1866 In Ireland

Events from the year 1866 in Ireland.

Events

*28 January – the Midland Great Western Railway opens to Westport railway station.
*22 June – Archbishop Cullen is elevated to the cardinalate as the first Irish Cardinal.
*13 July – the sets out from Valentia Island on the second (successful) attempt to lay the transatlantic telegraph cable. Robert Halpin is master and William Thomson technical consultant.
*14 October – St Peter's Church, Belfast, later to become the Roman Catholic Cathedral, is dedicated, although the building is incomplete.
*Maziere Brady retires as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, an office to which he was appointed in 1846.
* Alexandra College is founded at Milltown, Dublin by the Quaker Ann Jellicoe, the first women's college in Ireland to aim at a university-level education.

Sport

* The first modern Irish Derby, created by the 3rd Earl of Howth, the 3rd Marquess of Drogheda and the 3rd Earl of Charlemont, is run at the Curragh Racecourse.
* The Ulster Yacht Club is revived at Bangor, County Down, on the initiative of Frederick Temple Blackwood, 5th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye.

The Arts

* The ballad "Come Back to Erin" is composed by 'Claribel', the English songwriter Charlotte Alington Barnard.

Births

*5 February – Domhnall Ua Buachalla, member of 1st Dáil, Fianna Fáil TD, last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (died 1963).
*February – Michael Egan, trade unionist, city councillor and Cumann na nGaedheal TD (died 1947).
*15 June – Charles Wood, composer (died 1926).
*13 July – Emily Winifred Dickson, gynaecologist (died 1944 in Liverpool).
*16 August – Dora Sigerson, poet (died 1918 in London).
*1 November – Cheiro, born William John Warner, astrologer (died 1936 in the United States).
*3 December – Ethna Carbery, born Anna Johnston, writer and poet (died 1902).
*7 December – Maude Delap, marine biologist (died 1953)
*December – Thomas Byrne, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1898 at the Battle of Omdurman, Sudan (died 1944).
*;Full date unknown
*:*Éamon a Búrc, tailor and seanchaí (died 1942).
*:*Master McGrath, greyhound (died 1873).
*:*Bridget Sullivan, domestic housemaid for Borden family of Fall River, Massachusetts (died 1948 in the United States).

Deaths

*5 January – Augustus Warren Baldwin, naval officer and political figure in Upper Canada (born 1776).
*11 January – Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, actor (born 1818).
*17 January – George Petrie, painter, musician, antiquary and archaeologist (born 1790).
*4 March – Alexander Campbell, religious leader in Britain and the United States (born 1788).
*18 May – Francis Sylvester Mahony, humorist and poet (aka Father Prout) (born 1804).
*26 October – John Kinder Labatt, brewer in Canada (born 1803).
*26 October – Patrick McHale, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Lucknow, India (born 1826).
*;Full date unknown
*:*Edward Eagar, lawyer and criminal transported to Australia, politician (born 1787; died in London).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1866 In Ireland

1860s in Ireland
Years of the 19th century in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland