To view completed years, click for 1917, 1918 (Jan-Apr) and 1918 (May-Dec)
1896
Chevok completed his play The Seagull, Pucinni produced La Boheme
Fashion was moving towards the clean-shaven male.
Pope Leo X111, no liberal by any stretch of the imagination, dashed many hopes for closer ties with the Anglican Communion with publication in 1896 of the encyclical letter Apostolicae Curae, declaring that ordinations of Anglican clergy were invalid.
Births:
John Breen (RAF air marshal) in Cork
Michael J. Browne (bishop, conservative moralist) in Westport, Co. Mayo
Peter Cheyney (pen-name of Reginald Southouse-Chesney; crime novelist) in Co. Clare (22/2)
Austin Clarke (poet and dramatist) in Dublin (9/5)
Seán Dowling (revolutionary and dramatist) in Dublin
James Drumm (industrial chemist) in Dundrum, Co. Down (25/1)
Frank J. Geary (journalist; editor of the Irish Independent) in Co. Kilkenny
Roy Geary (statistician) in Dublin
Monk Gibbon (writer and teacher) in Dublin
Frederick Higgins (writer) in Foxford, Co. Mayo (24/4)
Abraham 'Con' Leventhal (literary critic) in Dublin
Thomas McLaughlin (electrical engineer) in Drogheda, Co. Louth
Liam Ó Catháin (novelist) in Emly, Co. Tipperary
Michael O'Connor (physician, writer and broadcaster) in Loughrea, Co. Galway
Harry O'Donovan (scriptwriter) in Dublin
Liam O'Flaherty (writer) on Inishmore, Aran Islands (28/8)
Arthur Shields (actor) in Dublin
L.A.G. Strong (writer, often on Irish themes) in Plymouth
January
3. Kaiser Willhelm sent a congratulatory telegram to President Kruger of the Boer Republic on his forces repelling British horsemen in their raid into Boer territory. The end result was a violent British public reaction against Germany.
4: Utah became the 45th state in the Union but had not been allowed join because of the practice of polygamy within the Mormom church. This had been disavowed in 1890.
Irish born General H.H.Kitchener was given the task of clearing the Mahdi from Southern Egypt and Sudan, and with a mix of British and Egyptian troops, began working his way methodically up the Nile river.
February
2: Justin McCarthy resigns from the leadership of the Anti-Parnelite section of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Lady Wilde (70) widow of Sir William and mother of Oscar died.
New York World Newspaper Poster – R.F.Outcault.
18: John Dillon elected leader of the anti-Parnellite Home Rulers ( 38 votes to 21 )
At the Democratic National Convention, William Jennings Bryan was nominated for President. The Republicans nominated William McKinley.
March
Diarmuid Lynch receiving an offer from his maternal uncle, Cornelius Dunlea to emigrate to the United States visited a family friend – Gerald Fitzmahony, postmaster of Middleton. Diarmuid recalled, 54 years later in a letter to Fitzmahony’s son; Maurice:
’….what with the fact that 54 years have elapsed since ‘Christie’ Lynch spent a night at his home, I thought I may have to explain who Diarmuid Lynch is…though I well remember the occasion, I had forgotten the fact that I shared your bed…by the way only ten days agao when looking through some old documents, letters etc, I came across the one from Uncle Corney [ Diarmuid’s maternal uncle, Cornelius Dunlea ] advising me to have your father..purchase my tickets etc etc for which purpose I stayed with you in March ’96….
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 50 - 00016
8: Diarmuid, taking up his maternal uncles offer of employment and accomodation in New York, emigrated from Ireland on March 8th. He was to spend the next 11 years until 1907 there and later from 1918-1932 a total of 25 years.
He describes his first year in Manhattan: ‘I visited every spot of historical and other interest, and venture to say I knew the city better than most native born citizens. The knowledge which they came by naturally about the working of the Federal and State Governments I acquired in large measure through study of Bryce’s ‘American Commonwealth’. Another twelve months residence was, however necessary to get these and kindred matters into proper perspective. Though U.S. citizenship was aquired by me shortly after the minimum term of five years elapsed, I can say that on first sight of the Statue of Liberty I felt myself to be a good American….over 1896-7 my social activities were chielfy among German-American; splendid comrades they were. Our friendship remained intact over the eleven year initial period of my sojourn in the ‘Empire City’ though my association with them diminished as the work of the Gaelic League came to occupy more and more of my spare time….during the whole of that period, my employment was with A.B.Farquhar & Co ( of which my uncle was junior partner and managing director ) exporters of farm implements and machinery manufactured by the A.B.F. Co Ltd at York, Pensylvania. Our principal foreign markets included South Africa, South America, Mexico and Cuba. At first my job was that of bookkeeper and shipping clerk… in the early years my salary advanced none too rapidly; my uncle continually urged that there was a wider field for me abroad. With this prospect in view I studied Spanish and Mechanical Drawing…’’
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The I.R.B and the 1916 Rising’. Edited by Florence O’Donoghue. Mercier Press. Cork, 1957. P4
The Cotton Exchange Building New York. Designed by George Post and completed in 1885. From an impression c. 1883 by Hughson Hawley.
Manufacturer A.B.Farquhar (1838-1925)
Born in 1838 of Scotch descent, Quaker A.B.Farquhar founded an agricultural implements company in 1856 in his home town of York, Pennsylvania. By the Civil War, the Firm ‘A.B.Farquhar & Co. Ltd’ had emerged as a builder of first-class steam engines, threshers and sawmills state-wide and the US East Coast.
The business survived a devastating fire in 1862 and on June 28th 1863, Farquhar acted as an intermediary between the city fathers of York and the Confederate Army as invading troops approached York in the days before the Battle of Gettysburg*. There was a major outcry as the Quaker adopted a traditional peaceful approach, which allowed the small Federal forces present to leave and Confederate troops to pass through. Both the town and his business remained undamaged.
Another devastating fire in 1876 virtually destroyed the factory but was quickly rebuilt and in the early 1880’s A.B.Farquhar opened a New York city export branch in the Cotton Exchange Buildings. Export markets were now opening up in Latin America and South Africa and Cornelius Dunlea, Diarmuid Lynch’s Uncle became Junior Partner and Managing Director.
