Composing a symphony in Victorian England was a risky venture. Aside from those by Mendelssohn, the British public was not interested in symphonies, and felt more current works in the genre—for example, those of Schumann—to be eccentric. Arthur Sullivan conceived his only essay in the genre, the Symphony in E major, while vacationing in Northern Ireland in the summer of 1863. He had originally intended to complete the piece for the 1863-1864 concert season of the Musical Society, a concert-promoting organization run by conductor Alfred Mellon. Apparently, Sullivan did not finish the work that year, since it was not premiered until 1866, and not by the Musical Society.

Reactions to the first performance were not particularly enthusiastic; after a later performance in the same year, however, a reviewer in the London Times described the work as "By far the most noticeable composition that has proceeded from Mr. Sullivan's pen [and] the best musical work, if judged only by the largeness of its form and the number of beautiful thoughts it contains, for a long time produced by any English composer." The score was first published after the composer's death by Novello & Co., who appended the sobriquet "Irish Symphony." The name was apparently proposed to Sullivan while he was alive, but the composer wished to avoid the inevitable comparisons with Mendelssohn's popular Symphony No. 3 in A minor, the "Scottish Symphony."

The first movement of the symphony in cast as a sonata-allegro. Although written in 3/4 time, the upward-leaping line in the violins and violas that characterizes introduction creates the feel of 6/8 feel through the grouping of its notes. The twelve-measure main theme begins in E minor and features downward leaps and quarter note triplets. In the development section, Sullivan extends and spins out this melody in a fashion that recalls the musical language of Schumann.

The second movement is intensely lyrical, with a simple accompaniment. Expressivity is the raison d'être of this movement, and this spirit continues all the way through to the lengthy oboe solo at the end. For several reasons this passage is remarkable, and not only because such long melodic stretches for the instrument are unusual. The oboe begins its lively melody in B major, the movement's prevailing key, accompanied by only a few pizzicato string chords. Within ten measures, the tune sheds its tonality and emerges in C major, and the third movement has begun. Some commentators have remarked that Sullivan's choice of C major for the third movement is "off the mark" or "unrelated," when it is simply the Neapolitan of —that is, a half step above—the dominant. Scherzo-like in its flavor, the movement has an unusual formal pattern—ABCA—that includes a brief coda based on the B section. The movement's simple, predictable melodies evoke the spirit of folk song. The finale suffers somewhat from repetitiveness, and the orchestration here is rather less imaginative than that in the rest of the work. Otherwise, the instrumentation throughout the entire symphony exhibits great variety—Sullivan's use of the bassoon is particularly notable—with moments that look forward to passages in the composer's well-known comic operas.

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