1875 in Ireland

Events

• May – Ballymena, Cushendall and [Red Bay Railway] opens with services between Ballymena and Retreat, County Antrim.
• 22 June – Thomas Croke is appointed Archbishop of Cashel in succession to Patrick Leahy. Previously Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Auckland in New Zealand, he will hold the office until his death in 1902.

Arts and literature

• 13 April – The Theatre Royal, Cork closes down for good.

Sport

• 15 February – The Ireland national rugby union team plays its first international match, a 7-0 defeat by England.
• 6 August – Scottish football team Hibernian F.C. is founded by Irishmen in Edinburgh.

Births

• 8 February – Valentine O'Hara, author and authority on Russia and the Baltic States.
• 14 March – Patrick McLane, Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
• 10 April – Joseph McGuinness, Sinn Féin MP and TD, member of the 1st Dáil.
• 17 April – John Brunskill, cricketer.
• 18 April – Katherine Thurston, née Katherine Cecil Madden, novelist.
• 22 April – Michael Joseph O'Rahilly, The O'Rahilly, republican.
• 28 May – Denis O'Donnell, entrepreneur
• 24 June – Forrest Reid, novelist and literary critic
• 5 July – Lawrence Bulger, international rugby union player.
• 7 August – Kate Meyrick, née Nason, nightclub owner in London.
• 29 August – Robert Forde, Antarctic explorer.
• 12 September – George Edward Pugin Meldon, cricketer.
• 9 November – Hugh Lane, founder of Dublin's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art.

Deaths

• 21 January – Sir [Alexander McDonnell, 1st Baronet], lawyer, civil servant and commissioner of national education in Ireland.
• 26 January – Patrick Leahy, Archbishop of Cashel.
• 20 March – John Mitchel, nationalist activist, solicitor and journalist.
• 29 April – William Nash, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1858 at Lucknow, India.
• 13 May – John Willoughby Crawford, politician and third Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
• 15 May – James O'Reilly, lawyer and politician in Canada.
• 25 May – Rose La Touche, muse of John Ruskin.
• 3 June – Patrick Graham, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Lucknow, India.
• 3 June – Miles Gerard Keon, journalist, novelist, colonial secretary and lecturer.
• 13 July – William Coffey, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1855 at Sebastopol, the Crimea.
• 22 September – Charles Bianconi, Italian-born carriage proprietor.
• 24 October – Reverend William Hickey, writer and philanthropist.
• 9 December – Sir Thomas Burke, 3rd Baronet, landowner and politician.
• 27 December – Henry Hamilton O'Hara "Mad O'hara", "The Mad Squire of Craigbilly".