Early in 1896, Cornelius offered his nephew then based in London with the British Post Office, a position in New York as bookkeeper and shipping clerk which Diarmuid took up in March 1896 and was to spend the next 12 years. By 1898, he was to leave for Mexico to help develop emerging markets there but rising tensions with the Spanish-American War in Cuba forced a cancellation. Diarmuid remained with the company and became Assistant Manager following his Uncle’s death in 1900.At the end of the Boer War, the firm’s venture into the South African markets produced a massive orders as reconstruction began and A.B. Farquhar now counted President Grover Cleveland*, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Schwab and Andy Mellon amongst his close friends. Not only a recognised authority on finance and economics, Farquhar also entered newspaper publishing for a short, financially disastrous 6 years.
Diarmuid’s growing involvement in Irish Nationalism led him to return to Ireland and the following letters from Farquhar indicate the inducements to get his Assistant Manager to stay and the later offer to ‘leave the latch string out’ should he wish to return from Ireland.
A.B. Farquhar & Co.Ltd reached it’s peak during World War 1 and in the early 20’s as the firm filled war and reconstruction orders. In early 1925, the 87 year old Farquhar was injured by a car while walking near his home and died some months later. The company weathered the Great Depression and prospered through the war years of 1941-45.
Oliver Corporation acquired the company in 1952, and it was sold off piecemeal in the early 1960s. The last owner, Hess Oil Co. of New York, gave the buildings to York for redevelopment. Despite Farquhar's long standing as one of York's most prominent citizens with extensive dealings overseas, one of his sons eclipsed his father in lasting prominence on the international scene. Percival Farquhar was a builder of railroads, docks, roads and utilities in Latin and South America. "In Percival Farquhar flowered the imaginative genius of one of the most versatile international entrepreneurs the Americas have produced, " a colleague commented.
Except for a few demonstrations at antique farm equipment shows, traces of Farquhar's massive manufacturing works disappeared with the redevelopment wrecker's ball in the 1960s. The unemployment office in York sits on the former site.
* Gettysburg (July1-3, 1863. ) Major engagement of the American Civil War and generally regarded as the turning point of the war. Numbering some 75,000 troops, Confederate General Robert E.Lee invaded the Union North in hopes of discouraging the enemy and possibly inducing European nations to recognise the Confederacy. Both sides met at the strategic centre of Gettysburg where fighting raged for three days until Confederate forces retreated early on July 4th. Losses were amongst the heaviest of the war, with 88,000 killed. The dedication of the National Cemetery on the site was the occasion of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
**President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) 22nd and 24th President of the US. Democrat. Reformist President 1884-88 and isolationist in 1892-96.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) Scottish born, Pennsylvania resident American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the US steel industry of the late 19th century and one of the most important philanthropists of his era.
Charles Schwab (1862-1939) Entrepreneur of the early U.S. steel industry and one of the first American Tycoons. Pennsylvania born Schwab pioneered Bethlehem Steel, later became known as the ‘merchant of death’ for making huge profits during the First World War. However the Great Depression, unwise investments and a lavish lifestyle expended his $200 million fortune and by his death of heart disease in 1939, he was insolvent.
Andy Mellon (1855-1937) Pennsylvania born of Irish extraction, US financier, philanthropist, Secretary of the Treasury 1921-32 and US Ambassador to Britain 1931-32. Classed as one of the wealthiest men in America by 1920, his benefactions allowed the building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and contributed art works valued at over $25 million in 1937.
John MacBride ( 1865-1916 ) emigrated to South Africa where he became an assayer with the Rand Mining Corporation and was instumental in persuading Arthur Griffith ( 1871-1922 ), by trade a printer, to join him in South Africa at age 25 due to a trade depression in Dublin. He returned later in the year and started a newspaper “The United Irishman” with money coming from Clan na Gael. Reputed to be “a superb journalist” ( TPCoogan-”Ireland since the Rising )
Although a member of the IRB until 1910, he did not advocate force believing instead his version of the national ideal “ An Irish state, governed by Irishmen for the benefit of Irish people”.
James Connolly, stood as a socialist candidate in the Saint Giles division, lost and remained unemployed. While on the point of emigrating to Chile to farm, he accepted the position of Secretary to the Dublin Socialist Club, a position that he held until 1904 paying £1 per week and lived in the slum area of Charlemont street.
1: 20,000 Italians faced 90,000 Ethiopians at Adowa in the Northern Ethiopia and heavily defeated, and retreated back to the coast. A devestating humiliation for Italy.
16: R Bolton McCausland makes the first recorded use of X-rays in Ireland at Dr Steeven’s Hospital, Dublin.
April
20: First screening of a cinema film in Ireland at Dan Lowrey’s Star of Erin Palace of Varieties, Dublin ( Later the Olympia Theatre )
The aged sucessor to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, Emperor Francis Joseph’s brother died of natural causes and his eldest son, the Emperor’s nephew, 33 year old Francis Ferdinand was now in line to inherit the throne.
The first Olympic Games in over 15 centuries were held in Athens. 13 countries attended with 42 events in 11 sports with Paris chosen as the venue to hold the 1900 games.
May
29: Irish Socialist Republican Party founded by James Connolly.
July
26: Belfast shipyards damaged by fire.
Poor potato crops in the west of Ireland leads to shortages late 1896.
Aged 17, P.H.Pearse founded “The New Ireland Literary Society”
Dr Thomas Gallagher and Alfred Whitehead, members of the original Dynamiters Team behind the 1883 bombing campaign in England were released from prison after agitation over their treatment. Both had been treated so harshly in 13 years of prison that they had become derranged. Dr Gallagher returned to New York and lived in a sanitorium for another 29 years without ever recovering his sanity.
August
1: ‘Recess Committee’ presents a report to the Chief Secretary on the need for state promotion of agriculture and industry.
6: Madacasgar declared a French colony.
14: Land Law (Ireland) Act ( also known as Gerard Balfour’s Land Act ) removes many restrictions of the 1891 Act and empowers the Land Court to sell 1,500 bankrupt estates to tenants.
The Locomotoves on Highways Act allows the use of motor cars without restrictions.
