1808 in Ireland

Events

• 2 February – Daniel Delany, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, founds the Patrician Brothers.
• 15 February – laying of the foundation stone for Nelson's Pillar in Dublin
• 6 June – the Bank of Ireland moves its premises to the former Irish Houses of Parliament on College Green, Dublin.
• 12 July – Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley embarks troops at Cork to join the Peninsular War in Portugal.
• 15 August – seven men, including Edmund Rice, take religious promises under John Power, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, as the Presentation Brothers.
• 22 August – the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne in Cork is dedicated.

  Arts and literature

• Mary Leadbeater's Poems published.
• Rev. Charles Maturin's novel The Wild Irish Boy published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy.
• Thomas Moore's A Selection of Irish Melodies published.

  Births

• 15 May – Michael William Balfe, composer.
• Anne Elizabeth Ball, phycologist.
• Joseph Francis Olliffe, physician.

  Deaths

• 10 February – Hugh Douglas Hamilton, artist.
• 30 September – Peter Russell, gambler, government official, politician and judge in Upper Canada.