16 July - Academics Alfred Cort Haddon and Andrew Francis Dixon (Dixon later became Professor of Anatomy at Trinity College Dublin), remove the partial skeletal remains of 13 people, including their skulls, from St Colman's monastery on the island of Inishbofin, County Galway (without the knowledge or permission of the community) for the purposes of studying craniometry.[1][2]
25 November – despite his personal problems Parnell is re-elected as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
26 November – Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone announces that as long as Parnell remains as leader of the Party, the next general election will be lost and Home Rule for Ireland will be impossible.
6 December – after five days of discussion and argument about Parnell's leadership, 44 members of the Irish Parliamentary Party walk out of the meeting and withdraw from the Party, most going on to form the Irish National Federation. Parnell is left with only 28 supporters in the Irish National League.