Events from the year 1889 in Ireland. Events June – Edward Carson becomes the youngest QC in Ireland (aged 35). 12 June – the Armagh rail disaster occurs near Armagh: runaway carriages from a Sunday school excursion collide with an oncoming train, killing 80, the worst railway accident in Ireland ever. 16 July – Ballymena and Larne Railway taken over by Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. 1 November – Portrush life-boat The Robert and Agnes Blair, going to the aid of the schooner Dryad, capsizes off the coast at Portballintrae with the loss of three of her thirteen crew. 24 December – Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell is accused of adultery after Captain Willy O'Shea files for divorce on the grounds his wife Kitty O'Shea had an affair with Parnell. The scandal will later result in the dismissal of Parnell as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. A religious group of the Order of Carmelites leave Dublin for the United States at the invitation of the New York Archbishop later establishing the Provence of St. Elias. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is founded. The Land League builds a house for recently evicted tenant Tom Kelly in Kiltimagh, County Mayo. Poet William Butler Yeats is introduced by John O'Leary to Irish nationalist Maude Gonne. Industrialist Horace Plunkett returns to Ireland after his father's death. The Tropical Ravine House in Belfast Botanic Gardens is built by head gardener Charles McKimm. Foundation stone laid for the Albert Bridge, Belfast, by Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor. The Cork County Southern Star weekly newspaper is established in Skibbereen, incorporating The Skibbereen Eagle (1857). Arts and literature Percy French writes the comic song Slattery's Mounted Foot. John Thomas Gilbert's Calendar of Ancient Records of the Corporation of Dublin is published. Alfred Graves writes the lyrics of "Father O'Flynn". Douglas Hyde publishes Beside the Fire. George Moore publishes Mike Fletcher. Standish James O'Grady publishes Red Hugh's Captivity. Whitworth Porter publishes History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Amye Reade's Ruby is published. Dr. G. T. Stokes publishes Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church. Oscar Wilde publishes his dialogue The Decay of Lying and story The Portrait of Mr. W. H.. W. B. Yeats publishes The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (including Down by the Salley Gardens) and Crossways. Sport Boxing 8 July – the last official bare-knuckle title fight ever held