1880 in Ireland

Events

• 2 February – Charles Stewart Parnell addresses the United States Congress.
• 31 March - 27 April – United Kingdom general election in Ireland produces a majority for the Irish Parliamentary Party in Irish seats.
• 27 April – charter founding the Royal University of Ireland, allowing the Catholic University of Ireland to re-form as University College Dublin.
• 17 May – Parnell elected chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
• May – Irish National Land League of the United States founded.
• September – November: "Boycotting" of Captain Charles Boycott.
• 18 October – Ballycastle Railway opened between Ballymoney and Ballycastle.
• December – trial of Parnell and others for conspiracy begins.
• English heiress and philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, offers to advance £250,000 to the authorities for the supply of seed potatoes in the west of Ireland, forcing the government to take action itself.
• St Stephen's Green, Dublin, opened as a public park.

  Arts and literature

• 9 February – the Theatre Royal, Dublin, burns to the ground.

  Sport

Soccer

• 18 November – Irish Football Association is founded at the Queen's Hotel, Belfast.
• Irish Cup knock-out competition instituted on an all-Ireland basis.

  Births

• 3 January – Francis Browne, Jesuit priest and photographer.
• 6 January – John McKenna, traditional flute player
• 12 January – Frank Fahy, Sinn Féin MP and later TD, member of 1st Dáil, Ceann Comhairle, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 23 January – Herbert Dixon, 1st Baron Glentoran, Unionist politician.
• 9 February – Thomas Kettle, writer, barrister, Nationalist politician and economist.
• 20 February – James J. Walsh, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, a founder-member of Cumann na nGaedheal and Cabinet Minister.
• 29 March – Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, British politician and businessman, born at Iveagh House, Dublin.
• 30 March – Seán O'Casey, dramatist and memoirist.
• 26 April – Joseph Lynch, cricketer.
• 6 June – W. T. Cosgrave, first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.
• 13 June – John Dignan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert.
• 2 July – Mary Elizabeth Byrne, literary scholar.
• 19 August – Augusta Crichton-Stuart, Marchioness of Bute.
• 24 August – William Kenny, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 near Ypres, Belgium.
• 23 September – Áine Ceannt, born Frances Brennan, revolutionary activist and humanitarian.
• 4 October – Sim Walton, Kilkenny hurler.
• 23 October – Una O'Connor, actress.
• 3 November – Edward Barrett, athlete, wrestler and hurler, Olympic medallist.
• Full date unknown – Hugo Flinn, Fianna Fáil TD.

  Deaths

• 26 February – Charles William Russell, Roman Catholic clergyman and scholar.
• 2 March – John Benjamin Macneill, railway engineer.
• 16 April – Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy, barrister and writer.
• 7 June – John Brougham, actor and dramatist.
• 12 September – Frederic Trench, 2nd Baron Ashtown, peer.
• 18 October – Ann Jellicoe, educationalist.
• 20 December – Joshua Spencer Thompson, Liberal-Conservative politician in Canada.
• Full date unknown – Myles William Patrick O'Reilly, Catholic soldier and writer.