1881 in Ireland

• 16 January – the lowest temperature ever recorded in Ireland, −19.1C (−2.4F) at Markree, County Sligo.{{cite web|title=Temperature in Ireland|url=http://www.met.ie/climate/temperature.asp|publisher=Met Éireann|access-date=2012-07-21|archive-date=2019-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107003129/https://www.met.ie/climate/temperature.asp%20|url-status=dead}}
• 3 February – arrest of Michael Davitt.{{cite book|editor1=Moody, T. W. |editor2=Martin, F. X. |year=1967|title=The Course of Irish History|publisher=Mercier Press|location=Cork|page=378}}
• 2 March – Protection of Persons and Property (Ireland) Act 1881, a Coercion Act, is passed.
• June – the submarine "Fenian Ram" (Holland Boat No. II), designed by Irish-born John Philip Holland and financed by the American Fenian Brotherhood, is first submersion-tested in New York City.
• 22 August – William Ewart Gladstone's Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881, the second of the Irish Land Acts, secures the three "f"s (fair rents, fixity of tenure and freedom of sale),{{cite book|title=Edward Carson|first=A. T. Q.|last=Stewart|series=Gill's Irish Lives|publisher=Gill & Macmillan|location=Dublin|year=1981}} and gives the courts the authority to reconsider judicial rents every three years and to adjust them in line with shifts in agricultural prices.{{cite web|first1=Myrtle |last1=Hill |first2=John |last2=Lynch |title=Ireland: society & economy, 1870–1914 |url=http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_society__economy_1870-1914 |work=Multitext Project in Irish History |publisher=University College Cork |access-date=2012-07-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910205309/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_society__economy_1870-1914 |archive-date=2010-09-10 }}
• 13 October – arrest of Charles Stewart Parnell and other leaders.
• 18 October – No Rent Manifesto.
• 19 October – Irish National Land League proclaimed as an unlawful association.

Date unknown

• Sirocco Works, an engineering firm was founded in Belfast by Samuel Cleland Davidson.{{Cite web |date=2021-11-24 |title=Industrialist who ran a tea estate in India, then returned to found Sirocco |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/industrialist-who-ran-a-tea-estate-in-india-then-returned-to-found-sirocco-3469456 |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=Belfast News Letter |language=en}}
• Kilmacud Monastery established by Carmelite nuns.
• Approximate date – St John Ambulance Ireland establishes its first centre, in Dublin.

• June – Oscar Wilde's Poems published in London.{{cite book|editor=Cox, Michael|title=The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=0-19-860634-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxfordchr00coxm}}

• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Moyola Park 1–0 Cliftonville (first ever Irish Cup winners)

• 9 November – Royal Belfast Golf Club founded, the oldest in Ireland.{{cite web|title=Royal Belfast Golf Club|url=http://www.thegolfpa.com/courses-royal-belfast.aspx|publisher=The Golf PA.com|location=Coleraine|access-date=2012-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233649/http://www.thegolfpa.com/courses-royal-belfast.aspx|archive-date=2016-03-03|url-status=dead}}

• 23 January – William O'Brien, politician and trade unionist (died 1968).
• 10 February – Ken McArthur, winner of the marathon race at the 1912 Summer Olympics for South Africa (died 1960).
• 15 February – Piaras Béaslaí, member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, member of Dáil Éireann, author, playwright, biographer and translator (died 1965).
• 14 March – Robert Barton, Sinn Féin MP, Cabinet Minister and signatory of Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 (died 1975).
• 21 March – Seán O'Hegarty, Irish Republican Army member during the Irish War of Independence (died 1963).
• 25 March – Moya Llewelyn Davies, born Mary Elizabeth O'Connor, Republican activist and Gaelic scholar (died 1943).
• 28 March – Martin Sheridan, Olympic gold medallist for the United States (died 1918).
• 10 April – William John Leech, painter (died 1968).
• 24 April – John Joe O'Reilly, Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael TD (died 1967).
• 5 May – Horace de Vere Cole, prankster (died 1936 in France)
• 20 May – Robert Gregory, cricketer, artist and airman (shot down 1918 in Italy).
• 26 July – James Cecil Parke, international rugby player, tennis player, golfer and Olympic medallist (died 1946).
• 21 September – Éamonn Ceannt, nationalist, rebel and Easter Rising leader (executed 1916).
• 13 November
• Con Collins, Sinn Féin MP (died 1937).
• John Tudor Gwynn, cricketer (died 1956).
• 8 December – Padraic Colum, poet, novelist and dramatist (died 1972).
• 25 December – John Dill, British Army field marshal (died 1944 in the United States).
• Full date unknown
• William Conor, artist (died 1968).
• Seumas O'Kelly, journalist and author (died 1918)

• 30 January – Anna Maria Hall, novelist (born 1800).
• January – Alfred Elmore, painter (born 1815).
• 5 February – Richard Graves MacDonnell, lawyer, judge and colonial governor (born 1814).
• 1 August – Nathaniel Thomas Hone, cricketer (born 1861).
• 9 September – Robert Carew, 2nd Baron Carew, politician (born 1818).
• 10 October – Richard Turner, iron-founder (born 1798).
• 5 November – Robert Mallet, geologist, civil engineer and inventor (born 1810).
• 7 November – John MacHale, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Irish Nationalist and writer (born 1791).

• 1881 in Scotland
• 1881 in Wales

{{reflist}}

{{Years in Ireland}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1881 In Ireland}}

Category:1880s in Ireland

Category:Years of the 19th century in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland