1886 in Ireland

← 1885 1884 1883 1882 1881 1886 in Ireland → 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	1886 in the United Kingdom Other events of 1886 List of years in Ireland

Events

• January - Protestants in Ulster, known as Unionists, begin to lobby against Irish Home Rule establishing the Ulster Loyal Anti-Repeal Union in Belfast.
• March - Prime Minister Gladstone announces his support for Irish Home Rule.
• 8 April - Gladstone introduces Home Rule Bill for Ireland to the House of Commons.
• 8 June - The First Home Rule Bill fails to pass the British Parliament at a vote of 343-313.
• June - Protestants celebrate the defeat of the Home Rule Bill, leading to rioting again on the streets of Belfast and the deaths of seven people, with many more injured.
• 12 June - In a statement to Parliament, Gladstone calls for a general election and, with the dissolution of Parliament, an official election is held the next month.
• 12 July-September - Following the 12th July Orange Institution parades, clashes took place between Catholics and Protestants, and also between Loyalists and police. Thirteen people were killed in a weekend of serious rioting which continued sporadically until mid-September and an official death toll of 31 people.
• The first of Irish tenant farmers are evicted during the first year of the Plan of Campaign.
• Secretary of the Treasury H.H. Fowler states his support for Irish Home Rule Bill which in his words would bring about a ‘real Union—not an act of Parliament Union—but a moral Union, a Union of heart and soul between two Sister Nations’.
• Lord Randolph Churchill voices his opposition to the Irish Home Rule Bill with the slogan "Ulster will fight, Ulster will be right".
• The 1886 Tramways Act allows the Board of Works to grant loans to railway companies including 54,400 pounds to the West Clare Railway one of the first railways to be built in western Ireland.
• Maud Gonne's father passes away leaving her a wealthy inheritance ensuring her financial independence.
• Synge joins the Dublin Naturalist's Field Club
• Over 50 people are killed in anti-Unionist riots in Belfast, Ulster.
• Charles Cunningham Boycott, supposedly from which the word derived from protests he began, leaves Ireland permanently.

Arts and literature

• December - W. B. Yeats poem The Stolen Child is published.
• Yeats's verse play Mosada
• Dublin Lodge of Theosophical Society founded
• Dowden's Life of Shelley
• George Moore's Confessions of a Young Man and A Drama in Muslin are published.
• Emily Lawless publishes Hurrish.
• T. P. O'Connor publishes The Parnell Movement.
• Dublin University professor Dr. G.T. Stokes publishes Ireland and the Celtic Church
• Rev. J. A. Wylie's A History of the Scottish Nation, a valuable resource of Celtic Ireland, is published.

Sport

Athletics

• December - The Dublin University Harriers Club is founded in an effort to promote cross country running.

Chess

• March 18 - The Irish Chess Association is invited to a match against the Belfast Chess Club in an advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter and Northern Whig.
• September 20-October 1 - The Irish Chess Association holds a national tournament, consisting of an even and handicap tournament, as Richard Barnett (although W.K. Pollock gained a full score) defeats British Chessmasters John Blackburne and Amos Burn filling the vacancy by former champion Porterfield Rynd.

Football

• International

27 February Wales 5 - 0 Ireland (in Wrexham)

12 March Ireland 1 - 6 England (in Belfast)

20 March Ireland 2 - 7 Scotland (in Belfast)

• Irish Cup

Winners: Distillery 1 - 0 Limavady Alexander

Gaelic Games

• The first Gaelic Athletic Association match in the United States is held between Kerry and Galway in Boston, Massachusetts.

Polo

• Polo player John Watson wins the Irish Dublin Cup.
• The British polo team, including two players from the All Ireland Polo Club, win the American Newport Cup.

Births

January to June

• 9 February - Edwin Maxwell, actor (d.1948).
• 21 March - Oscar Traynor, Fianna Fáil politician (d.1963).
• 25 March - Jack McAuliffe, boxer (d.1937).
• 3 April - David Nelson, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 at Néry, France (d.1918).
• 10 May - Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, TD, Cabinet Minister and former leader of Fine Gael (d.1971).
• 5 June - Alexander McCabe, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, Cumann na nGaedheal TD (d.1972).
• 24 June - George Shiels, dramatist (d.1949).

July to December

• 13 July - Edward J. Flanagan, popularly known as Father Flanagan founder of Boys Town in Nebraska (d.1948).
• 28 August - Pat Hone, cricketer (d.1976).
• 4 October - Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (d.1958).
• 10 October - Louis Meldon, cricketer (d.1956).
• 8 December - James Geoghegan, Fianna Fáil TD, Minister for Justice, Attorney General of Ireland and Justice of the Supreme Court (d.1951).
• 12 December - Owen Moore, actor (d.1939).

Full date unknown

• Jack Beattie, politician and trade unionist.
• Patrick Hogan, Irish Labour Party, TD, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (d.1969).
• Frank MacDermot, barrister, soldier, banker and politician (d.1975).
• W. F. McCoy, Ulster Unionist member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (d.1976).
• Alice Milligan, author.

Deaths

• 12 March - Trevor Chute, British Army officer (b.1816).
• 4 May - James Muspratt, chemical manufacturer in Britain (b.1793).
• 11 June - James Alipius Goold, Roman Catholic Bishop and Archbishop of Melbourne (b.1812).
• 11 June - Thomas Francis Hendricken, first Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island (b.1827).
• 9 August - Samuel Ferguson, poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant (b.1810).
• 10 October - Joseph M. Scriven, poet and philanthropist (b.1820).
• 10 December - Abraham Dowdney, United States Representative from New York and officer in the Union army in the American Civil War (b.1841).
• 19 December - Robert Spencer Dyer Lyons, physician and politician (b.1826).
• 30 December - George Fletcher Moore, explorer and writer (b.1798).

Full date unknown

• Andrew Nicholl, artist (b.1804).