# 1870 in Ireland

Events from the year 1870 in Ireland.

## Events

* 19 May – the Home Government Association is established by Isaac Butt to argue for devolution for Ireland and repeal of the Act of Union.
* 27 August – White Star's first ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
* 19 October – SS Cambria (1869) is wrecked on Inishtrahull with the loss of 179 lives.
* Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 passed in an attempt to secure greater security of tenure for landholders.
* The building of Belfast Castle is completed, to a design by Charles Lanyon and his son.
* Work is completed on the building of the Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast, as a memorial to Queen Victoria's late Prince Consort, Prince Albert.
* First service is held in the new Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork (Church of Ireland).
* Belfast Hebrew Congregation is established.

## Arts and literature

* The Water Colour Society of Ireland is founded as the Amateur Drawing Society by an informal group of six well-connected women from County Waterford.

## Births

* 22 January – John B. Sheridan, Irish American sports journalist (died 1930 in the United States)
* 3 February – Beatrice Grimshaw, anthropologist (died 1953 in Australia).
* 8 February – Robert Pilkington, lawyer and politician in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly and House of Commons of the UK (died 1942 in England).
* 2 April – Edmund Dwyer-Gray, politician and 29th Premier of Tasmania in 1939 (died 1945 in Australia).
* 17 April – Robert Tressell, born Robert Croker, radical, author of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (died 1911 in England).
* 5 May – Armar Lowry-Corry, 5th Earl Belmore, High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of County Fermanagh (died 1948).
* 22 May – Eva Gore-Booth, poet, dramatist, suffragist, social worker and labour activist (died 1926 in London).
* 25 June – Erskine Childers, writer and nationalist (executed by Free State firing squad 1922 at Beggars Bush Barracks, Dublin).
* 8 July – R. A. Stewart Macalister, archaeologist (died 1950).
* 16 July – Lambert McKenna, Jesuit priest and writer (died 1956).
* 16 September – John Boland, Nationalist politician, MP and Olympic tennis gold medallist (died 1958 in England).
* 10 October – Frank Lawless, Sinn Féin TD, member of the 1st Dáil and the 2nd Dáil (died 1922).
* 19 November – William MacCarthy-Morrogh, cricketer (died 1939).
* November – Thomas Moles, Ulster Unionist MP (died 1937).
* 5 December – John O'Connor, priest (died 1952 in England).
* Undated – P. T. Daly, trade unionist (died 1943).

## Deaths

* 17 March – John Keegan Casey, "poet of the Fenians" (born 1846).
* 25 April – Daniel Maclise, painter (born 1806).
* c. May – John Skipton Mulvany, architect (born 1813).
* 31 May – Chartres Brew, Gold commissioner, Chief Constable and judge in the Colony of British Columbia (born 1815).
* 7 September – Hugh Talbot Burgoyne, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1855 in the Sea of Azov, Crimea (born 1833).
* 23 September – Thomas McCarthy, businessman and politician in Quebec (born 1832).
* 20 October – Michael William Balfe, composer (born 1808).
* 9 December – Patrick MacDowell, sculptor (born 1799).
* 12 December – Martin Cregan, portrait painter (born 1788).