1896 in Ireland

Events

• February – the Broighter Gold hoard of prehistoric objects is discovered near Limavady by Tom Nicholl while ploughing.
• 16 May – the first electric tram runs on the Dublin tramways system.
• May – James Connolly returns from Edinburgh to Ireland as paid organiser for the Dublin Socialist Club. He founds the Irish Republican Socialist Party.
• 28 March – Tom Gallaher incorporates the Gallaher tobacco business and opens the world's largest tobacco factory in Belfast.
• John Dillon assumes the leadership of the anti-Parnellite wing of the Home Rule Party.
• An extension is made to Arthur Balfour's Land Act. 1,500 bankrupt estates are made available for sale to tenants.
• Ireland's first motor vehicle laws are introduced.
• Restoration of the Church of Ireland's Kildare Cathedral is completed.

  Arts and literature

• 20 April – first cinema show in Ireland, at Dan Lowry's Star of Erin Variety Theatre in Dublin.
• The lyrics of The Mountains of Mourne are written by Percy French with Dr. W. Houston Collision.
• Charles Villiers Stanford's comic opera Shamus O'Brien is first performed.

  Sport

Cricket

• ;International
• :February: Tim O'Brien becomes the first Irish captain of the England cricket team in a match won against South Africa at Port Elizabeth

  Football

• ;International
• :29 February Wales 6–1 Ireland
• :7 March Ireland 0-2 England
• :28 March Ireland 3-3 Scotland
• ;Irish League
• :Winners: Distillery
• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Distillery 3 - 1 Glentoran

  Field hockey

• ;International
• :2 March: The Ireland women's national field hockey team defeat England 2–0 at Alexandra College in the first ever women's international field hockey match.

  Tennis

• ;The Championships, Wimbledon
• :Harold Mahony wins the gentleman's singles Championship
• ;Olympic Games
• :John Pius Boland wins gold medals in the men's singles and doubles at the first modern Summer Olympics in Athens

  Births

• 15 February – Arthur Shields, actor.
• March – Martin Joseph Sheehan, soldier and Royal Air Service Observer in World War I, killed in action.
• 4 April – Sir Osmond Esmonde, 12th Baronet, diplomat and politician.
• 24 April – F. R. Higgins, poet and theatre director.
• 9 May – Austin Clarke, poet, playwright and writer.
• 22 May – Cyril Fagan, astrologer.
• 28 August – Liam O'Flaherty, novelist and short story writer.
• 10 November – Sophie Catherine Theresa Mary Peirce-Evans, later Mary, Lady Heath, aviator, athlete and writer.
• 25 December – Sister Philippa Brazill, nurse in Australia.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Monk Gibbon, poet and author.
• :*Fiona Plunkett, republican.

  Deaths

• 10 January – Denis Dempsey, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross.
• 3 February – Jane Wilde, poet.
• 4 March – Peter Richard Kenrick, first Catholic archbishop west of the Mississippi River.
• 4 May – Timothy Anglin, politician in Canada and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada.
• 18 May – Patrick Buckley, soldier, lawyer, statesman, and judge in New Zealand.
• 8 August – William Pery, 3rd Earl of Limerick, peer.
• 10 August – Jeremiah O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Mobile.
• 15 August – Patrick Duggan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert.
• 22 September – Edward Selby Smyth, British General, commanded Militia of Canada from 1874 to 1880.
• 1 November – Jack Dempsey, boxer.
• 31 December – Leland Hone, cricketer.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Canon James Goodman, Irish music collector.