1886 in Ireland

Events from the year 1886 in Ireland.

Events

January – Ulster Protestant Unionists begin to lobby against the 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 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, 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.