17:
On August 17, 1896, alluvial gold was discovered in Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, region in the western Yukon Territory, Canada, site of a great gold rush in the late 1890s. The Klondike is in the vicinity of Dawson, where the Klondike and Yukon rivers meet. When news of the discovery spread in mid-1897, a great gold rush began, and by late 1898, about 30,000 – 60,000 prospectors had entered the forbidding artic area. In 1900, the year of peak production, more than $22 million worth of gold was recovered from the rivers and creeks of the region. Gold production declined sharply thereafter, and many prospectors went to nearby Alaska. By 1966, when production ended, the area had yielded $250 million worth of gold.
21: John Daly, another of the ‘Dynamiters’ from the 1883-85 Campaign was released from prison after serving 12 years of a life sentence. An investigation of his allegation that he was being poisoned by prison staff was upheld. On release he embarked on an extensive lecture tour in the US in 1897, returning to Limerick where he opened a bakery and became Lord Mayor three times. Both his nephew, Edward Daly and prison associate, Thomas J Clarke ( who married his niece, Kathleen ) were executed following the 1916 Rising.
British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury was interupted at a dinner party by a dispatch box from London and scribbled a reply at the dinner table. One of the guests enquried if it was a serious matter to which the Prime Minister commented that the Kaiser had landed troops at Delagoa Bay in Portugese East Africa.’What answer have you sent?’ ‘I have sent no answer’ replied Salisbury ‘I have sent ships’.
September
1-3: Irish Race Convention held in Dublin.
France: two years after the trial, Lieutenant Colonel George Picquart, then head of French military intelligence, uncovered evidence indicating that a French infantry officer, Major Marie Charles Esterhazy, was actually the writer of the treasonable bordereau ascribed to Dreyfus. Picquart was silenced by his superiors and dismissed from the service. About the same time, similar evidence implicating Esterhazy was uncovered by relatives and friends of Dreyfus. The army, in order to save face, had to court-martial Esterhazy, but early in 1898 he was acquitted.
2: General Kitchener’s campaign to remove the Mahdi from the Nile met at Omdurman, just across the river from Kharthoum. There Kitchener’s 26,000 troops faced some 40,000 Mahdists. This time, the British had 20 machine guns and killed over 20,000 of the Mahdi loosing 500. Kitchener occupied Kharthoum and then proceeded up the Nile to Fashoda, 400 miles south.
12: Arrests of leading members of the Dynamiters took place with Edward Bell (Ivory) captured in Glasgow, Patrick J Tynan ( who claimed to be No.1 of the Invincibles ) at Bolougne and John F Kearney & Thomas Haines in Rotterdam. A supply of dynamite was discovered at another location. A month later, France refused a British request to extradite Tyan. Case against Bell opened in January 1897.
19: Kitchen reached Fashoda, finding the French there under General Marchand. A tense co-relationship developed.
24: F Scott Fitzgerald born.
Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott (Key) (1896-1940), American writer of novels and short stories that epitomized the mood and manners of the 1920s—the Jazz Age, as he called it.
Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St Paul, Minnesota, and sent to local Roman Catholic boarding schools. At Princeton University he mostly ignored formal study, instead receiving his education from writers and critics, such as Edmund Wilson, who remained his lifelong friend. In 1917 he left Princeton to take an army commission, and in training camps he revised the first draft of his novel originally entitled “The Romantic Egoist”, but published as This Side of Paradise (1920). While at a camp in Alabama, he fell in love with 18-year-old Zelda Sayre, who, as the archetypal flapper, was to become as integral a part of Fitzgerald's fiction as he was.
This Side of Paradise, published in the spring of 1920, made Fitzgerald rich, or rich enough at least to marry the high-living Zelda. In this autobiographical novel, the young, disillusioned post-war generation found mirrored their shattered dreams and empty, irresolute lives. His next novel, The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), a mood piece chronicling the anxieties and dissipations of a rich couple, proved somewhat less popular. His short stories, however, were in great demand. They paid for his and Zelda's extravagant hotel-society lifestyle. Of his more than 150 stories, he chose 46 to appear in four books: Flappers and Philosophers (1920), Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), All the Sad Young Men (1926), and Taps at Reveille (1935).
In 1924 the Fitzgeralds left their Long Island home for the French Riviera, not to return permanently to the United States until 1931. In five months he completed The Great Gatsby (1925), a sensitive, satiric fable of the pursuit of success and the collapse of the American dream. Although it is generally regarded as his masterpiece, Gatsby sold poorly, thus accelerating the disintegration of his personal life. Despite Zelda's slide into insanity (she was hospitalized periodically from 1930 to her death in 1948) and his into alcoholism, he continued to write, mostly for magazines. It was not until 1934 that his fourth novel appeared. Tender is the Night was a thinly disguised, almost confessional story of his life with Zelda. Its poor reception led to his own breakdown, recorded in his essays collected by Edmund Wilson in The Crack-Up (1945).
Fitzgerald recovered sufficiently to become a screenwriter in Hollywood in 1937, an experience that inspired his final and most mature novel, The Last Tycoon (1941). Although it remained unfinished at his death in Hollywood on December 21, 1940, the book's brilliance prompted critics to re-evaluate Fitzgerald's talent and eventually to recognize him as one of the finest American writers of the 20th century.
October
26: Italy signed a humiliating treaty recognising Ethiopian independence.
29 Oct – 14 Nov: First regular cinema screenings in Ireland take place at Dan Lowrey’s Star of Erin Palace of Varieties. 7,000 attend during the first week.
The Catalpa flag was given by Captain George S. Anthony of the Catalpa to John Devoy of Clan na Gael on August 6, 1896, at a gathering of 10,000 people in Rising Sun Park in Philadelphia, PA. In turn it then given by John Devoy to Joseph McGarrity of the Clan. McGarrity moved the flag to the Irish-American Club at 1428 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia.
Later it was moved to the MacSwiney Club, 510 Greenwood Avenue, Jenkintown, PA, where for a while it was kept in "cold storage" - the club's beer locker. Repairs to the blue section of the flag was done by Mrs. Santry of Philadelphia, using material from her husband's work pants. From the MacSwiney Club, the flag was eventually returned to the Clan na Gael until finally in October 1972, it was donated to the National Museum of Irealnd.
