1918 in Ireland - Events

Events

• January 18 - Count Plunkett, Seán T. O'Kelly and others protest at the forcible feeding of Sinn Féin prisoners in Mountjoy Prison.
• March 2 - In Skibbereen, County Cork Ernest Blythe is arrested for non-compliance with a military rule directing him to reside in Ulster.
• March 6 - In the British House of Commons, tributes are paid to John Redmond, Irish Nationalist leader, who has died in London.
• April 18 - The Military Service Bill, which includes conscription in Ireland, becomes law. A conference of nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and labour movements meets in Dublin to organise an all-Ireland opposition to conscription.
• April 20 - The Irish Parliamentary Party holds a meeting in Dublin to oppose conscription.
• May 5–15,000 people attend an anti-conscription meeting in County Roscommon. John Dillon, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and Éamon de Valera of Sinn Féin share the platform in a united cause.
• May 9 - Field Marshal Sir John French, Viscount French of Ypres and of High Lake in the County of Roscommon, is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Supreme Commander of the British Army in Ireland.

• May 20 - A special anti-conscription convention is held in Dublin. It condemns the deportations of many Sinn Féin members.
• July 3 - The Lord Lieutenant issues a proclamation banning Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan.
• July 17 - RMS Carpathia is torpedoed and sunk off the east coast of Ireland by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-55; 218 of the 223 on board are rescued.
• October 10 - The Irish mail boat RMS Leinster is sunk in the Irish Sea by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM UB-123 with the loss of 500 lives.
• November 11 - At 5.00am an armistice dictated by the Allies is signed by the Germans. Six hours later World War I officially ends. A total of 140,000 Irishmen have been killed during the war.
• December 22 - Ireland voices a united invitation to US President Woodrow Wilson to visit.
• December 28 - Sinn Féin have a landslide victory in the general election, winning 73 of the 105 seats in Ireland. The Irish Parliamentary Party is nearly wiped out. In accordance with their manifesto, Sinn Féin members will not take their seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom but will form the First Dáil. Countess Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway Prison, becomes the first woman elected to (but does not take her seat in) the Palace of Westminster. On December 30 the Irish Independent strongly criticises her.