Events from the year 1739 in Ireland. Incumbent Monarch: George II Events 27 April – the trial of Henry Barry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry, before the Irish House of Lords for the drunken murder of a tavern servant in Palmerstown the previous summer opens; he is convicted but later pardoned. July–August – wet summer, affecting the harvest and the cutting of turf. 26 September – "Address of the Roman Catholics of Ireland" to George II of Great Britain requesting longer leases. 6 October – the title Earl of Bessborough is created in the Peerage of Ireland in favour of Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, chief commissioner of revenue. 27 December–February 1740 – the 'Great Frost': unusually harsh winter in which the River Liffey froze over, and citizens "walked and recreated themselves upon the ice".
Births 27 September – Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, politician (d. 1821) 31 October – James Gordon, merchant, soldier, and politician in America (d. 1810)
Full date unknown Judge Fulton, judge, surveyor, politician, and founder of the village of Bass River, Nova Scotia (d. 1826) Hugh Kelly, dramatist and poet (d. 1777) Hugh O'Reilly, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher (d. 1801)
Deaths Charles Jervas, painter, translator and art collector (b. c.1675)
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