In 1992 the flag was exhibited in Australia, and in May of 1993 returned to New Bedford, MA, for a one year exhibit at the Whaling Museum.
Presentation of the Catalpa flag to the National Museum of Ireland on October6, 1972. (left to right) Joe Clark; A.T. Lucas. director; unidentified museum attendant: and garda officer. (Photo courtesy of National Museum of Ireland.)
Late in the year, the six year old Michael Collins lost his father to a heart attack at the family home near Clonakilty. On his deathbed, he pointed to his youngest son and said to the family as they sat around him ‘Mind that child. He’ll be a great man yet and will do things for Ireland’.
November
US: The 1896 election formed a major turning point in American politics. McKinley advocated the tariff as a way of protecting business and labour from foreign imports and defended the gold standard against his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan, who espoused the free coinage of silver, which would have inflated currency and aided debtors. The Republicans ran an efficient, lavishly financed campaign, and McKinley won the election by the largest popular margin since the Civil War. Jennings-Bryan, while adopting most of the Populist policies, scared enough of the Eastern voters to loose him the election.
Outcault’s McFadden’s Row of Flats parodised Irish tenement life in New York and appeared frequently through to 1898. The popularity of the strip cartoon led to a stage production in 1901 and the organised fury of Irish Americans.
3: Britain claimed Sudan as British territory and Kitchener brusquely ordered the French to leave. Hardly surprisingly, General Marchand was not about to do so until he was advised from Paris. Word filtered through within 6 weeks, Paris, distracted by the Dreyfus affair and militant Germany, ceded their part of the Sudanese sun to the British.
1896
January 4 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state
January 5 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
January 12 - H.L. Smith takes the first x-ray photograph.
January 18 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
February 1 - The opera La Boheme premieres (Turin).
February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play Salomé premieres in Paris.
March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defended its independence from Italy.
May 1 - Charles Tupper becomes Canada's sixth prime minister.
May 14 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia crowned in Moscow, in the first coronation ever filmed. One thousands spectators crushed to death in Khodynskoe Fields during coronation celebrations.
May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court announces its decision in the infamous case Plessy v. Ferguson.
July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.
November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
Nepalese archaeologists rediscover the great stone pillar of Ashoka at Lumbini, using Fa Xian's records.
may 18 - The Supreme Court decides in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" facilities satisfy Fourteenth Amendment guarantees, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow segregation laws.
jul 21 - The National Association of Colored Women is formed. Mary Church Terrell chosen president.
nov 03 - William McKinley(rep) elected president.
x - George Washington Carver was appointed director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. His work advanced peanut, sweet potato, and soybean farming.
x - 78 black Americans are known to have been lynched.
x - Ethiopians defeat Italians at Adowa.
x - Wilfred Laurier is elected Canada's seventh prime minister.
x - First public showing of a motion picture, in NY city.
x - Sheikh Mubarak becomes ruler of Kuwait, after killing his two brothers.
x - Underwood model permits typists to see what they are typing.
x - The monotype sets type by machine in single characters.
x - Electric power is used to run a paper mill.
x - |ENGLAND] The motion picture projector is manufactured.
x - X-ray photography.
x - Rural free delivery (RFD) inaugurated.
x - Theodore Herzl publishes The Jewish State
Art, Culture & Fashion
1896 in film
1896 in literature
1896 in music
1896 in sports
Births
January 2 - Dziga Vertov, filmmaker
January 4 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (+ 1969)
January 12 - Rex Ingram, director and actor (+ 1950)
January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (+ 1984)
January 14 - John Dos Passos, author (+ 1970)
January 23 - Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg
February 11 - Else Lasker-Schuler, writer
February 18 - André Breton, poet, principal theoretician of surrealism (+ 1966)
March 12 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada
April 30 - Gary Davis, reverend
May 11 - Mari Sandoz, writer (+ 1966)
June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor
August 18 - Jack Pickford, actor, Hollywood's first "bad boy", (+ 1933)
August 30 - Raymond Massey, actor (+ 1983)
December 6 - Ira Gershwin, lyricist
December 14 - George VI Windsor, father of Elizabeth II
December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II General.
December 24 - F Scott Fitzgerald, American writer.
Deaths
January 8 - Paul Verlaine, lyric poet
May 20 - Clara Schumann, Austrian composer
October 11 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer
December 30 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines
Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize
* John Dillon is elected chairman of the anti-Parnellites (18 February)
* A demonstration of the cinématographe is held at Dan Lowrey's Star of Erin theatre of varieties (now the Olympia Theatre), Dublin, on 20 April
* James Connolly founds the Irish Socialist Republican Party (29 May) in Dublin
* Women are appointed to local government posts for the first time
* The first automobiles are imported into Ireland
* The theological school of St Patrick's College, Maynooth is declared a pontifical university
* At the Olympic Games in Athens, John Pius Boland becomes the first Irish gold medallist (in an individual capacity), in singles and doubles tennis
* John Breen (RAF air marshal) in Cork
* Michael J. Browne (bishop, conservative moralist) in Westport, Co. Mayo
* Peter Cheyney (pen-name of Reginald Southouse-Chesney; crime novelist) in Co. Clare (22/2)
* Austin Clarke (poet and dramatist) in Dublin (9/5)
* Seán Dowling (revolutionary and dramatist) in Dublin
* James Drumm (industrial chemist) in Dundrum, Co. Down (25/1)
* Frank J. Geary (journalist; editor of the Irish Independent) in Co. Kilkenny
* Roy Geary (statistician) in Dublin
* Monk Gibbon (writer and teacher) in Dublin
* Frederick Higgins (writer) in Foxford, Co. Mayo (24/4)
* Abraham 'Con' Leventhal (literary critic) in Dublin
* Thomas McLaughlin (electrical engineer) in Drogheda, Co. Louth
* Liam Ó Catháin (novelist) in Emly, Co. Tipperary
* Michael O'Connor (physician, writer and broadcaster) in Loughrea, Co. Galway
* Harry O'Donovan (scriptwriter) in Dublin
* Liam O'Flaherty (writer) on Inishmore, Aran Islands (28/8)
* Arthur Shields (actor) in Dublin
* L.A.G. Strong (writer, often on Irish themes) in Plymouth
1896
Chevok completed his play The Seagull, Pucinni produced La Boheme
Fashion was moving towards the clean-shaven male.
