1903 in Ireland

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This article lists notable events which occurred during 1903 relating to the island of Ireland.

Events

• 3 January - The Norwegian ship Remittant is towed into quarantine in Queenstown with the entire crew suffering from beriberi.
• 3 February - The proposed canonisation of Oliver Plunkett is discussed in Rome.
• 26 February - The ocean liner SS Columbus is launched by Harland and Wolff at Belfast.
• 27 February - A meeting at the Mansion House, Dublin, enthusiastically welcomes a movement to establish Saint Patrick's Day as a national holiday.
• 8 March - Charles Gavan Duffy is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. He is laid to rest near others who took part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.
• 17 March - In Waterford, Saint Patrick's Day is marked as a public holiday (to encourage temperance).
• 26 March - The Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham, introduces his Irish Land Bill in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
• 31 March - The Lord-Lieutenant announces that Edward VII and Queen Alexandra intend to visit Ireland within the coming year.^[1]
• 15 May - The Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham, asks for support for his Irish Land Bill.
• 23 May - Extracts from the annual report of the British Army shows that there are 35,717 Irishmen in its service.
• 9 June - The University of Dublin announces that it is to award degrees to women following a vote. The first women will be admitted as full members of its sole constituent, Trinity College, Dublin, in 1904.
• 1 July - The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway becomes the Northern Counties Committee of the Midland Railway (of England).
• 19–27 July - First visit to Ireland as monarch of King Edward VII,^[1] landing at Buncrana.
• 14 August - The Wyndham Land (Purchase) Act is passed in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, offering special incentives to landlords to sell their entire estates.
• 5 September - Irish painter Henry Jones Thaddeus is granted permission to paint the first portrait of Pope Pius X.
• 13 November - The 2nd Battalion of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers is welcomed home after nearly 20 years of foreign service.
• 22 December - The well-known Irish optician, Patrick Cahill, who had the sole privilege of supplying the late Pope Leo XIII with spectacles, is to supply the present pontiff, Pope Pius X.

Undated

• Independent Orange Institution is formed, as a breakaway from the Orange Institution.^[2]
• Pigeon House generating station in Dublin starts producing electricity.
• Cork International Exhibition is re-opened.

Arts and literature

• January - An Túr Gloine, the cooperative studio for stained glass, is established by Sarah Purser in Dublin.^[3]
• 8 October - First performance of a play by J. M. Synge, In the Shadow of the Glen, at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin.
• Padraic Colum's Broken Soil is performed by W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company.^[4]
• George Moore's short stories The Untilled Field are published.
• 'Æ' (George William Russell)'s The Nuts of Knowledge, lyrical poems old and new is published by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press at Dundrum, Dublin.^[5][6][7]
• W. B. Yeats's In the Seven Woods, being poems of the Irish heroic age (including "Adam's Curse", "The King's Threshold" and "The Hour-Glass")^[8] is published by his sister's Dun Emer Press;^[6][7] he also publishes his essays Ideas of Good and Evil.^[9]

Sport

Football

• International

14 February - England 4 - 0 Ireland (in Wolverhampton)^[10]

21 March Scotland 0 - 2 Ireland (in Glasgow)^[10]

28 March Ireland 2 - 0 Wales (in Belfast)^[10]

• Irish League

Winners: Distillery

• Irish Cup

Winners: Distillery 3 - 1 Bohemians

• Bohemians becomes the first Dublin team to join the Irish Football League.
• The Oval football stadium, home of Glentoran, is rebuilt with the pitch being turned around ninety degrees.

Motor racing

• 2 July - The Gordon Bennett Trophy race is run on Irish public roads, the first international motor race in Ireland. The winner is Camille Jenatzy.^[1]

Births

January to June

• 15 January - Joe Stynes, Irish Republican and sportsman (died 1991).
• 19 January - Alfred Lane Beit, British politician, art collector and philanthropist, honorary Irish citizen (died 1994).
• 28 January - Kathleen Lonsdale, X-ray crystallographer (died 1971).
• 2 February - Hilton Edwards, actor, director, co-founder of Gate Theatre (died 1982).
• 5 February - William Teeling, author, traveller and UK politician (died 1975).
• 23 February - Alec Mackie, soccer player (died 1984).
• 11 March - Michael Hilliard, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and MEP (died 1982).
• 13 March - Joseph Blowick second leader of Clann na Talmhan, TD and Cabinet Minister (died 1970).
• 5 April - Leo Rowsome, teacher, player and maker of uilleann pipes (died 1970).
• 12 April - Paddy Collins, Cork hurler (died 1995).
• 25 May - Ewart Milne, poet (died 1987).
• 8 June - Harry Duggan, soccer player (died 1968).

July to December

• 18 July - Charles Hill, cricketer (died 1982).
• 5 August - Achey Kelly, cricketer (died 1961).
• 17 September - Frank O'Connor, short story writer and memoirist (died 1966).
• 6 October - Ernest Walton, physicist, 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics (died 1995).
• 23 October - Patrick Cogan, Independent TD (died 1977).
• 1 November - Max Adrian, actor (died 1973).
• 18 December - Harry Forsyth, cricketer (died 2004).

Undated

• Leo Maguire, singer, songwriter and radio broadcaster (died 1985).
• Stanley Woods, motor cycle racer, with 29 Grand Prix wins and 10 Isle of Man TT wins (died 1993).

Deaths

• 9 February - Charles Gavan Duffy, nationalist and Australian colonial politician (born 1816).
• 5 April - Mary Anne Sadlier, novelist (born 1820).
• 24 April - Walter Osborne, impressionist painter (born 1859).
• 27 April - William Travers, lawyer, politician, explorer, and naturalist in New Zealand (born 1819).
• 25 July - John Michael Clancy, Democratic Party United States Representative from New York (born 1837).
• 12 September - Maxwell Henry Close, geologist (born 1822).
• 22 October - William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian (born 1838).
• 24 October - Rev. James William Adams, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in Afghanistan (1879) (born 1839).

Undated

• Charles O'Hea, Catholic Priest, baptised Ned Kelly and ministered to him before he was hanged in 1880 (born 1814).

References