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Events from the year 1889 in Ireland.

Events

  • June – Edward Carson became the youngest Queen's Counsel in Ireland (aged 35).
  • 12 June – The Armagh rail disaster occurred near Armagh: runaway carriages from a Sunday school excursion collided with an oncoming train, killing 80, the worst railway accident in Ireland.
  • 16 July – The Ballymena and Larne Railway was taken over by Belfast and Northern Counties Railway.
  • 14 September – Londoner Percival Spencer performed the first parachute jump in Ireland, at Drumcondra in Dublin. He jumped from two thousand feet in front of 25,000 people at 6.30pm.
  • 1 November – Portrush life-boat The Robert and Agnes Blair, going to the aid of the schooner Dryad, capsized off the coast at Portballintrae with the loss of three of her thirteen crew.
  • 24 December – Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell was accused of adultery after Captain Willy O'Shea filed for divorce on the grounds that his wife Kitty O'Shea had an affair with Parnell. The scandal later resulted in the dismissal of Parnell as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
  • A religious group of the Order of Carmelites left 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 was founded.
  • The Land League built a house for recently evicted tenant Tom Kelly in Kiltimagh, County Mayo.
  • Poet W. B. Yeats was introduced by John O'Leary to Irish nationalist Maude Gonne.
  • Industrialist Horace Plunkett returned to Ireland after his father's death.
  • The Tropical Ravine House in Belfast Botanic Gardens was built by head gardener Charles McKimm.
  • The foundation stone was laid for the Albert Bridge, Belfast, by Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor.
  • The Cork County Southern Star weekly newspaper was established in Skibbereen, County Cork, incorporating The Skibbereen Eagle (1857).

Arts and literature

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

Sport

Boxing

  • 8 July – The last official bare-knuckle title fight was held when Irish American Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout lasting 75 rounds in Mississippi.

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Association football

  • ;International
  • :2 March – England 6–0 Ireland (in Liverpool)
  • :9 March – Scotland 7–0 Ireland (in Glasgow)