See also: 1887 in Ireland, other events of 1888, 1889 in Ireland and the list of 'years in Ireland'.

Events

• Irish members of the House of Commons attempt to introduce an Irish Local Government Bill however the Bill is opposed by Chief Secretary Arthur Balfour.
• The Daily Telegraph is first published.
• Belfast is granted city status by Great Britain.
• The Belfast Central Library is founded.
• A large flock of 110 Pallas's Sandgrouse, a rare species of birds in Ireland, is recorded. It is one of the last known migrations witnessed in Ireland.
• April Pope Leo XIII issues a decree denouncing Charles Stewart Parnell's "Plan of Campaign " as the Holy Office issued a rescript to the Bishops of Ireland to boycott the Campaign.
• William Butler Yeats joins the Esoteric Section of Theosophistical Society .
• James Daly sells Connaught Telegraph to employee T.H. Gillespie .
• Thomas Lindsay Buick becomes Secretary of the Gladstone branch of the Irish National League .
• Reverend Henry Lett publishes a research paper on several unknown forms of fungi found in Northern Ireland however this document as well as other reaserch by Lett were later lost.
• March - The Pan-Celtic Society is founded by William Butler Yeats.
• August 20 - The Christian Brothers College is founded in Cork.
• September - James Joyce enters the Clongowes Wood College as the schools youngest student.

Arts and literature

• William Allingham's Laurence Bloomfield or rich and poor in Ireland is published.
• J.E. Gore publishes A revised catalouge of variable stars .
• William Henry Hulbert publishes Ireland Under Coercion .
• John Kells Ingram publishes A history of political economy and Essays in political economy .
• T. Dumbar Ingram publishes Two Chapters of Irish History .
• MacGregor Mathers's Qabbalah Unveiled is published.
• Kuno Meyer publishes The Wooing of Emer .
• Moore's publishes Confessions of a Young Man and Spring Days .
• Oscar Wilde's publishes The Happy Prince and Portrait of Mr WH are published.
• William Butler Yeats Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasentry and Sally Gardens is published.

Sports

• Several Irish Cricket Teams travel for their second tour of Canada and the United States.
• The Leopardstown Racecourse is established by Captain George Quin becoming the first modern fully enclosed race track.
• The Royal Portrush Golf Club is founded in Portrush, Northern Ireland .
• The Cork Golf Club is founded in Cork.
• Several Cavan GAA football teams are formed including the Kildallan Wolfe Tones , Castletara , Butlersbridge Emmets , Drumlane sons of O'Connell , Ballintemple Bob Sextons , Ballinagh Erins Hope , Bawnboy Gallowglasses , Milltown Owen Roe's , Arva Michael Davitts , and the Cavan Slashers .
• The Distillery Football Club team The Whites win the Irish Junior Cup .
• April - The First Cavan GAA All Ireland Finals is held in Birr.
• April 7 - A Cavan GAA football game between the Cavan Slashers and Belturbet Rory O'Moores was reported by an Anglo-Celt reporter as "..A disgrace, I must state that a more rowdy and disgraceful meeting I have never witnessed and the conduct of the party that came along with the Cavan club was simply what I could not wish to describe" and "The filthy expressions used by them towards the Rory O'Moores is simply not fit for publication"
• April 30 - The first Cavan GAA County Championship Final was played at Cavan as the Maghera McFinns defeat the Ballyconnell First Ulster 's.

Births

• 1st Viscount Basil Stanlake Brooke Brookeborough, politician
• Linda Kearns , Sinn Fein member and politicain
• Seaumas MacManus , writer
• February 10 - Michael Joseph MacManus , journalist
• March 4 - Grace Gifford Plunkett , Sinn Fein member and politician
• December 6 - "Arthur" Joyce Cary, author

Deaths