1850 in Ireland

← 1849 1848 1847 1846 1845 1850 in Ireland → 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	1850 in the United Kingdom Other events of 1850 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1850 in Ireland.

Events

• Ongoing - Great Famine subsides.^[1]
• 31 March - The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide (1838), bound from Cork to London, sinks in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.^[2]
• 19 November - The barque Edmond sinks off Kilkee with the loss of 98 of the 216 aboard.
• Improved navigation of River Shannon throughout from Killaloe to Lough Key is completed.^[3]
• Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great grandfather of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, emigrates from Moneygall to New York City at the age of 19.^[4]
• The Encumbered Estates Commissioners sell off remaining Donegall estate properties in Belfast to the tenants.^[5]
• Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast is completed.
• Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in Dundrum, Dublin, the first secure hospital in Europe.^[6]

Arts and literature

• Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre's poem Cúirt An Mheán Oíche is first published from the oral tradition in an edition by the scholar John O'Daly.
• Tara Brooch (c.700 AD) found near Laytown, County Meath.

Sport

• 27 February - Abd El Kader wins the Aintree Grand National in England, having been trained at Dardistown Castle by his owner, Joe Osborne.

Births

• 25 April - William Melville, police officer and first chief of the British Secret Service (died 1918).
• 9 June - Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony, Nationalist politician, barrister and philanthropist (died 1930).
• 24 June - Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British Field Marshal and statesman (drowned 1916).
• 17 July - Edmond Holmes, educationalist, writer on religion and poet (died 1936).
• 12 September - James Bernard, 4th Earl of Bandon, Deputy Lieutenant in Ireland (died 1924).
• 8 October - Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Nationalist politician, barrister and journalist (died 1933).
• 22 December - Thomas O'Shaughnessy, lawyer and judge (died 1933).

Full date unknown

• Thomas Lough, Liberal politician in Britain, Lord Lieutenant of Cavan (died 1922).
• Samuel Shumack, farmer and author in Australia (died 1940 in Australia).

Deaths

• 10 January - William Reid Clanny, physician and inventor of the Clanny safety lamp for miners (born 1770).
• 6 August - Windham Quin, 2nd Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, peer (born 1782).
• 13 August - Martin Archer Shee, painter (born 1769).
• 18 August - Charles Arbuthnot, Tory politician and member of the Privy Council (born 1767).
• 10 October - Jon Riley, deserter from United States Army, a founder of the San Patricios (born 1805).
• 29 December - William Hamilton Maxwell, novelist (born 1792).

References

1. Ross, David (2002). Ireland: History of a Nation (New ed.). New Lanark: Geddes & Grosset. p. 313. ISBN 1842051644.
2. "Royal Adelaide (+1850)". wrecksite. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
3. Delany, Ruth (1988). A celebration of 250 years of Ireland's Inland Waterways. Belfast: Appletree Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-86281-200-3.
4. Jordan, Mary (2007-05-13). "Tiny Irish Village Is Latest Place to Claim Obama as Its Own". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
5. Moody, T. W.; et al., eds. (1989). A New History of Ireland. 8: A Chronology of Irish History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821744-2.
6. "History". Central Mental Hospital Carers. Retrieved 2014-11-22.