Pope Leo X111, no liberal by any stretch of the imagination, dashed many hopes for closer ties with the Anglican Communion with publication in 1896 of the encyclical letter Apostolicae Curae, declaring that ordinations of Anglican clergy were invalid.
Births:
John Breen (RAF air marshal) in Cork
Michael J. Browne (bishop, conservative moralist) in Westport, Co. Mayo
Peter Cheyney (pen-name of Reginald Southouse-Chesney; crime novelist) in Co. Clare (22/2)
Austin Clarke (poet and dramatist) in Dublin (9/5)
Seán Dowling (revolutionary and dramatist) in Dublin
James Drumm (industrial chemist) in Dundrum, Co. Down (25/1)
Frank J. Geary (journalist; editor of the Irish Independent) in Co. Kilkenny
Roy Geary (statistician) in Dublin
Monk Gibbon (writer and teacher) in Dublin
Frederick Higgins (writer) in Foxford, Co. Mayo (24/4)
Abraham 'Con' Leventhal (literary critic) in Dublin
Thomas McLaughlin (electrical engineer) in Drogheda, Co. Louth
Liam Ó Catháin (novelist) in Emly, Co. Tipperary
Michael O'Connor (physician, writer and broadcaster) in Loughrea, Co. Galway
Harry O'Donovan (scriptwriter) in Dublin
Liam O'Flaherty (writer) on Inishmore, Aran Islands (28/8)
Arthur Shields (actor) in Dublin
L.A.G. Strong (writer, often on Irish themes) in Plymouth
January
3. Kaiser Willhelm sent a congratulatory telegram to President Kruger of the Boer Republic on his forces repelling British horsemen in their raid into Boer territory. The end result was a violent British public reaction against Germany.
4: Utah became the 45th state in the Union but had not been allowed join because of the practice of polygamy within the Mormom church. This had been disavowed in 1890.
Irish born General H.H.Kitchener was given the task of clearing the Mahdi from Southern Egypt and Sudan, and with a mix of British and Egyptian troops, began working his way methodically up the Nile river.
February
2: Justin McCarthy resigns from the leadership of the Anti-Parnelite section of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Lady Wilde (70) widow of Sir William and mother of Oscar died.
New York World Newspaper Poster – R.F.Outcault.
18: John Dillon elected leader of the anti-Parnellite Home Rulers ( 38 votes to 21 )
At the Democratic National Convention, William Jennings Bryan was nominated for President. The Republicans nominated William McKinley.
March
Diarmuid Lynch receiving an offer from his maternal uncle, Cornelius Dunlea to emigrate to the United States visited a family friend – Gerald Fitzmahony, postmaster of Middleton. Diarmuid recalled, 54 years later in a letter to Fitzmahony’s son; Maurice:
’….what with the fact that 54 years have elapsed since ‘Christie’ Lynch spent a night at his home, I thought I may have to explain who Diarmuid Lynch is…though I well remember the occasion, I had forgotten the fact that I shared your bed…by the way only ten days agao when looking through some old documents, letters etc, I came across the one from Uncle Corney [ Diarmuid’s maternal uncle, Cornelius Dunlea ] advising me to have your father..purchase my tickets etc etc for which purpose I stayed with you in March ’96….
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 50 - 00016
8: Diarmuid, taking up his maternal uncles offer of employment and accomodation in New York, emigrated from Ireland on March 8th. He was to spend the next 11 years until 1907 there and later from 1918-1932 a total of 25 years.
He describes his first year in Manhattan: ‘I visited every spot of historical and other interest, and venture to say I knew the city better than most native born citizens. The knowledge which they came by naturally about the working of the Federal and State Governments I acquired in large measure through study of Bryce’s ‘American Commonwealth’. Another twelve months residence was, however necessary to get these and kindred matters into proper perspective. Though U.S. citizenship was aquired by me shortly after the minimum term of five years elapsed, I can say that on first sight of the Statue of Liberty I felt myself to be a good American….over 1896-7 my social activities were chielfy among German-American; splendid comrades they were. Our friendship remained intact over the eleven year initial period of my sojourn in the ‘Empire City’ though my association with them diminished as the work of the Gaelic League came to occupy more and more of my spare time….during the whole of that period, my employment was with A.B.Farquhar & Co ( of which my uncle was junior partner and managing director ) exporters of farm implements and machinery manufactured by the A.B.F. Co Ltd at York, Pensylvania. Our principal foreign markets included South Africa, South America, Mexico and Cuba. At first my job was that of bookkeeper and shipping clerk… in the early years my salary advanced none too rapidly; my uncle continually urged that there was a wider field for me abroad. With this prospect in view I studied Spanish and Mechanical Drawing…’’
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The I.R.B and the 1916 Rising’. Edited by Florence O’Donoghue. Mercier Press. Cork, 1957. P4
The Cotton Exchange Building New York. Designed by George Post and completed in 1885. From an impression c. 1883 by Hughson Hawley.
Manufacturer A.B.Farquhar (1838-1925)
Born in 1838 of Scotch descent, Quaker A.B.Farquhar founded an agricultural implements company in 1856 in his home town of York, Pennsylvania. By the Civil War, the Firm ‘A.B.Farquhar & Co. Ltd’ had emerged as a builder of first-class steam engines, threshers and sawmills state-wide and the US East Coast.
The business survived a devastating fire in 1862 and on June 28th 1863, Farquhar acted as an intermediary between the city fathers of York and the Confederate Army as invading troops approached York in the days before the Battle of Gettysburg*. There was a major outcry as the Quaker adopted a traditional peaceful approach, which allowed the small Federal forces present to leave and Confederate troops to pass through. Both the town and his business remained undamaged.
Another devastating fire in 1876 virtually destroyed the factory but was quickly rebuilt and in the early 1880’s A.B.Farquhar opened a New York city export branch in the Cotton Exchange Buildings. Export markets were now opening up in Latin America and South Africa and Cornelius Dunlea, Diarmuid Lynch’s Uncle became Junior Partner and Managing Director.
