1896 in Ireland

Events from the year 1896 in Ireland.

Events

February – the Broighter Gold hoard of prehistoric objects is discovered near Limavady by Tom Nicholl while ploughing.
29 March – the Royal College of St Patrick, Maynooth is granted the status of pontifical university by charter of the Holy See.
16 May – the first electric tram runs on the Dublin tramways system.
May – James Connolly returns from Edinburgh to Ireland as paid organiser for the Dublin Socialist Club. He founds the Irish Republican Socialist Party.
28 March – Tom Gallaher incorporates the Gallaher tobacco business and opens the world's largest tobacco factory in Belfast.
John Dillon assumes the leadership of the anti-Parnellite wing of the Home Rule Party.
An extension is made to Arthur Balfour's Land Act. 1,500 bankrupt estates are made available for sale to tenants.
Ireland's first motor vehicle laws are introduced.
Restoration of the Church of Ireland's Kildare Cathedral is completed.

20 April – first cinema show in Ireland, at Dan Lowry's Star of Erin Variety Theatre in Dublin.
The lyrics of The Mountains of Mourne are written by Percy French with music adapted by Houston Collisson.
Charles Villiers Stanford's comic opera Shamus O'Brien is first performed.

;International
:February: Tim O'Brien becomes the first Irish captain of the England cricket team in a match won against South Africa at Port Elizabeth

15 February – Arthur Shields, actor.
March – Martin Joseph Sheehan, soldier and Royal Air Service Observer in World War I, killed in action.
4 April – Sir Osmond Esmonde, 12th Baronet, diplomat and politician.
24 April – F. R. Higgins, poet and theatre director.
9 May – Austin Clarke, poet, playwright and writer.
22 May – Cyril Fagan, astrologer.
28 August – Liam O'Flaherty, novelist and short story writer.
17 September – Oscar Heron, Irish World War I flying ace.
10 November – Sophie Catherine Theresa Mary Peirce-Evans, later Mary, Lady Heath, aviator, athlete and writer.
25 December – Sister Philippa Brazill, nurse in Australia.
;Full date unknown
:*Monk Gibbon, poet and author.
:*Fiona Plunkett, republican.

10 January – Denis Dempsey, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross.
3 February – Jane Wilde, poet.
4 March – Peter Richard Kenrick, first Catholic archbishop west of the Mississippi River.
4 May – Timothy Anglin, politician in Canada and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada.
18 May – Patrick Buckley, soldier, lawyer, statesman, and judge in New Zealand.
8 August – William Pery, 3rd Earl of Limerick, peer.
10 August – Jeremiah O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Mobile.
15 August – Patrick Duggan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert.
22 September – Edward Selby Smyth, British General, commanded Militia of Canada from 1874 to 1880.
1 November – Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey, boxer.
31 December – Leland Hone, cricketer.
;Full date unknown
:*Canon James Goodman, Irish music collector.