1881 in Ireland

• 16 January – the lowest temperature ever recorded in Ireland, −19.1C (−2.4F) at Markree, County Sligo. • 3 February – arrest of Michael Davitt. • 2 March – Protection of Persons and Property (Ireland) Act 1881, a Coercion Act, is passed. and gives the courts the authority to reconsider judicial rents every three years and to adjust them in line with shifts in agricultural prices. • 13 October – arrest of Charles Stewart Parnell and other leaders. • Kilmacud Monastery established by Carmelite nuns. • Approximate date – St John Ambulance Ireland establishes its first centre, in Dublin. ==Arts and literature==

• June – Oscar Wilde's Poems published in London. ==Sport==

Football • ;Irish Cup • :Winners: Moyola Park 1–0 Cliftonville (first ever Irish Cup winners) Golf • 9 November – Royal Belfast Golf Club founded, the oldest in Ireland. ==Births==

• 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) ==Deaths==

• 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). ==See also==