• 3 January – The Norwegian ship Remittant was towed into quarantine in Queenstown with the entire crew suffering from beriberi.
• 3 February – The proposed canonisation of Oliver Plunkett was discussed in Rome.
• 26–27 February – "Ulysses" Storm: A windstorm passed across Ireland, uprooting 1–3,000 trees in Phoenix Park.^[1]
• 26 February – The ocean liner SS Columbus was launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
• 27 February – A meeting at the Mansion House, Dublin, enthusiastically welcomed a movement to establish Saint Patrick's Day as a national holiday.
• 8 March – Charles Gavan Duffy was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. He was laid to rest near others who took part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.
• 9 March – The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway's Letterkenny and Burtonport Extension was opened.^[2]
• 17 March – In Waterford, Saint Patrick's Day was marked as a public holiday (to encourage temperance).
• 26 March – The Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham, introduced his Irish Land Bill in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
• 31 March – The Lord-Lieutenant announced that Edward VII and Queen Alexandra intended to visit Ireland within the coming year.^[3]
• 15 May – The Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham, asked for support for his Irish Land Bill.
• 23 May – Extracts from the annual report of the British Army showed that there were 35,717 Irishmen in its service.
• 9 June – Trinity College Dublin announced following a vote that it was to award degrees to women. The first women would be admitted in 1904.
• 1 July – The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway became the Northern Counties Committee of the Midland Railway of England.
• 19–27 July – Edward VII made his first visit to Ireland as monarch,^[3] landing at Buncrana.
• 14 August – The Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 was passed in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, offering special incentives to landlords to sell their entire estates.
• 5 September – Irish painter Henry Jones Thaddeus was granted permission to paint the first portrait of Pope Pius X.
• 13 November – The 2nd Battalion of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was welcomed home after nearly 20 years of foreign service.

  Undated

  • Independent Orange Institution was formed, as a breakaway from the Orange Institution.^[4]
  • The Pigeon House generating station in Dublin started producing electricity.
  • The withdrawal of the last British Royal Navy guard ship to be permanently stationed at Kingstown, the cruiser HMS Melampus (1890), took place.^[5]
  • The Cork International Exhibition was re-opened.

• January – An Túr Gloine, the cooperative studio for stained glass, was established by Sarah Purser in Dublin.^[6]
• 8 October – J. M. Synge's play, In the Shadow of the Glen, was first performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin.
• 7 December – The first Irish language opera, Muirgheis, with music by Thomas O'Brien Butler and libretto by Thadgh O'Donoghue was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Dublin.
• Padraic Colum's Broken Soil was performed by W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company.^[7]
• George Moore's short stories The Untilled Field were published.
• 'Æ' (George William Russell)'s The Nuts of Knowledge, lyrical poems old and new was published by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press at Dundrum, Dublin.^[8][9][10]
• W. B. Yeats's poetry collection In the Seven Woods, being poems of the Irish heroic age^[11] was published by his sister's Dun Emer Press;^[9][10] he also published his essays Ideas of Good and Evil.^[12]
• County Cork-born Chicago chief of police Francis O'Neill's collection O'Neill's Music of Ireland was published.

Association football edit

• International

  14 February – England 4–0 Ireland (in Wolverhampton)^[13]

  21 March – Scotland 0–2 Ireland (in Glasgow)^[13]

  28 March – Ireland 2–0 Wales (in Belfast)^[13]

  Irish League

  Winners: Distillery F.C.

  Irish Cup

  Winners: Distillery F.C. 3–1 Bohemian F.C.

• Bohemian F.C. became the first Dublin team to join the Irish Football League.
• The Oval football stadium, home of Glentoran F.C., was rebuilt, with the pitch being turned around ninety degrees.

Motor racing edit

• 2 July – The Gordon Bennett Cup race was run on Irish public roads, the first international motor race in Ireland. The winner was Camille Jenatzy.^[3]

• 15 January – Joe Stynes, Irish Republican and sportsman (died 1991).
• 19 January – Alfred Lane Beit, British politician, art collector and philanthropist, honorary Irish citizen (died 1994).
• 28 January – Kathleen Lonsdale, X-ray crystallographer (died 1971).
• 2 February – Hilton Edwards, actor, director, co–founder of Gate Theatre, born in London (died 1982).
• 5 February – William Teeling, author, traveller and UK politician (died 1975).
• 23 February – Alec Mackie, association football player (died 1984 in Northern Ireland).
• 11 March – Michael Hilliard, Fianna Fáil party Teachta Dála (TD), Cabinet minister and Member of the European Parliament (died 1982).
• 13 March – Joseph Blowick second leader of the Clann na Talmhan party, TD and Cabinet minister (died 1970).
• 5 April – Leo Rowsome, teacher, player, and maker of uilleann pipes (died 1970).
• 12 April – Paddy Collins, Cork hurler (died 1995).
• 25 May – Ewart Milne, poet (died 1987).
• 8 June – Harry Duggan, association football player (died 1968).
• 17 July – Dinny Barry-Murphy, Cork hurler (died 1973).
• 18 July – Charles Hill, cricketer (died 1982).
• 5 August – Achey Kelly, cricketer (died 1961).
• 17 September – Frank O'Connor, short story writer and memoirist (died 1966).
• 6 October – Ernest Walton, physicist, 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics (died 1995).
• 23 October – Patrick Cogan, Independent TD (died 1977).
• 1 November – Max Adrian, actor (died 1973).
• 18 December – Harry Forsyth, cricketer (died 2004).

  Undated

  • Leo Maguire, singer, songwriter and radio broadcaster (died 1985).
  • Stanley Woods, motor cycle racer, with 29 Grand Prix wins and 10 Isle of Man TT wins (died 1993).

• 9 February – Charles Gavan Duffy, nationalist and Australian colonial politician (born 1816).
• 5 April – Mary Anne Sadlier, novelist (born 1820).
• 24 April – Walter Osborne, impressionist painter (born 1859).
• 27 April – William Travers, lawyer, politician, explorer, and naturalist in New Zealand (born 1819).
• 25 July – John Michael Clancy, Democratic Party United States Representative from New York (born 1837).
• 31 August – Charles O'Hea, Catholic Priest, baptised Ned Kelly and ministered to him before he was hanged in 1880 (born c. 1814).
• 12 September – Maxwell Henry Close, geologist (born 1822).
• 22 October – William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian (born 1838).
• 24 October – James Adams (chaplain), recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in Afghanistan (1879) (born 1839).

• 1903 in Scotland
• 1903 in Wales