1909 in Ireland

Events

• 31 October – The Royal University of Ireland was dissolved.
• 14 December – Ernest Shackleton delivered a lecture entitled Nearest the South Pole in the large hall of the National University in Dublin.
• 31 December – Harry Ferguson became the first person to fly an aircraft in Ireland, in a monoplane he designed and built himself.
• The Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast was officially recognised as a university teaching hospital.
• Fieldwork for the multidisciplinary Clare Island Survey commenced under the direction of Robert Lloyd Praeger.

Arts and literature

• 1 April – Lennox Robinson's first play, The Cross Roads, was performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; he became the theatre manager later in the year.
• 22 July – Widowed Irish painter John Lavery married Irish American painter Hazel Martyn.
• 20 August – The tenor Enrico Caruso performed at the Theatre Royal in Dublin.
• 20 December – The first dedicated cinema in Ireland, the Volta Cinematograph, opened in Dublin under the management of writer James Joyce.
• Herbert Hughes' collection of folk songs, Irish Country Songs, was published, including "She Moved Through the Fair" with words largely composed by Padraic Colum.
• Ella Young's first work of Irish folklore, The Coming of Lugh, was published.

Sport

Association football

• ;International
• * 13 February – England 4–0 Ireland
• * 15 March – Scotland 5–0 Ireland
• * 20 March – Ireland 2–3 Wales
• ;Irish League
• :Winners: Linfield F.C.
• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Cliftonville F.C. 0–0 draw; replay result 2-1 Bohemian F.C.

Births

• 9 January – Patrick Peyton, priest who promoted the Rosary.
• 16 January – Muriel Brandt, painter.
• 30 January – George Crothers, cricketer.
• 1 February – Timothy McAuliffe, Labour Party politician.
• 8 March – Francis MacManus, novelist.
• 3 April – Knox Cunningham, barrister, businessman and Ulster Unionist politician.
• 19 April – Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, cryptanalyst, chess player and chess writer.
• 24 April –
• * Robert Farren, poet.
• * David Beers Quinn, historian.
• 30 April – F. E. McWilliam, sculptor.
• 4 June – Robert Dudley Edwards, historian.
• 7 July – Cecilia Thackaberry, Presentation Sisters nun, killed in Nigeria performing relief work.
• 24 July – Geoffrey Bing, lawyer and Labour politician in UK.
• 31 July – Martin White, Kilkenny hurler.
• 1 August – W. R. Rodgers, writer, broadcaster, teacher and Presbyterian minister.
• 4 October – Paddy Moore, association football player.
• 7 October – Michael O'Neill, nationalist politician and Member of Parliament .
• 25 August – Gabriel Hayes, sculptor, designer of Irish coins.
• 20 October – James Patrick Scully, awarded George Cross for valour in 1941 in Liverpool in rescuing people from a bomb damaged building.
• 28 October – Francis Bacon, painter.
• 4 November – Sir Basil Goulding, 3rd Baronet, cricketer, squash player and art collector.
• 29 November – James Auchmuty, historian.
• 6 December – Daniel A. McGovern, U.S. Army Air Forces photographer, documented atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• ;Full date unknown
• * Jack Stanley Gibson, surgeon and writer.
• * W. R. Rodgers, poet and writer.

Deaths

• 10 January – John Conness, United States Senator from California 1863–1869.
• 4 February – James Lynam Molloy, poet, songwriter, and composer.
• 3 March – Bishop Richard Owens, Bishop of Clogher 1894–1909.
• 19 March – Charles Guilfoyle Doran, Clerk of Works at St Colman's Cathedral, Cobh.
• 24 March – William Lundon, Irish Parliamentary Party MP.
• 24 March – John Millington Synge, author and playwright.
• 4 April – Sir Theobald Burke, 13th Baronet.
• 22 May – Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet, Liberal Party MP.
• 3 June – Charlotte Grace O'Brien, political and social activist, writer, and plant collector.
• 15 July – George Tyrrell, expelled Jesuit priest and Modernist Catholic scholar.
• 1 December – William Joseph Corbet, nationalist politician and MP.