1889 in Ireland

Events

• June – Edward Carson becomes the youngest QC in Ireland.
• 12 June – the Armagh rail disaster occurs near Armagh: runaway carriages from a Sunday school excursion collide with an oncoming train, killing 80, the worst railway accident in Ireland ever.
• 16 July – Ballymena and Larne Railway taken over by Belfast and Northern Counties Railway.
• 1 November – Portrush life-boat The Robert and Agnes Blair, going to the aid of the schooner Dryad, capsizes off the coast at Portballintrae with the loss of three of her thirteen crew.
• 24 December – Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell is accused of adultery after Captain Willy O'Shea files for divorce on the grounds his wife Kitty O'Shea had an affair with Parnell. The scandal will later result in the dismissal of Parnell as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
• A religious group of the Order of Carmelites leave Dublin for the United States at the invitation of the New York Archbishop later establishing the Provence of St. Elias.
• The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is founded.
• The Land League builds a house for recently evicted tenant Tom Kelly in Kiltimagh, County Mayo.
• Poet William Butler Yeats is introduced by John O'Leary to Irish nationalist Maude Gonne.
• Industrialist Horace Plunkett returns to Ireland after his father's death.
• The Tropical Ravine House in Belfast Botanic Gardens is built by head gardener Charles McKimm.
• Foundation stone laid for the Albert Bridge, Belfast, by Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor.
• The Cork County Southern Star weekly newspaper is established in Skibbereen, incorporating The Skibbereen Eagle.

  Arts and literature

• Percy French writes the comic song Slattery's Mounted Foot.
• John Thomas Gilbert's Calendar of Ancient Records of the Corporation of Dublin is published.
• Arthur Graves writes the lyrics of Father O'Flynn.
• Douglas Hyde publishes Beside the Fire.
• George Moore publishes Mike Fletcher.
• Standish James O'Grady publishes Red Hugh's Captivity.
• Whitworth Porter publishes History of the Corps of Royal Engineers.
• Amye Reade's Ruby is published.
• Dr. G. T. Stokes publishes Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church.
• Oscar Wilde publishes his dialogue The Decay of Lying and story The Portrait of Mr. W. H..
• W. B. Yeats publishes The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems and Crossways.

  Sport

Boxing

• 8 July – the last official bare-knuckle title fight ever held as Irish American Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout lasting 75 rounds in Mississippi.

  Football

• ;International
• :2 March England 6–0 Ireland
• :9 March Scotland 7–0 Ireland
• :27 April Ireland 1–3 Wales
• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Distillery 5–4 YMCA
• Glenavon F.C. was founded in Lurgan, County Armagh.

  Gaelic Games

• The first GAA Armagh Championship is held.
• The hierarchy of the Catholic Church, including Archbishop Logue, condemn the GAA for its violence and demoralising influences as well as charging the association as a recruiting ground of radical nationalist organizations.
• 24 March – The first Cavan Gaelic Athletic Association convention is held in Armagh.
• 8 September – The Cavan Gaelic Athletic Association holds a football game between Killinkere and Crosserlough. The game is reported by The Anglo-Celt as "..More like a contest between 42 dangerous and ferocious wire haired lunatics than any competition."

  Golf

• The Royal County Down Golf Club is founded in Newcastle, County Down.
• The Royal Dublin Golf Club moves from Sutton to its present home on Bull Island.
• Golf is first played at the Dooks Golf Club in Killorglin, County Kerry, and at the Portstewart Golf Club.

  Births

• 1 January – Patrick MacGill of Glenties, "navvy poet", journalist and novelist.
• 10 January – Maurice Collis, colonial administrator and writer.
• 2 February – Dorothy Macardle, author and historian.
• 19 February – Albert Stewart, rugby player.
• 8 March – Ina Boyle, composer.
• 17 March – Harry Clarke, stained glass artist and book illustrator.
• 17 March – Fionán Lynch, Sinn Féin MP and TD, member of 1st Dáil, Cabinet Minister, Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael TD.
• 12 April – Patrick McGilligan, Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister.
• 13 April – Ernest Blythe, writer, journalist and theatre manager, member of 1st Dáil and Cabinet Minister.
• 31 May – Helen Waddell, poet, translator and playwright.
• 7 June – Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary.
• 10 June – Jack Finlay, Laois hurler and TD.
• June – James Sleator, painter.
• 19 July – John Vincent Holland, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1916 at Guillemont, France.
• 22 July – Conor Maguire, Chief Justice of Ireland.
• 22 August – Seán MacEntee, Fianna Fáil TD and Tánaiste from 1959 to 1965.
• 28 September – Seán Keating, painter.
• 17 November
• *James Duffy, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Kereina Peak, Palestine.
• *Séamus Ó Grianna, writer.
• 20 November – Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne, New York-born novelist.
• 24 November – James Macauley, soccer player.
• 1 December – Michael Hayes, Pro-Treaty TD, Cabinet Minister, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann member.
• 24 December – Patrick MacGill, journalist, poet and novelist.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Joan de Sales La Terriere, born Joan Grubb, socialite, equestrienne and divorcée.
• :*Michael Riordan, San Francisco Police Department Chief.

  Deaths

• 23 January – Michael Joseph Barry, poet.
• 9 February – Peter Lalor, leader of the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Australia.
• 29 February – Richard Pigott, newspaper editor, suicide.
• 13 April – Thomas Lane, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1860 at the Taku Forts, China.
• 10 May – Edward Jennings, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Lucknow, India.
• 31 May – Charles Lanyon, architect.
• 8 June – Gerard Manley Hopkins, Jesuit poet and scholar.
• 19 July – Patrick Green, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Delhi, India.
• 6 October – Hans Garrett Moore, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1877 at Komgha, South Africa.
• 21 October – John Ball, politician, naturalist and Alpine traveller.
• 18 November – William Allingham, poet and diarist.
• 29 November – Arthur Gerald Geoghegan, poet.
• 7 December – John Tuigg, third Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Full date unknown – Dr. Henry Hudson, magazine editor.