1872 in Ireland

Events

• Party Processions Acts repealed.
• Summer – about 30,000 Nationalists hold a demonstration at Hannahstown near Belfast, campaigning for the release of Fenian prisoners, but leading to another series of riots between Catholics and Protestants in the city.
• Ulster Hospital for Women and Sick Children is opened in Chichester Street, Belfast.

  Arts and literature

• Samuel Ferguson publishes his long poem Congal.
• Sheridan Le Fanu publishes his short-story collection In a Glass Darkly including the vampire novella Carmilla.
• Charles Lever publishes his last novel Lord Kilgobbin, "a tale of Ireland in our own time".

  Sport

Births

• 14 February – Tom Ross, cricketer.
• 31 March – Arthur Griffith, founder and third leader of Sinn Féin, served as President of Dáil Éireann.
• 26 April – William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, later William Desmond Taylor, film director in United States.
• 13 June – Blayney Hamilton, cricketer.
• 4/7 July – John J. O'Kelly, politician, author and publisher, president of the Gaelic League and Sinn Féin.
• 16 July – George Henry Morris, soldier, first commanding officer to lead an Irish Guards battalion into battle.
• 23 July – John J. McGrath, Democrat U.S. Representative from California.
• 13 August – Robert Johnston, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1899 at the Battle of Elandslaagte, South Africa.
• 4 September – James Magee, cricketer.
• 23 September – Dan Comyn, cricketer.
• 20 October – Seán O'Mahony, Sinn Féin MP.
• 24 October – Peter O'Connor, athlete
• 13 November – John M. Lyle, architect in Canada.
• 28 November – Ethel Hobday, pianist.
• Undated – Patrick R. Chalmers, writer.

  Deaths

• 22 January – Valentine McMaster, Scottish military surgeon, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at the Siege of Lucknow, India.
• 8 February – Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, statesman, three times Chief Secretary for Ireland, Viceroy of India, assassinated.
• 1 June – Charles Lever, novelist.
• 18 October – Michael O'Connor, first Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, first Catholic Bishop of Erie, Jesuit.
• 23 November – Joseph Ward, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1858 at Gwalior, India.
• 6 December – James Byrne, recipient of the Victoria Cross.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Anne Elizabeth Ball, phycologist.
• :*Robert Patterson, businessman and naturalist.