Early in 1896, Cornelius offered his nephew then based in London with the British Post Office, a position in New York as bookkeeper and shipping clerk which Diarmuid took up in March 1896 and was to spend the next 12 years. By 1898, he was to leave for Mexico to help develop emerging markets there but rising tensions with the Spanish-American War in Cuba forced a cancellation. Diarmuid remained with the company and became Assistant Manager following his Uncle’s death in 1900.At the end of the Boer War, the firm’s venture into the South African markets produced a massive orders as reconstruction began and A.B. Farquhar now counted President Grover Cleveland*, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Schwab and Andy Mellon amongst his close friends. Not only a recognised authority on finance and economics, Farquhar also entered newspaper publishing for a short, financially disastrous 6 years.
Diarmuid’s growing involvement in Irish Nationalism led him to return to Ireland and the following letters from Farquhar indicate the inducements to get his Assistant Manager to stay and the later offer to ‘leave the latch string out’ should he wish to return from Ireland.
A.B. Farquhar & Co.Ltd reached it’s peak during World War 1 and in the early 20’s as the firm filled war and reconstruction orders. In early 1925, the 87 year old Farquhar was injured by a car while walking near his home and died some months later. The company weathered the Great Depression and prospered through the war years of 1941-45.
Oliver Corporation acquired the company in 1952, and it was sold off piecemeal in the early 1960s. The last owner, Hess Oil Co. of New York, gave the buildings to York for redevelopment. Despite Farquhar's long standing as one of York's most prominent citizens with extensive dealings overseas, one of his sons eclipsed his father in lasting prominence on the international scene. Percival Farquhar was a builder of railroads, docks, roads and utilities in Latin and South America. "In Percival Farquhar flowered the imaginative genius of one of the most versatile international entrepreneurs the Americas have produced, " a colleague commented.
Except for a few demonstrations at antique farm equipment shows, traces of Farquhar's massive manufacturing works disappeared with the redevelopment wrecker's ball in the 1960s. The unemployment office in York sits on the former site.
* Gettysburg (July1-3, 1863. ) Major engagement of the American Civil War and generally regarded as the turning point of the war. Numbering some 75,000 troops, Confederate General Robert E.Lee invaded the Union North in hopes of discouraging the enemy and possibly inducing European nations to recognise the Confederacy. Both sides met at the strategic centre of Gettysburg where fighting raged for three days until Confederate forces retreated early on July 4th. Losses were amongst the heaviest of the war, with 88,000 killed. The dedication of the National Cemetery on the site was the occasion of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
**President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) 22nd and 24th President of the US. Democrat. Reformist President 1884-88 and isolationist in 1892-96.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) Scottish born, Pennsylvania resident American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the US steel industry of the late 19th century and one of the most important philanthropists of his era.
Charles Schwab (1862-1939) Entrepreneur of the early U.S. steel industry and one of the first American Tycoons. Pennsylvania born Schwab pioneered Bethlehem Steel, later became known as the ‘merchant of death’ for making huge profits during the First World War. However the Great Depression, unwise investments and a lavish lifestyle expended his $200 million fortune and by his death of heart disease in 1939, he was insolvent.
Andy Mellon (1855-1937) Pennsylvania born of Irish extraction, US financier, philanthropist, Secretary of the Treasury 1921-32 and US Ambassador to Britain 1931-32. Classed as one of the wealthiest men in America by 1920, his benefactions allowed the building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and contributed art works valued at over $25 million in 1937.
John MacBride ( 1865-1916 ) emigrated to South Africa where he became an assayer with the Rand Mining Corporation and was instumental in persuading Arthur Griffith ( 1871-1922 ), by trade a printer, to join him in South Africa at age 25 due to a trade depression in Dublin. He returned later in the year and started a newspaper “The United Irishman” with money coming from Clan na Gael. Reputed to be “a superb journalist” ( TPCoogan-”Ireland since the Rising )
Although a member of the IRB until 1910, he did not advocate force believing instead his version of the national ideal “ An Irish state, governed by Irishmen for the benefit of Irish people”.
James Connolly, stood as a socialist candidate in the Saint Giles division, lost and remained unemployed. While on the point of emigrating to Chile to farm, he accepted the position of Secretary to the Dublin Socialist Club, a position that he held until 1904 paying £1 per week and lived in the slum area of Charlemont street.
1: 20,000 Italians faced 90,000 Ethiopians at Adowa in the Northern Ethiopia and heavily defeated, and retreated back to the coast. A devestating humiliation for Italy.
16: R Bolton McCausland makes the first recorded use of X-rays in Ireland at Dr Steeven’s Hospital, Dublin.
April
20: First screening of a cinema film in Ireland at Dan Lowrey’s Star of Erin Palace of Varieties, Dublin ( Later the Olympia Theatre )
The aged sucessor to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, Emperor Francis Joseph’s brother died of natural causes and his eldest son, the Emperor’s nephew, 33 year old Francis Ferdinand was now in line to inherit the throne.
The first Olympic Games in over 15 centuries were held in Athens. 13 countries attended with 42 events in 11 sports with Paris chosen as the venue to hold the 1900 games.
May
29: Irish Socialist Republican Party founded by James Connolly.
July
26: Belfast shipyards damaged by fire.
Poor potato crops in the west of Ireland leads to shortages late 1896.
Aged 17, P.H.Pearse founded “The New Ireland Literary Society”
Dr Thomas Gallagher and Alfred Whitehead, members of the original Dynamiters Team behind the 1883 bombing campaign in England were released from prison after agitation over their treatment. Both had been treated so harshly in 13 years of prison that they had become derranged. Dr Gallagher returned to New York and lived in a sanitorium for another 29 years without ever recovering his sanity.
August
1: ‘Recess Committee’ presents a report to the Chief Secretary on the need for state promotion of agriculture and industry.
6: Madacasgar declared a French colony.
14: Land Law (Ireland) Act ( also known as Gerard Balfour’s Land Act ) removes many restrictions of the 1891 Act and empowers the Land Court to sell 1,500 bankrupt estates to tenants.
The Locomotoves on Highways Act allows the use of motor cars without restrictions.
