1796 in Ireland

Events

• 1 February – Wolfe Tone arrives in France.
• 12 July – first Orange Institution parades on The Twelfth held to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne in Portadown, Lurgan and Waringstown.
• 9 August – the convict ship Marquis Cornwallis leaves Cork for Australia.
• September – 'Gold rush' in the Wicklow Hills near Avoca.
• 10 December – the convict ship Britannia leaves Cork for Australia.
• 15 December – Expédition d'Irlande: French expedition sails from Brest.
• 22 December – French fleet, with Wolfe Tone on board, arrives in Bantry Bay, but is unable to land due to contrary winds.
• Insurrection Act and Treason by Women Act passed.
• Yeomanry Corps formed.
• Building of the Four Courts in Dublin is substantially completed under the supervision of James Gandon.

  Arts and literature

• Edward Bunting's A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music is published.

  Births

• 27 March – Robert James Graves, surgeon.
• April – Abraham Brewster, judge and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
• 20 July – Maziere Brady, judge and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
• 16 August – Francis Crozier, British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer.
• 4 October – Robert King, 4th Earl of Kingston, soldier and politician.
• 27 November
• *John MacEnery, priest and pioneer archaeologist.
• *Richard Mayne, barrister and joint first Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the London Metropolitan Police .
• 3 December – Francis Kenrick, headed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, then was Archbishop of Baltimore.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Michael Banim, writer.
• :*James Curley, astronomer.
• :*George Crawford Hyndman, auctioneer and marine biologist.
• :*Eliza Hamilton Dunlop, poet.
• :*Charles Cromwell Ingham, painter and founder of the New York National Academy of Design.
• :*John Pitt Kennedy, British military engineer, agricultural reformer and civil servant.
• :*James McLevy, detective in Edinburgh.
• :*George Maguire, Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri.
• :*Jones Quain, anatomist.
• :*Michael Joseph Quin, author, journalist and editor.

  Deaths

• William Henn, judge.
• Bowen Southwell, landowner and politician.