1866 in Ireland

← 1865 1864 1863 1862 1861 1866 in Ireland → 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	1866 in the United Kingdom Other events of 1866 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1866 in Ireland.

Events

• 28 January - The Midland Great Western Railway opens to Westport railway station.
• 22 June - Archbishop Cullen is elevated to the cardinalate as the first Irish Cardinal.
• 13 July - The SS Great Eastern sets out from Valentia Island on the second (successful) attempt to lay the transatlantic telegraph cable. Robert Halpin is master and William Thomson technical consultant.
• 14 October - St Peter's Church, Belfast, later to become the Roman Catholic Cathedral, is dedicated, although the building is incomplete.
• Maziere Brady retires as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, an office to which he was appointed in 1846.

Sport

• The first modern Irish Derby, created by the 3rd Earl of Howth, the 3rd Marquess of Drogheda and the 3rd Earl of Charlemont, is run at the Curragh Racecourse.
• The Ulster Yacht Club is revived at Bangor, County Down, on the initiative of Frederick Temple Blackwood, 5th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye.

Births

• 5 February - Domhnall Ua Buachalla, member of 1st Dáil, Fianna Fáil TD, last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (died 1963).
• February - Michael Egan, trade unionist, city councillor and Cumann na nGaedheal TD (died 1947).
• 15 June - Charles Wood, composer (died 1926).
• 13 July - Emily Winifred Dickson, gynaecologist (died 1944 in Liverpool).
• 16 August - Dora Sigerson, poet (died 1918 in London).
• 1 November - Cheiro, born William John Warner, astrologer (died 1936 in the United States).
• 3 December - Ethna Carbery, born Anna Johnston, writer and poet (died 1902).
• 7 December - Maude Delap, marine biologist (died 1953)
• December - Thomas Byrne, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1898 at the Battle of Omdurman, Sudan (died 1944).

Full date unknown

• Éamon a Búrc, tailor and seanchaí (died 1942).
• Master McGrath, greyhound (died 1873).
• Bridget Sullivan, domestic housemaid for Borden family of Fall River, Massachusetts (died 1948 in the United States).

Deaths

• 5 January - Augustus Warren Baldwin, naval officer and political figure in Upper Canada (born 1776).
• 11 January - Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, actor (born 1818).
• 17 January - George Petrie, painter, musician, antiquary and archaeologist (born 1790).
• 4 March - Alexander Campbell, religious leader in Britain and the United States (born 1788).
• 18 May - Francis Sylvester Mahony, humorist and poet (aka Father Prout) (born 1804).
• 26 October - John Kinder Labatt, brewer in Canada (born 1803).
• 26 October - Patrick McHale, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Lucknow, India (born 1826).
• Full date unknown - Edward Eagar, lawyer and criminal transported to Australia, politician (born 1787; died in London).