Events

• January 14 - Taoiseach Se n Lemass travels to Belfast for an historic meeting with the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill.
• January 21 - Nationalist leader Eddie McAteer visits Taoiseach Se n Lemass in Dublin.
• February 28 - Roger Casement (hanged in Pentonville Prison in 1916) is honoured with a state funeral and reburial in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
• March 7 - Changes to the Liturgy of the Mass are introduced throughout the country today. Mass is said in the vernacular for the first time.
• March 18 - The Northern Minister for Agriculture, Harry West attends a meeting with his Southern counterpart, Charles Haughey, in Dublin.
• April 18 - The Gaelic Athletic Association Congress in Dublin decides that the ban on foreign games is to stay in place.
• April 21 - James Dillon resigns as leader of Fine Gael. Liam Cosgrave is the new leader.
• May 24 - The first car ferry service between Rosslare, County Wexford and Fishguard, Wales officially opens.
• June 13 - Huge crowds turn out at Drumcliffe Churchyard, County Sligo to honour the poet W.B. Yeats on the centenary of his birth.
• July 8 - Taoiseach Se n Lemass is conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Law at Trinity College Dublin.
• July 26 - Craigavon designated a New Town under the New Towns Act (Northern Ireland).^[1]
• November 17 - The remains of W. T. Cosgrave, first President of the Executive Council are removed to a church in Rathfarnham, Dublin.

Arts and literature

• March 20 - Ireland enters the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time, represented by Butch Moore.
• John McGahern's novel The Dark is published.
• Iris Murdoch's novel The Red and the Green, with an Easter Rising setting, is published.

Science and technology

• The Young Scientist Exhibition is first held.

Sports

Births

January to June

• 22 January - Denis Walsh, Cork Gaelic footballer and hurler.
• 11 February - Tom Bolger, teacher.
• 22 February - Kieren Fallon, champion flat racing jockey.
• 10 March - Damien Hancock, soccer referee.
• 26 March - John McDonnell, soccer player and manager.
• 14 May - Eoin Colfer, author.
• 28 May - Mary Coughlan, former T naiste and Fianna F il Teachta D la for Donegal South West
• 22 June - Enda McCallion, film director.
• June - Jim Cashman, Cork hurler.

July to December

• 30 July - Declan Carr, Tipperary hurler.
• 8 October - Ardal O'Hanlon, comedian, actor and writer.
• 31 October - Denis Irwin, soccer player.
• 10 November - Sean Hughes, comedian.
• 20 November - Diarmuid Wilson, Fianna F il Senator.

Full date unknown

• Joe Cooney, Galway hurler.
• Mike McCormack, novelist.
• Keith Ridgway, writer.

Deaths

January to June

• 6 February - Tom Jameson, cricketer (b.1892).
• 15 February - Sam Thompson, playwright (b.1916).
• 10 April - James Duhig, Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane (b.1873).
• 12 June - Arthur Cox, solicitor, priest, nominated to 8th Seanad by Taoiseach in 1954.
• 22 June - Piaras B asla , member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, member of D il ireann, author, playwright, biographer and translator (b.1881).

July to December

• 28 August - Richard Wyndham-Quin, 6th Earl of Dunraven, peer (b.1887).
• 26 September - James Fitzmaurice, pilot and aviation pioneer (b.1898).
• 12 November - Charles McCausland, cricketer (b.1898).
• 16 November - W. T. Cosgrave, first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State (b.1880).
• 30 December - Henry George Farmer, musicologist (b.1882).

Full date unknown

• Patrick Giles, Fine Gael TD (b.1899).
• Jim Hurley, veteran of the Irish War of Independence, Cork Gaelic footballer and hurler (b.1902).
• Francis MacManus, novelist (b.1909).
• Se n g Murphy, Cork hurler, Gaelic Athletic Association administrator (b.1897).
• Jimmy O'Dea, comedian (b.1899).
• Frank Ryan, tenor (b.1900).

References