Events from the year 1888 in Ireland. Events January – the Chaine Memorial at Larne is completed. March – the Pan-Celtic Society is founded by W. B. Yeats. April – Pope Leo XIII issues a decree denouncing the "Plan of Campaign" as the Holy Office issues a rescript to the Bishops of the Catholic Church in Ireland to boycott the Campaign. This is ignored by many. 4 June–27 October – Irish Exhibition at Olympia (London). 20 August – the Christian Brothers College is founded in Cork. September James Joyce enters the Clongowes Wood College as the school's youngest student. (approx. date) James Connolly deserts from his British Army regiment in Dublin and moves to Dundee. Irish members of the British House of Commons attempt to introduce an Irish Local Government Bill; however the Bill is opposed by Chief Secretary Arthur Balfour. Belfast is awarded city status by Queen Victoria. The Belfast Central Library is founded. A large flock of 110 Pallas's sandgrouse, a rare species of birds in Ireland, is recorded, one of the last known migrations witnessed in Ireland. W. B. Yeats joins the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. James Daly sells the Connaught Telegraph to employee T. H. Gillespie. Thomas Lindsay Buick becomes Secretary of the Gladstone branch of the Irish National League. Reverend Henry Lett publishes a research paper on several unknown forms of fungi found in Ulster; however this document, as well as other research by Lett, is later lost. Arts and literature 10 May – J. M. Synge arrives in the Aran Islands for his first visit. William Allingham publishes Laurence Bloomfield or rich and poor in Ireland. J. E. Gore publishes A revised catalogue of variable stars. William Henry Hulbert publishes Ireland Under Coercion. John Kells Ingram publishes A history of political economy and Essays in political economy. T. Dumbar Ingram publishes Two Chapters of Irish History. MacGregor Mathers publishes Qabbalah Unveiled. Kuno Meyer publishes The Wooing of Emer. George Moore publishes Spring Days. 'Esperanza' (Jane, Lady Wilde) publishes Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, with sketches of the Irish past. Oscar Wilde publishes The Happy Prince. W. B. Yeats publishes Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry and writes Down by the Salley Gardens. Fossett's Circus begins touring Ireland nationally. It has continued without a break since then making it one of the oldest continuously touring circuses in the