1803 in Ireland

Events

• 23 July – Emmet's insurrection: United Irishman Robert Emmet stages a rising in Dublin which is quelled by the military, with approximately fifty rebels and twenty soldiers dead. The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, is hacked to death. Neither Michael Dwyer, nor Thomas Russell, nor rebels from Kildare, are able to offer support for the rebellion as planned.
• 25 August – Emmet is captured near Harold's Cross.
• 19 September – Emmet, found guilty of high treason at the Sessions House, Dublin, delivers his , including the phrase "Let no man write my epitaph."
• 20 September – Emmet is hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin.
• 21 October – Thomas Russell, co-founder of the Society of United Irishmen, is hanged at Downpatrick Gaol.
• December – the Wicklow rebel leader Michael Dwyer capitulates to the government and is held in Kilmainham Gaol.
• The new Bank of Ireland buys the former Irish on College Green in Dublin from the Government of the United Kingdom for conversion to its headquarters by Francis Johnston.
• Belvelly Bridge, linking Great Island to the mainland of County Cork, is built.

  Births

• 2 March – Mary Frances Clarke, founder of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• 3 April – James Gamble, soapmaker.
• 29 April – Paul Cullen, Cardinal and Catholic Primate of Ireland.
• 1 May – James Clarence Mangan, poet.
• May – Francis Kelly, surveyor, business agent, farmer, and politician in Canada.
• 17 October – William Smith O'Brien, nationalist.
• 12 December – Gerald Griffin, novelist, poet and playwright.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*John Kinder Labatt, brewer in Canada.

Deaths

• 23 January – Arthur Guinness, brewer and founder of the Guinness Brewery business and family.
• 21 February – Colonel Edward Despard, British Army officer and radical .
• 31 May – Robert Jephson, soldier, politician and dramatist.
• 11 July – Thomas Hussey, diplomat, chaplain, and Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore.
• 23 July – Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland .
• 24 August – James Napper Tandy, rebel leader.
• 29 August – Samuel Neilson, co-founder of the Society of United Irishmen and founder of its newspaper, the Northern Star.
• 20 September – Robert Emmet, leader of the Society of United Irishmen and instigator of the 1803 rebellion .
• 21 October – Thomas Russell, co-founder of the Society of United Irishmen and rebel leader .