1912 in Ireland

Events in the year 1912 in Ireland.

Events

8 February – The First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill addressed a pro-Home Rule meeting in Belfast despite Ulster Unionist attempts to prevent him speaking. He shared the platform with John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

31 March – John Redmond, Eoin MacNeill, Patrick Pearse, Tim Healy and others addressed a monster meeting of 200,000 people in favour of Home Rule at the General Post Office, Dublin.

9 April – 250,000 Orangemen converged on Balmoral Showground in Belfast, declaring that under no circumstances would they accept Home Rule.
11 April – The prime minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
12 April – A convention of Sinn Féin delegates led by Arthur Griffith opposed the Home Rule Bill.
14 April – The , the largest vessel in the world, built in Belfast and making her last call at Queenstown, collided with an iceberg and sank.
22 April – Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson flying a Blériot XI monoplane completed the first aeroplane crossing of the Irish Sea, flying westbound from Goodwick in southwest Wales to Enniscorthy in southeast Ireland. The flight took 100 minutes.
26 April – Welsh aviator Vivian Hewitt made a westbound aeroplane crossing of the Irish Sea in 90 minutes from Holyhead in northwest Wales to Phoenix Park in Dublin.
18 July – Suffragettes attempted an arson attack on the Theatre Royal, Dublin, during Asquith's visit.
27 July – the Blenheim Unionist rally: Bonar Law, leader of the British Conservative Party in opposition, made a defiant speech at a massive Unionist rally at Blenheim Palace against Home Rule, implying support for armed resistance to it in Ulster.

28 September – 'Ulster Day' – the Ulster Covenant to resist Home Rule was signed by almost 250,000 men throughout Ulster; 229,000 women signed a parallel declaration.

23 October – Large numbers of cattle were slaughtered in Mullingar due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the area.

11 April – Lennox Robinson's play Patriots was first performed, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
20 April – Bram Stoker, author of Dracula and theatrical manager, died in London.
November – Lord Dunsany's short story collection The Book of Wonder was published.

Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney's A Soldier's Song (which later became Amhrán na bhFiann, the Irish national anthem) was first published in Irish Freedom by Bulmer Hobson.
Eleanor Hull published The Poem-Book of the Gael: translations from Irish Gaelic poetry into English prose and verse and first versified the traditional Irish hymn Be Thou My Vision in English.
Forrest Reid's coming-of-age novel Following Darkness was published.
James Stephens' novel The Crock of Gold was published.
The popular song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was written and published in the United States for the show The Isle O' Dreams.