1880 in Ireland

Events from the year 1880 in Ireland.

Events

2 February – Charles Stewart Parnell addresses the United States Congress.
31 March-27 April – United Kingdom general election in Ireland produces a majority for the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party in Irish seats.
27 April – charter founding the Royal University of Ireland, allowing the Catholic University of Ireland to re-form as University College Dublin.
17 May – Parnell elected chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
May – Irish National Land League of the United States founded.
September–November - "Boycotting" of Captain Charles Boycott.
18 October – Ballycastle Railway opened between Ballymoney and Ballycastle.
December – trial of Parnell and others for conspiracy begins.
English philanthropists are active in connection with the west of Ireland: Quaker James Hack Tute distributes aid and publishes Irish Distress and its Remedies; heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, offers to advance £250,000 to the authorities for the supply of seed potatoes, forcing the government to take action itself.
St Stephen's Green, Dublin, opened as a public park.

18 November – Irish Football Association is founded at the Queen's Hotel, Belfast.
Irish Cup knock-out competition instituted on an all-Ireland basis.

3 January – Francis Browne, Jesuit priest and photographer.
6 January – John McKenna, traditional flute player
12 January – Frank Fahy, Sinn Féin MP and later TD, member of 1st Dáil, Ceann Comhairle, Fianna Fáil TD.
23 January – Herbert Dixon, 1st Baron Glentoran, Unionist politician.
9 February – Thomas Kettle, writer, barrister, Nationalist politician and economist.
20 February – J. J. Walsh, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, a founder-member of Cumann na nGaedheal and Cabinet Minister.
29 March – Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, British politician and businessman, born at Iveagh House, Dublin.
30 March – Seán O'Casey, dramatist and memoirist.
26 April – Joseph Lynch, cricketer.
6 June – W. T. Cosgrave, first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.
13 June – John Dignan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert.
2 July – Mary Elizabeth Byrne, literary scholar.
19 August – Augusta Crichton-Stuart, Marchioness of Bute.
24 August – William Kenny, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 near Ypres, Belgium.
23 September – Áine Ceannt, born Frances Brennan, revolutionary activist and humanitarian.
4 October – Sim Walton, Kilkenny hurler.
23 October – Una O'Connor, actress.
3 November – Edward Barrett, athlete, wrestler and hurler, Olympic medallist.

6 February – Myles [William Patrick O'Reilly], Catholic soldier and writer.
26 February – Charles William Russell, Roman Catholic clergyman and scholar.
2 March – John Benjamin Macneill, railway engineer.
16 April – Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy, barrister and writer.
7 June – John Brougham, actor and dramatist.
12 September – Frederic Trench, 2nd Baron Ashtown, peer.
18 October – Ann Jellicoe, educationalist.
20 December – Joshua Spencer Thompson, Liberal-Conservative politician in Canada.