• January – Ulster Protestant Unionists begin to lobby against the Irish Home Rule Bill, establishing the Ulster Loyal Anti-Repeal Union in Belfast.
• 30 January – SS Fulmar sinks off Kilkee with the loss of all 17 aboard.
• 29 March – Breed standard for Irish Setter agreed.
• March – Prime Minister William Gladstone announces his support for Irish Home Rule.
• 8 April – Gladstone introduces the Irish Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons.^[1] During the debates on the Bill
  • Financial Secretary to the Treasury H.H. Fowler states his support for the Bill which in his words would bring about a "real Union—not an act of Parliament Union—but a moral Union, a Union of heart and soul between two Sister Nations".
  • Lord Randolph Churchill voices his opposition with the slogan "Ulster will fight, Ulster will be right".
• 8 June – the First Home Rule Bill fails to pass the British Parliament on a vote of 343–313.
• June – Protestants celebrate the defeat of the Home Rule Bill, leading to renewed rioting on the streets of Belfast and the deaths of seven people, with many more injured.^[2]
• 12 June – in a statement to Parliament, Gladstone calls for a general election and, with the dissolution of Parliament, an official election is held the next month.
• 12 July – mid-September: Belfast riots begin with the Orange Institution parades and continue sporadically throughout the summer; clashes take place between Catholics and Protestants, and also between Loyalists and police. Thirteen people are killed in a weekend of serious rioting, with an official death toll of 31 people over the period.^[2]
• October – the first tenant farmers are evicted during the first year of the Plan of Campaign.
• 15 October – the SS Great Eastern begins a 5-month period on display at the North Wall Quay, Dublin.
• 30 November – Maud Gonne's father dies leaving her a substantial inheritance ensuring her financial independence.^[3]
• St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin is officially elevated to Pro-cathedral status.
• Eason & Son, booksellers and stationers, established in Dublin.
• The 1886 Tramways Act allows the Board of Works to grant loans to railway companies including £54,400 to the West Clare Railway one of the first railways to be built in western Ireland.
• Charles Cunningham Boycott, who supposedly gave rise to the eponymous word, leaves his land agent's post in Ireland.^[4]
• J. M. Synge joins the Dublin Naturalist's Field Club.

• 17 January – the Anglo-Irish writers cousins Somerville and Ross first meet, at Castletownshend.
• December – W. B. Yeats poem The Stolen Child is published.
• Yeats's verse play Mosada
• Edward Dowden's The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley is published.
• George Moore's Confessions of a Young Man and A Drama in Muslin are published.
• Emily Lawless's Hurrish is published.
• T. P. O'Connor's The Parnell Movement is published.
• Dublin University professor G.T. Stokes' Ireland and the Celtic Church is published.
• Rev. J. A. Wylie's History of the Scottish Nation, a valuable resource of Celtic Ireland, begins publication.
• Dublin Lodge of the Theosophical Society is founded.

Athletics edit

• December – the Dublin University Harriers Club is founded in an effort to promote cross country running.

Chess edit

• March 18 – the Irish Chess Association is invited to a match against the Belfast Chess Club in an advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter and Northern Whig.
• September 20 – October 1: the Irish Chess Association holds a national tournament, consisting of an even and handicap tournament, as Richard Barnett (although W.K. Pollock gained a full score) defeats British Chessmasters John Blackburne and Amos Burn filling the vacancy by former champion Porterfield Rynd.

Football edit

• March – Linfield F.C. is formed in Belfast.

  International

  27 February Wales 5–0 Ireland (in Wrexham)^[5]

  12 March Ireland 1–6 England (in Belfast)^[5]

  20 March Ireland 2–7 Scotland (in Belfast)^[5]

• Irish Cup

  Winners: Distillery 1–0 Limavady Alexander

Gaelic Games edit

• The first Gaelic Athletic Association match in the United States is held between Kerry and Galway in Boston, Massachusetts.

Polo edit

• Polo player John Watson wins the Irish Dublin Cup.
• The British polo team, including two players from the All Ireland Polo Club, win the American International Polo Cup.

• 9 February – Edwin Maxwell, actor (died 1948).
• 21 March – Oscar Traynor, Fianna Fáil politician (died 1963).
• 25 March – Jack McAuliffe, boxer (died 1937).
• 3 April – David Nelson, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 at Néry, France (died 1918).
• 14 April – Jack Beattie, politician and trade unionist (died 1960).
• 4 May – George Ivatt, railway locomotive designer (died 1976)
• 10 May – Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, TD, Cabinet Minister and leader of Fine Gael (died 1971).
• 5 June – Alexander McCabe, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, Cumann na nGaedheal TD (died 1972).
• 24 June – George Shiels, dramatist (died 1949).
• 13 July – Edward J. Flanagan, popularly known as Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town in Nebraska (died 1948).
• 28 August – Pat Hone, cricketer (died 1976).
• 4 September – Alice Milligan, nationalist poet and author (died 1953).
• 4 October – Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (died 1958).
• 10 October – Louis Meldon, cricketer (died 1956).
• 15 November – Séamus Dwyer, Sinn Féin politician (shot 1922).
• 25 November – Frank MacDermot, barrister, soldier, banker and politician (died 1975).
• 8 December – James Geoghegan, Fianna Fáil TD, Minister for Justice, Attorney General of Ireland and Justice of the Supreme Court (died 1951).
• 12 December – Owen Moore, actor (died 1939).
• Full date unknown – W. F. McCoy, Ulster Unionist member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (died 1976).

• 25 February – Lady Katherine Sophia Kane, botanist (born 1811).
• 12 March – Trevor Chute, British Army officer (born 1816).
• 28 March – Richard Chenevix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland) (born 1807).
• 16 April – Andrew Nicholl, painter (born 1804).
• 4 May – James Muspratt, chemical manufacturer in Britain (born 1793).
• 11 June – James Alipius Goold, Roman Catholic Bishop and Archbishop of Melbourne (born 1812).
• 11 June – Thomas Francis Hendricken, first Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island (born 1827).
• 27 July – Eliza Lynch, former First Lady of Paraguay (born 1835).
• 9 August – Samuel Ferguson, poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant (born 1810).
• 10 October – Joseph M. Scriven, poet and philanthropist (born 1820).
• 10 December – Abraham Dowdney, United States Representative from New York and officer in the Union army in the American Civil War (born 1841).
• 19 December – Robert Spencer Dyer Lyons, physician and politician (born 1826).
• 30 December – George Fletcher Moore, explorer and writer (born 1798).

• 1886 in Scotland
• 1886 in Wales