17:
On August 17, 1896, alluvial gold was discovered in Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, region in the western Yukon Territory, Canada, site of a great gold rush in the late 1890s. The Klondike is in the vicinity of Dawson, where the Klondike and Yukon rivers meet. When news of the discovery spread in mid-1897, a great gold rush began, and by late 1898, about 30,000 – 60,000 prospectors had entered the forbidding artic area. In 1900, the year of peak production, more than $22 million worth of gold was recovered from the rivers and creeks of the region. Gold production declined sharply thereafter, and many prospectors went to nearby Alaska. By 1966, when production ended, the area had yielded $250 million worth of gold.
21: John Daly, another of the ‘Dynamiters’ from the 1883-85 Campaign was released from prison after serving 12 years of a life sentence. An investigation of his allegation that he was being poisoned by prison staff was upheld. On release he embarked on an extensive lecture tour in the US in 1897, returning to Limerick where he opened a bakery and became Lord Mayor three times. Both his nephew, Edward Daly and prison associate, Thomas J Clarke ( who married his niece, Kathleen ) were executed following the 1916 Rising.
British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury was interupted at a dinner party by a dispatch box from London and scribbled a reply at the dinner table. One of the guests enquried if it was a serious matter to which the Prime Minister commented that the Kaiser had landed troops at Delagoa Bay in Portugese East Africa.’What answer have you sent?’ ‘I have sent no answer’ replied Salisbury ‘I have sent ships’.
September
1-3: Irish Race Convention held in Dublin.
France: two years after the trial, Lieutenant Colonel George Picquart, then head of French military intelligence, uncovered evidence indicating that a French infantry officer, Major Marie Charles Esterhazy, was actually the writer of the treasonable bordereau ascribed to Dreyfus. Picquart was silenced by his superiors and dismissed from the service. About the same time, similar evidence implicating Esterhazy was uncovered by relatives and friends of Dreyfus. The army, in order to save face, had to court-martial Esterhazy, but early in 1898 he was acquitted.
2: General Kitchener’s campaign to remove the Mahdi from the Nile met at Omdurman, just across the river from Kharthoum. There Kitchener’s 26,000 troops faced some 40,000 Mahdists. This time, the British had 20 machine guns and killed over 20,000 of the Mahdi loosing 500. Kitchener occupied Kharthoum and then proceeded up the Nile to Fashoda, 400 miles south.
12: Arrests of leading members of the Dynamiters took place with Edward Bell (Ivory) captured in Glasgow, Patrick J Tynan ( who claimed to be No.1 of the Invincibles ) at Bolougne and John F Kearney & Thomas Haines in Rotterdam. A supply of dynamite was discovered at another location. A month later, France refused a British request to extradite Tyan. Case against Bell opened in January 1897.
19: Kitchen reached Fashoda, finding the French there under General Marchand. A tense co-relationship developed.
24: F Scott Fitzgerald born.
Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott (Key) (1896-1940), American writer of novels and short stories that epitomized the mood and manners of the 1920s—the Jazz Age, as he called it.
Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St Paul, Minnesota, and sent to local Roman Catholic boarding schools. At Princeton University he mostly ignored formal study, instead receiving his education from writers and critics, such as Edmund Wilson, who remained his lifelong friend. In 1917 he left Princeton to take an army commission, and in training camps he revised the first draft of his novel originally entitled “The Romantic Egoist”, but published as This Side of Paradise (1920). While at a camp in Alabama, he fell in love with 18-year-old Zelda Sayre, who, as the archetypal flapper, was to become as integral a part of Fitzgerald's fiction as he was.
This Side of Paradise, published in the spring of 1920, made Fitzgerald rich, or rich enough at least to marry the high-living Zelda. In this autobiographical novel, the young, disillusioned post-war generation found mirrored their shattered dreams and empty, irresolute lives. His next novel, The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), a mood piece chronicling the anxieties and dissipations of a rich couple, proved somewhat less popular. His short stories, however, were in great demand. They paid for his and Zelda's extravagant hotel-society lifestyle. Of his more than 150 stories, he chose 46 to appear in four books: Flappers and Philosophers (1920), Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), All the Sad Young Men (1926), and Taps at Reveille (1935).
In 1924 the Fitzgeralds left their Long Island home for the French Riviera, not to return permanently to the United States until 1931. In five months he completed The Great Gatsby (1925), a sensitive, satiric fable of the pursuit of success and the collapse of the American dream. Although it is generally regarded as his masterpiece, Gatsby sold poorly, thus accelerating the disintegration of his personal life. Despite Zelda's slide into insanity (she was hospitalized periodically from 1930 to her death in 1948) and his into alcoholism, he continued to write, mostly for magazines. It was not until 1934 that his fourth novel appeared. Tender is the Night was a thinly disguised, almost confessional story of his life with Zelda. Its poor reception led to his own breakdown, recorded in his essays collected by Edmund Wilson in The Crack-Up (1945).
Fitzgerald recovered sufficiently to become a screenwriter in Hollywood in 1937, an experience that inspired his final and most mature novel, The Last Tycoon (1941). Although it remained unfinished at his death in Hollywood on December 21, 1940, the book's brilliance prompted critics to re-evaluate Fitzgerald's talent and eventually to recognize him as one of the finest American writers of the 20th century.
October
26: Italy signed a humiliating treaty recognising Ethiopian independence.
29 Oct – 14 Nov: First regular cinema screenings in Ireland take place at Dan Lowrey’s Star of Erin Palace of Varieties. 7,000 attend during the first week.
The Catalpa flag was given by Captain George S. Anthony of the Catalpa to John Devoy of Clan na Gael on August 6, 1896, at a gathering of 10,000 people in Rising Sun Park in Philadelphia, PA. In turn it then given by John Devoy to Joseph McGarrity of the Clan. McGarrity moved the flag to the Irish-American Club at 1428 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia.
Later it was moved to the MacSwiney Club, 510 Greenwood Avenue, Jenkintown, PA, where for a while it was kept in "cold storage" - the club's beer locker. Repairs to the blue section of the flag was done by Mrs. Santry of Philadelphia, using material from her husband's work pants. From the MacSwiney Club, the flag was eventually returned to the Clan na Gael until finally in October 1972, it was donated to the National Museum of Irealnd.
