limavady Alexander

Gaelic Games

• The first Gaelic Athletic Association match in the United States is held between Kerry and Galway in Boston, Massachusetts.

Polo

• Polo player John Watson wins the Irish Dublin Cup.
• The British polo team, including two players from the All Ireland Polo Club, win the American International Polo Cup.

Births

• 9 February – Edwin Maxwell, actor.
• 21 March – Oscar Traynor, Fianna Fáil politician.
• 25 March – Jack McAuliffe, boxer.
• 3 April – David Nelson, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 at Néry, France.
• 14 April – Jack Beattie, politician and trade unionist.
• 4 May – George Ivatt, railway locomotive designer
• 10 May – Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, TD, Cabinet Minister and leader of Fine Gael.
• 5 June – Alexander McCabe, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, Cumann na nGaedheal TD.
• 24 June – George Shiels, dramatist.
• 13 July – Edward J. Flanagan, popularly known as Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town in Nebraska.
• 28 August – Pat Hone, cricketer.
• 4 September – Alice Milligan, nationalist poet and author.
• 4 October – Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer.
• 10 October – Louis Meldon, cricketer.
• 15 November – Séamus Dwyer, Sinn Féin politician.
• 25 November – Frank MacDermot, barrister, soldier, banker and politician.
• 8 December – James Geoghegan, Fianna Fáil TD, Minister for Justice, Attorney General of Ireland and judge of the Supreme Court.
• 12 December – Owen Moore, actor.
• Full date unknown – W. F. McCoy, Unionist Party|Ulster Unionist] member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Deaths

• 25 February – Lady Katherine Sophia Kane, botanist.
• 12 March – Trevor Chute, British Army officer.
• 28 March – Richard Chenevix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland).
• 16 April – Andrew Nicholl, painter.
• 4 May – James Muspratt, chemical manufacturer in Britain.
• 11 June – James Alipius Goold, Roman Catholic Bishop and Archbishop of Melbourne.
• 11 June – Thomas Francis Hendricken, first Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island.
• 27 July – Eliza Lynch, former First Lady of Paraguay.
• 9 August – Samuel Ferguson, poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant.
• 10 October – Joseph M. Scriven, poet and philanthropist.
• 10 December – Abraham Dowdney, United States Representative from New York and officer in the Union army in the American Civil War.
• 19 December – Robert Spencer Dyer Lyons, physician and politician.
• 30 December – George Fletcher Moore, explorer and writer.