1904 in Ireland

Events from the year 1904 in Ireland.

Events

• 26 April - Edward VII and Queen Alexandra arrive at Kingstown. The royal couple attend the Punchestown Races for the day.
• 2 May - The King and Queen travel to Waterford where they stay at Lismore Castle, home of the Duke of Devonshire. Thomas Horgan of Youghal makes the first known film in Ireland of this event.
• 4 May - Last day of royal visit to Ireland.
• 2 June - Nave of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, is consecrated.
• 27 June - Second Fastnet Rock lighthouse first lit.
• 24 July - St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Roman Catholic) consecrated.
• Construction of Government Buildings, Merrion Street, Dublin, starts (finishes 1922).
• Start of 'Limerick Pogrom'.
• First "steamboat ladies", female students at the women's colleges of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, are awarded ad eundem degrees by Trinity College, Dublin, at a time when their own universities refuse to confer degrees upon women.

Arts and literature

Poster for opening run at Abbey Theatre, Dublin

• 22 January – Baritone Harry Plunket Greene makes his first gramophone recordings.
• 25 February – J. M. Synge's tragedy Riders to the Sea is first performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, by the Irish National Theatre Society.
• 16 May – James Joyce wins a prize for singing at a Feis Ceoil held at the Antient Concert Rooms in Great Brunswick Street, Dublin.
• 16 June – Bloomsday: James Joyce meets Nora Barnacle and later sets his novel Ulysses in Dublin on this day.
• 1 September – The Leinster School of Music is opened in 34 Harcourt Street, Dublin, by Samuel Myerscough. The school (which later adds "Drama" to its title) becomes one of examining bodies in Ireland for music and drama, moving to Griffith College, Dublin.
• 1 November – George Bernard Shaw's comedy about Ireland, John Bull's Other Island, opens at the Royal Court Theatre, London, after W. B. Yeats rejects it for the Abbey Theatre.
• 27 December – The Irish National Theatre Society (Abbey Theatre) opens to the public in Dublin for the first time. The bill consists of three one-act plays, On Baile's Strand and Cathleen Ní Houlihan by Yeats and Spreading the News by Lady Gregory.
• Lady Gregory publishes Gods and Fighting Men, a retelling of Irish mythology in English.
• 'Æ' (George William Russell) publishes The Divine Vision, and Other Poems.
• James Joyce's story "Eveline" is published.
• Arthur Griffith's The Resurrection of Hungary is published.
• Peadar Ua Laoghaire's story Séadna is first published in book form.
• Grace Rhys's story "The Charming of Estercel" is published.

Sport

Camogie

• 17 July - First ever public game of camogie played, between Dublin teams Craobh an Chéitinnigh (Keatings branch of the Gaelic League) and Cúchulainns at a Feis at the Meath agricultural showground in Navan.

Football

• International

12 March Ireland 1 - 3 England (in Belfast)

21 March Wales 0 - 1 Ireland (in Bangor)

26 March Ireland 1 - 1 Scotland (in Dublin)

• Irish League

Winners: Linfield

• Irish Cup

Winners: Linfield 5 - 1 Derry Celtic

• Shelbourne becomes the second Dublin team to join the Irish Football League, after Bohemians, who joined the previous year.

Births

January to June

• 16 January - Frederick Boland, diplomat, first Irish ambassador to Britain and to the United Nations (died 1985).
• 26 January - Seán MacBride, Clann na Poblachta TD, Cabinet Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner (died 1988).
• 19 February - Maurice O'Sullivan (Muiris Ó Súilleabháin), writer (drowned 1950).
• 29 February - James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Abercorn, soldier and politician (died 1979).
• 7 March - Jim Ganly, cricketer and rugby player (died 1976).
• 27 April - Cecil Day-Lewis, poet and writer, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1972 (died 1972).
• 7 May - David Sullivan, labour leader in USA (died 1976).
• 5 June - Derrick Kennedy, cricketer (died 1976).

July to December

• 20 July - Molly Keane (born Mary Nesta Skrine), novelist and playwright (died 1996).
• 17 August - John "Pondoro" Taylor, hunter and writer (died 1969).
• 9 September - Jack Lawrence, cricketer (died 1984).
• 2 October - Dermot Boyle, Marshal of the Royal Air Force (died 1993).
• 21 October - Patrick Kavanagh, poet and novelist (died 1967).
• 13 December - William McCrea, astronomer and mathematician (died 1999).

Full date unknown

• Dinny Barry-Murphy, Cork hurler (died 1973).
• Michael MacLaverty, novelist (died 1992).

Deaths

• 22 January - George Salmon, mathematician and theologian (born 1819).
• 21 March - William Russell Grace, businessman and first Roman Catholic mayor of New York (born 1832).
• 5 April - Frances Power Cobbe, social reformer, feminist theorist, pioneer animal rights activist and writer (born 1822).
• 25 May - Richard Harte Keatinge, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1858 at Chundairee, India (born 1825).
• 20 October - Richard Phelan, fourth Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (born 1828).
• 16 November - James Cooney, lawyer and Democratic politician in Missouri (born 1848).

Full date unknown

• Timothy J. Campbell, Democrat U.S. Representative from New York (born 1840).
• Edwin Hayes, watercolourist (born 1819).