In 1992 the flag was exhibited in Australia, and in May of 1993 returned to New Bedford, MA, for a one year exhibit at the Whaling Museum.
Presentation of the Catalpa flag to the National Museum of Ireland on October6, 1972. (left to right) Joe Clark; A.T. Lucas. director; unidentified museum attendant: and garda officer. (Photo courtesy of National Museum of Ireland.)
Late in the year, the six year old Michael Collins lost his father to a heart attack at the family home near Clonakilty. On his deathbed, he pointed to his youngest son and said to the family as they sat around him ‘Mind that child. He’ll be a great man yet and will do things for Ireland’.
November
US: The 1896 election formed a major turning point in American politics. McKinley advocated the tariff as a way of protecting business and labour from foreign imports and defended the gold standard against his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan, who espoused the free coinage of silver, which would have inflated currency and aided debtors. The Republicans ran an efficient, lavishly financed campaign, and McKinley won the election by the largest popular margin since the Civil War. Jennings-Bryan, while adopting most of the Populist policies, scared enough of the Eastern voters to loose him the election.
Outcault’s McFadden’s Row of Flats parodised Irish tenement life in New York and appeared frequently through to 1898. The popularity of the strip cartoon led to a stage production in 1901 and the organised fury of Irish Americans.
3: Britain claimed Sudan as British territory and Kitchener brusquely ordered the French to leave. Hardly surprisingly, General Marchand was not about to do so until he was advised from Paris. Word filtered through within 6 weeks, Paris, distracted by the Dreyfus affair and militant Germany, ceded their part of the Sudanese sun to the British.
1896
January 4 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state
January 5 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
January 12 - H.L. Smith takes the first x-ray photograph.
January 18 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
February 1 - The opera La Boheme premieres (Turin).
February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play Salomé premieres in Paris.
March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defended its independence from Italy.
May 1 - Charles Tupper becomes Canada's sixth prime minister.
May 14 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia crowned in Moscow, in the first coronation ever filmed. One thousands spectators crushed to death in Khodynskoe Fields during coronation celebrations.
May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court announces its decision in the infamous case Plessy v. Ferguson.
July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.
November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
Nepalese archaeologists rediscover the great stone pillar of Ashoka at Lumbini, using Fa Xian's records.
may 18 - The Supreme Court decides in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" facilities satisfy Fourteenth Amendment guarantees, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow segregation laws.
jul 21 - The National Association of Colored Women is formed. Mary Church Terrell chosen president.
nov 03 - William McKinley(rep) elected president.
x - George Washington Carver was appointed director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. His work advanced peanut, sweet potato, and soybean farming.
x - 78 black Americans are known to have been lynched.
x - Ethiopians defeat Italians at Adowa.
x - Wilfred Laurier is elected Canada's seventh prime minister.
x - First public showing of a motion picture, in NY city.
x - Sheikh Mubarak becomes ruler of Kuwait, after killing his two brothers.
x - Underwood model permits typists to see what they are typing.
x - The monotype sets type by machine in single characters.
x - Electric power is used to run a paper mill.
x - |ENGLAND] The motion picture projector is manufactured.
x - X-ray photography.
x - Rural free delivery (RFD) inaugurated.
x - Theodore Herzl publishes The Jewish State
Art, Culture & Fashion
1896 in film
1896 in literature
1896 in music
1896 in sports
Births
January 2 - Dziga Vertov, filmmaker
January 4 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (+ 1969)
January 12 - Rex Ingram, director and actor (+ 1950)
January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (+ 1984)
January 14 - John Dos Passos, author (+ 1970)
January 23 - Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg
February 11 - Else Lasker-Schuler, writer
February 18 - André Breton, poet, principal theoretician of surrealism (+ 1966)
March 12 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada
April 30 - Gary Davis, reverend
May 11 - Mari Sandoz, writer (+ 1966)
June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor
August 18 - Jack Pickford, actor, Hollywood's first "bad boy", (+ 1933)
August 30 - Raymond Massey, actor (+ 1983)
December 6 - Ira Gershwin, lyricist
December 14 - George VI Windsor, father of Elizabeth II
December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II General.
December 24 - F Scott Fitzgerald, American writer.
Deaths
January 8 - Paul Verlaine, lyric poet
May 20 - Clara Schumann, Austrian composer
October 11 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer
December 30 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines
Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize
* John Dillon is elected chairman of the anti-Parnellites (18 February)
* A demonstration of the cinématographe is held at Dan Lowrey's Star of Erin theatre of varieties (now the Olympia Theatre), Dublin, on 20 April
* James Connolly founds the Irish Socialist Republican Party (29 May) in Dublin
* Women are appointed to local government posts for the first time
* The first automobiles are imported into Ireland
* The theological school of St Patrick's College, Maynooth is declared a pontifical university
* At the Olympic Games in Athens, John Pius Boland becomes the first Irish gold medallist (in an individual capacity), in singles and doubles tennis
* John Breen (RAF air marshal) in Cork
* Michael J. Browne (bishop, conservative moralist) in Westport, Co. Mayo
* Peter Cheyney (pen-name of Reginald Southouse-Chesney; crime novelist) in Co. Clare (22/2)
* Austin Clarke (poet and dramatist) in Dublin (9/5)
* Seán Dowling (revolutionary and dramatist) in Dublin
* James Drumm (industrial chemist) in Dundrum, Co. Down (25/1)
* Frank J. Geary (journalist; editor of the Irish Independent) in Co. Kilkenny
* Roy Geary (statistician) in Dublin
* Monk Gibbon (writer and teacher) in Dublin
* Frederick Higgins (writer) in Foxford, Co. Mayo (24/4)
* Abraham 'Con' Leventhal (literary critic) in Dublin
* Thomas McLaughlin (electrical engineer) in Drogheda, Co. Louth
* Liam Ó Catháin (novelist) in Emly, Co. Tipperary
* Michael O'Connor (physician, writer and broadcaster) in Loughrea, Co. Galway
* Harry O'Donovan (scriptwriter) in Dublin
* Liam O'Flaherty (writer) on Inishmore, Aran Islands (28/8)
* Arthur Shields (actor) in Dublin
* L.A.G. Strong (writer, often on Irish themes) in Plymouth