1915 in Ireland

Events

• March – construction in Queenstown of St Colman's Cathedral, Cobh, concludes with completion of the spire.
• 4 April – 25,000 National Volunteers assemble at the Phoenix Park, Dublin. John Redmond takes the salute from under the statue of Charles Stewart Parnell on Sackville Street.
• 5 April – at the National Volunteers convention at the Mansion House, Dublin, John Redmond praises their response to World War I.
• 7 May – sinking of the RMS Lusitania: British ocean liner is sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 about off Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork, killing 1,198 civilians en route from New York to Liverpool, among them the Irish-born art dealer and benefactor Sir Hugh Lane and Irish composer and conductor Thomas O'Brien Butler.
• 25 May – the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom forms the Asquith coalition ministry, a national wartime coalition government of twelve Liberals, eight Unionists and one Labour member. In Dublin the Irish Parliamentary Party approves John Redmond's decision not to join.
• 29 July – Republicans, led by Patrick Pearse, take over the Gaelic League at its Dundalk conference. Douglas Hyde resigns as its president.
• 1 August – O'Donovan Rossa is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, and Pearse delivers the graveside oration.
• 26 December – the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage an Easter Rising in 1916.
• The Elim Pentecostal Church is founded in Monaghan by Welsh evangelist George Jeffreys.

  Arts and literature

• 1 February – Helen Waddell's first play, The Spoiled Buddha, is premiered at the Opera House, Belfast, by the Ulster Literary Society.
• Francis Ledwidge's poems Songs of the Fields published.
• James Stephens' poems The Adventures of Seumas Beg: the Rocky Road to Dublin and Songs from the Clay are published.
• The first dramatic film made in Ireland, Fun at Finglas Fair, is directed by F. J. McCormick. It is never released as all prints are destroyed in the Easter Rising of April 1916.

  Sport

Football

• ;Irish League
• :Winners: Belfast Celtic
• ;Irish Cup
• :Winners: Linfield 1–0 Belfast Celtic

  Births

• 11 January – Paddy Mayne, international rugby union footballer and decorated soldier.
• 13 January – Kit Ahern, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 21 January – Andy O'Brien, Fine Gael senator from County Cavan.
• 25 January – Liam Cunningham, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 7 February – Mark Clinton, Fine Gael TD, Minister for Agriculture and MEP.
• 15 February – Sam Kydd, actor.
• 15 March – Micho Russell, tin whistle player and collector of traditional music and folklore.
• 9 April – Leonard Wibberley, author.
• 2 May – George Harrison, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and alleged gun-runner.
• 3 May – Walter Macken, novelist, dramatist and actor.
• 17 May – Oisín Kelly, sculptor.
• 6 August – Tom O'Reilly, Cavan Gaelic footballer and independent TD for Cavan 1944-1948
• 28 August – Patrick Hennessy, painter.
• 16 September – Eddie Filgate, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 16 October – Jim Young, Cork hurler.
• 18 September – James Tully, Labour Party TD and Cabinet Minister.
• 7 November – Bill Hayes, soccer player.
• 20 December – Noel Browne, politician, Cabinet Minister.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*John Graham, Irish Republican Army activist in the 1940s.
• :*Willie Murphy, Cork hurler.

  Deaths

• 20 January – Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun, businessman, politician, and philanthropist.
• 26 January – Michael Sullivan, physician, professor and politician in Canada.
• 28 January – David Dickson Rogers, politician in Ontario.
• 14 February – Cornelius Coughlan, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857 at Delhi, India.
• 24 April – Frederick William Hall, soldier, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium.
• 7 May – on board
• * O'Brien Butler, composer.
• * Hugh Lane, established Dublin's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art.
• 29 June – Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Fenian leader.
• 2 August – William Abraham, Irish Nationalist MP.
• 21 August – Gerald Robert O'Sullivan, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1915 at Gallipoli, Turkey.
• 21 August – Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford, peer and soldier.
• 25 September – Joseph Lynch, cricketer.
• 10 October – Albert Cashier, soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War, physically female, but lived as a man.
• 21 December – Violet Florence Martin, author.