1906 in Ireland

Events

• 4 January – Irish Parliamentary Party member of parliament William O'Brien called on nationalists to extract the maximum concessions for Ireland from every British government.
• 16 May – Temperance reformers met with the Lord-Lieutenant to seek Sunday closing for all public houses, earlier closing on Saturdays, and a reduction of public house licences throughout the country.
• 6 June – The Iveagh Baths opened in Dublin.
• 1 August – The Catholic Hierarchy ruled out any scheme for mixed religious education at Trinity College Dublin.
• 7 August – Douglas Hyde was awarded the freedom of Dublin.
• 8 August – A Parisian court granted a separation to Maud Gonne and John MacBride; Gonne was given custody of their son, Seán MacBride.

Full date unknown

• September – St Eunan's College opened in Letterkenny.
• The Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast was completed, laying claim to being the first air conditioned building in the world.
• Work on the building of Belfast City Hall was completed.
• Alice Perry became the first woman to graduate with a degree in civil engineering in Ireland or Britain, at Queen's College, Galway, and was appointed in December as acting county surveyor for Galway.

Arts and literature

• 'Æ' published his poetry collection By Still Waters.
• Douglas Hyde edited and translated The Religious Songs of Connacht from Irish into English.
• Winifred Mary Letts' one-act play The Eyes of the Blind premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
• W. B. Yeats published his Poems, 1899–1905.
• Ella Young published her first book of verse, Poems.

Sport

Association football

• ;International
• : 17 February – Ireland 0–5 England Val Harris became the first Dubliner to play for Ireland.
• : 17 March – Ireland 0–1 Scotland
• : 2 April – Wales 4–4 Ireland
• ; Irish League
• : Winners: Cliftonville F.C. and Distillery F.C. The title was shared after two playoff matches ended in draws.
• ; Irish Cup
• : Winners: Shelbourne F.C. 2–0 Belfast Celtic. Shelbourne became the first Dublin club to win the Irish Cup.

Athletics

• 22 April–2 May: in the Intercalated Games in Athens, Peter O'Connor beat Con Leahy to win Gold in the hop, step and jump, and also took Silver in the long jump. At the ceremony to mark the latter event, O'Connor scaled a flagpole and hoisted an Erin Go Bragh flag in protest at being put on the British team.

Births

• 4 February – Letitia Dunbar-Harrison, librarian.
• 13 February – Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Irish language writer.
• 13 April – Samuel Beckett, Nobel Prize in Literature, playwright, novelist, and poet.
• 24 May – John Joseph Scanlan, second Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
• 1 July – Ivan Neill, major and Unionist politician.
• 19 July – Hugh T. Baker, cricketer.
• 11 August – James Graham, cricketer.
• 28 September – William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, peer and Labour party politician.
• 28 September – Lawrence Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse.
• 22 October – Charles Lynch, pianist.
• 10 December – Padraig Marrinan, artist.

Deaths

• 2 March – Ellen Mary Clerke, author, journalist, poet, and science writer.
• 30 May – Michael Davitt, republican, nationalist agrarian agitator, social campaigner, labour leader, and Irish National Land League founder.
• 7 July – John Drummond, early settler and explorer in Western Australia, first Inspector of Native Police there.
• 21 October – Edward James Saunderson, leader of the Irish Unionist Party in the British House of Commons.
• 10 November – John Richardson Wigham, lighting engineer.
• 27 November – Michael Cusack, founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association.