Ireland

Death of William McNab, curator of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Death of William McNab, renowned curator of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, occurs in 1848. A visionary horticulturalist and botanist, McNab played a pivotal role in the greening of Scotland during the 19th century.

Birth in Clonakilty of William Hartnett, master of still life painting

William Michael Harnett, a renowned master of still life painting, was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland, on August 10, 1848. Harnett became one of the most celebrated still life painters of the 19th century, known for his incredible skill in creating highly detailed and realistic depictions of everyday objects.

Young Ireland rising, Battle of the Widow MacCormacks cabbage garden

Young Ireland was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform.

A gunfight takes place between Young Ireland Rebels and police at Widow McCormacks house in Ballingarry, Tipperary

At Grosse Isle, Canada, 40 Irish Famine immigrant ships wait to unload

During the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1849), a mass exodus of Irish people fled to North America in search of a better life. Canada, then a part of British North America, was one of the primary destinations. The influx of immigrants, many of whom were suffering from famine and diseases such as typhus, led to a crisis at ports of entry like Grosse Île.

The Irish Confederation splits

On this date in 1848, amid political unrest and famine, the Irish Confederation split over how to respond to British rule. The more radical faction, led by John Mitchel, launched a new newspaper titled The United Irishman, advocating militant republicanism and direct action.

The Tricolor national flag of Ireland is presented for the first time by Thomas Francis Meagher & the Young Ireland Party

Birth of artist Sarah Purser in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin

Sarah Henrietta Purser RHA (22 March 1848 – 7 August 1943) was an Irish artist mainly noted for her portraiture. She was the first woman to become a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. She also founded and financially supported An Túr Gloine, a stained glass studio.

Augustus St. Guadens, Irish sculptor of Dublins Parnell monument, is born

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the most renowned American sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born on March 1, 1848, in Dublin, Ireland, to a French father and an Irish mother, Saint-Gaudens moved to the United States with his family when he was an infant.

John Mitchel publishes first United Irishmen