# 1883 in Ireland

Events from the year 1883 in Ireland.

## Events

* April – the narrow gauge Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway opens in County Tyrone.
* May – The four winged statues at the base of the O'Connell Monument are finally installed at the monument. The monument had been officially unveiled to the public without them a year earlier.
* 23 October – the Society of Jesus takes over University College Dublin.
* 30 October – two Clan na Gael dynamite bombs explode in the London Underground, injuring several people. Next day the British Home Secretary, William Vernon Harcourt, introduces the Explosives Bill.
* 1 November – Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast admits its first patients.

## Arts and literature

* George Moore's first novel, the realist A Modern Lover, is published.

## Sport
### Rugby union

* Ireland take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship
* Ireland's first home championship game played at Ormeau Road in Belfast.

### Soccer
#### International

    24 February England 7–0 Ireland (in Liverpool)
    17 March Ireland 1–1 Wales (in Belfast)

#### Irish Cup

    Winners: Cliftonville 5–0 Ulster

## Births

* 7 January – Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, British admiral of the Second World War and First Sea Lord (died 1963 in London).
* 14 January – Bulmer Hobson, nationalist, an early leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (died 1969).
* 15 January – Helena Molony, fights in the 1916 Easter Rising and first woman president of the Irish Trades Union Congress (died 1967).
* 24 January – Denis McCullough, Irish Volunteers, elected to the 4th Dáil Éireann (died 1968).
* 29 January – Billy McCracken, footballer and football manager (died 1979).
* 28 February – Seán Mac Diarmada, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader (executed 1916).
* 1 May – Thomas J. Moore, actor (died 1955).
* 8 May – Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, born Mary Walker, actress and Republican activist (died 1958).
* 13 May – Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player (died 1958 in the United States).
* 23 June – Eva McGown, Official Hostess of Fairbanks and Honorary Hostess of Alaska (died 1972 in the United States).
* 15 July – Denny Barry, Irish Republican (died on hunger strike 1923).
* 2 August – Sam Irving, footballer and football manager (died 1968).
* 2 September – Alexander Haslett, independent TD (died 1951).
* 12 December – Peadar Kearney, Irish Republican and songwriter, co-author of "The Soldier's Song" (died 1942).
* 28 November – Rory O'Connor, Irish republican activist captured at the fall of the Four Courts (executed 1922).
* 28 December – St. John Greer Ervine, author and dramatist (died 1971 in London).

### Full date unknown

*   * Lorcán Ó Muireadais, priest and Irish language promoter (died 1941).
*   * Louisa Watson Peat, writer and lecturer (died 1953 in the United States)

## Deaths

* 9 February – Henry John Stephen Smith, mathematician (died 1826).
* 26 May – Edward Sabine, astronomer, scientist, ornithologist and explorer (born 1788).
* 25 July – Frederick Edward Maning, writer and judge in New Zealand (born 1812).
* 22 October – Thomas Mayne Reid, novelist (born 1818).
* 24 November – William Fitzgerald, Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe (born 1814).
* 17 December – James Carey, Fenian and informer, executed in London (born 1845).

### Full date unknown

*   * Robert Dwyer Joyce, music collector and writer (born 1830).