1779 in Ireland

Events from the year 1779 in Ireland.

Incumbent

• Monarch: George III

Events

• Armed Volunteers demonstrate in Dublin for free trade between Ireland and England. This demand for amendment of the Navigation Acts is quickly granted by the British government.
• Grand Canal opens to traffic between Dublin and Sallins.
• Spike Island, County Cork, is acquired by the government to form part of the defences of Cork Harbour.
• New Church of Ireland Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, completed.

Births

• 22 January – Charles O'Neill, 1st Earl O'Neill, landowner and politician (died 1841).
• February – Richard Carmichael, surgeon (died 1849).
• 30 March – Antoine Ó Raifteiri, "last of the wandering bards" (died 1835).
• 16 April – Patrick Kelly, Roman Catholic Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (died 1829).
• 28 May – Thomas Moore, poet, singer, songwriter and entertainer (died 1852).
• 17 August – William Corbet, member of the United Irishmen, soldier, Commander-in-Chief of French forces in Greece (died 1842).
• 3 November – Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, British Field Marshal (died 1869).
• Arthur Brooke Faulkner, physician and writer (died 1845).
• John Oldham, mechanical engineer (died 1840).
• Thomas Ussher, Royal Navy officer (died 1848).
• Possible date – Julia Glover née Betterton, comic actress (died 1850).

Deaths

• April – Anthony Foster, lawyer and politician (born 1705).
• 18 October – Patrick d'Arcy, mathematical physicist and soldier in France (born 1725).
• 10 December – Thomas Fortescue, politician (born 1744).
• Risteárd Buidhe Kirwan, soldier and duellist (died 1708).
• Thomas Newburgh, poet (born c.1695).
• Thomas Tennison, lawyer and politician (born 1707).

References