Events from the year 1865 in Ireland. Events 23 July – the sets out from Valentia Island on the first attempt to lay the transatlantic telegraph cable. Methodist College Belfast founded by the church; it will open to pupils in 1868. Work begins on the building of the Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast, as a memorial to Queen Victoria's late Prince Consort, Prince Albert.
Arts and literature 9 May – International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures opens in Dublin. 23 December – Gustavus Vaughan Brooke concludes a farewell season in Belfast, playing the title role in Richard III. Augustus Burke paints Connemara Girl.
Deaths 6 February – Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin, astronomer (died 1939). 16 March – Patsy Donovan, Major League Baseball player and manager (died 1953 in the United States). 17 March – Patrick Joseph Sullivan, mayor of Casper, Wyoming and Republican member of the United States Senate from Wyoming (died 1935 in the United States). 20 April – James Macmahon, civil servant and businessman, Under-Secretary for Ireland from 1918 to 1922 (died 1954). 4 May – Charles A. Callis, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1947 in the United States). 7 May – John MacBride, nationalist rebel and Easter Rising leader (executed 1916). 8 May – Charles FitzClarence, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1899 near Mafeking, South Africa (killed in action 1914). 10 June – Dermod O'Brien, painter (died 1945). 13 June – W. B. Yeats, poet and dramatist (died 1939). 18 June – Henry Allan, painter (died 1912). 24 June – Harry Plunket Greene, baritone (died 1936). 15 July – Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, newspaper and publishing magnate (died 1922) 16 July – 'George A. Birmingham' (Rev. James Owen Hannay), novelist (died 1950) 29 August – Thomas Kent, nationalist rebel (executed following a gunfight with the RIC 1916). 4 September – Alice Milligan, nationalist and poet (died 1953). 16 October – Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan, British Army commander in World War I, later Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Field Marshal (died 1946). 12 November – Herbert Trench, poet (died 1923). Full date unknown Grace Rhys, née Little, novelist (died 1929). Robert Henry Woods, Irish Unionist MP (died 1938).
Births 1 April – John Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart, Conservative politician. (born 1818). 23 May – Benjamin Holmes, businessman and politician in Quebec (born 1794). 14 July – Nathaniel Burslem, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in . MOVE FROM *1865* TO 1789 *25 July – Dr James Barry, military surgeon, revealed on death to be a woman, probably Margaret Ann Bulkley (born 1789-1799). 31 August – John Farrell, soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade (born 1826). 2 September – William Rowan Hamilton, mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (born 1805). Full date unknown Jones Quain, anatomist (born 1796).
See also 1865 in Scotland 1865 in Wales
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