1883 in Ireland

Events

• April – the narrow gauge Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway opens in County Tyrone.
• May – The four winged statues at the base of the O'Connell Monument are finally installed at the monument. The monument had been officially unveiled to the public without them a year earlier.
• 23 October – the Society of Jesus takes over University College Dublin.
• 30 October – two Clan na Gael dynamite bombs explode in the London Underground, injuring several people. Next day the British Home Secretary, William Vernon Harcourt, introduces the Explosives Bill.
• 1 November – Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast admits its first patients.

  Arts and literature

• George Moore's first novel, the realist A Modern Lover, is published.

  Sport

Rugby union

• Ireland take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship
• Ireland's first home championship game played at Ormeau Road in Belfast.

  Soccer

• ;International
• :24 February England 7–0 Ireland
• :17 March Ireland 1–1 Wales

• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Cliftonville 5–0 Ulster

  Births

• 7 January – Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, British admiral of the Second World War and First Sea Lord.
• 14 January – Bulmer Hobson, nationalist, an early leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
• 15 January – Helena Molony, fights in the 1916 Easter Rising and first woman president of the Irish Trades Union Congress.
• 24 January – Denis McCullough, Irish Volunteers, elected to the 4th Dáil Éireann.
• 29 January – Billy McCracken, footballer and football manager.
• 28 February – Seán Mac Diarmada, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader.
• 1 May – Thomas J. Moore, actor.
• 8 May – Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, born Mary Walker, actress and Republican activist.
• 13 May – Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player.
• 23 June – Eva McGown, Official Hostess of Fairbanks and Honorary Hostess of Alaska.
• 15 July – Denny Barry, Irish Republican.
• 2 August – Sam Irving, footballer and football manager.
• 2 September – Alexander Haslett, independent TD.
• 12 December – Peadar Kearney, Irish Republican and songwriter, co-author of "The Soldier's Song".
• 28 November – Rory O'Connor, Irish republican activist captured at the fall of the Four Courts.
• 28 December – St. John Greer Ervine, author and dramatist.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Lorcán Ó Muireadais, priest and Irish language promoter.
• :*Louisa Watson Peat, writer and lecturer

  Deaths

• 9 February – Henry John Stephen Smith, mathematician.
• 26 May – Edward Sabine, astronomer, scientist, ornithologist and explorer.
• 25 July – Frederick Edward Maning, writer and judge in New Zealand.
• 22 October – Thomas Mayne Reid, novelist.
• 24 November – William Fitzgerald, Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe.
• 17 December – James Carey, Fenian and informer, executed in London.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Robert Dwyer Joyce, music collector and writer.