1850 in Ireland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Events from the year 1850 in Ireland.
Events
- Ongoing â Great Famine subsides.[1]
- 31 March â 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]
- October â Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in Dundrum, Dublin, the first secure hospital in Europe.[3]
- 19 November â 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.[4]
- The Encumbered Estates Commissioners sell off remaining Donegall estate properties in Belfast to the tenants.[5]
- Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast is completed.
Arts and literature
- Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre's poem Cúirt An Mheán OÃche 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 â Abd El Kader wins the Aintree Grand National in England, having been trained at Dardistown Castle by his owner, Joe Osborne.
Deaths
- 10 January â William Reid Clanny, physician and inventor of the Clanny safety lamp for miners (born 1770).
- 6 August â Windham Quin, 2nd Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, peer (born 1782).
- 13 August â Martin Archer Shee, painter (born 1769).
- 18 August â Charles Arbuthnot, Tory politician and member of the Privy Council (born 1767).
- 10 October â Jon Riley, deserter from United States Army, a founder of the San Patricios (born 1805).
- 29 December â William Hamilton Maxwell, novelist (born 1792).
Births
- 25 April â William Melville, police officer and first chief of the British Secret Service (died 1918).
- 9 June â Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony, Nationalist politician, barrister and philanthropist (died 1930).
- 24 June â Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British Field Marshal and statesman (drowned 1916).
- 17 July â Edmond Holmes, educationalist, writer on religion and poet (died 1936).
- 12 September â James Bernard, 4th Earl of Bandon, Deputy Lieutenant in Ireland (died 1924).
- 8 October â Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Nationalist politician, barrister and journalist (died 1933).
- 22 December â 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).