1903 in Ireland

← 1902 1901 1900 1899 1898 1903 in Ireland → 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	1903 in the United Kingdom Other events of 1903 List of years in Ireland

Notable events which occurred during 1903 relating to the island of Ireland.

Events

• 3 January – the Norwegian ship Remittant is towed into quarantine in Queenstown with the entire crew suffering from beriberi.
• 3 February – the proposed canonisation of Oliver Plunkett is discussed in Rome.
• 26 February – the ocean liner SS Columbus is launched by Harland and Wolff at Belfast.
• 27 February – a meeting at the Mansion House, Dublin, enthusiastically welcomes a movement to establish Saint Patrick's Day as a national holiday.
• 8 March – Charles Gavan Duffy is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. He is laid to rest near others who took part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.
• 17 March – in Waterford, Saint Patrick's Day is marked as a public holiday (to encourage temperance).
• 26 March – the Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham, introduces his Irish Land Bill in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
• 31 March – the Lord-Lieutenant announces that Edward VII and Queen Alexandra intend to visit Ireland within the coming year.^[1]
• 15 May – the Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham, asks for support for his Irish Land Bill.
• 23 May – extracts from the annual report of the British Army shows that there are 35,717 Irishmen in its service.
• 9 June – the University of Dublin announces that it is to award degrees to women following a vote. The first women will be admitted as full members of its sole constituent, Trinity College, Dublin, in 1904.
• 1 July – the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway becomes the Northern Counties Committee of the Midland Railway (of England).
• 19–27 July – first visit to Ireland as monarch of King Edward VII,^[1] landing at Buncrana.
• 14 August – the Wyndham Land (Purchase) Act is passed in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, offering special incentives to landlords to sell their entire estates.
• 5 September – Irish painter Henry Jones Thaddeus is granted permission to paint the first portrait of Pope Pius X.
• 13 November – the 2nd Battalion of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers is welcomed home after nearly 20 years of foreign service.
• 22 December – the well-known Irish optician, Patrick Cahill, who had the sole privilege of supplying the late Pope Leo XIII with spectacles, is to supply the present pontiff, Pope Pius X.

  Undated

  • Independent Orange Institution is formed, as a breakaway from the Orange Institution.^[2]
  • Pigeon House generating station in Dublin starts producing electricity.
  • Withdrawal of the last British Royal Navy guard ship to be permanently stationed at Kingstown, the cruiser HMS Melampus (1890).^[3]
  • Cork International Exhibition is re-opened.

Arts and literature

• January – An Túr Gloine, the cooperative studio for stained glass, is established by Sarah Purser in Dublin.^[4]
• 8 October – first performance of a play by J. M. Synge, In the Shadow of the Glen, at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin.
• 7 December – first performance of the opera Muirgheis with music by Thomas O'Brien Butler and libretto by Thadgh O'Donoghue at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, the first Irish language opera.
• Padraic Colum's Broken Soil is performed by W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company.^[5]
• George Moore's short stories The Untilled Field are published.
• 'Æ' (George William Russell)'s The Nuts of Knowledge, lyrical poems old and new is published by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press at Dundrum, Dublin.^[6][7][8]
• W. B. Yeats's In the Seven Woods, being poems of the Irish heroic age (including "Adam's Curse", "The King's Threshold" and "The Hour-Glass")^[9] is published by his sister's Dun Emer Press;^[7][8] he also publishes his essays Ideas of Good and Evil.^[10]
• County Cork-born Chicago chief of police Francis O'Neill's collection O'Neill's Music of Ireland is published.

Sport

Births

• 15 January – Joe Stynes, Irish Republican and sportsman (died 1991).
• 19 January – Alfred Lane Beit, British politician, art collector and philanthropist, honorary Irish citizen (died 1994).
• 28 January – Kathleen Lonsdale, X-ray crystallographer (died 1971).
• 2 February – Hilton Edwards, actor, director, co–founder of Gate Theatre, born in London (died 1982).
• 5 February – William Teeling, author, traveller and UK politician (died 1975).
• 23 February – Alec Mackie, soccer player (died 1984).
• 11 March – Michael Hilliard, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and MEP (died 1982).
• 13 March – Joseph Blowick second leader of Clann na Talmhan, TD and Cabinet Minister (died 1970).
• 5 April – Leo Rowsome, teacher, player and maker of uilleann pipes (died 1970).
• 12 April – Paddy Collins, Cork hurler (died 1995).
• 25 May – Ewart Milne, poet (died 1987).
• 8 June – Harry Duggan, soccer player (died 1968).
• 18 July – Charles Hill, cricketer (died 1982).
• 5 August – Achey Kelly, cricketer (died 1961).
• 17 September – Frank O'Connor, short story writer and memoirist (died 1966).
• 6 October – Ernest Walton, physicist, 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics (died 1995).
• 23 October – Patrick Cogan, Independent TD (died 1977).
• 1 November – Max Adrian, actor (died 1973).
• 18 December – Harry Forsyth, cricketer (died 2004).

  Undated

  • Leo Maguire, singer, songwriter and radio broadcaster (died 1985).
  • Stanley Woods, motor cycle racer, with 29 Grand Prix wins and 10 Isle of Man TT wins (died 1993).

Deaths

• 9 February – Charles Gavan Duffy, nationalist and Australian colonial politician (born 1816).
• 5 April – Mary Anne Sadlier, novelist (born 1820).
• 24 April – Walter Osborne, impressionist painter (born 1859).
• 27 April – William Travers, lawyer, politician, explorer, and naturalist in New Zealand (born 1819).
• 25 July – John Michael Clancy, Democratic Party United States Representative from New York (born 1837).
• 31 August – Charles O'Hea, Catholic Priest, baptised Ned Kelly and ministered to him before he was hanged in 1880 (born c. 1814).
• 12 September – Maxwell Henry Close, geologist (born 1822).
• 22 October – William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian (born 1838).
• 24 October – James Adams (chaplain), recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in Afghanistan (1879) (born 1839).

References